We started the day by doing Kayak Hanalei‘s Morning Bay Explorer Tour, kayaking the Hanalei River and a bit of Hanalei Bay and snorkeling off Pu’u Poa Beach on Hanalei Bay. It was my first time kayaking and Diane’s second…and it was a lot of fun (though my back isn’t happy at the moment).

Neither of us took our cameras snorkeling, but our new friend Karen graciously shared a photo she took of a lizardfish that Diane and I had also seen, and our guides shared a great picture of a sea turtle.

After a little recovery time, we drove down to the Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge to see the birds.

We had dinner at Tiki Iniki in the Princeville Shopping Center, arriving five minutes before Happy Hour ended – we had their classic Mai Tai to go with dinner (Diane had an Ahi Poke Bowl and I had Ono Fish and Chips for the third time so far on the trip). Or maybe we had dinner to go with the Mai Tai…it’s been a very energetic day!

We spent today in some of our favorite places on Kaua’i, beginning with another walk through the Formal Gardens at Na ‘Āina Kai Botanical Gardens and Sculpture Gallery. We’d never been there in the Spring before, and it was even more colorful than on our usual Winter visits.

We stayed until the Gardens closed at noon, then drove to The Bistro in Kilauea for lunch. Then it was onward to Kapa’a for a short walk along the Ke Ala Hele Makalae Coastal Path (in English, “The Path that Goes by the Coast”), followed by shave ice at Honu Shave Ice.

We stopped at the Kapa’a Lookout on our way back to the Westin.

We had dinner on our balcony and were joined by a couple of the locals – the red-crested cardinal actually flew onto our table and cast covetous eyes on some of our food.

And then it was time for one last stroll and photo for the night.