It's all about the North Shore - Kauai Day Eight

It's now Day Eight and we're having a crazy blast in the North Shore. I am glad that I'm documenting our experience during this trip. At the end of the trip, I will include, as I've always done before, a section dedicated to my Takeaways - somewhat of a summary, but more of putting things into perspective.

Okay let's get started. I'd be remiss if I didn't share this in my blog. We're now in Princeville (Kauai's North Shore) staying at The Cliffs. The unit comes with a full kitchen, but no basic pantry items for cooking, meaning we have to go out and buy basic stuff (which we expected). Two hours after we checked in last night, there was a knock on our door. We thought we were being reported for being loud (which we weren't). Come to find out, the elderly couple next door (who lives in Pasadena and Carpinteria) said they were leaving the next day, and wondered if we would like to have their pantry items. "Not sure if you like Kikkoman, Tapatio, Sriracha, Sesame oil, extra virgin olive oil - but you're more than welcome to have everything!" Are you kidding me? I tried not to show my excitement. They included lots of bottled water, root beer, and more!!! Thank you, neighbors.

I got up earlier than usual and decided to catch the sunrise. Again, I didn't have to go very far. It was nicely visible from our timeshare at The Cliffs. For breakfast, I made Garlic Kimchee Fried Rice and topped it with spam with bacon.

 It took us a little while to get ready, it was close to 11am when we finally got out of the house. We went to Hanalei and turned right to the Chin Young Village for a chance to get some malasadas at Village Snack Shop and Bakery. The malasadas were all gone by that time. We were advised to come before 8am, and you bet we will. While at the snack shop, I perused at their pie selection and chose the Macadamia Nut Cream Pie. Hmm...hmmm....hmm!!!

Directly across from the snack shop was Puka Dog and that's where Ethan decided to order his Polish Sausage with garlic lemon sauce, mango relish, and Auntie Lilikoi's Hawaiian Mustard. Although it was Ethan's, of course, Daddy had to get a bite. It was so ono!

Visiting my favorite North Shore beaches
First stop was at Lumahai. After leaving Hanalei, we approached Lumahai once the road started to curve. There are no real signs other than numerous parked vehicles. That's exactly what happened to me and Nancy during our honeymoon. We found Lumahai on accident. I saw lots of cars and decided to follow the crowd. We've returned to Lumahai many times during our succeeding visits. What's so special? I think it's getting down to the beach. There is a path down, but we've been victims before because the way down is quite slippery. Nancy slid in 2010, thankfully, she was fine. The walk down takes no more than 1-2 minutes, and the beauty of Lumahai welcomes you with views of black rocks and turquoise water.

Fun fact, when we entered Lumahai, there was a sign that said that the beach's name is actually "Kahalahala" - I've never seen that sign till now. Whether it's Lumahai or Kahalahala, the beach area is breathtaking nonetheless.

For a change, my 2 kids are now older, and are a bit more on the adventurous side. The 3 of us walked up to the top of the cliff. We had to time our jump because of the incoming surge from the ocean. Once we made the leap, it felt so amazing to be doing this adventure with Ethan and Madison. Once we made it down, that's when your treading and swim skills are put to test. The waves were quite strong, and folks have drowned here before after trying to tread and losing strength.

We made another beach stop - this time, we went to Tunnels Beach aka Makua Beach. It's just further down from Lumahai. There was very limited parking.  I remember taking all of us here 5 years ago. We must've swam here for over 4 hours, and at one point, swam with a turtle. For today's visit, it was just playing along the shore, that was the goal.

We left Tunnels around 3:30pm. We made a quick stop at Foodland and once we got home, I started to cook my favorite Filipino comfort food ever - Sinigang. It's a tamarind based soup with chunks of beef, and locally grown veggies- tomatoes, spinach, daikon, eggplant, garlic, long green beans, Serrano pepper, and Maui onions. Loving all the veggies, the freshness of the vegetables.

For dessert, thanks to Foodland, we enjoyed a slice of Double Layer Lilikoi Cake. Hmmm....hmmm.hmmm!!!

We made plans to finish our dinner early. We got ready and headed back to take pictures of the sunset. That was our Day Eight! Mahalo!!!

Pies - Beach - Sunset - Connect Four - Kauai Day Seven

The last time we were on Kauai was in 2010. During that visit, we maximized our stay in the North Shore. We spent the days in the North Shore, then we drove to the East side to eat. This time around, by mere accident and coincidence, we decided to book our timeshare stays on weeknights only (so the point values cost less). First few days were spent in Kapa'a (East), next we stayed in Kalapaki (and ventured towards the South and West). I did not think of the North Shore for a bit, since I wanted to savor every place we visited. 

It’s now Sunday, our scheduled check out day. Before we checked out, I made one quick breakfast, I called it my Aloha fusion breakfast bowl with Portuguese Sausage, potatoes, garlic, onions, green peas, marinated with passion orange guava and red taco sauce. I used whatever was available to me, whatever was in the fridge and the pantry.

After we ate breakfast, we headed right outside, there’s a forest-like trail directly behind the condo, and we took dozens of family pictures. 

By 10:30am, we were were out of the condo and ventured South. First stop was in Kalaheo at Kauai Cookie. I ordered a single loco moco. My plan was to eat that during lunch. But when I walked out of the restaurant, the smell was sooooo tempting. It was wrong to ignore the loco. While I drove, Nancy fed me the loco moco. 

I took the kids to Waimea Canyon (Waimea Lookout) for a few photo ops. The last time I was on this canyon was during our honeymoon in 2000. I didn’t get a chance to bring them here in 2010 since most of our excursions were limited to the North Shore. 

Although the drive wasn’t treacherous, it was enough for us to seek refuge by jumping in the water. We opted for Salt Pond Beach. I view this beach more of a locals beach. Again, it was hot, and there was no other place better than being in the water. We stayed here just over an hour.

Eating our way around the island

After leaving Salt Pond, I made a quick stop at Wong’s Chinese Restaurant and Bakery in Hanapepe. This was on my list to visit. I looked at the selection and opted for their Lilikoi Haupia Pie. I’m really digging the haupia’s I’ve been eating. We ate this in the car.

As we continued to drive, we couldn’t decide whether to head straight to the North Shore, or eat somewhere in Lihue. Well, Ethan reminded me that he hasn’t gone to Hamura’s Saimin yet on this visit. Fine. Off to Hamura. He ordered a medium saimin bowl, and beef BBQ stick while I ordered the Lilikoi Chiffon Pie - as always, this pie was something else, this has got to be my favorite pie on the island. The crust was perfect and the pie itself was light and fluffy, so delicious.

Finally, we continued our trek heading North. We passed Kapa’a and we noticed Nana’s Snack Shop was open. We stopped and ordered Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich wrapped in coconut & macadamia nut. Then another one wrapped in Kit-Kat. It was amazing. The cookie and ice cream were frozen together. One would think that the cookie would be solid-like-a-rock frozen, but it wasn’t. It was cold and still chewy. That was an amazing ice cream cookie sandwich.

Ok for real, we’re now headed North

After leaving Nana’s, it took us another 20 minutes or so to get to Princeville.  It’s good to be back. We love Princeville. It’s clean, quiet, a beautiful master-planned community. It was just like coming back home. In this case, home for the remainder of our stay is at The Cliffs. We were given a 1-bedroom with kitchen, 2 lanais, a sofa sleeper and an ocean view. After driving from Kalapaki Beach to Kalaheo to Waimea to Hanapepe to Lihue to Kapa’a. We made it to Princeville, we’re finally home!

For the rest of the evening, we enjoyed our first North Shore sunset. Watching the sunset was just steps away from our room.

After watching the glorious sunset, we capped off the evening with a night swim. After the swim, we went back to our room. Evan and Madison teamed up to play Connect Four with me - that was a great way of ending our day. Thanks everyone. Mahalo for following our journey.