Hawaii -- Part 5

I don't think I took any pictures on our first day in Kauai...whoops. We did have fun, though. We went to the beach right next door to our condo and relaxed a lot. We had to rest up for our next day's activity -- a cruise up (down?) the Na Pali Coast. Check in time for our excursion was 6:45 AM...and it was a 40 minute drive to get there. Holy cow. Luckily, it was worth it.

Here are some general Na Pali Coast landscape pictures. Isn't it beautiful?

Can you see Mr. Snuffleupagus in the picture below?

Below is a picture of the girls once we got inside the first of two caves our captain took us in. The cave was just large enough for the boat to go in and then turn around.

Still in the cave looking back at the entrance. It was pretty dark in there.

This is the waterfall that was just outside the cave entrance. It's interesting that you can't see it at all in the picture above. There are hundred of waterfalls all along the Na Pali Coast.

We saw Pacific Spinner Dolphins!

The location below was used for a scene in the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun"...he flew a helicopter right through the arch. According to our boat captain, he knows the helicopter pilot and said that the pilot told him that he had to do it twice because they didn't catch during the first filming. Oops.

Below we are inside a cave that has no ceiling. The ceiling fell in and created a little island in the middle of the cave. The captain was telling us that people actually get married in here.

After cruising up the coast, we stopped and snorkeled for awhile, ate lunch, and headed back. Snorkeling was fun, even if Papi did get attacked by a shark. He has the scar to prove it. Heading back up the coast was an event because it was very rough and we got completely soaked...especially Derrick who was sitting toward the back of the boat. The water would come up over the bow and drench him. I should have taken the dry bag very seriously and put everything in it.

We arrived back in Hanalei Bay at about Noon and hit the local beach for just a bit. It was hot and there wasn't any shade, so we didn't stay long. However, the girls jumped off the pier with the locals and it was awesome. I didn't take a picture of them actually jumping, but below is a picture of the pier that I have stolen off the internet. It was funny to me because they have all these signs saying "no jumping" but they also provide a ladder for you to climb back up after you go in. They did not jump off the roof, as it appears this crazy boy is doing. The kids we saw, and so my girls, jumped off where the guy in the white t-shirt is kneeling. There was a nice Hawaiian boy in the water who helped the girls back onto the ladder so it was a super fun experience for everyone, including me, who did not have to jump in to rescue anyone.