Oh, Sunday, Sunday, SUNday! Â Since Saturday’s beach-hopping hadn’t left us any time for poolside lounging, we staked out a couple of chairs under an umbrella first thing Sunday morning and spent most of the day doing this:
And a little bit of this:
Gosh, I adored that pool (and that slide!). Â We set up shop there at 8:30 am, and as we peeled ourselves from our lounge chairs at 3 pm to head back to the room, I sighed a sigh of sheer contentment. Â I always believed that I was the kind of person that wanted vacation to be primarily about seeing/doing/eating new things, but I’m rethinking my go-go-go mentality. Â Life in the slow lane is pretty dang great.
After fish tacos at Island Taco in Waimea and shave ice round 2 at Jo Jo’s, we embarked on that day’s grand adventure. Â The last couple of sunset skies we’d seen were gorgeous, but we had yet to actually see the sun descend over the horizon line – this is tricky on Kauai, as much of the island’s west coast is inaccessible by car. Shane had done some sleuthing and read that Polihale Beach is the place to go for an unobstructed view of the west, but there was a rub: accessing this beach requires driving for a few miles on a super-rough, poorly maintained dirt road. Â Was our Mustang up to the task? Â We’d find out! Â The first mile wasn’t bad. Â The second mile got a bit bumpy, but we held tight as sturdy SUVs and big pick-ups and zipped past us, leaving us in their dust. Â By mile 5, I felt like a bobble-head, my head wobbling on my rubbery neck while the rest of my body gripped my seat, tensely trying to stay still in the midst of such mayhem. Â But eventually we made it, and as I set my feet upon smooth solid ground (praise the Lord!), I immediately saw that the trip had been worth it. Â Sandy beach reached on forever to the south, and to the north, the start of those gorgeous Na Pali mountains.
To the west, wide open waters as far as the eye could see! Â I stretched out in the warm sand while Shane played in the waves – this Minnesota boy feels amazingly at home in the ocean.
And to sweet baby Schnell – I’m so sorry to have put you through all that jiggling, buddy… Â But look where we took you!
Shane dried off and joined me on the beach towel for what we had come to call the “Golden Hour” – that period right before sunset when everything is bathed in the warmest, richest light imaginable.
I definitely got my wish – complete visual access to the sun setting over the horizon, waves crashing in the foreground, my feet buried in soft, warm sand. Â Awesome.
Going, going, gone… Â We sat there until that little pinprick of light dropped completely out of sight, soaking in the beauty of what we’d just witnessed. Â I like to think this is one of those evenings we’ll recount on our 50th wedding anniversary, it was that good. Â Apparently it’s true in Hawaii, as it is in life, that the bumpiest roads lead to some of the very best rewards.
