Tale of Kaua'i Part 2.

Day 3: We headed up north towards Hanalei and stopped at the Kilauea lighthouse. It was an awesome place, and it was incredible to see how many birds there were. I had heard it was a good place to look at birds, but I didn't realize they were the main attraction, but there were hundreds of them all around. There wasn't much you could do in the lighthouse proper, but the sights outside it were fascination, and the rugged peninsula felt more like the pacific northwest than Hawaii. Then we proceeded down through Hanalei and down to the edge of the Na Pali Coast. On the way we stopped at the massive wet and dry caves, both of which were fascinating. My grandfather was adamant about hiking some of the famous Kalalau trail, but we weren't exactly prepared for the hike and didn't have time or equipment, but we were able to see some nice views. Then we took a dip at the nearby beach and headed back to Hanalei for shave ice. We had already sampled some of the massive selection of flavors at Waimea's Jo Jos clubhouse the day before, but found that although it had a smaller array of flavors, Shave Ice Paradise had finer, smoother ice. On the way back to our condo we had the best meal of our trip at Scotty's Beachside BBQ. The ribs were incredibly tender and the sauce was delicious.

Day 4: Even though we were pressed for time as we had a flight to catch, the final day of our trip featured perhaps the most rewarding adventure of the trip. After a disappointing stop at the Spouting Horn blowhole (which wasn't spouting much that day, but made an interesting sound) we went to our condo's nearby beach before checking out and then proceeded to the tall, grand Wailua falls. Our guidebook had stated that we could swim in the pool beneath the falls, but I was dismayed to find that there was no apparent trail down from the lookout. However, our every handy guidebook showed us where to look, and we had a blast on the incredibly steep trail down to the falls. The trail was so steep that there was a ropes system set up so that you could lower yourself down and pull yourself up the trail, which was a lot of fun. Once at the falls, we had the incredible experience of swimming across the pool and standing on the ledge below them. Standing behind the thundering wall of water as it plummeted almost 200 feet was incredible. The chilly spray from the falls was exhilarating, and the sheer power of them as they plunged into the water was inspiring. We made sure not to get hit by the gargantuan payload of water, and then made our way back up the ropes and up to the lookout.