Kauai Vacation: Day Three

Day three got off to a good start again with miso soup and a visit to the fitness center for stretching and a brief workout. We then headed west for a day of hiking in Kokee State Park. Along the way we stopped in Hanapepe where we ate in a dive of a restaurant where the locals were not too friendly and on the way out of town we discovered a strange sort of "art installation" on the side of the road. Someone had amassed a large number of stuffed animals of varying sizes which they shoved into the bushes. They had obviously been there awhile and endured quite a lot of rain. We found it fascinating and worthy of many photos (quite a few more than are posted here). Then we found our way up to Waimea Canyon and all the way up to Kokee State Park. I had been talking about hiking into Alakaii Swamp for weeks so that's where we headed. We took the Polahale Trail in toward the swamp and saw so many people coming out with mud splattered up to their knees that we decided to just enjoy the view from where we were. It had been quite rainy so I was not expecting to get too far anyway. The Napali Coast was visible from our vantage point until the clouds started to roll in obscuring the view. On our way back down to Poipu we stopped off at the Hale Manu Trail and strolled down hill for awhile before we started to feel drizzle and headed back up to the car. That night we ate Puka Dog (hot dogs with tropical fruit relish and garlic sauce) for dinner, had Lappert's ice cream, and then went for a dip in the hotel pool before returning to our room for the evening.

that's right, miso soup again - this time sans dried seaweed wafers
creepy stuffed animal art


Waimea Canyon

Napali Coast from Polahale Trail

clouds rolling in
the climb back up from the edge of the swamp

Kelly's many facial expressions


Hale Manu Trail plus light rain
Puka Dog polish sausage with mango relish and hot garlic sauce - what?
Lappert's Ice Cream - peanut butter cup for me and Kona coffee crunch for Kelly
headed to the pool