Today I woke early and headed for morning sustenance at Java Kai. I can’t get over how good the coffee is here. I want it at every meal! They weren’t serving food yet so I settled for coffee and a bagel and headed out for a 45 minute drive to Ka ‘paa where I met my sea kayaking crew. It was a wonderful drive. The sun was coming up over the ocean. The colors were all orange and pink and the ocean looked like glitter.

Sun rises as I drive south

Ocean glitters as the sun comes up

Once we got to our launch site, my legs were so stiff (the hike yesterday is still with me!) I had to stretch for a bit. We had three different two seater sit top kayaks. In addition to the guide, there was a great couple from Oregon and a whiney Lesbian couple from Denver. They were nice until they weren’t strong enough to carry their kayak down to the shore (I did it for them) AND they gave up two-thirds of the way so the guide and I each had to paddle one of them home….but it was fun anyways.

After about 10 minutes, we were nearly dive bombed by a frigate bird chasing a white tropical long tail bird. Apparently frigates frighten smaller birds until the small bird drops it’s catch. What a way to start!

We also saw several huge sea turtles and stopped at a buoy to snorkel. There we saw lots of angel fish swimming in a large school but everyone was starting to get frustrated that we hadn’t seen any whales in our first 6 miles or so. Finally, off in the horizon, we saw a tail breach! Ahhh, check that one off of the bucket list.

Not more than a mile later, though, we heard a huge blowing sound just behind us. Everyone looked at each other, not exactly sure what we heard. Then a whale breached her whole body not more then 50 yards away. It was spectacular. There were at least two of them, playing with each other. It was quite a sight. I was in a boat with the guide and turned to watch, not moving away. Unfortunately the whiney lesbian chicks were scared and began shrieking like banshees. Needless to say, we had to move on, but what an experience! Our guide said he’s only seen them that close once before, from a catamaran.

We stopped for lunch at a deserted beach, with no one around and no manmade sounds…just the birds. I had to walk because by now my legs were even more stiff and aching from not moving them. As I made my way down the beach, I saw passionfruit growing wild in the trees on the bank. I picked as many as I could carry and we all had fruit for dessert (although it was a bit tart)!

It was quite a trek so I’m expecting that my upper body tomorrow will feel like my lower body did today. Our guide, Steve lives near my Cowgirl Haven. He suggested I meet him for some jacuzzi action to ‘help my muscles.’ Man, have I got it going on in Hawaii! Apparently Kauai used to be nicknamed Man Island because there weren’t any chicks!

Anyways, anxious to take a shower and find food (I was ravenous after 5 hours of kayaking), I headed out back up to the north shore. En route I stopped at a road side shack called Banana Joes. There they made me a frosty/smoothy concoction from banana, papaya, coconut, and who knows what else. It was so refreshing after a long day-cold and semisolid like soft serve, sweet but barely so. It was perfect. I also bought rambutan (red, hairy, tastes kinda like a grape), mangosteen, fresh macadamias, and homemade coconut tapioca pudding.

Rambutan Whole

Rambutan peeled

Back home and cleaned up, I lazily ordered Chinese (Kauai pork and cabbage, which turned out to be much better than expected), took ibuprofen as a second course, then settled into TWO desserts! Coconut rice pudding and lilikoi pie. Lilikoi is made from passionfruit concentrate and is impossibly light, sweet, tangy, and creamy all at the same time.

Off to rest my sore muscles (and ribs from surfing, too). Tomorrow might be a lazy day, we shall see!