Kauai Trip August 2015 Day 7

Secret Beach

Secret beach ..shhhh..

Today is the last full day of our trip and it was raining on/off for the whole day with the approaching hurricane. We both decide to sleep in today before making our way to the secret beach.
It's a hidden beach that's visible from the lighthouse.
The parking lot is at a residential area with an unmarked trail (muddy of course!) leading down to the beach.

Secret beach adventures

The beach is beautiful once we picked our way down the trail. It is also a clothing-optional beach especially towards the west end. Unfortunately today the surf is so high that we can't swim or snorkel. But it was surprisingly sunny for the most part that we were there as we ate our picnic lunch and walked around the beach.

St Regis private beach 
After the secret beach, we made our way to St Regis as Westin's dwellers are allowed to share the beach with the sister property. That beach is part of Hanelei Bay but isolated from the public side by a stream.

St Regis Private Beach at Hanalei Bay

We sat on a beach lounger on the grass and read for a while. While it's nice not to fight sand and mud, the appeal of the island was lost on this little stretch of beach. I truly hope that St Regis dwellers has ventured outside and explored what this island has to offer.
We also rolled into St Regis looking like we rolled around in the mud (courtesy of the secret beach trail). So we got a few suspicious looks from pool servers =)

Kalypso dinner
After giving up on the sunset as the rain is not subsiding, we made our way to Kalypso for dinner.

Dinner with Nachos and Mahi Mahi Pasta

A great Hawaiian-hospitality experience after dinner
After dinner, we made our way back to Westin and saw that the hotel restaurant has a Hawaiian entertainment night. The performers are a couple where the wife is the hula dancer (Primrose) while her husband performs on guitar and ukelele. He sounds so wonderful that we both stopped to listen to his singing, and was invited by Primrose to join her at her table for the whole hour of their performance,

Primrose and Randy's perforamance

They don't have a website yet but this is her performance for a cancer patient that a friend posted on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2lAigJ6_2Y
I learned more about hula after that experience, that the hands are expressing the words of the songs.
I'm impressed by the elegance of the hands, the warmness of her character and her willingness to share her culture with a stranger.

On our way to the airport, we went into a coffee shop that turns out to be an art gallery. It's ran by Candy who has awesome coffee and offered us everything from bathrooms to printer to travel advice. Again, it's another example of how nice the locals are in Kauai.

Posters in Candy's bathroom

Thoughts for this Kauai trip
The island of MUD! The memory of slippery and muddy trails will always stay with me.
Kauai has a lot to offer but you have to earn the experience. There's hidden passages, muddy trails, treacherous surf to uncover great beauty of beaches, ocean and mountains.
But like all Hawaiian islands, you have to plan around the weather. There's always uncertainty in any Hawaiian trip but embrace it and enjoy whatever that you end up doing!
I have a lot of unique experience from this trip that i will always cherish and remember! Mahalo!