September 22

Day 9

This is an open day, yes I actually have nothing booked for the day! The only thing on the schedule is a sunset dinner reservation at the Beachouse @ 5:30 so that's our anchor point.
Breakfast today was a little different. I bought a round loaf of Banana-macadamia nut bread in Hanapepe on Friday and last night I prepped it for french toast.
This worked out great. The cake like bread made outrageously delicious french toast.
Over breakfast we plan our day while we watch the turtles on the rocks.

We decide to head north to the lighthouse and other points north.

It is a bright morning and there are not very many visitors at the lighthouse when we arrive. The views of points north, east, and west are fantastic. Photo opportunities are endless and this is well worth the $5.00 entrance fee.

There are many nesting birds and we see several young ones in burrows.

Sadly the lighthouse is no longer in operation but it is a nice old structure. So different from the tall lighthouses of the East coast. This one doesn't need to be tall since it is perched on a high bluff.

We pick up some souvenirs at the gift shop and make our way towards the parking lot. It appears that we are close to a Geocache so we do a little searching and find the cache. This is great since we have brought along a travel bug that has a goal to get to Hawaii. It's cool to help someones bug complete the goal. We plan to leave our own travel bug in a cache with the goal of making it back to our home county.

We turn north on the "highway" and in like a half mile we see a mini-golf course so we pull in for a round.  This has to be the nicest mini-golf course I have ever seen. The landscaping is excellent. Full of fruit trees, coffee, bamboo, and other exotics. Lots of nice water features as well.

The course doesn't have the carnival style holes with moving obstacles but each hole has a different botanical theme and story to tell so you can linger and read the information signs.

 After our round of mini-golf we decide that since we are so close we might as well  go to the end of the road.
Cori hasn't been here yet and while I know parking can be an issue it's a great opportunity to see Ke'e.
On the way north we stop at the Hanalei overlook for some pictures.

Such a nice spot. We snap some pictures and then continue our trek north towards Ke'e. When we arrive I hope that we might be able to find a parking space from someone leaving but no such luck so we park a little bit down the road and take a short walk to the beach.

Here we are at the end of the road.  I recall that there is a Heiau off to the left and up a short trail so we head out that way. The trail is in disrepair and while I do see markers on the trees heading inland at one point I decide to just keep going on the rocks around the point to the left of Ke'e

Here we are alone and are treated to wonderful views.

We explore just a little and then head back as we do need to get back home for an early dinner. We bid our little corner of the world goodbye and head back.

We are skipping lunch because dinner is going to be a feast but we stop at Lapperts in Hanalei because as everyone knows in Hawaii  ice cream has no calories.  This is the only time during our trip we encounter a surly employee. I guess she was just not having a good day, trouble in paradise too!
The ice cream is still good to us...
We have a pretty early dinner reservation but this means we should have a nice sunset view. We have never been to the Beachouse before so we are excited to try it out.
We are shown to our table and it has a great view, the sun is still well above the water and the lower portion of the restaurant requires sunglasses.

We order a fruity drink and a couple of appetizers while we wait for the sundown show to begin.

Panko crusted calamari strip appetizer was excellent.

 The crab stuffed Ahi roll had good flavor but it really didn't have much of a crab component.

The Omao arugula & goat cheese salad was a great taste combination. The macadamia nut truffles are filled with creamy goat cheese. So, so good.

The sun continues to sink down and the restaurant photographer is starting to take pictures outside so we take a break and head out to get our photo.

Yes I bought the photo. I'm in Kauai with my Sweetie so unless we looked like zombies I was buying it.

After the photo we had out entrees. We both ordered fish but the Furikake crusted Ahi was the standout

We then decided on the tropical carrot cake for dessert which was yummy and a very shareable piece of cake.

This was a great meal and a great time. I should also point out that Edwin our server was fantastic. His menu knowledge was as complete as could be and he was smiling the entire time. I think it is very nice that the Beachouse allows folks to congregate on the lawn every night and watch the sunset.
We had a nice stroll back to the house and a relaxing dip in the hot tub before heading off to dreamland
Tomorrow we go on a zip line adventure.