Hawaii

Wailua Falls - Kauai

This is Wailua Falls on the island of Kauai. It’s easy to get here by car and there is a really nice vantage point where you can view the 85 foot falls from above…..but the view from the bottom was just screaming out to us, and we found this really steep path through woods that got us down there. It took about 20 minutes, some ropes and some trekking through mud but we made it. At the bottom, we licked our wounds and stood there being pretty impressed with ourselves……. until we started noticing lots of other people down there…..people than looked like they had much less of a workout than we did. Come to find out there is a pretty easy walking path that gets you there too. I guess we could have done that…but then I wouldn’t have had this overdramatic story to tell.

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Sunrise at the Well

I think finding this spot was the biggest adventure of our whole trip to Kauai. We had a vague hint of the location through a photo we found online but the directions we pretty off-base. We ended up walking into a cemetery at one point…..and into a power station at another……all at about 4 in the morning. Finally, we ended up on a dirt road somewhere near Kilauea Lighthouse, ditched the car, grabbed our stuff (and our flashlights) and just started walking. It took about 15 minutes to get to the ocean and then another 10 minutes of wandering along the shore before we found it. It was a great place to listen to the ocean and watch the sunrise……and the exercise helped us justify the mango strudel and coffee we’d be having for breakfast about an hour later.

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Lanai Cove

We only spent one morning in Oahu, and this was our pre-dawn destination. It’s called Lanai Cove, on the southwest corner of the island. Luckily, the place we rented for the night left a lot to be desired, so getting up 4am and leaving was just fine. There was a quick stop at a gas station for some snacks (one of us had gas station sushi, but I won’t mention WHO) and off we went…..armed with Google Maps, beef jerky and coffee…..the breakfast of ex-champions. When we finally parked, it was still pitch black out, but we stumbled upon a photographer who was also waiting for the sun to rise. He pointed us in the right direction and we started walking. This was easy, though……about a quarter of a mile walk....over a guardrail, down some rocks and we were there. Great way to ring in a new day.

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Pursuing the Dream

It's amazing what lengths we will go through to get that perfect shot...early mornings, dangerous climbs and, dare I say it, no coffee. Once there, we just stand and wait...and hope, excited like a little kid on Christmas morning, that we will catch an awesome moment...when the first light of day reflects against the sea and the sky turns into a pool of color. And when that happens, there is nothing better.

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Storm over Queens Bath

Sunset over Queen’s Bath, on the north shore of Kauai. This was our first night on the island. A pretty big storm on its way but our Airbnb place was only about a mile away, so we decided to take the chance and hike out for sunset. Most of the hike was through some pretty wooded and dark areas, so we knew we would have to head back before it got too dark to see our way out. The hike was totally worth it, though. Watching sunset from here was spectacular. The sea seems calm right here but, about 100 feet away, it was blasting the shoreline with a vengeance….splashing way over our heads at times. It’s awesome watching the majesty of the ocean…enough power to destroy just about anything……yet so amazingly peaceful and captivating.

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