Our little adventure on the Garden Island.

Kalalau Trail & Limahuli Gardens

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Haena State Park: Along the NaPoli coast: need reservations. SO LUSH, on the remote north shore, where it rains the most, and gets the most green! The canyons here are super carved into the volcano out from the rain. You hit a point where you can no longer go east from the mini “Grand Canyon”, but a world class trail follows the beach through the NaPoli coast.

Limahuli Gardens: The native garden at the edge of the world. reservations needed for self guided tour

Hanalei Pier and Queen’s Bath

Hanalei Beach Pier: Puff the magic dragon, lived by the sea, in a land called Hanalei! Easy surfing for families, protected from undertow, featured in many movies, but our little guy took some time to warm up to the waves. He gave in eventually! <3

Queen’s Bath: The original on another island was destroyed in the 1990’s from natural weather, but apparently was a sacred place only royalty could bathe. This one here is a tide pool surrounded by, making a fun little pool to jump into. That is, until the rough tide pulls you in. This one on Kauai has been very dangerous for tourists, especially in winter when waves are the strongest, and locals beg you NOT to swim in there. It apparently costs a lot to get the hospital to tow you out, dead or alive. But the hike itself can also be super muddy, but traversible, with baby in tow ;)

Princeville Botanical Gardens, Kauai Farmacy, & Kilauea Lighthouse

Kilauea Lighthouse: Sunrise photo series… for those of us who have babies who do not understand time zone shifts.

Kauai Farmacy: A favorite family owned medicinal herb garden with tours, tastings, and merchandise sourced only from the islands. oh, and a super cool natural play set.

Wailea Falls and the Kapaa Coconut Coast Bike Path

Wailua Falls: Easily accessible, if you visit in the mornings, you may be treated to a rainbow

Ke Ala Hele Makalae: Means: the path that goes by the coast

Christmas brunch: Our most touristy thing, but this guy is fun to take anywhere.

Ancient Heiau's

Heiaus. Ancient sacred stone monuments. One for the sun, one for royal births, and one for the dead. (oh, and another one for surfing!, once a religious act. and arguably still one today, if you ask any surfer about it)

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Sunrise Heiaus: oldest structures on the island, devoted to the sun thousands of years old, and mostly destroyed and mostly overlooked.

Birth Heiaus: One of these was where all the princesses and princes were born. (of course I had to take my little prince there… ;)

Allerton Botanical Gardens and the Tree Tunnel

Some of our favorite restaurants:

Kilauea Bakery & Cafe: featuring Ulu baked goods (breadfruit, gluten free GFAF)
Kilauea Market: fish tacos, cafe, yoga studio, grocery store with bomb garlic-shrimp lunch. We came back here several times.
Princeville’s Hideaway Pizza: had a suprisingly amazing, strong GF crust, and we got no cheese, added pesto, and packed it full of veggies.

Religious sites

Hindu Monastery & Sacred Forest, (Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees), and a Mission

A Sacred Garden (with rainbow Eucalyptus trees). Nature / sun worship was the universal, original religion

Hindu Monestary (arguably the oldest modern religion)
Christian Mission
- Oh, and the best tell of a previous sacred space? A christian monument. As soon as the missionaries came to town (as everywhere else), this single jealous god encouraged its followers to take destroy all the other sacred relics. All that remain of the original sacred spaces are secret groves of trees, springs, folk lore, and some rumbles of original bases of rock. Prayer is still alive and well at all of these kinds of ancient sites.