We started the morning with a quick stop at the Opaeka’a Falls overlook, arriving just in time to catch a quick glimpse of a rainbow over the falls.

We crossed the road to see the view of the Wailua River.

Our next stop was a short visit to Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, which was founded in 1970 by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Gurudeva).

Lord Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles and God of Beginnings, greets and blesses visitors.

The Meditation Banyan is a short distance from the entry; inside, there were chairs where you could sit and meditate as well as a statue of Lord Shanmuga, the god of Yoga. His six faces are arranged in a circle.

We left the banyan and walked toward the Kadavul Temple; a worship service was taking place, so we couldn’t go in.

We next encountered Sadāsiva, the Ever-Auspicious One, another aspect of the deity.

The monastery has been constructing a larger temple, the Iraivan Temple, since 1975 and hope to finish it in the next couple of years. The blocks of granite are carved in India and put together in Kauai; it is intended as a destination for pilgrims.

I would have liked to have spent more time at the Monastery, but we were on a schedule – we had to leave for a chocolate tasting and tour at Lydgate Farms, about 15 minutes away.

Our guide, Mel, gave us a brief introduction to the farm and to chocolate (with a little tasting, of course) before taking us on a walk through the farm itself. They grow many crops there, including vanilla, but the main attraction is chocolate.

Mel opened a pod and gave us each some of the fruit to taste. It didn’t taste much like chocolate!

We got to sample honey, rambutan, longan, and chocolate at various stages of processing.

We finished with a ten-chocolate tasting; besides the Lydgate Farms chocolates (wonderful!), they gave us three chocolates from Valrhona, one from Taza, and even a Hershey Dark Special! The idea was to help us taste (and smell, feel, and see) the differences between chocolates.

It was a very good tour – the only problem was the timing. We started at 11am and finished around 2pm, which crowded out lunch. So we did the obvious thing and drove 25 minutes to Kōloa Rum for a tasting there!

We got to make a mini-MaiTai and taste six of their rums…for free!

Dinner seemed like a good idea after the tasting, so we drove to Kilauea for blackened ahi and normal-sized MaiTais at The Bistro before coming back to the resort for the evening.

We set out this morning for Waimea Canyon and Koke’e State Parks, most of the way around the island from our timeshare. If we’d gone directly there, it would have taken two hours each way.

We’ve been listening to the Kauai Revealed Drive Tour as we drive; it provides interesting insights, stories, and lots of suggestions for detours for beaches, hikes, and other diversions. We accepted its suggestion of detouring to Wailua Falls, about 15 minutes off the highway.

It’s Kauai, so there were lots of chickens strutting around (apparently tourists feed them; we didn’t!).

Chickens don’t read signs.

We drove back to the highway and resumed our journey. We’d eaten at Japanese Grandmother’s Cafe in Hanapepe on our first trip to Kauai and really liked it, so we went there for lunch. It’s a much bigger operation now than it was in 2017, but the food was just OK this time; I don’t think we’ll return, though I wouldn’t mind seeing a Friday Art Night in Hanapepe.

From Hanapepe, we continued to Waimea and the road leading to the canyon. The drive guide suggested a stop at an “informal” lookout for a good view of the canyon and waterfall – it was right.

We proceeded up the road to the Pu’u Ka Pele lookout for a slightly different view (and better parking).

We also visited the Pu’u Hinahina Lookout and walked a short part of the Canyon Trail there, but I didn’t get any good photos. From there, we continued to the Koke’e Museum and walked the Nature Trail there; again, no photos.

We turned back after the museum and drove to the Waimea Canyon Lookout, which had terrific views of the canyon and waterfall.

There’s a sightseeing helicopter in the last photo – can you find it?

We left the lookout and drove back to the resort, stopping in Kapa’a for falafel at Shakalafel.

The whole trip took about 9 hours; I’m exhausted!