#Kaua’i: The Bucket List, Final Report

Here’s the final report on how we did with our bucket list:

Experiences:

• Rent a beach cottage for a couple of nights at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, to enjoy the beach and experience the gorgeous sunsets. We spent two wonderful days here in early June and wished we could have stayed longer. It was peaceful and relaxing, and quiet. We’d go again in a heartbeat. The sunrises weren’t as gorgeous as this one, and while the sunsets weren’t spectacular they were still very beautiful.
• Hike Waimea Canyon. Brett went hiking with two former work colleagues who happened to be visiting Kaua’i when we were staying out at PMRF – they had a grand time (while I spent the day on the beach).
  
• Hike the Wai Koa Loop/Stone Dam trail. The trail and the dam apparently re-opened at the end of May but it had sort of fallen off of my radar so we never got up there. I guess we’re going to have to come back to Kaua’i some day so I can get this hike done! Note: Although I found a post on TripAdvisor with people saying they had walked the trail beginning in late may, Joe of Banana Joe’s fame commented below that the Wai Loa Loop trail and Stone Dam is still closed and will most likely remain closed until October/November of this year. I checked again and apparently the hikers only visited the mahogany forest. Thanks for the update, Joe!
• Take an ATV tour out to Kipu Kai Ranch This was so much fun – Brett and I did it in April with our friend Denise, and it lived up to the hype.
• Get up early and hike out to watch the sunrise from the Pineapple Dump. We’ve been up early to catch some gorgeous sunrises here at the condo, so we decided to skip this.
• Take the tubing adventure tour. I did this with my grandson and daughter-in-law, and I count it as a highlight of our time here on Kaua’i – it was so much fun! I highly recommend this tour to any visitor!
  
• Visit the Kaua’i Museum in Lihue. Another activity that isn’t going to get done before we leave. We’re sort of discouraged by the high entrance fees, even for kamaaina.
• Tour the Limahuli Gardens & Preserve. The garden, located on the north shore, was severely damaged during the April floods and is still closed now.
  

Food:

• Celebrate our anniversary this year at Duke’s Kaua’i. Brett and I enjoyed our dinner here: great food, a terrific view and a HUGE complementary slice of their famous Hula Pie!
  
• Have a lunch date at Brenneke’s Beach Broiler. Another nice outing earlier this spring. We somehow got seated right up front with a fabulous view, and thoroughly enjoyed our lunch.
• Have dinner at The Eating House 1849. We have reservations for dinner here on Saturday night! –  and at Bar Acuda in Hanalei. We’ve decided to skip eating here.
  
• Try breadfruit. Glad we got to do this with WenYu – she sure loved breadfruit! We all thought it was delicious though. WenYu enjoyed it with butter and syrup, but I liked it all on its own.

Off-Island:

• Make an overnight visit to the Big Island to visit Volcanoes National Park. Because of all the volcanic activity that was going on at the time we decided to skip this trip, which would have ended up costing a whole lot more than the trip we had reserved. But, if and when things settle down again, we have a good reason for returning to Hawai’i in the future.

I think we did pretty good overall with our list, and neither of us is feeling bad about the things we didn’t get to do because we’ve experienced so many other wonderful things the island offers these past four years. We know we’re coming back some day to visit, and we can attempt the things we missed then.