We Take Ourselves With Us

Next up: Kauai.  Perhaps best known as the shooting location for Jurassic Park, this island is small (the drive from ROC to Utica would take you right off the island) and not very populated (about twice as big as Brighton).  It is lush and very, very green--called the "Garden Isle," it rose out of the sea outside our room as dawn broke and the sky shifted from gold to blue. We would be on Kauai for two days, and in planning what to do, taking a helicopter around the island seemed a no-brainer … for us and everyone else, so we grabbed seats when they were available: on our second day.  What to do on the first day?  I found an unusual tour option: tubing through the tunnels on an old sugar cane farm.  It, too, seemed to be quite popular.  Sign us up! After another wonderful POA breakfast buffet, we walked a bit off the boat to the main drag to grab a cab to Kauai Backcountry Adventures .  One other thing I forgot to mention about Kauai:...

Millions of years ago when we first came to Hawaii ( okay, it was 2013 ), we elected to stay only on the Big Island since we had just shy of a week and had never been here.  One of the highlights of our trip was a morning and afternoon spent in Kealakekua Bay, snorkling and swimming to our heart's content while the crew of the Fair Wind grilled burgers that smelled so delicious they drew a whole pod of dolphins into the bay. So, when we returned to Kona, we knew we wanted to repeat this fantastic experience ... and we did!  Because only on the island of Hawaii can one go from snow covered peaks to warm clear tropical waters in less than a day. Not to be a shill for Fair Wind , but it really has this thing buttoned up.  You eat a super yummy breakfast while sailing over to Kealakekua Bay And then you end up here. There's no filter on these photos, folks.  This is the real color of the bay.  Seriously.  Ridiculously.  Amazing...