Hanalei Diaries: Day Two

Pu’u Poa Beach and Kilauea Bakery

Remember how I mentioned yesterday that there might be some rooster noise occurring in the wee hours of the morning. Well, that “might” turned into a “most definitely” last night. They started cockadoodle doing very early, and then again a few hours later. I thought it started at 2am. Mountain Man assures me that it was more like 5am.

Also, at one point in the night, the rain was dumping on our little house. I woke up and told Mountain Man to go turn off the sprinklers. I thought I was back home and our sprinklers had gone haywire. Nope. Just a tropical rainfall.

Luckily, I grabbed some serious REM sleep post the noise from the roosters and did not wake up until 8am.

We all had a delightful breakfast of cereals and sausage, then headed out for a beach excursion.

We have been following the advice of Reveal Kauai and tried to visit a beach near Sea Lodge in Princeville. Turns out, though, that when you arrive to this spectacularly gorgeous cliff with the most unbelievable view of the ocean, you then have to follow a slippery and steep path that winds around for about 10 minutes until you finally arrive at said beach.

In addition to having three kids under the age of 12 with us, we were carrying two boogie boards, one swimming noodle, 5 towels, and three bamboo mats. We were in no shape to traverse a cliff-like path just to see a cool hidden beach.

Plan A was stalemated.

The good news is that with Reveal Kauai there are plenty of other options to check out.

We chose the closest “real gem” beach, found parking and checked it out. The name of this beach is Hideaway Beach near the St. Regis hotel in Princeville.

We started following the path to get to this beach, or so we thought. Apparently we took a left where we should have taken a right and found ourselves at the perfect spot for a beach outing. Its the beach directly in front of the glamorous St. Regis resort in Princeville, Pu’u Poa Beach.

LOVE this beach. Mark this down – Pu’u Poa Beach for snorkeling and incredible scenery. There were huge trees lining the beach, providing natural shade while on the sand.

Another bonus is that the sand is the kind that does not stick to your feet. There is a huge coral reef, providing incredible snorkeling with beautiful fish about a foot away from you, due to the shallow waters.

There are large black lava rocks on one side of the beach, providing wonderful climbing adventures for the younger set. My 4 and 9 year olds loved watching the large black crabs traverse the lava rocks. Really fun stuff.

Black lava rocks at Pu’u Poa Beach

View of hanalei from Pu’u Poa Beach

All three of my kids loved this beach, and we are so happy we accidentally bumped into it. We are definitely making a repeat visit to this one in the next few days.

After our beach outing, we were starved. We were in the water for almost the entire hour and half visit to this beach. Swimming and the sun = famished.

We chose to go to Kilauea Bakery for lunch and bakery treats. We ordered slices of vegetarian, meat combo, and cheese pizza, porcini mushroom soup, berry smoothie, lemonade slushes, and Mountain Man ordered a full size coconut and stuck a straw in it for coconut juice. As fresh as it gets.

Oh, and for dessert, we ordered chocolate chip cookies, macadamia vanilla cookies and a bear claw. So delicious.

Highly recommend this bakery if you are visiting Hanalei. The atmosphere is perfect with outdoor tables located in a quaint group of boutique shops in the historic Kong Lung shopping center. Just lovely.

At Kilauea Bakery, the fresh breads, danishes, cookies, soups and pizzas are just perfect after a long day on the beach. The was one of our favorite food stops on our last trip to Hawaii in 2008.

Below is a collage of our delicious lunch from Kilauea Bakery today. Fresh Vegetarian Pizza, Porcini Mushroom soup served with homemade bread and butter, fresh almond cinnamon danish and a coconut juice as fresh as it gets, straight from the coconut.

More shots from the Kong Lung Shopping Center in Kilauea….

Beautiful courtyard landscaping.

Daphne is an umbrella cockatoo, who is just delightful to visit, and sits perched in the main courtyard near the bakery. We visited her almost five years ago during our stop here. The kids just love her. I actually discovered that she has her own website at Kong Lung Kauai.