June 2009 – Page 2 – Family Travel Blog

Thank you, Don “Lips” Fujiyama and Aaron Char from Waikiki Beach Services….

They worked patiently with my 9-year-old son one morning to get him upright on a surfboard.

He’s still talking about it.

He won’t take off his black Waikiki Beach Services protective surf shirt (that thing could stand up on its own in a corner by now, it’s so salty and grimy.)

He wants to go back to the islands and surf again, and I’m already trying to figure out how to get us there.

That’s what a visit to the islands is all about, bruddah!

Just So You Know Disclaimer: The state Hawaii Tourism Authority through Cilantro Media paid my way to Hawaii for the So Much More Hawaii bloggers tour, and also paid most of my expenses while I was there.

Kauai’s Waimea Canyon with kids

While on the neighbor island of Kauai for the So Much More Hawaii bloggers tour, we had the chance to take a short hike into what some have called the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific,” the 10-mile-long and 3000+ foot deep Waimea Canyon.

It was about 3.5 miles of trail, mostly along the Canyon rim, with a lot of up and down….you can’t go down into a canyon without paying the piper and going back up.

The reward for our effort was the beautiful 800-foot Waipo’o Falls, my son’s favorite spot on the hike.

Our guide’s name was Web; he works with local company Kayak Kauai and has been leading land and waterborne tours into the wilds of the “Garden Isle” for a long time.

Web was full of information on local plants and wildlife, and he was great with my son when things got a little interesting on steep, rocky or root-filled parts of the trail (we’re not exactly a family that hikes every day.)

He also brought a picnic lunch for us that included a really juicy fresh pineapple.