another cliché
travel blog

After lazing around for a bit, we went for a short run along the beach, then decided that today, we’d go stand up paddle boarding in the Hanalei River. We stopped for coffee at this place called Art Cafe Hemingway in Kapa’a. Ok coffee, but the food smelled great. I’m ambivalent about it’s existence. After driving up to Hanalei, we picked up the boards and launched right from the “Dock Dynasty”, that the outfitters had. Went up past the bridge into the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, and somewhere around the big bend found a nice little hole in the vegetation to have lunch in. We busted out the snacks, and promptly were snacked on by a whole cloud of mosquitoes. We beat a hasty retreat.

On our way back down river, it started to rain, which felt amazing! After talking about doing yoga on the beach, we felt inspired and started doing some on the paddle boards, to varying degrees of success. Right as we passed some people dining out on the shore, I attained a super stable tree pose, that eventually became less stable and ended with a loud “shit!” and the slap of my back against the water.

After stopping at the cars for water, we continued down towards Hanalei bay. The rain picked up again (still felt great), but we packed it in. Tomorrow we’re hiking some portion of the Kalalau trail, and today was supposed to be a rest day.

Went for a short run in the morning, then headed out to the Waimea Canyon for a hike. Traffic was terrible (it’s worse than I remember). Hiked the out-and-back two mile trail to the falls, for which we were woefully over prepared. 7.5L water between us, about 18,000 calories, head lamp, first aid kit….

After we got shave ice, (not as good as Hee Fat) the read on Russian Fort, until a bit before sundown.

We drove from there out to RumFire in Poipu and had poke and a drink as we watched the sunset. Grabbed dinner at Tortilla Republic (nothing special), then called it a night.

I read. Amy adorably curled up next to me and passed out cold.

After a lazy morning, we rented snorkle gear and meandered up to the north shore. First stop was shave ice from Hee Fat General Store, then food from the House of Noodles (nothing special). From there we headed to Queen’s Bath, but the line for a parking spot was three cars deep, so we bailed and went to Tunnels. Snorkeled there for a bit, then sat out and read. After the second rain shower, we packed it in.

We ended up back in Hanalei, and grabbed coffee (meh) and a super tasy gluten free brownie from Hanalei Bread Company. From there, we went back to Queen’s Bath, which was amazing! We saw only a few other people out. Because it was late in the day, Amy and I were some of the last people there, so we had the pool to our selves as the sun set. Pretty great. Did a little tide pooling, too.

After cleaning up from the muddy path, we tried to walk in to Bar Acuda (despite my protests, Amy’s never head the song…smh). Turns out you need a reservation. Kauai’s grown up a bit, it seems. So we got a reservation for 7pm on Sunday and walked across the street to Kalypso’s, a sports/tiki bar with standard fair.

Woke up after packing, got on the plane (we left a bit late/on time for me, but then the flight was delayed 45 minutes, so we ended up having time to grab breakfast).

The flight was uneventful, we read and watched Juno. After picking up our bags and car, we dropped our stuff at the rental and haded to Hamura’s. I was quite satisfied. After lunch, we came back to the rental, picked up groceries from across the street, then got dinner at Bubba’s and called it a night.

After sleeping in, we walked down to get coffee, then shopping, etc.

Then dinner!

Woke up around 8 (ugh, early) to do the Vidden Trail. We walked 20 minutes to the Busstasjon (Bus station. If you squint hard enough at Norwegian, it becomes English), then took a 20 minute bus ride to Montana (a neighborhood of Bergen?), then walked 10 minutes to the trailhead. From there, it was a 3km slog to Ulriken’s 600m peak. From there, it was 13km through gorgeous alpine(?) meadows. Loved it!

Once we arrived at the end, there was this adorable little outpost thing, that consisted of a tram station, a restaurant, and a gift shop. We sat about for a bit and enjoyed not moving, then bought tickets for the tram down.

Conveniently, the tram drops passengers off less than 100m from Det Lille Kaffekompaniet, so we stopped for coffee and split a cookie.

We went back to the house, showered off. Ash took a nap, and I headed back to the cafe to work for a bit. Around 8, I headed back, and we went out to find dinner. We ended up wandering until we found a little pizza place near the theater where we sat out under heaters.

Ash asked for recommendations for places to go that night, and we ended up at a small bar down the street, figuring we’d only be there for a round or two. Despite that, soon after we arrived, we noticed people started sporting some pretty heavy duty headphones. We had walked in on a silent disco, so we ended up being there till about three. Oops.

Got up around 11:30 (after initially waking up at 6:30 to talk with Amy for an hour or so), then spent the day exploring the city.

We bummed around for a while, saw some pretty great graffiti, then went grocery shopping to prep for the hike the next day.

We then had a great roughly traditional dinner at Pingvenen, all locally sources food and many local beers (plus Sierra Nevada, because why not).

Post dinner, we got a bit more food for tomorrow, then headed back home for the night.

Got into Bergen around 5pm, checked into our Airbnb, then walked along the water. Got a great salad, burger and beers at Una, then walked around a bit more. Called it a night somewhat early.

This city feels awesome! Kinda like fisherman’s Wharf crossed with the mission, but not grungy and with a bit of 500 year old character. The streets are paved in cobblestones and narrow down to footpaths between houses. There’s green spaces and trees everywhere. Bright colors on houses. It’s fantastic.

Bummed around all day. I didn’t get up till almost noon, so by two I made it out of the house. Walked around, got coffee, caught up on this, did some shopping.

For dinner, we went to Public House, which I highly recommend. It was a nice mix of British, Japanese, Chinese, and Icelandic, and included things like pork belly steam buns, chicken kara’age, and smoked puffin. Pretty great. Post dinner we took a long walk home and packed.

Woke up to a roasting room, eastern exposure, large windows, and a nice sunny day combined to make for a warm room. We bummed around the hostel for a bit, packed up, had coffee at an interesting little coffee shop, then hit the road.

We got in to Reykjavik around noon, checked out the church, then met up with Brandon, John, and Dylan.