Buda and Pest, Through and Through: 7/9/2025

As is often the case our day started with breakfast – the hotel’s included breakfast was certainly delicious. While it had cheese, eggs, fruit, … the works, I ended the meal (for the second time) with two core take-aways. (1) it’s hard to beat fresh-made omelets and (2) hash browns are always worth it! Granted, my dad was left with an inkling disappointment that among their fish offerings there were no salmon loxs. Hopefully he’ll get that craving sated in the coming week.

While breakfast was straightforward, checking out was it’s own hurtle of anxiety. Specifically, we were to check out of the hotel by 10, but our bags needed to be prepared for collection by 8. This meant that we really had to do all our packing the night before, and ensure that we were fully equipped for the full day ahead of us. Then, in the morning we had to leave our bags outside our hotel room door as we went to breakfast. Goodness I do not like that model(!) but it did all work out well in the end.

So, come 9:15 Archer and I, as well as my parents, departed the Corinthia Budapest for the last time and headed out into the city. This time we were more deliberate with our plan to use the public transportation to see the sites

we wanted (rather than doing any pre-planned excursions that Viking provided).  Honestly, Budapest’s public transit is awesome! Simply buy a day pass and then hop on any bus, tram, or metro car you see. From there it was only a matter of knowing which line and direction you wanted to go, but even that was relatively straight forwards. With that in mind, we headed into the center of the city to the covered market; Klauzál téri Vásárcsarnok, also known as the Klauzál Square Market Hall. Note, the Wikipedia link here includes a few pictures that do not do the place justice. It was PACKED, both with vendors and shoppers.

We’d been to other international markets before and this one was just as fun. Row by row the grounds were packed with stalls. Many were selling cured meats, others fruits, more still focused on spices (paprika especially). The grounds had both an upstairs and a downstairs where you could visit souvenir stalls, textile vendors, take-away restaurants, and more! One way to think of it was a super-farmers-market. We all found one thing (or more) to purchase, and we all had a great time. Our only regret was that we did not by more paprika (especially as it turns out the sweet variety). We incorrectly assumed we would have much more access to it in the coming days; alas, we got only what we got. Finally, while perhaps not the most prominent feature of the market, we enjoyed a particular corner where there was a display of cases upon cases of mushroom-terrariums. We got no explanation for why these were here, but they were super cute!

This brought us to a little before noon, at which point we knew there was a tram line that would bring us very close to our cruise ship, but also some other local

monuments. We still had a few hours, so we sought a few more sights! First, we headed north up the Danube River to the Parliament building with its beautiful red-tiled domed roofs. We never went inside, but as the rain began to pester us, we learned of an underground exhibit, the 1956 Memorial depicting the history of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and its brutal backlash from the Soviets. It was a short exhibit, but another glimpse into the past of the

city. Afterwards we hopped back on the tram south where we exit next to the Chain Bridge and walked a few blocks inland to Saint Stephen’s Basilica. It was a newer church – with it’s most recent construction being completed in the early 1900’s the church was in pristine condition. But, the most interesting exhibit we saw was the hand (literally - it's encased in the image here) of St. Stephen. Apparently he was killed under unknown conditions, but his hand was found and has been passed around European caretakers for centuries!

Exiting the church the rain was still upon us so we found a local venue for lunch.  Amongst us our meals included Aperol Spritzes (which are clearly a favorite drink in this city), goulash, chicken paprikash, and Hungarian sausage. It was all, as usual, delicious. Leaving lunch we made our way back to the Chain Bridge to check into our rooms on the Viking ship for the first time! Our ship is named Ullur after the Norse got of hunting and step-son of Thor. The other two docked boats were the Ingvi (the god of fertility and perhaps and earlier incarnation of Freyr) and the Gymir (a giant most notably the father of Gerdr, who becomes the wife of Freyr). Note, I've gotten really into Norse mythology over the past few years so (A) we got the best boat and (B) it was fun to find all the Nordic references in the boat names and other boat-base paraphernalia.

After a quick pause to learn about our rooms we headed out again, this time to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge which was literally right above where we were docked! We made the not-very-long trek across the bridge, enjoying all of it’s lion-facades, to the Buda side of the river. There we boarded the funicular that took us on a lift up the massive hill back to the Palace Grounds. The trip was short, but provided us an amazing panorama of the city (and we saw a bunch of local crow-friends!). After some time among the ramparts we took the funicular back down, crossed the bridge one more time, and bid farewell to our land-based time in Budapest.

It wasn’t too late yet, so we had a relaxed cocktail hour on the boat, followed by a 

greeting from the crew and safety instructions. This led to a family style (seating at least) dinner downstairs. I enjoyed beef goulash (again), a local-style perch dish, and ended with a crème brulé. Other meals included a chicken dish, a pear salad, a local-style bread pudding, and more.

By the time dinner ended the ship was on the move, but, it was headed north up the Danube, despite the fact that our travels would take us south and east). This was deliberate, and was just taking us around Margaret Island so that we could head south and pass through the city by night-light. We passed under the many illuminated bridges, and obtained stunning views of the numerous landmarks we had seen on land, all spectacularly lit to contrast the dark night sky. It was, a stunning hour of cruising as we headed out of the city. All in all, two thumbs up for Budapest!

Finally, the ship crew provided a daily newsletter each evening that included a "term of the day" each based on nautical history. I thought these were awesome and fun, so I will be sharing them at the end of each day's post!

Nautical Term of the Day: Start Over with a Clean Slate

“A slate tablet was kept near the helm, and was used by the watchkeeper to record speeds, distances, headings and tasks during the watch. If no problems occurred during the watch, the slate would be wiped clean so that the new watchkeeper could ‘start over with a clean slate.’"

Sightings in Budapest: 7/8/2025

The day started with breakfast in the hotel, and we all had different approaches to the diverse offerings they had. Ranging from fruit and yogurt, to toast and cheese, pancakes, omelets, and more; there was something for everyone. However, it had to still be a quick meal as our first excursion would be ready to head out come 8:30. We each enjoyed our meals, grabbed any bags or coats as needed for the day, and then boarded one of the busses provided by Viking for the “Scenic Budapest” tour. The tour began with a 1 hour drive – accompanied by historical explanations – around the city. We began by heading northeast to a large green, Heroes' Square, within the city. Our guide referred to it as the Champs-Élysées of Budapest. This was both a joke because it was a local monument in a large town-central square, but also there was historical precedent to try to be like Paris at the time. As we drove around the square, we also saw what appeared to be a castle a few roads over. This was apparently not a castle, but a modern building – the Vajdahunyad Castle - which is a modern collage of buildings from diverse eras in Budapest's history. The building is now the home of the Museum of Hungarian Architecture. Our tour then took us through the heart of the city. We passed the local opera – which was part of an ongoing competition with Vienna to always one-up each other with the scale of their buildings. We passed the magnificent Istvan-Bazilika, St. Stephan's Basilica, and learned that it is the second cathedral in the same place, as the first one collapsed into soft earth. We had our first of many passes today past the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, as well as another town square. And there were many sites as well, but this all led us into the palace grounds of Buda Castle on the Buda half of the city, on the West side of the Danube River.

After walking around the palace grounds we were brought to the most notable site, the local cathedral. Unlike so many buildings in the city, this one has stood and endured

the years of history and war, notably due to being linked as an education building to survive the bombings that the city had received. The church itself had touches of a wide variety of styles. My personal favorite aspect was the golden-metallic paint inlaid with the otherwise matt coloring. As you moved throughout the building the light would catch this paint at different angles and appear to illuminate features of the walls and artwork. The roof tiles were also of particular note as they, along with the floor tiles, were a locally made and stained porcelain, but the exact formula for them was kept secret. This is also what made the exterior of the cathedral so eye-catching from afar, as the roof itself had intricate designs and vivid colorings (despite the slightly gray pictures we're able to provide sue to weather).

While we would have loved to wander the area more, the rain was coming

down harder, so we found a local bier-garden on the grounds to enjoy ourselves. We ordered a pretzel with sausage, one beer a piece, and we were talked into trying the local “shot” called a Palinka. While it comes in different flavors it is a raw alcohol mixed with a fruit flavoring – much like schnapps – and what we tried was apricot. Little did we know at the time just how often we would be offered variants of this drink over the next two weeks! Afterwards, we returned to the tour bus, and then the hotel for a short rest. After which, we headed right back out to explore the city via public transportation and return to the palace grounds again! Public transport was pretty smooth sailing. Senior citizens could ride for free and adults could buy easy single-use tickets at frequent stands (that said, you hop from bus to train so often it is likely just best to get a day-pass). The same tickets could be used for all forms of public transport, including busses, trains, etc., making the exact number we bought at the start a bit more flexible. Then a bus ride and a subway trip dropped us off a 30 minute walk from the palace grounds where we returned to experience the Budapest Museum of History, also known as the Castle Museum, as it is located inside the old Buda Castle structure.

Upon entering the building we enjoyed many impressive statues, including a grand fountain of Mattias’s Dog and numerous fabulous lions guarding the palace grounds. Many of these had clear “patches” and repairs done to them, as they had been earlier described to us as the result of bullet holes that can be seen on building-scapes throughout the city. Inside the museum the different floors were separated to different parts of the history. Our favorite was the basement which was a walkthrough of the medieval history of the castle grounds. This included a demonstration of how the water-pump systems worked, as well as a reconstruction of the chapel. One of my favorite aspects of seeing historical recoveries was to see reconstructions of statues and arches, where they marked in pictures where they had recovered

specific pieces. Those pieces were then displayed on an adjacent wall panel. By contrast, the upper floor included some interactive exhibits and comparisons to present day Budapest. I thought this exhibit included some good humor as it compared an ancient axe-head to a modern (circa 2024) plastic-handled hatchet. We concluded our tour by walking around the exterior ramparts before the long trek back and another sampling of the public transit system. After a quick break for a whiskey in the hotel we headed out to dinner again, again to the Café Vian Ferenc ter. It wasn’t that we weren’t interested in variety, but it was local and there were plenty of dishes we were still excited to explore. It was again, over filling and delicious. And so after a wonderful meal we headed back to the hotel for our last night before boarding the boat!

From Budapst to Bucharest, Heading to Hungary: 7/7/2025

Travel days are always a bit of a wash. Flight from BWI to London Heathrow was uneventful. Better seats than we usually have, had dinner serve on a plane (for the first time in a long time!) and when I asked for red wine was asked ”one or two”?

 

Unfortunate headache and potential nausea interrupted any potential fun “chilling” we would have done during our overlay.

 

Second flight from London to Budapest was shorter and simple. Easy nap was a good final reset to the system. Upon leaving the airport and getting through customs … and collecting our bags … we were met by representatives of Viking. After a short delay as they gathered all other expected passengers, we headed for the hotel.

 

Our hotel of stay was the Corinthia Budapest, and it was lovely. Great service and nice accommodations; despite this being a river cruise we would be spending two nights here in the city. After a quick check in, we met up with my parents and headed out for a short walk to a local restaurant for dinner; Café Vian Ferenc ter. Amongst the four of us we had Beef Goulash, a Mushroom cream stew, a Chicken Paprikan, a Red Wine Beef Stew with Dumplings, and a local style steak with grilled goose liver. The food was amazing all around, and really brought to light the rumors of the local paprika use. While this was obviously notable in the Chicken Paprikan and the paprika-slaw served with the steak, its best appearance was with the chili-salty spread, I believe called Eros Pista, that was provided with the soup. That one is a must!

 

After dinner we returned to the hotel and crashed into bed – as expected after the many hours of travel to get here. Our adventure begins in full tomorrow!

 

Final Day Taken in Island Time

So sad, our final day in Hawaii. Starting out, we knew it would be a bit of a slow day as our check-out from the hotel was at 10 am but our flight in the evening wouldn’t leave until 10 pm. We’d planned a few easy things to do along the way, that were low stress – but in retrospect we may not have planned enough.

To start out, we’d set alarms for the first time all week – the least “Island Time” thing we’d done in a while. For reference, “Island Time” has been a running joke for us all vacation, as it is something, I am chronically bad at. Even our snorkel guides back in Maui made fun of me about it. Simply put, its taking a deep breath and not worrying about everything needed to be done “on time” and more so – time spent not doing anything is also fine. Anyway, we set alarms to make sure we got our room fully packed and were out in appropriate time. Packing was … unexciting ... as you’d expect but considering what kitchen remnants, we wanted to try to keep was a unique task. That said, we did enjoy some Nenes trying to come into our room.

We ate one final time at the hotel, same as yesterday – a buffet and a chorizador. This led to a bit of drama as we’d only done this because our paperwork told us we’d receive the buffet for free, but when we got the bill, they said that was not the case. When I was able to provide the paperwork, we got credit for the meal, so it wasn’t so bad.

After we ate we headed out from the hotel and to our first stop of the day: Kaua’i MiniatureGolf and Botanical Gardens. This stop was a lot of fun! Initially we thought the golf and the gardens would be two separate things (this would have been better for consuming time) but instead the mini-golf was played through the garden. At the beginning of each hole was a sign providing some information or history about the local plants. The information ranged from how they arrived on the island to what cultural impacts were brought with them. Every plant and tree was labeled and we got many answers we’d had all trip. We learned that a kind of apple tree we’d wondered about was a Mountain Apple Tree, and another mystery fruit tree we’d seen while grilling was a kind of mango. We learned that Black Bamboo was a thing and we learned about Canoe-Plants (27 essentials brought in canoes to sustain on the journey and recreate on the land). Throughout all this, I thought the miniature golf was a lot of fun and we had a quite competitive game, ending with scores of 55 and 52.

After golf we headed just a few miles away to the Kilauea Lighthouse. This is a location on the northeastern coast that shows up in many photos and many attraction lists for the island. Unfortunately, I was not feeling great at this point in the day – unsure why – but guessing lack of sleep. We pulled over just outside the entrance which provided a lookout point over the lighthouse. It was a beautiful vantage point and appeared to be a pristine lighthouse in a perfect spot. However, combined with how I felt at the time, we opted to not pay to drive in and explore the very crowded venue more closely. It was still worth the stop though, as it was barely out of the way at all.

This brings us to our second major stop of the day. Further down the eastern coast we visit the Koloa Distillery. This stop was amazing! At first, I took a nap in the car and Archer did some reading, as we still had an abundance of time. Then we headed in. We put our names on the tasting list and explored the shop side of things. Before too long we were invited in and in order, given 5 samples. First came the Dark Rum. I love dark rum and this one was worth having. It is Koloa’s first mass produces spirit and a major award winner. Our second tasting was the Spiced Rum. Also, delicious. The third was their Coconut Rum, which tasted very much like coconuts, more than usual, so if you’re not a fan of that flavor this one may not be for you. The fourth sample was a coffee-rum, which was made together with the local company Kaua’i Coffee’s beans. The rum tasted of coffee, chocolate, and vanilla and would be a dangerous thing to own. Finally we tried the passionfruit-rum blend. This is a much lighter drink, only about 10%, and frankly tasted like juice. Very good juice but not one you should have a full glass of. Anyway, it was all amazing and we are excited to share that they can be purchased in many places in the continental US, and we recommend them if you get the chance.

After the tasting we wandered the complex we were in, which was home to a variety of other stores. The only shop we stopped in though was the ceramics store. They had some gorgeous pieces, including some bowls that were stunningly light-weight. I personally enjoyed this stop because the counter had a super friendly cat on it and we became fast friends. Then, before long we got back on the road. Unfortunately, we still had lots of time and nowhere left to go. We headed to “a park” to eat our lunch. This setting was not the best, as it was not a very nice park, but we ate our leftover nachos in the sun all the same. Then, not wanting to linger, we headed to the airport for lack of a better idea. Through the airport we found another “park” which was really just a parking lot on the coast with a great view. We sat their a bit, ate the fruit from our lunch, and debated what to do with our remaining six hours.

We looked up parks, museums, zoos, aquariums, breweries, distilleries, malls, etc. Unfortunately, we failed to find something that was both open and interesting. Embarrassingly, and for lack of a better local option, we found a movie theater and went to watch the Lion King. The movie ended a bit after 6 so we made our way to the airport again. Here, things were uneventful, and we were truly now on our last legs home.

Finally, the flights home were a disaster. We took of from Kaua'i at 10pm, landed in Phoenix and then took a second flight to Dallas. When we landed in Dallas we'd learned that our next flight was cancelled. We waited for 2 hours in a line to re-book on a flight that we'd apparently already been put on, and yet it still took about 20 minutes to get our tickets. The woman there then made us repeat that we should make our way to Gate D2 (we were currently at A22) and Gates D1-D20 were the literal furthest possible tram stop. So we headed out, and the closer we got to Gate D2 the more we were convinced these were all international flights, and the gates seemed to not ever reach D2... I don't know what to say about this. Anyway, we then checked at a desk and had to return to gate A36, which is what was on the tickets originally, so why were we sent to D2 I wonder. When we got back the gate was moved again to D26, so we were back, basically where we started. To relax we headed to a California Pizza Kitchen for pizza and beer. Finally, this flight took us to Charlotte, and then we had "a quick layover" to get back to Baltimore. We rushed to our gate, only to find this flight delayed. In a nutshell, the flight that was supposed to take off at 11pm didn't leave until close to 2am, so we finally arrived back in Baltimore around 5:30 in the morning. This made it so we few two different red-eye flights in under 24 hours, which is not a common thing. 

I wasn't originally going to write about the airplane travel, but it just felt like a comedy of errors that is maybe worth a smile. 

From Rocky Start to Sandy Beach

Another day – another morning – another breakfast. After some change with schedules and plans over the weekend it seemed time to return to the hotel breakfast for simplicity. I once more had the buffet and Archer the Chorizador (it is simply their best item). After breakfast we made lunches for the day, prepped bags for beaching and snorkeling, and spent some time tidying so that we’d have slightly less packing work to do soon.

If that intro did not give away our plans for the day, we’d hoped to take things mostly easy – visit some sandy beaches, snorkel with the fishes, and lounge around in the sun with our books and sandwiches. There were two beaches we were considering; Wyllie’s Beach, which is walkable from our hotel, and Anini Beach, which required a drive but was one of the recommended locations for snorkeling.

We decided to begin with Wyllie’s Beach as it was local, and it seemed like if it was a good beach it’d be the easiest option. While the walk was short, only a few hundred feet, we did not realize just how large a descent we had to make. The path was incredibly steep, wet, and covered in leaves and mud making it quite slippery. When we finally arrived at the beach, at first glance there was little sand, or even a sunny spot to place our stuff. That issue was easily resolved however, as we simply had to step out from the low hanging tree, but the sand was still not particularly soft. But we were here and thought we’d give it an honest try. We put on our snorkels and headed out into the water. Unfortunately, this was just as disappointing as the sand. The water was a bit murky and the fish were sparse. We felt fortunate to see a few scattered Humuhumunkunkuapua’a and maybe a handful of other fish, but nothing that inspired us to continue swimming here. Frustrated, we headed back to the beach and decided to make our way to Anini Beach instead.

After the climb back up the hill we got in our car and headed east along the coast towards Anini. Like so many drives on this island, appearances on a map can be deceiving. We had to drive significantly past Anini Beach, before turning closer to the coast and doubling back. Then, by the time we’d arrived, the sky opened into some of the hardest rain we’d experienced since our arrival in Hawaii. We felt lucky when after a few minutes of debating our options, the clouds parted and made way for what then remained to be a gorgeous afternoon.

Anini Beach was more of what we’d hoped for. The sand was smooth and warm, with just enough room so we never felt threatened by the lapping waves. We set up a spot for our stuff, snorkel-suited up, and plunged back into the ocean. Compared to Wyllie’s Beach the differences were night and day. The coral here was alive and abundant (relatively) and there were frequent ridges and ravines formed by volcanic rock. We found we could swim VERY far out from the shore and it remained shallow enough to barely stand, and we found the underwater terrain constant regardless of the direction we moved. We spent the next hour or so zigging and zagging around the shallows, sometimes diving, sometimes flailing to get the others attention to share finds. We saw many things we’d previously seen in our snorkeling: Picasso Triggerfish, Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, a variety of small yellow fish and other small black fish. Some medium highlights from this outing included a school of fish that looked black from the front, but their scales reflected white from the back, an Angelfish, a very long Trumpet Fish, some sea cucumbers, and a handful of black or purple urchins. The most exciting finds though were a flounder, shuffling its way along the seabed trying to hide, and a huge puffer fish (I think either a "Longspine" or a "Giant"), tucked away under a rocky ledge. It was way larger than I thought it would be!

At some point our facemasks began to hurt, so we swam to shore, and after simply sitting in the waves for a bit we got out and dried off. We ate our lunch of sandwiches – steak, cheese, chipotle mayo, etc – and re-sunscreened. We each grabbed a book and lay out in the sun for good duration.

Unsurprisingly if you know us, I was ready to head in from the beach before Archer, and I am grateful that she was on board when I was ready. Being mid-afternoon we headed back to the hotel. Still in the mood to relax in the sun, we headed out to the pools. A quick rinse was refreshing to remove the sandy grit and the sticky salt, but then came another stretch of laying in the sun reading. After another dip in the pools I headed inside to do a bit more cleaning and Archer soon joined me. After we’d both showered we decided to head out for dinner to celebrate our time on Kaua’i. We drove into Hanalei, looking for something nice – but easy. After parking, we realized that we were right next to where we’d rented our snorkel gear and it was in the trunk – thus saving us a trip in the morning.

We ate across the street at Kalypso, which was the recommended location from the cashier we’d just met with. The restaurant was a classic tavern-type setting. I had their house Mai-Tai and Archer had a Gin-Passionfruit-Lemonade type thing. For dinner we decided to share an order of their Poke Bowl and Macho Nachos with Kalua Pork. The Poke Bowl was good – nothing too exciting – but exactly what we’d hoped it would be. Meanwhile the nachos too were exactly what we’d expected, and far more than we needed. These nachos were above average, I would say, and I commend them for having a great ratio of “stuff” to chips. So many nachos end with just a pile of plain chips but not these. We had leftovers – which was not a surprise at all, and we boxed it up for lunch on the road tomorrow.

For the first time this trip, we drove home in the true dark and called it a night, one last time.

A Great Hike and Stunning Views

Today was our final day with grand adventures planned. But, as any big day (or little day for that matter) should, we began with breakfast. Here at the hotel, Sunday breakfast is a much larger brunch ordeal, that we were not particularly interested in spending the time at to make it worthwhile. So, instead we used the breakfast credit we had at the local “market.” We got a breakfast wrap, a cinnamon roll, and a coffee to share, and supplemented with some bananas we’d earlier purchased. We were pleasantly surprised with how perfect that amount of food seemed to be and we were excited to get on the road. We packed our bags, made sandwiches, and hit the road.

The road traveled is hardly worth describing again. We once more traveled west, through the town of Hanalei, along the narrow winding coastal road until we once more reached Haena Beach. But, unlike our previous ventures to this location, we continued the road another few miles passed until we reached the official entrance to the Haena State Park. For the record for future visitors, you do need a permit to enter and park. We had read online that it was only necessary if you were planning to do anything overnight. That apparently was not the official website. But, we were fortunate in that the attendant kindly let us in anyway but made sure we knew the truth of the situation. Grateful, we parked the car, grabbed our boots and backpack and headed out.

The beginning of the trail was simple. It was a boardwalk through a Taro field and 

then passed the edge of Ke’e Beach. None of this was officially the trail, but rather got us to the head of the Kalalau Trail. The trail was awesome, and in truth I’m not sure the best way to organize my reflections of the hike without being redundant yet still being descriptive. I will attempt to discuss the weather, the terrain, the views, and the wildlife in different paragraphs. This is because each of these things changed so often and so unexpectedly that describing the hike chronologically seems impossible. Here are some overview facts though. The Kalalau Trail is a 2-mile hike to Hanakapi’ai Beach along the coast. From there one has three options. Return to the car, hike another 2 miles inland along a stream to the Hanakapi’ai Falls, or continue another 9 miles to the Kalalau Beach and camp overnight. Our goal was to do the 8-mile round trip to the Hanakapi’ai Falls.

The weather on this hike was a combination of gorgeous, unpredictable, varied, and more. Since we woke up, we could see blue skies overhead, but as we looked towards the mountains, we hoped to hike along we could see as low, ominous clouds of impending rain. In fact, we even drove in and out of rain twice on our way to the hike. But when we set out from the car it was sunny and warm. The path was dry and the views out to sea and along the coast were crystal clear. But then, in a foolish attempt to appreciate our good fortune I expressed gratitude for the clear weather – a cardinal sin of any hiker… Within a minute the clouds came, and 

the sky opened, and Archer did not hesitate to remind me of my fault (which I do not deny). Fortunately, the storm was short and seemed to dissipate in another 10-20 minutes. This exchange of clear skies and rain clouds cycled through our hike all day, though was more common on our hike in, as opposed to our way out. The rain was never so hard as to feel oppressive, and it was sometimes even a refreshing mist. Meanwhile the sun was hot, but dried us off when we needed, and when we were dry there was a nice cooling breeze. After the fact, the weather was wonderful to us, and we greatly enjoyed the experience of feeling like we were constantly hiking around the border of a storm.

Next the terrain. It is rare that I’ve done a hike with so much variance. For the entirety of our hike we were going up, and down. The coastal trail was never flat and brought us down nearly towards the beaches and carried us high up onto cliffs and ridges. At times we were hiking along paths of smooth, beaten stones, while at other times we were on soft dirt and pine needles. Some ridge trails were limited to hard clay with log terraces. The largest path challenges were the 3 stream crossings. On none of them was there a clear way to cross and stay dry, so on the largest we were forced to wade through while carrying our boots.

While the terrain of the trail changed often, so did the views and the scenery. Our hike passed through different groves of trees. The beginning was a thin but full evergreen forest while later we were passing through bamboo clusters. The palm trees and plants were plentiful always, sometimes the only trees around, and other times interspersed among the more numerous trees. Sometimes we could look out along the coast and see the crashing waves below us and the steep mountains rising quickly to their jagged tops. The water directly below us was the most stunning teal green and we could often see the coral reefs, resting just below the surface by the beaches. The sights and the sounds of the wind and the crashing ocean were constantly refreshing.

Wildlife makes for a short paragraph (though now when rereading I realize it is longer than many) because we didn’t see that many animals, but still some fun ones. We could hear birds all along the hike but didn’t see many and were not keen enough to identify them. Interestingly, while chickens were plentiful in the parking lot – as they are everywhere on this island – there were none to be seen along the hike. Other than that, we saw only one animal worth discussing on the way in. We encountered one Scolopendra Subspinipes (a species of giant centipede). It was super creepy! The thing wound its way through the grass on the edge of the trail and I estimated it to be about 8 inches long. I was a bit slow to get my camera out, so sadly lack a personal picture, but I’m glad to have encountered it in the day with good visibility. On the return hike, we spotted 2 small lizards. While tiny local lizards 

have been a part of our trip everywhere we’ve gone, we think the rain may have put them in hiding earlier. What was notable about these two lizards was that they were a bit larger and significantly greener than the majority that we’ve seen on these islands. And finally, at lunch we were eating on a rocky ridge overlooking the beach the Hanakapi’ai Beach and we saw our third Hawaiian Monk Seal of the trip! We got to see it do the classic “land wiggle” and roll around basking in the sun. Unfortunately, it was too far away to get a good photo, but seeing it was still clear. (It is the small grey bump in this picture, and we were able to get a better view in person, but not with our cameras/phones.)

Overall the hike was a great success, though not in every way. We had 3 two-hour intervals. The first was the hike in to Hanakapi’ai Beach, the second was upriver 

towards the falls and then out, and the third was a return to the car. We were impressed at the consistency in our timing, as when I say two-hour intervals, that is accurate to within a minute! Unfortunately, we never made it to the actual falls. As we’d set out inland from the beach we were already worried about time, and at the second river crossing we decided that continuing would put us in the position of risking hiking out in the dark. In addition, we were not prepared with the gear to handle any serious injuries. It was a bummer to turn around, but we believe it was the correct choice and still view the hike as a success. If you set out to do this hike, leave early, bring appropriate footwear (a change of socks at a minimum), lots of water, and probably a first aid kit. We hope to one day be back and try again.

The rest of the day was quick. We had to stop by the grocery store on the way home 

to buy just a bit more food to round out our remaining meals. On the way we stopped at the Hanalei Valley Lookout and finally took in the view we’d driven passed a dozen timed. The view looked out towards the mountains, across vast Taro fields, and along the river that we had kayaked just the other day.

We finished the drive home and sought a brief rest in the hot tub to rest our muscles. We enjoyed a conversation with a native Kaua’i-ian and then returned to our room to 

prep dinner. Shocking! It was taco night again. This time was a little different though as we were prioritizing finishing the food we had. I grilled a small steak we’d picked up to supplement tomorrow’s lunches as well as match the “breakfast” tacos we were cooking. Scrambled eggs with onions, grilled peppers and onions, refried beans, grilled steak and pineapple, green onions, local avocados, and chipotle mayo. They were outstanding! We enjoyed thinking that our two best taco nights were our first and our last – really bookending out cooked dinners. It was a great end to a great day, and we were excited to collapse in bed and watch some TV.

Finally... here's a silly thing that was really just for fun...

Creatures by Kayak

Today was our first day not eating at the hotel breakfast, in large part because we thought it would be nice to have our room cleaned at least once during our week-long stay. Instead, we continued our frequent tacos meal plan. This time we had breakfast tacos – black beans, scrambled eggs, onions, avocado, cheese, tomato, cilantro, chipotle mayo, etc. As has been the theme for our tacos this week, they were delicious.

After breakfast we got ourselves ready to head out for the day. Fortunately, today included little driving, as both of our activities took place in the nearby town of Hanalei. Our first stop was at the Hanalei Neighborhood Center where the local Farmer’s Market went from 9:30 to noon. It was quite the bustling place! Parking was a bit difficult, so we found a side street and walked a few blocks to arrive. Vendors ranged from vegetable and fruit stands, to clothing and jewelry, to flavored waters and kombucha. While we walked around the entire venue, enjoying some live music being played, we focused primarily on the fruit stands. Most vendors offered samples of their pineapples, and we enjoyed those samples greatly. We’d hoped to find a soursop sample but weren’t successful and we were more excited by other fruits than to try this one again. We purchased another pineapple, a mango, and two beautiful avocados. Content with this to supplement the food we still had, we bid farewell to the market and headed back into the center of town.

Our main objective for the day was to do some kayaking. We headed to Kayak Hanalei for a rental. Here we were able to rent a tandem boat, along with life jackets and paddles, for the day. The river entry was immediately on their property and they had two main routes for paddling (wait for it…); up and down stream! Up stream headed to a wildlife reserve and downstream would bring us to the ocean. With hopes of doing both, with a break back at the shop for lunch, we headed out.

Our first route was upstream. The wind wasn’t that strong, but the current was noticeable. I’ll get this out of the way now, we struggled keeping the boat straight, but did better and moved faster than many other people we saw. Heading upriver was a lovely venture. The riverbanks were sometimes steep drop-offs from the road, we suspect a result of the recent flooding. Otherwise, they were lush with plant-life and constantly draping limbs into the water. The most common plants were dense thickets of Yellow Nasturtiums, Hawaii’s state flower. They were in full bloom, a lush green with bright yellow flowers protruding from the leaves. Countless flowers had fallen into the water, which were fun to see as they floated by and resulted in the occasional buildup of yellow flowers as the got caught in nooks fallen logs.

As we made it further upstream, we passed under the bridge that connected Princeville to Hanalei and into the wildlife preserve. This we were able to take for another mile or so before it got too shallow to continue. Continuing with general themes, as opposed to specific highlights, it was interesting to see various “unofficial” buoys in the water periodically as we paddled. For a while we’d speculated about what these were, but near the end of our first leg we saw a trap beneath the water, we suspect collecting crayfish of some sort. The route upstream continued to get narrower and more lush, the nasturtiums continued but also bamboo groves and trees that seemed like mangroves filled the bank. It was beautiful.

Along the way, and later as we went downstream, we had the expected joy of experiencing some Hawaiian rain. We hit brief patches of significant rain. This was super interesting as we could clearly see specific clouds that were raining, and we could see blue sky surrounding them. The rain came and went, many times, but overall was light. By contrast, as we continued to look towards the mountains, the clouds were dense and heavy, and we suspect the rain much more intense.

After the turnaround we returned to the Kayak Hanalei docks. The paddle down was easier, going with the current, but the scenery was much the same. Along the way (both upstream and down) we had a few animal highlights. Along with numerous fishes, we saw many Nene both flying and walking around. In one Nasturtium grove we saw perhaps a dozen Cattle Egrets, pure white against the lush green of the plants. The best though, were two turtles! Unlike our sightings in the past, these two were freshwater turtles and were small. Upon later research, I believe these were Red-Eared Sliders. One we saw was basking on a log in the center of the river while the other was more secluded on the side. Unfortunately, while they were wonderful to see, they are one of many invasive species on Hawaii.

Our stop for lunch was quick, eating sandwiches and then we got back in a boat and headed downstream towards the ocean. We found that we were either much faster on this route than expected or the maps we were shown were misleading. It felt like it was just a few bends and we’d arrived at the ocean, specifically Hanalei Bay. We beached the kayak and headed out into the waves. This location was super interesting and fun! The waves from the ocean came crashing in while the waves from the river were flowing out. The two moved against each other and made for a wonderfully dynamic set of constantly breaking waves in a variety of directions. The beach was uniformly shallow, just a few feet, for at least 100 yards, and the sand at the bottom was rippled, while most beaches (in my experience) have smooth bottoms. We lounged and bounced in the wave, watching surf lessons being taught for quite a while. But, after maybe 30-40 minutes we got back in our boat and returned to Kayak Hanalei one final time.

With our arms a bit sore, we headed back to the hotel. We put away our gear from the day and the food we’d purchased earlier, got changed, and headed to the pools. We tried out some of a new “reef-safe” sunscreen, and unfortunately, we did not like it one bit. It was a bit like trying to apply glue to your skin… That is not to say all reef-safe sunscreen is bad, but this brand was not our favorite. We each picked up a happy-hour cocktail and headed to the infinity pool and hot tub. On the way there, the skies opened again, and we got to enjoy being submerged in the water, while the sky lightly rained on us. This was how the remainder of our afternoon was spent, moving between the different pools and relaxing as the gentle rains came and went.

Dinner was another round of tacos, and for the first time on this island, we ate inside, deciding we’d had enough of the rain for one day.