Preston & I had always planned on going to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary but it didn’t work out, mostly because I didn’t want to leave my babies still. When we had our anniversary back in June I remember Preston saying something about us supposed to be in Hawaii and I told him we would but we would wait until January or February when we aren’t super busy. So early December I started planning while he was at work one day. I was ready for us to get away and enjoy some much needed time for just the two of us.
I have been researching over MANY years on which island we would visit and I definitely got it right. We went to Kauai and loved it. We stayed at the Kauai Beach Resort right near the airport and it was perfect! 5 pools, 2 hot tubs, a slide and beach access. Again, I had picked out a bunch of ideas for things to do and when Preston got home we booked a few.
We flew out Wednesday a little before noon and had planned on just leaving that morning but there had been a big snowstorm and so we decided we better leave Tuesday afternoon. We had clear roads the whole way thank goodness. We were able to go use our Texas Roadhouse gift card we got for Christmas. Shawna dropped us off at the airport the next morning. It was just under 7 hours to fly to Lihue. It was so cool to see how beautiful and green it was flying in. Right away saw HeiHei. Turns out chickens roam wild all over the island. We saw them everywhere. We FaceTimed Presley to show her while we were waiting to get our rental car. I prepaid for a “surprise me” car basically. They asked if we wanted a convertible and we said heck yes! We loved having the top down cruising the island but Preston said he was not going to have a midlife crisis and want a sports car.
It started hailing right before we left to watch Drew's basketball game. We decided since it was hailing in Winslow, we better leave sooner than later so we left after Drew's game at halftime.
The boys said, "Dad reliving his glory days"
The tree tunnel into our resort.
We got checked into the resort and walked to see the area, grab some water and snacks from Walmart and went to grab dinner. We chose just to grab drive thru from KFC and ate it at the resort outside by the pool.
Our first little trip was a 30 minute drive to the west side of the island where we went on a raft adventure through Kauai Sea Tours that started at 7am. It took us to the NaPali coast. We saw spinner dolphins a couple of times, saw a huge sea turtle near the surface, watched a mama and baby humpback whale for a while and Preston saw a humpback full breech. The 1st mate on the boat, Noah, was blocking my view and I missed it, and I was super bummed. It rained most of the time but it was so cool to see the animals and the amazing views so the rain didn’t bother us at all. They offer sunset cruises to the NaPali Coast and I would definitely do that next time. Our captain Ian was crazy and took us into two of the three sea caves while every other boat was 100’s of yards away from them watching. It was cool to be that close though. One was Honopu Arch & Waiahuakua Sea Cave, He told us that in summer the water is completely flat and you can kayak and walk in these sea caves which blew our mind because of how big the waves were when we were there. We ate our turkey wrap, chips and had a chocolate chip cookie while watching whales. Preston fell in love with the Aloha fruit drinks they provided. I started feeling a little bit of sea sickness coming on or maybe it was just that I had to wait too long to eat and was happy to get moving again. We stopped and snorkeled on the way back and saw hornet fish (super long and skinny fish). We were disappointed not seeing sea turtles but it was good snorkeling. It was definitely warmer in the deeper water near the NaPali coast versus where we snorkeled in the shallower water. By the time we got back to the marina it had stopped raining for the day and we got to cruise back to the resort with the top down checking out the cool tree tunnel on the way back. At the resort we went to swim but the water was too cool for me so we sat in the hot tub, laid out and Preston went down the slide. The crew from the boat told us Big Monster Sushi was a good place to eat so we showered and went there for dinner. We tried a couple sushi rolls (Spider Roll with crab & the Crunch Roll with spicy tuna) and crispy Pad Thai we loved all of it. We went for an evening walk on the beach and saw crabs.
Our next adventure was kayaking for 2 miles down the Wailua river and then hiking 1.5 mile to a waterfall it reminded Preston and I of Fossil Creek. Preston and I smoked everyone in kayaking with our years of experience. There was a family there that had four kids and were traveling with a set of grandparents so it reminded of us of our family. The other couple were newlyweds from New York. The weather forecast had showed raining all day but it didn’t rain in us at all. It sprinkled on us while we were under all the trees so we didn’t even really get wet. Katie Perry, our guide, gave us our turkey sandwich, Preston’s favorite…the Hawaiian potato chips and pineapple at the waterfall after we had checked it out and swam in it. This waterfall was 120’. The water was chilly but we warmed up quick. We had to be careful with our lunch so the chickens wouldn’t steal it. Preston tried scaring the family by being a velociraptor in the grass we hiked through like in Jurassic Park. Our tour guide didn’t understand what he was doing and thought he was using the bathroom so she kept stopping and sharing facts. Lol
 |
|
We had worked up an appetite so we stopped and had the best shaved ice with macadamia nut ice cream at the bottom of it and some pork fries. We stopped at the Wailua Falls lookout. We stopped and checked out a pineapple store in search for Dole Whip but no luck.
Tonight was the Luau Kalamaku. We finally got lei’d!! We checked out some of the vendors they had on site. We went on a 40 minute train ride around the plantation where they grew several crops and checked out the animals (cattle, horses, donkey, pigs, chickens) and stopped where we could have fed the animals but since we didn’t bring our kids we just watched. They did the Imu ceremony while we were on the train so we missed the pig coming out of the ground. We had a salad waiting at our table for us when we got back, ate a buffet dinner and watched different dancers while we ate and had dessert. We had front row seats and had a great view of the Luau. It was cool to see but we felt it was way overpriced for what it was. I guess there was an open bar and we enjoyed the non-alcoholic versions of a Blue Hawaii and Mai Tai so I guess that's where you get your money's worth???
The next morning we were finally able to sleep in after having two 7am adventures planned the first two days it rained all morning and so our helicopter tour for that morning was cancelled and we rescheduled for the next day. We had nothing else until mid afternoon so we went for a drive to the east side of the island and stopped and checked out many things along the way. Our first stop was Kaiakea point. By the time we were ready to stop and check things out it had stopped raining! We were trying to get to Hanalei Pier but we ended up at Hanalei Beach and it was a really nice, long beach area where we got to watch some people trying to surf. We also found the coolest lookout from the road that we had to make all the locals mad and flip around to check it out...Hanalei Bay Lookout. We finally found Dole Whips. The lady travels around the island each day and has limited hours so we were happy to finally get some in Princeville.
Our zip line adventure was back on the other side of the island but we had timed it just right. It was at an old sugar mill and all the land around it was owned by Steve Case, the founder of AOL who bought it to keep it from becoming a "big city" and used as cattle land. It was 8 zip lines and we got to fly for the first time. The last zip line was half a mile long. This was a great course and we had lots of fun. This is about the only time I wished my kids could be with us, we really enjoyed our time alone but we’ve always had so much fun zip lining together. I got eat up by mosquitoes though. We thought we saw pineapple on one of our ziplines but it turns out its pandanus fruit that tourists often mistake them for pineapples. We asked our two guides what the best place was to eat and they said Big Monster sushi so that was our plan if they didn't tell us somewhere to go we'd just go back so that decided it for us...we went back and tried two different sushi rolls (J on Fire with Spicy tuna, cream cheese, jalepeno & Big Monster Roll with shrimp), crab rangoons and Pad Thai. Loved the sushi & crab and just the smell of the Thai was making me nauseaus so Preston ate the shrimp off of it and that was it.
The next morning was the day we had to check out. I had thought about extending our stay so we'd have a place to take a nap or swim and shower but I decided surely we'd have something to do by that last day and wouldn't need it. I was right. We had wanted to see Spouting Horn but hadn't had the chance so we headed there. We drove a new part of the island we hadn't seen and it was so pretty. The "blowhole" like I kept calling it is the PoÊ»ipÅ« surf channels into a natural lava tube here and releases a huge spout of water that can reach as high as 50 feet into the air. You’ll also hear a hiss and a roar that is the basis of a Hawaiian legend. We continued on to finish exploring this side of the island. We had been on this side of the island for our first adventure but didn't get to really slow down and check out the scenery so we did. We went to Hanapepe Swinging Bridge and as we got out to walk there we saw that this was also the home of Lilo & Stitch. We had lunch at Duke's where it's an open air bar right on the Kalapaki beach. Preston had some Cajun Tacos and I had a cheeseburger and they both were really good. We had heard several people talking about how good the grass fed cattle on the island makes really good burgers and it did!
After our lunch we headed to our helicopter tour. They had told us this was a great time of the day to go and I think it was. Preston was so mad because we had received a text saying to wear dark clothing so the reflection in the doors of the helicopter wouldn't affect our views or pictures. Well the old man in the front seat wore a florescent green shirt and so it made Preston sooo mad. He didn't even really take pictures or videos because it affected them so bad. Luckily I was right next the door and just held my phone down low where there wasn't a reflection for the most part. We booked it because it said it was a waterfall safari and we really did see sooo many waterfalls. It helped that it had rained so much and was the rainy season. We started out seeing the private beach where Jack is running away in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and then we saw the Jurassic Park area where they first see the dinosaurs. One of the first waterfalls we saw was Manawaiopuna Falls also known as "Jurassic Falls". Another part we saw was part of the Waimea Canyon state park "Grand Canyon of Kauai". They had timed the music for these two places to have music playing for each of these and I loved that. The NaPali coast that we had checked out a couple of days ago...you couldn't even see the beaches anymore and the sand from the beaches you could see way out in the ocean. They were saying the surf was so bad on the north shore that they had to call for search and rescue just two hours before our flight and to see where we had been on our raft adventure in complete whitewash from waves was crazy. They also mentioned they were having a big surf competition going on in Oahu today and they were having 50 foot swells! We were told that the "Africa trees" were alibizia trees. They were brought to Hawaii by territorial foresters at that time because they were concerned about slopes that were eroding due to land uses like cattle ranching and logging, and they wanted to plant very fast-growing trees. When the sugar cane industry collapsed, albizia invaded abandoned cane fields and spread even further throughout the islands. They are slowly starting to try to get rid of them but it costs a lot of money. We found out they are also called Mimosa trees...that's the tree that's in our front by the driveway!
We had heard about the Robinson family on our raft adventure and in the helicopter. Robinson died on his estate in 1936, and the Kauai estate passed to his wife and their five children and Niihau going to Aylmer and Lester. His descendants have kept the tradition of treating Niʻihau as private, earning it the name "Forbidden Island". They own 55,000 acres on Kauai
After our helicopter ride we didn't know what we should do. We tried a new shaved Ice but it wasn't nearly as good as the other one but I do love macadamia nut ice cream at the bottom of my shaved ice! We tried Ube ice cream (it was purple). It's a sweet potato from the Phillipines and it was actually really good. It was hot and sunny and we decided to just go back to the resort we stayed at and go swimming. It was finally hot enough that I was willing to swim in the pool...the other days I only did the hot tub. It was nice. As the sun was getting ready to set we decided to go walk along the beach. The first couple of days the water was low but the last couple of days the water was up. We changed into our flight clothes and went to Rob's Good time grill. Preston had a bbq plate and I had Bulgogi Bowl...a korean inspired beef, local greens, cucumber, kimchi, fried egg, green onion, sesame seeds on rice. It was really good. We thought we'd have the airport to ourselves but they fly everyone out of there on redeyes apparently.
I'm so glad I was finally able to leave my kids for some alone time with my husband. We really enjoyed our time alone and exploring beautiful Kauai. I'd love to cruise Hawaii still to see the other islands but I can almost guarantee Kauai will be my favorite. It's the small town feel still, full of adventures we like to do and so green with Mountains and beaches.
Although we loved our time alone and facedtimed the kids most days we sure were ready to see them but weather again had other plans for us. We ended up having to stay the night at Shawna's again and didn't get to leave until Tuesday morning.
