We decided to head to Waimea Canyon - the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We had been to the Grand Canyon on our last vacation, so we thought maybe we could skip this tourist attraction. But we figured it would probably be worth seeing and when was the next time we'd be on Kauai to check it out? So we made the someone long windy drive there and up to the rim of the canyon. After the drive up and back, we decided we'd be happy never to go back again. Unless one of our kids has a huge desire to see massive holes in the ground, we don't need to go back. It was definitely a shorter trip than the drive to the Grand Canyon, but it wasn't as impressive a canyon by far. You can tell that Xander wasn't that impressed... he wasn't quite himself all day that day...
Along the way and throughout the whole canyon park we saw plenty of chickens. All different colors, beautiful plumage as always. They were pretty daring, even though signs said not to feed them it is pretty obvious the visitors normally ignore the signs because they were all but begging for treats. The pictures don't due them justice, they were so stunning... who would have thought chickens (okay, red jungle fowl) could be so cool?
A Mama chicken and her baby chicks...
Now THAT made Xander smile!
Another chicken!
Xander did not want to say goodbye to his new friends...
So when we made our next stop, he was happy to see even more chickens... look at them all crossing the road!! How many chickens can you see here... (we count 7)
Xander had his eye on them the whole time!
Then the wind got hold of Mama's hair... here Mama, I'll fix it for you! Mama's personal stylist...
Look! The kings of the canyon!
When we pulled up to the gift shop at the canyon, Mama saw through the door into the back corner of the store and said, "Oh, I see something Xander is coming home with!" It was a stuffed chicken! The chickens there were so beautiful and this stuffed one was so adorable that one questions if the stuffed chicken was actually for Xander or more for Mama... either way, all are thrilled to be the proud owner of one stuffed chicken. We named him Ba-Gawk! We're so original! This picture doesn't do him justice, by the way...
Once we left the canyon, we were well overdue for a real lunch. We thought we saw a Subway on the way up, but decided not to hesitate when we saw the first sign of food. We ended up sharing a tuna melt, which is funny because Mama hates those, but now decided she likes them well enough. This particular one was delicious (with havarti cheese, rye bread and tuna with a good mix of onion and celery) but we were so hungry we would have probably enjoyed a saw dust sandwich almost as much.
When we finally made it back to our room, we picked up a second lunch from Dukes to share - gotta have those fish tacos!
For dinner that night we tried a place that Mama found online with rave reviews - Tidepools. The restaurant was at the Grand Hyatt, not too terribly far from where we were staying. They call it Tidepools because the restaurant has many walkways and bridges that take you over water and koi ponds, you feel like you are in a hut built over the water, it is pretty cool. We tried the Ahi Poke to start - surfing goat chevre with wasabi-edamame puree, topped with tobiko, lomi salsa and molokai sweet potato. The dish was good overall, but the wasabi-edamame puree was a little flat and bland. It was filling though, which made a good start to the meal.
We then shared the Mahi Mahi. The fish was macadamia nut crusted with molokai sweet potato (not so good) coconut-kaffir lime beurre blanc and papaya-avocado relish. Overall a great dish, but we think maybe we just don't love the texture of that purple potato mash.
When we ordered, we decided to share one entree and leave room for dessert, but when we ordered appetizers we got the Ahi Poke AND the Hamachi & Compressed Watermelon appetizers. Our food came so fast that we decided to hold off on enjoying the Hamachi until after our entree and it wound up making for a wonderful savory dessert. The Hamachi was evenly balanced with the watermelon, topped with thinly sliced jalapeno and all brought together with a white soy vinaigrette and shiso. We almost licked the plate the vinaigrette was so good! And that Hamachi was delish! We could always use more jalapeno, but we'd get that dish again if the opportunity arose.
We walked around the grounds of the hotel, then to our car. On our drive home we took a little detour to look around and got back just in time for Xander to go to bed. Another day in paradise on the island of Kauai.
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