Thanksgiving and Kauai

Date: November, 20, 2018 – November 23, 2018
Location: Redondo Beach, California

Date: November 24, 2018 – November 25, 2018
Location: Kauai Island of Hawaii

From Seattle we went to Los Angeles, where we hung out with our friends Bryan and Diana and celebrated Thanksgiving with them. They have a Spaniel mix rescue dog named Chester. You can follow Chester on instagram @chestiemybestie

On Thanksgiving Chester was festive with his bow tie.

The table set up was gorgeous.

Thanksgiving was great. Thanks Bryan and Diana for having us!

On the night of November 23, 2018 we flew to the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The flight was mostly empty.

We stayed in a hotel with a pool and beautiful landscaping.

Don’t let the nice landscape fool you, though. All over the island roosters roam and they are will wake you up in the morning. Brian sat outside and wondered if they were going to peck his feet.

After breakfast on November 24, we drove toward the north side of the island. Along the way we stopped at a couple lookouts.

Once we got to the north side of the island we hiked the Okolehao Trail.

The trail was slick, most of the way was a wet, thick clay. Yes, Brian wore sandals for the hike.

There are several viewpoints on the way up. At the top is a bench with a lookout over Hanalei.

On the way down: muddy trail – 1, Alyssa – 0.

After the hike we drove to Wailua Falls.

After a shower and clean clothes we went to the Kōloa Rum Company for a tasting.

The tasting groups are limited to 16 people so we had to wait about 40 minutes for a tasting, as the next session was already full. During each tasting you get to try the Dark Rum, Spice Rum, Coconut Rum, and Coffee Rum Cake with Rum Fudge Sauce. In addition to those there is a featured sample each day. The featured sample was the Pineapple Passion Cocktail. The company encouraged people to stop by each day for the free liquor tasting as the featured sample changes daily.

We then went to the World’s Westernmost Brewery, Kauai Island Brewery, for dinner and drinks.

We went to Salt Pond Park to see the sunset.

The next morning when Brian opened the curtain he was meet by a cat that wanted to get into our room.

A short way from our hotel was a lookout.

After a relaxing morning we went to the Kōloa Rum Company and did the liquor tasting, as the special of the day was the Coffee Rum. It was really good.

We started driving towards the Waimea Canyon lookout and stopped at the Hanapepe Valley lookout.

This is from the road on the way to Waimea Canyon lookout.

We arrived at the Waimea Canyon lookout.

The Waimea Canyon is about 10 miles long and 3,000 feet deep.

On the way back down we pulled over on the side of the road that had a large area of red dirt.

We also visited the Kauai Coffee Company. We went on the self guided walking tour and saw some of the coffee trees. Each tree produces about one pound of coffee each year.

The estate has around 4 million trees and is the largest coffee grower in the United States. The trees produce cherries that have a seed in the middle. The seed is 2 coffee beans.

On the way to the airport we stopped to see Spouting Horn. A natural formation in the rock where water shoots up with each wave that crashes into the rocks.

Kauai island is smaller than other Hawaiian islands but still has a number of smaller towns with restaurants. There are many excursions you can do on the island, and if we were there longer, we may have gone kayaking to see the sea caves.