The end of our two months trip... :-(

Due to the long distance we had to fly from Hawai'i to Switzerland, we made a stopover in San Francisco and Napa Valley for another five days. ;-) We gladly tell you what we experienced there and how we spent our last days.

The city of San Francisco can be seen in the background.

Most of the time the Golden Gate Bridge was encircled of heavy fog. Even nicer when the sun once appeared.

One afternoon we visited the picturesque village near San Francisco called Sausalito. It is located at the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge and has a lot of good restaurants as well as lots of houseboats standing in the harbor. 

We visited the favourite salito's crabhouse...

...and had a delicious meal on the patio (cheese, meat, bread with beer and wine) with a nicely overview on the harbor.

Alcatraz 

On another day we took the earliest ferry (09:10 a.m.) to get to the famous Island of Alcatraz. It took us about 20 minutes to get there. As soon as we arrived we got some headphones and could explore the former jail with an audio tour on our own. 

There are different cellulars installed to show visitors, how the inmates had to live when this prison was open.

The cells in the D-Block were the least populars. Inmates were confined to their cells 24-hours per days, with the exception of one visit per week to the recreation yard, and these visits were alone.

AT & T Park - Home of the San Francisco Giants

That's exactly the same thing what Oli does when he's not able to watch his favourite sport on TV. ;-)))

In the afternoon we joined a Stadium tour in the AT&T Park, the ballpark of the San Francisco Giants. It was similar to the one we made in Denver but this time we were able to visit the clubhouse (Dressing room). 

 

Charlie Brown and Lucy van Pelt are huge Giants-Fans.

The famous coke-bottle with the old fashion baseball glove.

The Napa Valley

At the very end of our two month journey we checked in at the Westin in Napa Valley. This time we got a real appartment with a fully equipped kitchen and a famous american refrigerator. ;-) We liked it, although we never cooked there. 

 

The village of Napa is very picturesque and we felt like being in an European city. There are a lot of bars where visitors are able to degust some wines and of course some very nice restaurants.

On our very last day we visited the Napa Valley on a Winetrain tour. First of all, Gaille (the woman next to Oli) drove us to the Raymond Vineyard where we can learn something about the history of this winery as well as a lot about wines itselfs and the whole Valley. 

 

 

Raymond Vineyards was founded in 1970 and a long time managed by the Raymond Family. 

One day they felt like fishing or golfing is more fun than producing wines. Then they sold the whole vineyard to a French domestic family named Boisset.

Today the vineyard is inspired by the vision of Proprietor Jean-Charles Boisset. 

Raymond is a dynamic destination dedicated to inspiring its guests  passion for fine wine in an environment of exploration, creativity and elegant whimsicality, where each in a series of diverse experiences progresses visitors into another world of discovery and exceptional wines. 

 

On our tour we were able to have a glimpse into the library (all books are made of wine... ;-))

In another exercise we could taste different spices and had to define what flavour we could smell. (of course these were all flavours you can smell when drinking some wine)

There is also a wine dedicated to the proprietor's dog who's called Frenchie. Whenever a visitor would like to take his dog to the vineyard he can fell free to do so. There are enough boxes where the dog can be and spend some time also with other dogs. There is also a camera installed therewith the dog can be supervised by its owner. How funny is that? :-p

We could also degust some freshly picked bunches of grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon. They were tasting very sweet.

At the end we learned a lot about the storage of the wine and how sophisticated the whole business is until you get some good wine.

This is the street of senses, where you can smell the different flavours which can be found in the wines.

For example "honey". Mmmh...Yummy!

After the wine tasting we entered the wine train which took us from St. Helena back to Napa. They served us a three course meal while we drove down the Valley and could see the different wineries along the track.

 

At the end of this inspiring day we strolled through Napa and saw at the local market these cheeses. The Emmentals (where Sindy comes from) are äbe everywhere... ;-)

 

 

Now it's time to say goodbye to two months of real fun and sun. We would like to say Mahalo (Thank you) for reading our posts and following us the last weeks on our trip. It is very hard for us to get back to work tomorrow. But our next trip will come soon ;-) 

Lots of Love and Aloha

Sindy & Oli 

Aloha from Maui

We do not have many pictures of the landscape of Maui because lots of the time it was quite foggy on the island besides in Wailea where our hotel was located.

 After a short flight from Lihue to Kahului (Maui) we arrived quite early at our hotel and had to wait a bit until our room was ready. Below you will find some impressions of our accomodation for the last days we spent in Hawai'i. 

The view from the balcony of our room towards the northern part of the island.

We could catch some beautiful sunsets at the hotel pool.

The hotel disposed on two pools. This one was only for people over 18 years old and was so chilling.

The pool area by night.

 

The Road to Hana

The next day we decided to explore the Island and head out to Hana on the favourite Highway 36. Top down, sunscreen on, radio tuned to a little Hawaiian music... That's how we drove this favourite highway to Hana. Hana is only about 50 kilometers away from Kahului but due to the very curvy and narrow street it takes you about three hours for one way. At the end of the day you have to go the same way back. ;-) But going to Hana is about the journey, not the destination.  Below you will find some pictures of this beautiful but also very special highway.

At the very end of this road we wanted to visit the famous pools of ‘Ohe’o who are the most popular attraction in East Maui. Beautiful waterfalls and pools in an absolutely stunning setting. What we didn't know that this attraction is operated by the Government. Due to the shutdown this facilty was closed. Nonetheless we had a great time and enjoyed the trip to Hana very much. 

Black Sandy Beach is another viewpoint on the road to Hana.

The Sand on this beach is almost black and is located in the Wainapanapa State Park. This large beach is set among lava cliffs and the sand is actually small, smooth, lava pebbles. A small sea arch, sea caves, and seaside lava tubes are located in the beach area. King's Highway, an ancient Hawaiian footpath, leads from the beach area along the coastline for 3 miles to the town of Hana.

Hang loose while watching the sunset from the pool...

E komo mai (welcome) on the Garden Island of Hawai'i

From Honolulu (O'ahu) we flew with Hawaiian Airlines westward to Kaua'i. Like the other Hawaiian islands, Kaua'i is the top of an enormous volcano rising from the ocean floor. With lava flows dated to about 5 million years ago, Kaua'i is the oldest of the large Hawaiian islands.

The trip to the International Airport of Lihu'e took us only about 25 minutes. The Islands of Hawai'i are really close to each other. From Lihu'e we drove with our car (after the obligated queuing (30 minutes) and a short discussion with the staff at the front desk of Hertz) into the south part of Kaua'i to Poipu Beach where the Ko'a Kea Resort was waiting for us. ;-)

Our "truck" on this island - a Cadillac Escalade.

The hotel staff heartly welcomed us on our new place where we stayed the next four nights. Below you will find our first impressions as we entered the room. We were overall surprised what we got and about the very good service they offered. (Macadamia Nuts as a welcome gift, complementary Water and a Nespresso Machine we could use - short we felt like home)  

Our room view to the left

Our room view to the right

In our room there could be found a lot of beautiful accessories like this special lamp.

Every night as we left the room for dinner, they made our bed ready for sleep and put a Fiji Water with some crushed ice next to our bed. We know, that's just a little attention but made our stay in a way much more personally.

The view from our balcony at night. The Hawaiians are used to put on the fires all around the area as soon as it gets dark at night. That makes the whole atmosphere very special and romantic woooow!!

Last view from the hotelpool in direction to the ocean - just beautiful.

One day we checked out the Kiahuna Golf Course which was situated about 5 minutes from our Resort. There we met Karen and Joelle from California. With this couple we played the 18 holes and had a lot of fun. Due to the fact that they began playing golf as well this year, we had almost the same level and didn't get pushed on every whole.

There was once again an electronically scoreboard installed on our golf cart.

A nice impression of the golf course, which was very well prepared with some tricky water hazards.

All around this area were a lot of very beautiful (expensive) Hawaiian Houses located.

Below you will get some more impressions of this really georgous island. Kaua'i is compared to O'ahu a very relaxing place and much greener.

The beach on the bay right next to our hotel

On another day we explored the Waimea Canyon and the Koke'e State Park which are both situated on the western part of the Garden Island. The Waimea Canyon is also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Below you can convince yourself of this statement....

The Canyon is approximately ten miles (16 kilometers) long and up to 3'000 feet (900 meters) deep. He was formed by a deep incision of the Waimea River arising from the extreme rainfall on the island's central peak, Mount Wai'ale'ale, among the wettest places on earth.

On our way we saw this special waterfall... Also here you can see the deep red colour of the canyon.

From the Koke'e State Park (northway of the Waimea Canyon) you have a beautiful overview onto the Kalalau Valley. (both picutres above)

 The Na Pali Coast in the north-west side of the Island is one of the "must see" places when you visit Kaua'i. Na Pali means high cliffs. These cliffs rises along the shoreline as much as 4'000 feet (1'200 meters) above the Pacific Ocean. This side of the coast is inaccessible to vehicles. You can hike on a trail of 11 miles (18 kilometers) but that's only one way and for sure you have to go back on the same day with the same pair of feets ;-). We got already some pratice in hiking in Canada. Although we are in quite good shape we decided to explore this part of the coast on an easier way... We choose Captain Andy and booked a sailing trip with his company.   

The last day on the Island we got up at about 5.45 a.m. to catch the cruising yacht at Eleele (Port Allen). Below you will find some impressions as well as Oli's statement on Yelp:

Just a fun experience with a stellar staff who didn't rest until everyone was satisfied (especially with drink and food) ;-)

We booked a trip on the Southern Star and had a 5-hour nonstop-fun tour! We also learned a lot about the culture and the native people.

The staff was just stellar and never stopped working during the whole 5 hours.

What a great experience, we also saw some sea-turtles while snorkling. 

One of the drinks that don't have to be missed on such a trip.... By the way, this is the beer which is brewed in Kona (Big Island). Oli's favourite beverage on the Island. ;-)))

On our trip we could see some dolphins. They were quite hard to get on a picture because they moved so fast.

Below you will find some impressions of these spectacular cliffs of the Na Pali Coast.

This post will be finalized with some beautiful sunrises we could face on this beautiful and unforgettable island.