Kauai 2015

I've been asked by many when I am posting pictures of our trip. I hesitated to post it, I'm not trying to brag or boast or make anyone feel left out or sad but just wanted to share an amazing trip we had. With that said our trip to Kauai finally arrived. We invited the Wakley's and Tullis fam to join us. I wish the condo were bigger to invite everyone we know!  It started out super early in the monring. We arrived at SL Airport @5am. Had a layover in San Fran and then a long flight to Kauia to land at 12:30pm Kauia time (3:30 utah time).

The boys greeted us with leis when we arrived in the airport. They were heavenly smelling and it was so HOT. My pants were sticking to me! We waited for our luggage, called the Gingerbread Man and went to get our rental car. hehe, the gingerbread man was our car rental . It was called Gingerbread Car Rental. I found it through F2Deals. It was a 1999 honda odyssey that ran and had AC and got us where we wanted to be. And was $80/couple for the week. It became one of the highlight phrases of the trip "the gingerbread van."

We were straving! The car rental guy recommended Olympic Grill. It was on the 2nd floor, shops were underneath but had open window on each side, the beach was near by you could hear it, and the breeze was wonderful (in fact cold for me). We highly enjoyed our meal--my first fish tacos for the week! (I ate fish tacos all but one day--they were divine).

After lunch, we went to the condo and immediately changed to our bathing suits and headed to the beach. Our condo was in Kalaheo, this beach was in Poipu--one of our fav stops. My dad's too!

The sound of the ocean, the sand on your toes, the water--coolish at first but warmed up quickly, the roosters, the company were amazing!

Ben always put on a show for us when he lathered up!

The sun was quickly setting and we wanted a good view but stopped at spouting horn on the way. 

Sunsets are my favorite on the ocean. I love how the sun disappears in to the sea. Palm trees in the distance. What a great first day. We enjoyed snow cones at Kalaheo Kookie and played games til we couldn't' stay awake anymore! Which was really late.

Day 2 We rented Kayaks and Kayaked the Waimea River
After loading up the kayaks on the van and a brief overview of where and what to do, Dave the Kayak renter asked "where'd you get your van? you look like locals with that!" It became another funny pun the rest of the trip.

 with the brides in the front we began our 45 minute kayak journey up or down the river. the water was so calm, it was an easy paddle even for us beginners.

 isn't this gorgeous!!

 along the river we passed many kayakers going back to the docks but when we arrived at the hike area we were amazed how many were on the river. Although it wasn't crowded.

we stopped to hike for 45 min to a secret water falls.

 Here it is! A hidden gem. There are a couple water falls on the island. Some one recently bought a waterfall and has it not accessible. How rude! Probably make a resort out of it someday. Oh well, we loved this one.

 even the roosters were there to great us at the waterfall --they seriously are everywhere and crow at all times of the day and night--not just sunrise!

 We hiked back to the kayaks and then paddled further up the river to Fern Grotto. This is a famous place where they have weddings. This back drop was gorgeous.

 One of my fav pics of the trip! Love this man. Originally when we planned the trip it was to celebrate our 15th anniversary--the timing of the trip was really our 15.5 anniversary. Either way it was an exotic trip filled with lots of memories!

 Some flowers along the way.

After our kayak back to the car and loading up the van and returning the kayaks we ate lunch at the Shrimp Station--only to find out that the Kami doesn't love Shrimp. She got to choose our next meal.I ate shrimp tacos. I think Jake had the best plate--his sauce was amazing! Ben was hungry--almost all the time! 

After kayaking we went to Brenneke's beach--which we found out was Poipu where we love to be. We found our own little island but everyone liked to come and visit it and explore the rocky openings.

 Poipu is known for the thousands of schools of fish that sit in the cove.We could also see the whales from a distance spouting and breaching. It was amazing! This is probably a whale tour--we wanted to do it but called too late and all tours were full. BUT we did see some from the beach, I can only imagine how fun it would be too see them up close,

The snorkeling is amazing as are the snorkelers. 

 Sorry no picture of me in the snorkeling mask. I did venture out to snorkel but do not enjoy it--I am SO so SO claustrophobic it is hard to breathe in the mask and do not enjoy this pass time. BUT the fishes I saw were cute and not afraid of us.

For dinner we ate at Chalupas a taco truck. Yep, you guessed it fish tacos for me! And yummy shaved ice - a nightly treat at Uncle's.

Day 3 was a beach day. We started off snorkeling at Poipu again and then Jake led us on an adventure.

We laughed at his air conditioner--sometimes he wanted more air then we were giving and would drive with the door opened.

We took a bumpy, bumpy, bumpy dirt road to Gillen's Beach. Along the way, in the humongous pot holes were bumpers and fenders and part of cars. Yes, the road was that bad. I was worried because most car rentals have a notice to not go off roading --ours did too we just got away with it because the car was so old! The beach had a layer of rock but we had the place to our selves, We did a little reading, talked to the fam and explored. We even saw some "hams"along the way. .

I had had a little too much sun earlier and opted to stay in the shade. Ben and Mike were always shade boys. Ben was trying to go for the white look home from Kauai.

Thursday morning we headed to find a cove of turtles. Someone told us where they were and when we went the night before Jake didn't see any. So we went back early and went towards them. Ben in his flippers walking!

After snorkeling...Jake and Ben saw 3, Jen and Kami saw 1, Mike and I have seen them before and didn't want to get wet or cold! After snorkeling we headed to the Hawaiian Trading Post to shop, I was highly disappointed mostly because I had been looking forward to stopping all week. The clothes were all matching (mens, womens, children) but outrageously expensive ($100 for a shirt). But we did get a free necklace and souvenirs for the kids so it wasn't as bad as I set it out to be.

And they had cool photo props outside to take pics at

 We went to Waimea Canyon yet. Poor kids were wet and it was cloudy and overcast, couldn't even see the water fall or the pretty colors.

 We did some photo bombing and had a great road trip together.

 We were crouching down to see the scenery behind us, but it doesn't look like that!

 We went shopping some more, had some Hawaiian shaved ice (Kami's best of the trip) and to Ben's surprise his had macadamia nuts in it to which he is allergic to) but did fine and had no swelling reactions!!

Later that night we had our Luau so we went home to change and get ready. It was our most expensive day. $80/person with dinner and entertainment but so fun and the experience was wonderful. Ben our sales man tried to get the lady to come down (she was at $110 at first) but that was as low as she would go!

 We had Hawaiian music while we waited in line.

 Dancing while we ate.

 Ben even got sung and danced to because he was celebrating a birthday.

 a sunset

 and more entertainment. fantastic entertainment.

 dinner was ok. i did try everything. including some weird dishes. but then went back and stuck to my favs.

 highlight of the night was when Ben got a my-tai

 we loved the fire and dancing songs. So warm you could feel the heat.

Friday we hiked the Napali Coast. We first stopped at the Kilaheua lighthouse 

The hike was 4 miles straight up! The ground was wet. My Dad says it always rains on the North side of the island. It did rain over night while we were sleeping and playing games and cleaned off the gingerbread red dirt just perfectly. 

We hiked through small streams, waterfalls, and the cliffs! There were lots of kids hiking, I was nervous for myself I can only imagine the fear I'd have if my kids were hiking. 

 The first stop was at the beach with many warning signs about not going in the water and tally marks of the # of deaths. Yikes, no thank you! The waves were huge and you could hear them pounding against the cliff. We also saw whales while we were hiking.

 At the beach we ate snacks, and rested.

 This dog lives here. He had a name tag that said "my name is Prince, my leg is fine, please don't call the humane society. He walked with a limp and really wanted some snacks.

We hiked back to the gingerbread van and went to find some waves to boogie board on only to find that the tide was so high the life guard wouldn't let us go swim. This time of year they don't do boat tours on the Napali Coast because the waves are so big.

Down at the beach, the boys wanted to go out anyway. But didn't get to far! Nothing really out here to see. We were starving. Didn't really eat lunch or breakfast.

We couldn't' find anything in town to eat so we drove to the Olympic Cafe and had fish tacos again!! Go figure right, Ben wanted his giant burrito again. We went to the Marriot and sat in the hot tub. Ben thought it was the best thing ever and wanted to do it again the next night. It was a pretty amazing place!

Saturday we went to several new beaches. The guys really wanted to body surf and the girls needed to do some shopping! We ate fish tacos, snorkeled, and watched the sun set and hot tubed again. it was a pretty amazing day!

Sunday we went to church in Kalaheo. We really enjoyed sacrament meeting. When we came back to go we were boxed in. The parking lot is too small so people just park behind you. We eventually got out and made it to breakfast. It was also Ben's birthday!!

 Yum. Coconut Cake! After his last bite, he wondered if they're were macadamia nuts in it but lucky for him they're weren't!

 We checked out and headed to the Lihue Marriot to hang out for the day. In the bay, we watched some people play volleyball and then found a giant turtle. He didn't mind the people following him and taking his pictures. he was huge!

 We enjoyed the sunshine for our last day (maybe a little too much we were all kindof toasty), took a nap, read, and talked on the phone. While we had an amazing time, we were all missing our kids! And of course they were excited to have us home too.

 We went for dinner--I opted for fish and chips instead and got a yummy apple pie dessert for Ben's birthday. Our flight left at 9:30 pm. It was a red eye but worth every extra ray of sunshine on our last day!

 Although we were also really sad to leave. It had been an incredible week, lots of laughter and fun and exploring and games and beauty. We are already planning our next trip although we may have to save up our pennies to come back here! But it was worth every penny spent.