T started the morning very early with a hike about a third of the way up the Okolehao Trail near our house.  This led to a beautiful view of the Hanalei Valley and Beach (with a few relay lines in the way of the photographer’s job).

Ended the hike bedraggled from the pouring rain, which started about halfway into the hike.

Everyone else woke up about an hour later – which was still really early – for our excursion to Ke’e Beach (Pres stayed home for napping, reading, meditating, and talking to Lance).  Ke’e Beach has water that’s about ankle-deep but incredibly clear (which makes for really up close and personal fish encounters).

The downside is that the reef is incredibly shallow, so we snorkeled into the channel – which is much deeper, and feels safer until J points out that it’s exactly where one might find a shark.  We had an amazing view from the water of a full rainbow stretching from the Na Pali Coast across the ocean (no photo, sadly – the photographers were all in the water).

It started to rain, and it was closing in on our leave time, so we returned home (with a quick stop at Hanalei Coffee Roasters – a cute, funkly little behind-the-times place with great chai).  Packed up (trying to fit all of our fresh fruit into fewer than three bags) and checked out of our cottages.  We’ll miss this place!  Here are a few final views (including one of the toad that spent much of last night just outside our back door):

Drove up to Kilauea for brunch at the Garden Café, where we discovered that acai berries are better in bowls of sorbet than in pancakes.  Then headed over to Tege Tege shave ice, where we were reminded that there is such a thing as perfect shave ice (coconut with pineapple, all natural, organic syrups, with real pineapple and coconut shavings layered in).  Totally worth the 20-minute wait.

We needed somewhere to kill a few hours before check-in at our next place, so we went to Moloa’a Beach.  This place was just stunning, a perfect half-moon of sand, clear water with small waves (too small for riding), and a stream running down into the middle where we could rinse off at the end.

T collected teeny-tiny shells and made a shell-orama:

J and T found a current in the ocean (somehow Prescott didn’t) that gave us a look into why this beach might be considered dangerous in other seasons.  This beach had two other items worthy of note:  a family gave Dusty a free fold-up beach chair; and there were hardly any people (there may have been 25 people when we arrived, and 50 or so by the time we left).  We really enjoyed ourselves.

Pres and T played with flowers as we made our way down to the East Shore.

Found our final rental property: the Magic Sunrise cottage.  It’s a long, brightly-painted (inside and out) house with four rooms (big common kitchen/dining room/living room; 2 bedrooms; bath, all running in a line across the length of the building.  It seems to be run by a German Hindu mystic who owns at least seven different packs of tarot cards.  There’s also a small pool here, and a hammock, and a mosquito farm.  Pres and Dusty don’t like that last bit too much.

On our drive to dinner, stopped at the ‘Opaeka’a Falls Lookout:

Dinner in Kapa’a at Tiki Taco, where we had some of the best fish tacos we’ve had all trip (we’d recommend the Mayan Ahi Taco, should you ever find yourself there)(we’d also note that when they say “25-30 minute wait,” you should double that).  While waiting very patiently for our food, we did a Coca Cola taste test , which revealed (unsurprisingly) that it’s really easy to taste the difference between sugar and corn syrup Cokes, and that the former is significantly better.  Dusty had a Mexi-Sprite (the Latin American sugar-no-corn-syrup version of Sprite), which he hadn’t had since Belize.  Ended our evening with errands at Safeway – much more satisfying than Foodland – and the ever-popular Long’s Drugs.

And here’s the health report:  J has the sniffles; T and Pres just took zinc tablets in hopes of warding off the same.  Dusty had sniffles but is feeling better now.  Prescott is itchy from mango allergies (that’s a real thing).  T’s right piriformis muscle doesn’t appreciate her hiking and running.  Otherwise, we’re all in great shape.