Aloha!* I'm Flat Stanley and this is my Flat Stanley adventure!

* aloha means both hello and goodbye

I traveled to Kauai, Hawaii!

Kauai is an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! It is part of the Hawaiian archipelago. An archipelago means a group or chain of islands.

Even though it is about 2,400 miles from California, Hawaii is one of our 50 states and its citizens are Americans!

Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959. It is the 50th and most recent state to join the United States of America!

I was excited to start our trip. We left super early in the morning on November 8, 2017.

We flew from Oakland Airport.

Of course we needed Starbucks, so it was super great there was one in the airport!

It was fun watching the clouds out the window. Did you know that commercial airplanes fly about 7.5 miles up in the air?

After about 5 hours up in the sky, I started to see the islands!

Kauai got closer and closer!

We landed with a little bump! I said goodbye to my new friend, our flight attendant, and off we went to explore!

Finally here! Time to shop for a Hawaiian shirt!

Kauai's nickname is "The Garden Island" because most of it is covered by tropical rainforests. Everywhere you look is covered with lush green plants and trees. There are colorful flowers too!

Along the eastern side of the island is the Na Pali Coast. You can't drive there but guess what? I hiked there! The trail we took is called the Hanakapa'ai Trail. It was muddy, slippery and steep. At the top we could see the cliffs and the ocean down below.

Na Pali Coast

We hiked a lot on this trip and I rode in style!

One day we drove to Waimea Canyon State Park. Waimea Canyon is know as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." This deep colorful gorge looks a lot like the Grand Canyon in Arizona. That canyon was carved out by the Colorado River.

This canyon was formed by the Waimea River. This river gets its water from the extreme rainfall on the island's central peak, Mount Waialeale.

Most of the dirt in Kauai is bright red like you see here. It's red because Kauai is the oldest of the Hawaiian islands and its volcanic rock is rusting. The red color comes from iron oxide, a chemical that is red, and causes rust!

We took a kayak trip, and then another hike to this beautiful waterfall, called Secret Falls. The Hawaiians call these falls Uluwehi.

There are lots of waterfalls in Kauai because it rains so much. Mt. Waialeale gets the prize for being the 2nd wettest spot on earth. It gets more than 460 inches of rain per year! Most of the rest of Kauai gets between 35 and 45 inches a year. In Modesto we usually average about 12 inches a year!

When you come to Kauai you are immediately suprised to see so many roosters and chickens running around. Thousands of wild chickens roam the island and they have no natural predators. Most became free during the 1995 Hurricane Iniki. They are quite colorful and can be very noisy!

Exploring the caves, formed by lava tubes, at Tunnels Beach was amazing

All of the Hawaiian islands are made of volcanic rocks and mountains. Like many islands, they were formed where plates in the ocean came together, leaving room for hot lava to erupt between the plates. The magma rises upward and as it builds up it creates mountains. The tip of the mountain is what we see because it pokes out of the water.