In July we had the privilege of going to Kauai with two of our friends Kyle and Kelli Brown. (We were meant to be friends with with the same last name I guess!!) We had this trip planned for quite some time, since last October. With Kelli and I finishing up our Master's programs we thought it was for sure a good excuse to plan a trip to Hawaii. They were so kind to invite us to their time share. We had TONS of fun with them; this will be a trip we will always remember. We are grateful to have Ky and Kel as our friends! I have had several requests to get posting on my blog so here goes....
Day One:
We arrived in Hawaii in the late afternoon. The condo was not available until the next day so we stayed in Kapaa at a hotel on the beach. We headed to the Coconut market and found one of our favorite places to eat the Fish Hut.
That night Josh and I went to the beach.
In the morning Kel and I took a little walk on the beach.
Day Two:
On this day we had some time to kill before we could actually go check into our condo. We decided to do some exploring and came across one of the funnest things we did on our trip! We went on a self-guided kayak trip on the Wialua River. They just sent us off with a little map and our Kayaks to explore for the day! It was awesome!
This is what we did and saw on our little exploration:
Hike to Secret Falls
Rope Swinging (too busy swinging to get pics...)
The Fern Gratto
The Hawaiian Villiage
Later that day we checked into our condo. It was a great place- we each had our own rooms with attached bathrooms, a kitchen, and living room!
Day Three:
This was personally my FAVORITE beach, Secret Beach. We basically has the entire beach to ourselves for most of the day! We also did some exploring while we were at this beach.
We found some cool pools from the tide coming up on the rocks.
Also, there was a little waterfall where Josh fell and almost broke his back! As he was walking under the waterfall it was really slick from the moss and he fell on his back in .02 seconds. I knew there was a good chance that he could have been injured, but the sight of him dropping in the blink of an eye was too hard to resist laughing. Once we all caught our breath we made sure he was okay!
Day Four:
On this day it was time to hit another beach. We actually went to a couple of different beaches around the Hanalei Bay.
We went to the tunnels too, one of the best places for snorkeling.
Day Five:We got up bright and early this day and drove to the South Shore where we departed from for our Napali Coast tour. The west shore of the island of Kauai is only accessible from either boat or helicopter. We took a boat tour. We thought it would be neat to be on the water and see the coast. Next time we will try the helicopter.
There was a whole cove of dolphins on the way over.
The coast was AMAZING! One of the prettiest sights I have seen in person.
Kel LOVED the ride back. The waves had gotten huge and she was just laughing the whole way back!
Day Six:In the morning we went to Kipu Falls. This was probably in my top three favorite spots of Kauai. there was an awesome rope swing and cliffs to jump off of. I was a little freaked out at first about the rope swing, but I am glad I got over it cause it was way fun.
The boys really wanted to try out surfing so we went to the South Shore again to spend the rest of the day at the famous Poipu Beach, I just called it "P" Beach cause I could not say the name of this beach for the life of me!
On the way hope we decided to stop at the market that was close by. We got the best fruit at the Farmer's Market. Oh how I miss the mango and pineapple of Hawaii!
Kel and I had been telling the boys all week that we wanted sushi, so we were stoked when they found this little sushi shop while we were shopping! There was a little conveyor belt you just took the fresh made sushi off of.
Day Seven:
The boys only had two requests while on our vacation- they wanted to golf and surf one day. Since they had checked surfing off their list the day before- they had to fit their golfing in today. We all went to Ma'alo beach in the morning before the boys went golfing.
After the beach and another yummy meal at the fish hut, the boys went golfing and the girls were dropped off to explore the shopping of Kapaa for the day. This was a much longer shopping adventure than planned. Usually I would not complain about shopping but when the boys trip turned from 2 hours to 4 hours, we were a little tired of looking at shells, tourist T's, and postcards...
Dinner at Bubba's Burgers made everyone a little happier!
Day Eight:
This last day came WAY too fast. We had great weather the whole trip, but this last day was pretty stormy. Luckily there were a couple breaks in the storm so we were able to go do a couple things before our trip came to an end.
We went to the pier at Hanalei Bay
Had to visit one final water fall before the trip ended...
Visited the view of the famous light house, on of the most visited places on the island.
We had a beautiful sunset dinner at the St. Regis Hotel to end the trip. It was perfect!
The view from our table.
Followed by our LAST "Shave Ice" with ice cream...so good.
Finally our our trip had to come to an end...
View out of the plane on our way home, doesn't get much better than that!
