Summary: We drove along the east side of the island up to the north end. We snorkeled with a sea turtle, hiked a lava trail, saw some caves, drank coconut milk and went to the Opaekaa Waterfalls.

Monday, September 16th: We are used to getting up early and we were on the east side of the island, so we woke up to a fantastic sunrise!! In fact, we woke up to a fantastic sunrise everyday we were there!!! We could watch the sunrise from the bed. How great is that on a honeymoon?? Just perfect!!! Anyway, we had coffee/breakfast on our patio, overlooking the beach, listening to the waves crashing onshore. There was a strong trade wind and the ocean was really rough, but it was really warm. I'm really getting to enjoy tropical weather. There was an orientation meeting at the pool, but we were an hour late and the lady didn't seem interested in us, so we left and didn't really find out anything about the deals through RCI. I suspect they would have included a timeshare presentation also from the posters that I saw.

We got our snorkeling stuff together, Carl packed us a lunch (but couldn't find the tomato for sandwiches) and we took off for a drive along the east coast up to the north end of the island. The north end is rainier and wetter than the south end and we got rained on, on and off, but it was still warm. I love it!! We stopped at the NaAina Kai Botanical Gardens, but they weren't open. We got some information about their tours, but we didn't really have any plans and didn't want to commit to any scheduled events yet.

We drove all the way up to Hanalei Bay and found Tunnels Beach. We had our first snorkeling adventure. The water wasn't really clear, but the fish were right up to the beach. We put our faces in the water and there they were!! Lots of fish, beautiful colorful fish and even a sea turtle!! He was right there! We swam around following him for awhile. He seemed oblivious to us, but I got really excited!! He must be really used to people. It rained on us when we got out, so we didn't even need a shower. All of the beaches were very well equipped. There were restrooms and showers, picnic tables and lifeguards at all the beaches we visited.

We drove to the end of the road. By the way, there is not a road all the way around the island. The Na Pali coast is not accessible except by boat or long, long hikes at the end of the road was Kee Beach. We walked along the lava trail trying to find a kaeie, or temple. We didn't find it, but the scenery was beautiful. On the way back down the road, we stopped at some sea caves, one wet and one dry. Very interesting and beautiful.

Then closer back towards the hotel we had seen this really interesting steep road doing down towards the water. We wanted to check it out, so on the way back, we went down this road to Anatola Beach. There was a really nice park with a nice beach. Some of the beaches had lots of lava rocks and were not really safe for swimming. This was really nice and we found a coconut on the beach. Carl impressed me with his muscles and now-how to open the coconut. He poked a hole in the soft spot on top (I didn't know about this, see he really impressed me!) and we drank the coconut milk. (We found out later that coconut milk makes one go to the bathroom, a lot!! Good thing we were in America with the nice clean restrooms everywhere. We laughed the whole trip when we saw other tourists drinking coconut milk from coconuts in the back of a local guy's pickup. If only they knew what we knew!!) Anyway, Carl cracked the coconut open and we ate the coconut meat. It was very romantic!!!!

Talking about romantic, the moon was out every night and it was a full moon by the end of the trip. We looked at the moon a lot, just like honeymooners are supposed to.

We stopped at another beach, Kealia Beach, on the way back. We also stopped at Opaekaa Falls and took some pictures.

When we got back to the condo, somehow Carl discovered that he was missing his wallet and the room key. We looked all over, the room and the car. But it was dark and hard to see in the car and we didn't find it. Carl called and put his credit card on hold, just in case. We hadn't been able to find out anything about the deals at Pono Kai, so we needed to go back and see Linda to schedule our tours. We signed up with Linda to go on a boat tour Thursday, ATV tour Friday, helicopter tour Saturday, timeshare presentation and luau Sunday, all for $600 instead of $1000. What a deal!!!! Linda promised that the presentation would be "no high pressure" and I went to one with Steven a few years ago that wasn't high pressure, so we figured it would be OK, a small price to pay for such a great deal. More about that later. For dinner, Carl BBQ'd a tri tip and we had grilled pineapple with it. The pineapple was fresh, whole pineapple that Carl cut up into thick slices. Yummy!!!