Kauai Day 5- Into A Waterfall I Dive

On Monday we woke up early and went kayaking. This was a really really fun activity. I've never been kayaking before, and unfortunately it showed. I thought I wasn't doing that bad, but I had a husband who thought we were in the Amazing Race (seriously, he did) and was told I am terrible at it. Oh, well, I tuned out the kayak nazi and still enjoyed myself. We kayaked along the Wailua River and it was absolutely beautiful. Everywhere you turned you were surrounded by beautiful greenery.

Once we got to our destination we got out and hiked. Our tour guide gave us walking sticks and I absolutely loved them. (No I didn't have two sticks, I'm holding Matt's while he takes the picture). I felt like a true explorer. The hike was amazing. The jungle area in Hawaii is the kind I like (as if I've been to multiple jungles). There's no spider webs, no snakes, and not too many mosquitos. It was perfect hiking conditions.

This was our tour guide. I love, love, loved him! He was just so eccentric. His name was Cole Cleavland, no he's never been to Cleavland, but I called him Captain Jack. He reminded me of Captain Jack from Pirates Of The Carribean. He was a peace & love kind of a guy and he got so excited over all the little details of our tour. He'd see a plant that he hadn't seen in a long time and his face would just light up as he stopped our group to tell us all about it. I love passionate people. This guy in and of himself made the tour worth my money. Also, notice the rooster in the background. Kauai was infested with them. Anywhere and everywhere you turned there was a rooster or chicken roaming around. For some reason, Matt loved that. You just never know what that guy is going to take interest in.

Our final destination for the hike was this magnificent waterfall. It's called Secret Falls. (There's a lot of places with secret in the name). To really get the feel of how huge this waterfall is, take a look at little Matt bobbing in the water.

The water was freezing cold, but it was so worth it to get up and close with the waterfall. They are so powerful! Not many people dared to get behind it because it was coming down so hard, but I wasn't leaving until I tried it. (Matt used the water camera for those shots). If you slid right up against the rocks behind the waterfall you could stand under it. Of course I couldn't see a thing once I got behind it, but it was fun nonetheless.

On our hike back to our kayaks, good old Captain Jack decided last minute to take us on a detour off the main path. He'd discovered something from a previous hike that he wanted us to see. So we're hiking through a jungle and we came to a wall of ivy with a little hole cut out of it. Once you climbed through the hole you came into this huge clearing that had been overtaken by some sort of ivy plant. It was so amazing. Captain Jack was of course beside himself with how awesome it was.

Later that night we went out to eat at Pomodoro's. This was the most delicious Italian I have ever eaten. I had mushroom stuffed ravioli with a sundried tomato and alfredo sauce. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. This probably would have been my favorite restaurant if a good view could have been added. There was zero ambiance about this place.