Day 2: Sunday, June 3, 2001
Kayaking Wailua River

Map of today's activities

Still being on California time, we woke up at 8am while still getting a nice long sleep, which felt great. We had a nice, leisurely morning, eating breakfast out on the lanai. The only excitement was when I got into the shower and discovered a huge cockroach looking thing in the tub. Yuck! Of course I'd already gotten wet, but I jumped out and screamed, calling in Walendo to handle the challenge. Having been sufficiently grossed out as well, he went to the kitchen and got a bottle and a wash towel. His plan was to get the bug into the bottle and then let it out outside. Unfortunately, it was a thin-necked vase, and the bug wasn't interested in going inside it. He ended up letting it crawl onto the towel and then rushed outside, where he let it go. He was nicer than I would have been, I would have tried to kill it, though it probably wouldn't have been easy. It was about 3 inches long and had a hard shell. Ugh.

Meantime, Walendo dialed up to check on his Ebay bid. He'd put in a bid on a book that he'd been trying to find for his mom for more than 10 years. It's about white German Shepherds, and it was even signed by the author. His was the only bid at $10, an amazing bargain. I also checked Ebay to see how much freshwater pearls were going for. I thought maybe I could buy a bunch and then resell them on Ebay, but it turned out they were going for around $10, so it wouldn't have been worth it. Oh well, another scheme foiled.

View from our lanai

We decided to check out the beach right outside our condo, so we headed out with the finned football. It turned out there was no direct access from the condo down to the beach. We had to go out to the road and walk about 20 yards or so. No big deal, but not as private a feeling. We got to the water, which was nice and warm, and threw the football. The fins really work! You can just toss it and it goes straight. Walendo kept apologizing for not throwing it directly at me, but I was having fun leaping or running to get it. (It's not like I always threw it straight.) He then apologized for apologizing so much. After tiring of that, we walked along the beach for a bit. I was still marveling that I could be out in a bathing suit and feel nice and comfortably warm. The water felt great on my feet, nice and warm.

Kayak Wailua

After the stroll up the beach, we headed back up to the room to get ready for the day's events. We'd decided to go kayaking on Wailua River, which was right near the condo. We'd noticed there was a kayak rental place called Kayak Wailua renting space at the side of the Shell station, so we stopped by on our way back to the room to ask how it worked. It was $20 for a single kayak, $25 if you wanted the backrest, cooler, and dry bag. They put the kayak on your car, you drive down the road and off you go. We decided to go for it.

Ellen on Wailua River

We went up to the room to get our stuff together and headed out. First, Walendo wanted to get a tank top, so we went up the road a few hundred yards to the Coconut Shopping strip. We found a t-shirt shop (not hard) that had tank tops on sale, perfect. $9 later, he was good to go. We then wanted to check out the river where we'd be going, so we went up the road (Rt 580) and, as it turned out, completely overshot the put-in point and drove up to an overlook with a waterfall, which was nice to check out. Realizing we must have gone too far, we turned back and went back to the kayak rental place. We went for the comfy kayak setup and were glad we did. They set us up, gave us a map of the river and its attractions, and explained how to get there, which was easy enough. The contract we signed said there would be a surcharge if the boats came back very muddy and dirty. I asked what counted as "very" and the guy explained that the film crew from Jurassic Park 3 rented the boats for three days and they came back so encrusted with mud and gunk that it took them forever to get them cleaned. So after that, they add that clause. If I ever see Jurassic Park 3, I'll look for those boats.

Walendo after falling into Wailua River

We got to the river, got our stuff together, and set off. These were open kayaks that have multiple ridges to rest your feet on. They're also self-draining, so you don't really get wet. A little water can get into the sitting area, but not much. The backrests turned out to be a good idea, much more comfortable. And, as we soon discovered, it was a good thing we got the dry bag. We were cruising along for a while, enjoying the river, when all of a sudden I heard a splash behind me. I turned around, and Walendo's kayak was upside down and he was in the water! I immediately started laughing and reached to get the camera, trying to quickly turn myself around and get close enough for the shot. Oh, and I asked him if he was okay, which he was. I wasn't in time to get the picture, but luckily, he fell in again as he was pulling himself up. This time, I got the shot as he climbed back in, though it was still far away. I did get a nice one of him soaked, though. He scolded me for not coming to help him fast enough, but he managed to recover okay. It was plenty warm, so there was no harm done. Apparently, he had been trying to adjust the back to his seat and he'd lost his balance in the process.

Walendo on Wailua River bank

As we cruised along, it started to drizzle a bit, then stop. It did that two or three times during the day. I'd remembered that it often drizzles a little in the afternoon for a short time but I didn't expect it to rain several times in a few hours. Still, it was warm and we were on the water, so it wasn't a big deal. After about a mile or so we got to a docking point they'd shown us on the map. They said there was a short hike to Hidden Waterfall, so we decided to go for it.

Every Which Way Trees

We beached our kayaks and took off. Right at the bank there was a ridiculously colorful chicken walking around, greeting the guests, apparently. The trail went along some trees that we called "Every Which Way Trees" because their branches took off in all sorts of directions. Some went out horizontally and then abruptly turned up or left. The branches looked perfect for tipis. Walendo liked how gnarly they were.

Ellen & Walendo at Secret Falls, Wailua

As we walked along, it started drizzling again, which made the clay-like soil pretty slippery. As we got close to the end of the trail, it started to climb, and since we were in our Tevas, we slipped around a bit. We passed one woman who had on flip flops that you grab between your toes and she was having a rough time of it. Once you get to the waterfall it drops down sharply, so we carefully slid our way down. There were about three or four other groups there, along with about a dozen chickens, clucking about looking for food. The waterfall was pretty dramatic, dropping into a round, aqua colored pond surrounded by rocks.

Colorful chickens at Secret Falls, Wailua

We found some rocks to sit on and had our lunch. Walendo gave crumbs to the chickens, who gratefully waddled over to snarf them up. It was impressive how they traversed the rocks without falling over, not easy. Walendo and I started naming them: Kung Pao, Cashew, Coq a Vin, And Rice, Cutlets, and so on.

We headed back along a slightly different path that stayed along the river. This one was easier to traverse. We saw more gnarly Every Which Way Trees. When we got back to the boats, we discovered the tide had come in and there was no more beach to the shore. Someone had tied our boats to a tree, which was very nice. Otherwise, we would have been in trouble.

Fern Grotto, Wailua

Next we paddled over to the Fern Grotto, which is one of the attractions along the lake and is mentioned in the guidebooks. There had been huge barge-type boats that had been shuttling tourists up the river as we'd paddled along, and this is where they were headed. We had to dock way over on the side away from the boat area, which was a bit of a challenge since there wasn't much shore. Another couple was coming along with us and we helped each other find the right spot. The walk up to the grotto takes less than 5 minutes, and it may not even be worth that. It was a huge stone wall with some ferns growing out of it. Neither of us could figure out why it was such an attraction. (If you click on the picture to the left, the time it takes to downlaod is about as much time as you should spend on it. What you see is all there is to it.) I liked the big red flowers along the way better. We took the obligatory pictures. That same couple was there and Walendo did his Walendo thing of asking them if they wanted a picture of them together, which they did. Good deed of the day: done.

Red flowers near Fern Grotto

We headed back to the kayaks and took off again. There was one other spot on the map called the Swimming Hole, which they'd told us was where a few movies had been filmed, including Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park 3. We weren't really up for swimming, so we continued on the river, wanting to see what was at the end. After a short while, we came to a point where it rushed over some small rocks, so we turned around. We'd been out about 3 hours by then. As we got back onto the main part of the river, it started to rain again, this time a little harder. We paddled harder, making our way back. After a little while it died down again, but now we were paddling more seriously. Walendo had sprinted on ahead of me and I expected him to hold up, but he didn't, he kept going. There were a few other paddlers making their way back, and he seemed to be in a race with them. Apparently, he'd decided to give himself a workout by trying to pass the double ahead of him, figuring I'd be happy he was exercising hard.

After returning the kayaks and then washing up at the condo, we headed out to Kapa'a again. I wanted to get some more pearl necklaces for gifts, and they were there only Thursdays through Sundays. I decided to get 5 just to be sure. I tried to bargain 5 for $50 but the guy wouldn't go for it. He charged me $65 which was more than the day before for fewer. I didn't push back. I think his wife felt bad, so she gave me a bracelet with them.

Bubba Burger, Kapa'a

We went to Bubba Burger, a burger joint in Kapa'a with an attitude. They charged 75 cents for lettuce and tomato, which they explained was ridiculously overpriced because it offended them to have veggies on their burgers. That amused us. The burger was pretty good, if a tad greasy. Walendo was very happy. I'd noticed an ice cream store in Kapa'a, so we went there next. It was an old-fashioned 50s-style soda shop. The guy behind the counter had an attitude too. I wanted two scoops, oreo and chocolate, and he challenged me that I couldn't eat it all, the scoops were huge. So I had to take the challenge. Walendo ordered a malt, which took a while but was very good, according to Walendo. It turned out the oreo was mostly vanilla, and it was on top. I wanted to scoop off most of it to get to the chocolate, but didn't feel comfortable. By the time Walendo finished, I had eaten most of it and was on the chocolate. Sadly, I couldn't finish it because of all the vanilla, so I threw out the rest at the condo. How sad. We spent the rest of the evening talking and hanging out.

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