There’s an island across the sea, beautiful Kauai, beautiful Kauai. And it’s calling, just calling to me, beautiful Kauai, beautiful Kauai.

This year for our annual Ignite trip we decided to go to the beautiful island of Kauai. Growing up my father (and mother) worked for Aloha Airlines so we spent many a day on Kauai with my Uncle Alan and Aunty Audrey. In fact, during the summer between my freshmen and sophomore year I even spent the entire summer there working as a dishwasher at Hanamaulu Cafe. But I don’t think I’ve really been there in over 10 years (except maybe one time to play golf for the day) so I was very excited to go back.

Jasen and Lon smiling way too early in the morning

Notice how happy I am

Upon arrival we picked up our car and went straight to breakfast. Now I mentioned that I spent choke small kid time on Kauai with my dad and uncle so of course I went to their favorite breakfast spot, Dani’s. I’m not sure why they always went there, they just always did. And, without fail my dad would always order the same thing: tripe stew and pipikaula. Of course, not wanting to break tradition I ordered his usual dish (when I had dinner the next night with my Uncle Alan and Aunty Audrey they even asked if I had the tripe stew for breakfast because that’s what my dad always ordered).

Even the sign looks the same!

The rich tripe stew with the side pipikaula can’t be beat

Then after eating we headed toward the Kauai Marriott to meet up with Dina and George as they had been on Kauai since Wednesday. We got there just in time for the daily Koi feeding. I must say I don’t think I’ve ever been to pond where there were so many Koi. Not only that but those Koi were rabid. I mean really rabid. They practically jumped out of the water just to get the food. Don’t believe me? Take a look.

Look at that feeding frenzy

They even climbed on the stairs to get the food

And they were tame enough to pet

After fetching George and Dina we swung over to Hanapepe, “the biggest little town on Kauai”. Hanapepe is a quaint town that is home to the famous swinging bridge and apparently the westernmost bookstore in the United States.

You can’t tell now, but the bridge is swinging pretty hard

And there’s the westernmost bookstore in the US

After that we proceeded to go at break-neck speed to Waimea Canyon. Now, truth be told, I really appreciated Jasen driving, but after taking those turns faster than we should have and all of us in the car getting small-kine carsick maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to let Jasen drive.

Waimea Canyon aka the Grand Canyon of the Pacific

Some of the boys hanging out

It was slightly overcast that day

Now the smart thing would have been to head back to town since we were all feeling a little ill, but someone, I’m not saying who (but he was the driver), insisted on pressing on. So we drove another 15 minutes or so to Kalalau lookout. I would imagine that this lookout would have been spectacular if it weren’t for the heavy fog. When we arrived we could barely see anything the fog was so thick. But God came through and sent a wind to blow it away every now and then so we could see Kalalau below us.

Can you even tell there’s an ocean down there?

The camera doesn’t do it justice, but we got quite a view when the fog blew away

Finally after seeing all that we saw a sign that beckoned us. It was a sign for lunch.

What really caught my eye was Kauai’s BEST Lilikoi Pie

Jackie Wong’s “Hot B!tch Sauce” was pretty funny too (it is A$$ Whooping)

Here’s Kauai’s BEST Lilikoi Pie!

The pie was just okay. It was good, but I can’t say it was the best (it’s pretty hard to beat Hamura’s). Luckily for us we were right across the street from the Kauai Kookie factory. Had to stop there and sample some of their wares.

Now there’s a sign I can follow

It’s a store inside a warehouse…how clever

This is what cookie heaven must look like

After driving some more we headed back to Lihue for dinner at the always popular Hamura’s Saimin. This is another place that I remember eating at while growing up so I made sure we stopped there at least once.

This sign might be the newest part of the whole store

A perfect bowl of Won Ton Min

With a warm, full belly we decided it was time to turn in and we headed toward out place in Kalihiwai. Stay tuned for our day two adventures later.