Road trip to Waimea Canyon

Yesterday was all about exploring. We started our day, as every day so far, watching the sunrise from the beach. Clouds on the horizon took away any chance of vibrant colors but it was still very pretty. 

We headed south and found ourselves at the Puhi Community College parking lot Farmer's Market at 9:00. Kauai Farmer's Association holds a large community market every Saturday morning at 9:30. The parking lot was filling up quickly and people were lining up. Signs were posted and manned and visitors were not allowed in before the 9:30 mark. 

We purchased a pair of dragonfruit and sampled many Kauai grown items from nuts to jams to kimchi. Fresh bouquets of colorful Hawaiian blooms were quickly sold out. 

We had this dragonfruit for breakfast. 

The back side of the market had 3 food trucks - Cuban, Puerto Rican and Hawaiian. We chose the Mini Kalua Plate. It was a scoop of rice, taro macaroni salad and Kalua pork. The portions were more than we could eat and oh so tasty All for only $6 each. 

We continued west towards Hanapepe. It is much warmer on this side of the island. There we found a very old, somewhat rundown town. This town is known for their Art Night on Friday nights. Many of the shops displayed art from local artists. We strolled through a few of the shops. 

We took a stroll across the swinging bridge and oh did it swing.  A photography artist lives on the other side. 

Before we left down we thought we would cool down with a shave ice. We quickly learned that all shave ice are not created equal. This one may have been tasty but it did not deserve a pic. The Ono shave ice from Kapa'a spoiled us. This one cost 38% more, was smaller, the vanilla ice cream was on the bottom and it was served in a plain white styrofoam cup. It was tasty though. 

We continued our road trip, heading to Waimea.  From the town of Waimea, we headed up the canyon road.  Elevation started at less than 1000 feet. The road was well paved and striped but quite curvy. Well placed pull-offs allow for great photo ops. 

The Eo e Emalani Alakai festival was just starting in Kokee State Park up in the canyon so we had missed most of the early traffic. This made for a leisurely drive and easy access to the pull-offs. 

See the falls off in the distance. Sometimes we would see a helicopter tour go right into the falls. Really gave perspective as to how incredibly tall the falls are. 

Once we reached Kokee State Park, the road narrowed, the striping was gone and the twists and turns increased. All this was so worth it. For our last stop we turned off at Kalalau Lookout. The views were amazing of the Na Pali coast and Pacific Ocean. Guide books suggested that the next lookout was much more fabulous but the road past us was completely engulfed in clouds.  

It is so serene and peaceful. As we left we were reminded of the other use for this side of the island - the Pacific Missile Range Facility. This is our first line of defense from the west. They do Star Wars missile testing from here. This is a repository for some of the most sophisticated sensing equipment in the world.

We headed back to the town of Waimea looking for the Shrimp Station. This is an outdoor, picnic table, roadside restaurant. The coconut shrimp was delicious.