Our Trip to Kauai

Kevin and I are back from our 10 kid-free days in Kauai. It was an amazing trip to one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. We traveled with our good friends Natalia & Kyle and couldn't have asked for better travel buddies. We had a great time exploring the island together and we all agreed this is our favorite island (we've all also been to Maui).

We started off the vacation celebrating Ross & Melissa's wedding. Their families were so welcoming and included us in all of their pre-wedding activities and festivities. We had a great time meeting their family and friends and getting a glimpse of the local food. I especially loved hearing their Pidgin conversations. It really is a cool "language" when they all get going. Hands down my favorite was half the grocery store chiming in on the fate of one former employee when Melissa simply asked if he still worked there. Apparently everyone in the store that night knew this guy and had something to add, in Pidgin of course. Made my night! The wedding was absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun with a photo booth, a great group of friends and plenty of dancing. I was honored to be a bridesmaid and a part of their special day.

For the last week we were there, we tried to fit in as much as possible. Sunday we up North to Hanalei, a cute little beachy town with beautiful beaches and a pier. We met up with some other mainlanders and then Mel, Ross and some of their local family members. We all jumped off the Hanalei pier into the deep part of the water and then were able to go further down the beach and walk out farther than I've ever swam in the ocean, since the water is so shallow. We were amazed how far out we were and still only had water up to our knees. After some lunch and refreshing shaved ice, we headed back home.

Monday we traveled in the opposite direction and checked out the snorkeling at Poipu, the blow hole and ventured up the hill to Waimea Canyon. Poipu was beautiful as we hiked a bit behind one of the hotels and explored the cliffs before venturing over to the beach to snorkel. The fish were beautiful with many colors. Some people even saw a turtle! The views from the top of Waimea were breathtaking plus there were a couple other random turnoffs along the way that we checked out. It definitely lives up to its description as the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. We were so glad we made time for all of that in one day.

Tuesday we went back up to the North past Hanalei to do the Hanakapai'i hike. This is one way to view the world famous Napoli Coast. We had heard from several locals that this was a must do. It was a 2 mile hike in to the beach and then another 2 miles to go to the Kalalau Falls waterfall, which means it's 8 miles round trip. Some things no one mentioned going into this: you cannot swim at the beach once you arrive due to strong currents and ridiculous waves (there is even a count on a sign of how many visitors have died there); this is a rigorous hike for the first part and even more rigorous for the second part. Kevin and Kyle were the only ones to go on from the beach to the waterfall while the rest of us went back to Ke'e beach to snorkel. We were exhausted, needing to cool off and knew there was no way we would make hiking further before having to head back and do it again. Thank goodness! The boys made it but said there was no way we could have done it. Their pictures are beautiful and they said the 300+ foot waterfall was one of the most amazing things they have ever seen. We're glad they at least went to get pictures for us. Plus they are such champs they made it there and all the way back down to the start of the hike in only an hour more than it took us to get back down. Crazy! We were all sore, exhausted and needing a day off after this.

Wednesday we decided was free day since we had pretty much been going nonstop. It ended up being such a relaxing day that truly felt like vacation. We went out for a delicious breakfast and then walked around downtown Kapa'a to do some souvenir shopping. After a quick lunch back at our condo we spent the afternoon in the resort's pools, waterslides and spas before having a drink at the beachfront bar and bbqing our dinner.

Thursday was our last full day of sightseeing so we decided to kayak the Wailua River. We never found out exactly how far we kayaked but it was quite a ways. After kayaking up the river we first did a 1.5 mile hike to a waterfall. The hike was much less challenging than the previous one with only a few muddy spots. There were some pretty picture spots as we got closer to the waterfall and the waterfall itself was cold, but pretty and refreshing. We stopped to eat our lunch here. On the way back we stopped at a rope swing we spotted on the way in and had so much fun swinging off the embankment into the refreshing water. This is the one place we wish we had stayed longer since it was so much fun. After we left here, we ventured around the other side of the river and past the Fern Grotto which we heard was overrated. We went further out to the swimming hole and more rope swings. As excited as we were for this spot, the rope swings were much more difficult to get to and use without hitting the water. Essentially you had to climb a tree and then lean over and around it to get high enough to not hit the water. It was fun, but disappointing after we had been on that other rope swing. We leisurely kayaked back to the start and called it a day. Kevin and I both agree that this was one of our favorite days since we got to see and do so much.

We have 300+ pictures of the trip so you can imagine it was tough just picking a few. We had a wonderful time and have so many great memories of our trip. We definitely want to go back again some day and hopefully next time with the girls.