a week in paradise: DAY 6

9/5/08

We started off the day with a view of the Kilauea Lighthouse. It was beautiful and there were many white birds (no, not seagulls) circling around.

Then we made the short drive to 'Anini Beach Park. It wasn't the prettiest of beaches we had been to, but it had pretty great snorkeling. There were a few locals catching baby goat fish with homemade tiny fishing poles. They said they were delicious fried. There were a few areas with tons on tiny little shells. We stopped and collected a few. After swimming we went and bought some fish tacos and flautas from a fish taco truck that was parked at the beach. They were good, especially the flautas! Then we drove all the way up to Hanalei to visit Shave Ice Paradise.

There was a river covered by trees just off the road that we had passed many times. I told Devon I really wanted to stop there. Wow, was it beautiful. Then we visited the wet cave and the dry cave, both just off the road also.

After that we went to Makua "Tunnels" Beach. It was just down from Ha'ena, our favorite beach. We snorkeled for a while and it was a great spot for that. Then we snorkeled just barely off the shore, just looking through the sand for shells. We did that for an hour or two, it was really fun.

At dinner time we drove back to Hanalei and stopped at a little restaurant called Tahiti Nui. They had a little band singing and playing Hawai'ian music. It was made up of 3 old people: 2 men and one woman. At one point the power went out (it was dark outside) and they did not miss a beat. They sang and played away and the bar tender brought out a couple of lanterns. The power came back on after about 10 minutes and everyone cheered.

After dinner we went for a walk on Hanalei Beach in the dark. When we made it back to the hotel we sat in the hot tub and I caught a few more toads.