Farmers World Tour: Trying out lots of Kauaian Beaches

We have spent the last 9 days exploring the island in our Jeep. Kauai is a small island and quite circular, from where we were staying on the East Coast nowhere was more than a 45 min drive away. Having said nowhere I am actually refering to the beaches, there is not much else to see (apart from the Canyon - see later).
It was their "winter" there but the temperatures were still in the 80s, however it was very very windy especially on the north coast. There were plenty of nice beaches in the south though. The island is quite rural with many coffee plantations and other farms. We were disappointed not to see much genuine Hawaiian culture though (of course you can pay to go to a "traditional" luhua - with a free garland and fire dancing - but it all seemed a bit put on for the tourists). The tourists (almost all American) were definitely in the majority on the island, many of them owned condos or time shares and came every year and most things on the island catered for them.
We did have a great time and the beaches were lovely but I would not call them spectacular. For tourists from the UK there are far closer places to go which are just as amazing. So although we did enjoy Hawaii, it did not quite live up to the ultimate beach destination we were quite expecting it to be.
One day we drove up to the centre of the island to Kauai's most famous attraction the Waimea Canyon. Apparently this was described by Mark Twain as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" (that's what Lonely Planet says anyway), it was an amazing sight though. However when we got to the very end, where we were supposed to see where the Canyon meets the coast, the clouds had come over so we could not really appreciate the reported "spectacular view" which was a shame though it allowed Chris to practise his Jeep handling skills on the roads.
On our last night in Kauai we had a brilliant meal at a local restaurant which we really enjoyed. The starters on Hawaii are always referred to as "Pupus" which confused us initially. For an entree (this is the main course) Ruth had the Mahi-Mahi (fish) and Chris had the Fillet Mignon. Overall this was a nice end to an interesting and relaxing 2 weeks. Hawaii - TICK.