2026 Kauai

The Lady Adventurer and her faithful companion, Dan are about to have an unexpected adventure. Those are the best kind. Sometimes.

If our math is correct, this is the fourteenth trip to the Hawaiian Islands for the Lady Adventurer and me. About half of those included a visit to the Island of Kauai, the Garden Isle, and yet we haven’t been here since 2009. Even though it’s been a while, we have enjoyed so many of the sights and had so many adventures here that much of this visit will seem a bit repetitive. But not all; a few new exploits await. And there’s always something to be said for doing nothing at all.

Dining at Duke's

The Hilton Garden Inn is not right on a beach, but it’s within walking distance to one by traipsing through adjacent Lydgate Beach State Park. The park is wonderful, with a nice beach and walking trails. It’s also where many locals go. Lady A. and I did some of our morning walks, and I did some of my morning runs here. The hotel itself is not a resort; there are no lanais, but the ground-floor rooms like ours have patios. We became a little familiar with neighboring guests at the nearby patios, including (two doors down) talkative smoking hillbilly Joe from Georgia, and the young drug dealers next door. Lady A. calls the room next door a "Den of Iniquity." She also points out that "Smokin' Joe and the Drug Dealers" is an excellent name for a rock band. We later learn that the drug dealers are painters temporarily staying and working at the hotel. They're friendly, but we still think they deal in dope on the side.

We love watching the red-crested cardinals and the ubiquitous ferel chickens from our patio. It’s really entertaining. They probably feel the same way about us.

On our patio

Lydgate SP

Lydgate SP

Lydgate SP

Kauai can be weird, weather-wise. It can be raining hard on one part of the island, and yet on another part, it can be raining hard as well. Seriously, there actually is a lot of variation – the wettest spot on Earth (over 500 inches of rainfall) is dead center on the island. Yet, the South and West get very little precipitation. The North also gets a good amount of rain, and here in the East, we get a fair amount. Our visit to Kilauea Point Lighthouse and National Wildlife Refuge in the North was a wet one.

The lighthouse is historic, but it’s the spectacular setting and the wildlife that fascinates. There are birds galore, including: Laysan Albatross, Great Frigatebird, Nene (Hawaiian Goose), Wedge-tailed Shearwater, and (my fav) Red-Footed Booby. We spotted a young Shearwater in its burrow (nest) close to the trail. We could walk right up to and even talk with the Nenes. And let me tell you about the Booby. An immature one (its feet were only a dull pink) landed on top of the car next to ours in the parking lot. We got to observe it closely (as I'm fond of doing), but then, as it stayed on top when the car started to move, we began to worry that maybe it was so young that it was lost without its parents. 

Kilauea Point Lighthouse

Booby on a car at Kilauea Point Lighthouse

Nenes at Kilauea Point Lighthouse

The very next day, we ventured North once again. This time, the destination was Limahule Garden. And this time, the weather was spectacular, just like everything else on the North side of Kauai. Limahuli Garden features endemic and indigenous native Hawaiian and Kauain plants at an unimaginably beautiful location at the base of the Na Pali Cliffs/Coast. It was our most enjoyable walk/hike. I can't recommend this place enough.

Hanalei/Lumahai area

Limahuli Garden

Limahuli Garden

Limahuli Garden

Another highlight of this trip is the trip up to Waimea Canyon and the Kalalau lookout at Kokee State Park. Although the hiking is unsurpassed, we didn't get too far. Even after Lady A. turned back, I tried to jog/walk along the ridge before some scary rainclouds moved toward me through the canyon. The drive up there is long and arduous, but also awesome in every way possible. The stopover in Poipu to visit the Kauai Marathon Expo broke it up a little.

Kalalau Lookout

Kalalau Lookout

Kalalau Lookout

I had been looking forward to the Kauai Marathon. It was supposed to be scenic and fun. But we learned the night before that it was cancelled due to incoming Hurricane Lowell. Yet the weather turned out fine on Sunday morning, so of course Dan ran 26.2 miles anyway. It was sort of fun - you can read about it here.

Although I had bought insurance when I registered for the race, I learned that the $315 claim would not be paid because events cancelled by the organizer are not covered. It was a nasty surprise.

Initially, we weren't overly concerned. The storm passed Hawaii to the South, and then turned North for a much closer pass to the Island of Kauai. The wind and rain became progressively worse on Sunday afternoon and all day Monday as a Tropical Storm Warning was issued (it woke us up). 

Hurricane Lowell as of Saturday; Kauai is about where the H in Honolulu is

It sure appeared as if the Island of Kauai as well as the Hilton Garden Inn were prepared for the arrival of Hurricane Lowell. Yet when it finally hit with its full fury, it was pretty darn rough. It rained harder and harder over the two days prior to its nearest approach (it wasn’t a direct hit, but close enough). The night before, the winds became stronger and stronger. They were howling through the Hilton hallways, and against our patio door. The hotel texted us to tell us to stay in our rooms for safety. At about 10 PM, the lights went out. At about 11 PM, the smoke detector went crazy because the battery, now being utilized, went dead. Despite our interruptions and fear, we still got a little sleep. We were lucky that the storm surge and other flooding didn’t reach us.

Hurricane Lowell

The ground-floor room with the patio came in real handy the next morning with the A/C being out. The wind died down to almost normal as soon as the sun rose. Interesting that the storm took two days to get there, but only a couple of hours to leave. In fact, everything initially appeared to be wonderfully normal. Until we began to observe the devastation. Trees were down, and leaves, branches, roof and other building parts, and other debris were all over the place. A few days earlier, Smokin’ Joe had asked us whether we were worried that one of the nearby tall palm trees might fall. No, we said, there’s nothing to be concerned about. But we THOUGHT: A palm tree falling? How silly is that? Because of this and other encounters, we believed that Joe had some dementia issues. The hurricane was far from our thoughts at the time. You can probably guess the rest: A VERY tall palm tree did indeed fall close to our patio.

morning after

downed palm

The Hilton Garden Inn went over and above the call of duty to help us get through the storm. They prepared well and kept us very well informed. They made their ballroom available as a safe place to hang out the day before and after. They provided meals for everyone. They also had a lot of cleanup to do, but they did it with a smile. For this, I will give them a very positive review.

If you must live in the Stone Age, Kauai is a good place to do it. As the power remained off, we were thankful for our battery-powered stuff, the running water, the extra wine that we’d purchased, and the food that the hotel was handing out. We were also fortunate to have that patio. We could open our room door and our sliding patio door to allow the air to flow. This is old-school A/C. Minor problems arose when the chickens, doves, and cardinals kept trying to come inside for a visit.

 

Another problem was that our room stunk. It had smelled of mold and mildew right off the bat, and we should have complained then. But we didn't want to give up the ground-floor room and patio, and we feared that perhaps all the ground-floor rooms smelled this way. The smell was mitigated when we could use A/C, but definitely not when it was off with the power.

Such are the joys of living in the Stone Age.

Finally, after two and a half days without power, it was time to leave the island. We arrived at Lihue airport in plenty of time - nearly three hours to spare. Yet that wasn't enough. Not in the Stone Age. The airport had intermittant power issues, and each of the many times the lights went out and back on, the TSA had to reboot their scanning equipment. That took ten minutes each time, and the TSA workers, who strongly resembled cartoon sloths, didn't help much. We were in that TSA Precheck line for seven solid hours. Since everyone else was also in line, our outbound flight was delayed multiple times, to the extent that when we finally got to our gate, it was slowly backing away.

7-hour security line

We were forced to spend the night in the airport, along with thousands of other members of the great unwashed masses. (Yes, the peasants are revolting.) Not that I'm pointing any fingers.

A good night's sleep at LIH

Enough. We no longer think this an especially good adventure. Stone Age begone, I say. Since we missed the flight, we had to spend the night in the airport. We left for the mainland 24 hours after our arrival at the airport. The trip home was only now truly getting started, and Lady A. and I were already dead to the world.

For more about the Kauai Un-Marathon, click here.