Author Topic: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)  (Read 19056 times)

Offline benjie1305

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #40 on: February 12, 2016, 08:12:29 AM »
The pattie and onions were together. Don't remember if they included tomato and lettuce etc. We told them not to include buns at all. We bought a package of them separately. Also, we had them cook them to rare so when they were heated up they were medium

Nice. As long as it tasted good.
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Offline ushdadude

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #41 on: February 18, 2016, 11:41:22 PM »
Tuesday
We woke up early again. We were hoping to walk up to shipwreck cliff for sunrise but we were running a little late. We ended up at a cabana on the beach. The cliff blocks the initial sunrise but it was breathtaking nonetheless. We never did make it to shipwreck cliff but it is definitely (the only thing on our to do list we didn’t do).

Sunrise
youtu.be/l1swL5PVlGI

Hotel in morning sun

We ate breakfast in the lounge again and spoke with the concierge there. We knew it was a canyon day but wanted some more info. He recommended driving all the way up to the last lookout (Pu’u o Lookout) and then working our way back down. That way you can time yourself better and you’re closer to home at the end of the day. He also mentioned that his favorite hike is from that lookout. It is the swamp trail and he said you walk through a fog and towards the end the fog just lifts and you’re overlooking the napali coast. This sounded really interesting to us and we thought we’d give it a try. We didn’t really have an exact itinerary of where we would stop. We basically followed along with the book and app. The app was really helpful because there are many areas that have no reception.


We did drive all the way up with just one small pit stop at the ranger station. The ranger told us to avoid the swamp trail because it can get very slippery when wet. The Pu’uo Lookout was incredible. We had completely different weather than the @yehuda’s. We could see everything! The ranger mentioned that it really wasn’t time specific.



While we were there, we decided to start the swamp trail. It was extremely muddy. I mean the type that causes your feet to get sucked in. We trudged on because we were dirty already. Some of the views were incredible. At about 1 mile in, we met a couple on their way back. They said it gets even muddier 9 as if that were even possible) and significantly uphill. We decided that the smart thing would be to turn around then. So while the views were incredible, I don’t know if I would recommend this hike while it is wet out. The day we went was considered dry so I don’t know what that means.

View from the Hike


View from further down the hike


The “good” part of the trail


Gross


We headed back to the Kalalau lookout to clean up a bit and to eat lunch. There is a bathroom there with plumbing. We were pretty hiked out so none of the local hikes interested us.
We decided that since we have a AWD we should try the Miloli’i ridge road. The view at the end is supposed to be amazing STAY THE HECK AWAY! Again, we were there on a “dry” day and it was absolutely awful. At first it was just bumpy but quickly turned hazardous. On the uphill we would slide down even while accelerating. On the downhill we would skid uncontrollably. Its’ pretty narrow and there are tracks in the dirt that your car automatically follows. Since it was narrow we never actually turned into a full skid. we wisely decided to turn around and forget the view.


Actually looks cleaner in the pictures


Our tires went pretty deep into the mud

From there we stopped along a few of the other lookouts. Again, The weather was fantastic and we were actually able to see Ni’ihau Island.








We then headed to Polihale. The dirt road was a joke compared to what we had just experienced. It was pretty empty by the time we got there (around 4:30) DW did not let me drive on beach (for obvious reasons) so we parked near Queen’s Pond.) Relieved, we took off our muddy shoes and walked on the beach for a while. We brought towels with us so sat for a while, enjoying the quiet. It was pretty awesome to see such big waves.

Watching the waves crash

We strongly considered staying for sunset but that was still 2 hours away. Also, we didn’t want to drive the dirt road and have to drive so far to get back home. We settled on Kekaha Beach Park. The sunset was stunning but to be honest, sunrise was a lot more colorful and amazing.

Sunset



We got back to the hotel just in time for dinner. We didn’t bother putting our muddy shoes because we didn’t want to track all the way to our room. So we walked through the hotel in our socks carrying muddy shoes. Of course that is the only time we bumped into Dan in the hall. I wonder what we looked like?
Dinner was excellent again (tenderloin with a side of kishke and barley)


Housecleaning rearranged the our leis

The end of a long day

Offline Dan

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #42 on: February 18, 2016, 11:58:54 PM »
Good stuff.

Couple points:
-It's not a Plan B fail is J was full when you booked it. You never had a shot.
-Not sure what you were thinking trying to tackle Miloli’i ridge road without true 4WD. The book and my TRs make that very clear.

Any more details about R Belsky's psak that Shabbos is Saturday?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline yochiek93

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #43 on: February 19, 2016, 12:42:19 AM »
Wow

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #44 on: February 19, 2016, 12:51:54 AM »
Wow, great pictures Ush! Nice read.

Offline efflpetzel

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #45 on: February 19, 2016, 12:53:29 AM »
Good stuff.

Couple points:
-It's not a Plan B fail is J was full when you booked it. You never had a shot.
-Not sure what you were thinking trying to tackle Miloli’i ridge road without true 4WD. The book and my TRs make that very clear.

Any more details about R Belsky's psak that Shabbos is Saturday?
+1000

I cannot believe that you tried to drive the milloli Ridge Road with that car,
good thing you turned around when you did or you would have wrecked the car

Offline ushdadude

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #46 on: February 19, 2016, 09:11:45 AM »
Good stuff.

Couple points:
-It's not a Plan B fail is J was full when you booked it. You never had a shot.
-Not sure what you were thinking trying to tackle Miloli’i ridge road without true 4WD. The book and my TRs make that very clear.

Any more details about R Belsky's psak that Shabbos is Saturday?

Thanks
I guess you're right. Was just hoping space opened up
To me, AWD and 4WD are the same. i probably should have done more research. Looking back now we can laugh about it.

I didn't speak to R' Belsky directly. My friend in yeshiva just said Hawaii is not a problem. He vaguely remembers that Japan might be though. Apparently many poskim who hold Hawaii is ok, hold Japan is a problem and vise versa.

Wow, great pictures Ush! Nice read.
Thanks!

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #47 on: February 19, 2016, 09:27:41 AM »


Thanks
I guess you're right. Was just hoping space opened up
To me, AWD and 4WD are the same. i probably should have done more research. Looking back now we can laugh about it.

I didn't speak to R' Belsky directly. My friend in yeshiva just said Hawaii is not a problem. He vaguely remembers that Japan might be though. Apparently many poskim who hold Hawaii is ok, hold Japan is a problem and vise versa.
Thanks!

I've never heard of that before.

Offline ushdadude

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #48 on: February 19, 2016, 09:43:19 AM »
I've never heard of that before.
Unfortunately I I'll never have the opportunity to ask R' Belsky  :'(

Offline Dan

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #49 on: February 19, 2016, 01:07:56 PM »
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline 3yummyboys

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #50 on: February 19, 2016, 01:25:48 PM »

:o :o :o :o

When we got to the car rental place on the big island, I asked something about 4-W-D ( I said it with the letters). How was I supposed to know that you don't say it like that?!?

I will never live it down!

Offline Dan

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #51 on: February 19, 2016, 01:27:03 PM »
When we got to the car rental place on the big island, I asked something about 4-W-D ( I said it with the letters). How was I supposed to know that you don't say it like that?!?

I will never live it down!
;D ;D ;D
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline ushdadude

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #52 on: February 19, 2016, 01:40:41 PM »
:o :o :o :o
Meaning, when I read the book and tr,I read it as either awd or 4wd. I didn't read into the words so carefully

Offline Luvtotravel

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #53 on: February 22, 2016, 03:50:40 PM »
When we got to the car rental place on the big island, I asked something about 4-W-D ( I said it with the letters). How was I supposed to know that you don't say it like that?!?

I will never live it down!
reminds me of the woman who went into the mechanic asking for the 710 cover for under her hood...
Don't wait for the perfect moment; take the moment and make it perfect.

Offline mechayamom

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #54 on: February 23, 2016, 12:56:37 AM »
Great TR. thoroughly enjoying. Bringing back memories of my trip.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #55 on: February 23, 2016, 10:05:50 AM »
Really enjoyable read! Thanks for taking the time. Glad you got to the activities we didn't get to. Sorry for the muddy hike and Miloli'i almost turning bad. The sunrise and sunset timelapses are really cool!

Offline ushdadude

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #56 on: February 26, 2016, 12:22:13 PM »
Wednesday
Had to wake up pretty early today (actually set an alarm) as I was going scuba diving! I’m certified and DW isn’t so she decided to stay back and have a spa day.

Another beautiful sunrise

I used Fathom Five because the book recommended them. They really were a great dive shop. It is only about 7 minutes from the hyatt. You go to the shop to sign in and pay and then drive over to the marina.


They have everything set up for you on the boat which is great. They also change the tank for you in between dives. Anyone who goes diving will tell you that it’s not so common and an awesome service. The boat is clean and comfortable. They have you take off the BCD and tank while in the water and then have a wooden plank with slats on the back of the boat. This made it extremely easy to get out of the water.

I haven’t gone diving in a while so i paid $30 for a quick refresher. Wasn’t really necessary for me in the end. The dive master just reviewed the real basics which I still remembered.



The dive sites are all pretty close to shore which is nice because I get pretty seasick. I took 2 dramamine an hour before and still threw up 3 times. Still totally worth it.
I don’t remember the name of the first dive site but the second was called Sheraton Caverns. They were both amazing. The waters off Hawaii aren’t as crystal clear water as you would expect but it is still awesome to dive there. There were many indigenous fish that you can’t see anywhere else. And of course there were the sea turtles. They are everywhere! We heard lot’s of whales but didn’t see any. One of the coolest parts was watching a pod of dolphins swim by. The divemaster said that he’s never seen that before. All in all, an incredible experience.

View of the coast








Looking up from 90 feet







Following a turtle






Some of the seascape






Sheraton Caverns








One of my favorite shots. You see the sea turtle in silhouette





 

0:00-0:35- swimming through sheraton caverns. pretty cool experience. our dive master only took us because we were all experienced. otherwise we would swim around it instead of through.
0:36-1:02- following a turtle. i was tempted to hitch a ride but quickly realized it would be a dumb idea
1:03-1:13- pod of dolphins
1:14-end- on my ascend someone came to say goodbye



I got back to the hotel around 1ish. We had used out Diamond gift towards a cabana. As @yehuda mentioned they aren’t so amazing but we had them heat up our mac and cheese and eggplant parmesan and bring it to our beach cabana. That was a really nice experience.
We then went to Po’ipu Beach for some snorkeling. I had my own snorkel and we bought a cheap pair for DW at walmart so we didn’t have to worry about renting and returning. As was recommended, we brought our water shoes with us. Definitely a great idea. It was pretty rocky.
The water was pretty shallow (about 3-4 feet) but was very clear. There was a little bit of a surge pulling us but wasn’t too terrible. We saw a lot of cool and colorful fish. DW was a little disappointed she wouldn’t see a sea turtle but as we were leaving the water, we saw a huge crowd gathering. A sea turtle was just relaxing on the beach!





Very colorful fish we saw while snorkeling









Turtle just chillin
We headed back to the hotel and hung around the pool. We got to use the waterslide a few times and it was pretty fun. Nothing crazy or scary at all. I do with it would have gone a little faster.
We decided to checkout sunset at Spouting Horn. It was very nice. It was also high tide so the geyser was putting on a really nice show.

Sunset at Spouting Horn

The Geyser

Some chickens in a tree. Never saw that before


Back to the hotel and dinner.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #57 on: February 26, 2016, 12:28:33 PM »
Nice installment! I wish my underwater pictures would have come out like that - that's the colorful rainbow fish I had been talking about in my TR. Diving looks awesome, perhaps 1 day...

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #58 on: February 26, 2016, 12:30:32 PM »
Diving looks so cool! I never got certified, but it looks like it could be worth it. Thanks for sharing!

Offline ushdadude

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Re: UshDadude's Anniversary Trip to Kauai (and a little bit of Oahu)
« Reply #59 on: February 26, 2016, 12:33:32 PM »
Nice installment! I wish my underwater pictures would have come out like that - that's the colorful rainbow fish I had been talking about in my TR. Diving looks awesome, perhaps 1 day...
Diving looks so cool! I never got certified, but it looks like it could be worth it. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks!
IMO diving is significantly better when you're certified. You have much more freedom