From the End of the Road to “Caitlin’s Beach” – Kauai Day Nine

Ahhhhhh Day Nine…can’t believe that time flies even when on vacation. You better believe that we planned to continue to enjoy every waking moment on this Tuesday.

Before we went to bed on Monday night, Evan asked me, “Daddy, could you wake me up early?” I asked, “Why? You wanna watch the sunrise with Daddy?” He said, “No, let’s go buy Malasadas! I heard the beats in my head the moment he threw that punchline. Knowing that he missed his malasadas on Monday, I made sure to get up before 6am so we could go to Village Snack Shop & Bakery in Hanalei. It was easy to wake up my 6 year old. All I had to say was that it was time to get his malasadas – and he got up.

We drove about 10 minutes towards Hanalei and turned to the Chin Young parking lot. I knew it was early, but there wasn’t any sign of life in Hanalei at 6am, more so with the market parking lot. We walked towards the bakery, and we saw the sign stating they open at 6:30am. Evan and I had 30 minutes to kill. Of all days, I left my iPhone at home. Scratch the idea of surfing the net. I did what every Filipino with OCD would do to kill time. I cleaned the SUV! Yep, that’s what I did. Could you imagine – 6 passengers – sand, bottles, cans, papers, headsets…the works! No it didn’t take 30 minutes to clean the SUV, but that was good enough to kill some time.

The shop finally opened and my little Evan was beaming with excitement. He was the first customer. I ordered a dozen malasadas and a Spam Musubi. Evan was thrilled. On our way home, he asked me the meaning of a “dozen.” I explained to him what it meant. We then brought the malasadas home to share with the family.

We got ready for another North Shore day. We were finally out of our timeshare by 9:30am. We made a couple of quick stops at the Hanalei lookout, and of course, where else? Back to Village Bakery so I could try their Coconut Vanilla Haupia Pie.

I then headed to the end of the road, Ke’e Beach. As we approached Ke’e, I could already tell that it’d be pack. Lots of cars were parked along the sides. I dropped off Ethan and Madison to secure a spot at the beach, while Nancy and I looked for a space. Fortunately, we found one very close to the beach, a family had just left.

What is it with Ke’e? It’s crowded not only because of the beach, and the overflow from those who came from Haena Beach, but it is also where you get access to the Kalalau Trail. The thought did cross my mind to try and take Ethan hiking here, but maybe we’ll give that a whirl when Ethan’s older. For today, we just lounged at Ke’e. There were hardly any waves, so we just watched the kids play in the water.

Caitlin’s Beach

We rented a body board the other day but couldn’t really use it at the beaches we went to in the North Shore. I told the kids let’s go to “Caitlin’s Beach” – there’s this unmarked beach that Nancy and I took Caitlin to back in 2008. Right in front of us was the beach perfect for body boarding, and off to the left and back was a fresh water river (at least that’s what I remembered)! I promised them that this is a perfect beach for all 4 of them, for all of us. There was plenty of parking. The beach ground was quite vast. You get a view of St. Regis from a distance. The only downside it took quite a bit of walk from the parking lot to the actual beach front. Other than that, we enjoyed 2-3 hours at Caitlin’s Beach. One of the best things I won’t forget was when all 4 kids jumped off the rocky side in to the freshwater river. Everytime I look at them, I get amazed – they are indeed growing! Oh and BTW, I later learned this beach is Lumahai Beach and the river is Lumahai River. For my family, we will always refer to it as Caitlin’s Beach 🙂

After leaving Caitlin’s Beach, we made our way back and in no time, we found a Farmers Market at Waipa Ranch. We sampled quite a few things from Kimchee Shrimp (raw….sooooo delish), Tarragon Ice Cream , Coconut Cacao…and so much more. I needed Calamansi (a lime-type of fruit) for a dish I’ll be preparing. Nancy and I also bought a couple of green mangoes.

For dinner, we had a theme. KIDS’ CHOICE
Entreé #1 – My Filipino Bistek – marinated beef with Kikkoman soy sauce and locally grown calamansi purchased at the Farmers Market. I topped the Bistek with Grilled Sweet Maui Onions and slivered fried garlic chips.

Entreé #2 – Good ol’ spaghetti. Pasta was cooked al dente with my homecooked meat marinara sauce with chunky tomatoes and sweet Maui onions. On the side was a freshly baked French Bread from Foodland; we brought it home and made garlic bread.