Rusty here 🙂 Another day, another sunrise walk on the cliffs by Shipwreck beach.  It never gets old!

Today was the day we were going to kayak on the Wailua River, so we all got in the car and drove up to the rental place which was a cool Hawaiian village right on the river but they said the river was too high so the trail to Secret Falls wasn’t accessible.  So we didn’t go – but that’s okay. We were up in Kapaa so we decided to go on the bike path instead. We were right on the road for Wailua Falls, so we made a quick stop to check it out.

Cousins in a van.  Nat and Michael’s fan was dubbed the “Fun” van because they listened to cool podcasts.  

It was a cool and misty day that was perfect for biking.  So we rented bikes and went on the path. Blake wanted a tandem so we had to rent at two different shops 1/2 mile from each other, one cheap, one more expensive. Cole’s pedal broke right after we left the shop!  Luckily it was then and not later on the trail.  We got him fixed up in no time. We all met up and biked to the end of the trail, stopping for a few pictures.  I switched on and off with Jack and Blake between the two of them riding on my tandem – jack was having a little bit of a hard time with his bike at first, he needed a little refresher course.  By the end he was zooming along with no problems.

We explored some rocks, saw lots of crabs, and just enjoyed the amazing scenery as you bike along the coast. We rode through an awesome tree tunnel and all the kids loved dinging their bells over and over and over and over again.

We stopped at the beach swings, which weren’t quite as cool as last time.  They had taken down the biggest one that swung you out over the sand.  But still a great way to pass some time.

We biked back and returned our bikes and then we saw a cool mural and then we met at the park for lunch (after I bought some gatorades and tara had bought water at the same time because we were dying of thirst). We sat on rocks and ate some lunch until it started pouring on us then we made a mad dash to the cars.

We wanted to go to Lydgate Beach Park but the weather on this side of the island was poor so we chased the sun back to Poipu to try and catch a little bit of beach time. But first….Fish Tacos!  Tara and Carlie had been on the hunt for fish tacos for days.  We biked past a little food truck and stopped back there when we were done.  The tacos were Ahi and they were fantastic!

The drive back took forever.  Kapa’a traffic is terrible. Poipu beach park was a blast, we had a great spot with lots of sun or shade, and there is a great snorkeling. I went out with each of the kids snorkeling. Josh was hesitant and it wasn’t working that well, then it did and he loved it and he saw a TURTLE! We hovered above the turtle then the turtle came up for air and josh touched the turtle! It was amazing! We were both so excited and he was chanting the rest of the night” I touched a turtle I touched a turtle”! He is so in love with Turtles and this made his whole trip.

There were also two Monk seals up on the beach.  A mommy seal and a baby seal.  We were looking at them and talking about them and Mave said, “Where the daddy seal are?”  That became our tagline for the entire vacation.  “Where the daddy seal are?” The seals got in the water and started playing around and the young one kept climbing up on the beach right next to us – at which time the seal volunteer would start freaking out – “stay 50 yards away! Leave the seal alone!” Great wildlife on this trip! We watched the seals in the sunset forever. It could not have been more perfect.  Halle was in seal heaven. That little seal was so cute and playful! It was so fun for both Halle and Josh to see their favorite animals up close and personal.

How adorable are these sassy cousins?

We came home and grilled some chicken and veggies for dinner. We bought Pina Colada Mix so we could make our own for 1/8 of the cost of getting one at the pool 🙂  The kids were BIG FANS.