Waimea Canyon and JoJo's Clubhouse

It is raining here this morning, but not to worry. We are on our way to the west side of Kauai to visit Waimea Canyon. Mark Twain called it "the Grand Canyon of the Pacific." It doesn't rain much on that side of the island. I think all the clouds get held up by the mountains. One of those mountains, Mount Wai'ale'ale, is the wettest spot on earth - 432 inches per year. Whoa.

On the way to Waimea, we made a few stops. First, we stopped at the bakery in Lihue. They are reputed to have the best apple turnovers on the island, and, well, you can't just drive by that without stopping! They were good. Maybe I'm just not an apple turnover person? There was no ice cream. That might have helped.

I really did enjoy the next place we went -Glass Beach. Glass Beach is actually next to an old dump - very touristy. Actually, it was very neat. The millions of pieces of broken glass have been crushed into smaller pieces and polished by the waves, then mixed in with the sand. All the different colors of the rainbow were there if you looked closely. (We also met a new friend named Chloe. Please don't tell Lucy and Kasey.)

We spent 30 minutes or so picking up different colors to take home. I'm not really sure why, but they were so pretty that we couldn't help ourselves. It gave the kids something to do, which was great. They've been picking at each other since Sunday. Until today, I wasn't sure they were going to be returning to Dallas with us, unless it was in our luggage.

Our drive up to the top of the canyon took a long time - only 25 miles but we had to stop all the time to take it all in! You will not be able to see the the actual majesty from these pictures. It was very misty and cloudy when we got to the top. It even rained on us for a few minutes. We didn't let that stop us from taking a hike down one of the trails from the top lookout. The variety of what you see is hard to imagine. There's plenty of the famous red dirt, but also a jungle of different plants and trees. Parts of the hike were challenging with lots of rocks and steep climbs. Other parts were like being out for a stroll in the woods.

Carson was not too enamored with the hiking. Actually, she enjoyed it about as much as I enjoy mopping my floors - maybe less. I guess we need to give her more opportunities to grow into an appreciation for this, because the rest of us enjoy it so much. It was good to move - I felt like I'd been sitting for a week. Luanne has some real work to do when I get back!

We could have spent days here and not seen all there was to see. There were some who had rented cabins or tents. I think that would be fun, at least for a few days.

Keith and Kyle had the most fun driving/coasting the car back down the mountain. It's good that Budget Rental Car could not see it. Keith thinks he coasted about 12 of the 18 miles down the winding road to town. Kyle loved it. It reminds me of something my dad would have done. I can also now say that I understand why my mother didn't enjoy it quite so much.

We were all looking forward to our next activity after that hike - a trip to JoJo's Clubhouse. (sounds like a show on the Disney Channel, doesn't it?). JoJo's is the island-wide favorite spot for shave ice. I was skeptical. I've never been a fan of snowcones. Ice with syrup? As promised, however, this was different. They use a sharp blade to shave the ice very, very fine. Then, they add the flavored syrup. For an added twist, at the bottom of your cup is ice cream. Yep, you know how I feel about ice cream. It wasn't a combo I would have expected - shaved ice and vanilla ice cream - but it works! Carson liked this part of the day much better. It's killing me that I didn't take any pictures of this part of our day. Don't worry, I'll get one next time (because there will be next time.)