Rewind: Mom and Dad flew in 5 days before we left so they could spend some time in Arizona too. As usual they did quite a few projects around the house including staining the patio, painting a lot of lights, doors, and fans. (Our house still has all the gold hardware so we've found that painting everything is a cheaper alternative to buying new lights, doorknobs, fans etc). It was of course great having them here and nice that they like to work too :)
So, that Saturday, which was also Ivan's 32nd birthday (lucky dog), we left for Kauai. This trip has literally been years in the making. We talked about it for years before finally settling on 2014 so it could be a 40th anniversary celebration for my parents. We even bought our flights back in January (smokin' deal!) and have been waiting, waiting, waiting until October.
Ok, so we arrived in Kauai on Saturday around 1:30 pm and I was already in love before we landed. Seeing the island from the plane window is still one of favorites views from the whole trip. We grabbed our car and headed to The Outrigger: Waipouli Beach Resort, home for the week. It's on the east side of the island about 15 minutes north of the airport, which was an awesome central location by the way. You never really know what you're going to get when you book online. You're hopeful, the pictures are always great, but ya know, they could be showing you that one great room they have just for pictures. We pulled up and it had the huge open lobby like you see in the movies. Where it's all open, easy breezy, view of the koi pond, pool, and ocean. Good start. We head to our room and it was just as nice as the website promised. We had a 2 bedroom/3 bathroom condo for the week. So you walk into the full kitchen which opens to the living room and a small balcony, then there's a bedroom off to each side with its' own bathroom and balcony. The balconies overlooked the pool and just past the pool was the ocean.
After we settled in we walked down to the beach for awhile. Now, I had done my research before going to Kauai regarding the ocean and beaches and what to expect. The short version is that it's very rocky in a lot of places and the water is pretty rough. It was true to what I had read! You could go in the water but the sand was definitely more like small rocks than fine sand you're thinking of, and there was a lot of coral coming in with each giant wave. (We did buy some water shoes which made it so much better!) Still, it was beautiful and you could play a bit- mission accomplished. Our beach was also nice because it had a couple huge pieces of driftwood to sit on, which is where we spent several early mornings and evenings watching and listening to the ocean. Oh, and looking for crabs which completely freaked me out. One night Ivan and I were sitting on the driftwood in the dark listening to the water. I put my flashlight towards the water only to see tons of little and some not-so-little moving blobs aka crabs! That first night we went to dinner at The Bull Shed which was just a walk down the beach from our resort (although we didn't realize that until we pulled in..haha) Great food and we were sitting on the water.
Our first day there we kept as a lazy day in case we were too tired to do anything, but the time difference (3 hours behind AZ, 5 hours behind IL) made sure we all woke up early every day! I was very involved reading "Gone Girl" (highly recommend...if you want a good book that you also hate all at the same time) so I was glued to the beach or a pool chair or on the balcony reading. Was that the day we ate at Bubba Burgers? I think so... I think we also went souvenir hunting that day and ate at Bubbas--good food, very popular.
Day 2 we had a helicopter tour of the island. Amazing. My Dad has always wanted to ride in a helicopter so that was cool enough to begin with, not to mention the views. I don't really know how else to describe it other than amazing. There are times when you are completely surrounded by the mountains and our pilot did a 360 degree turn and it so cool and so disorienting! I couldn't even begin to count the number of waterfalls and rainbows that we saw. If you ever go, you need to do the helicopter tour. Then we can just say "ya know! I know!" to each other without speaking in full sentences because there are no words. The rest of that day was more beach, more pool, more eating (poor us).
Day 3 was an open day so we went in search of the "good beaches" and made sure to stop at all the lookout points along the way. I believe we each would have been happy to sit all day at each lookout point. It's just that beautiful and mesmerizing. Our journey concluded at Hanalei Bay on the north side of the island, where the sand and water are a bit friendlier. We played in the waves for hours, and lets just say there were a lot of laughs, salt water drinks, getting our butts kicked by the water. Ivan found the sweet spot where you're far enough out that the waves don't break on you but you can just float with them, so we all followed. It was hours of fun. Until you get moved to the un-sweet spot and giant waves break on you...hahaha At one point Ivan and I were sucked under and we were just a pile of feet and hands waiting to be spit out. Ivan accurately described it as "in the old cartoons when they are fighting and it's just a dust cloud and you see a foot or hand come out every once in awhile," Yes, that's what happened. The ocean also stole my sunglasses, I felt them get sucked straight off my face into oblivion! Yeah yeah, I shouldn't have had them on, but I thought I was in the sweet spot! I must add though as we were walking out I saw them stuck in a sandbar! Only to realize they weren't mine but I took them anyway, figured it was the ocean giving me a break.
Day 4 we headed to Princeville for zip-lining, kayaking, and hiking. You can choose from a bunch of different tours and activities there-- just zip lining, ATV tours, horseback riding, etc. We chose this one so we got a little bit of everything (zip lining was high on everyone's list and I really wanted to kayak). So, the tour started with a little hike to our kayaks. The kayaking was fun and a great introduction to kayaking because it was a small river--stream actually I think?--so not fast moving, no rapids, nothing to be worried about at all. It was so much fun! So we kayak a little ways before we hop out to hike some more. Hiking sometimes through knee deep water, to our zip-lines! Mom was a bit worried about this as she is afraid of heights but after one zip she was fine. We were encouraged to push each other off one starting point... so mom pushed dad, Ivan pushed me... hah :) After the zip lining we hiked down to a little water hole where we could jump in, float around, play in the waterfall, and have lunch. Then it was time to hike and kayak back to where we started. I think we all agreed this was one of our favorite days. Everything was fun, great scenery, and you get a chance to chat with locals (the guides). Which gave us more ideas of places to see, things to do, and food to eat!
Day 5 we drove south to Port Allen (near Poipu) for a sunset + dinner cruise on a 65' catamaran. Put me on a boat and I'm happy. Put me on a boat with a hammock and it's literally a dream come true. On this cruise we traveled for about 2 hours along the Na Pali Coast-- so all the things we saw from the helicopter we are now seeing from the bottom--before putting up the sail and having a steak & shrimp dinner (yummy) and cheesecake dessert, while sailing back as the sun set. You can probably paint your own picture on this one right?
Day 6 was left to souvenir shop, beach, pool, and a luau that night. The luau was pretty cool. When you arrive a tram drives you around the property and they have different villages set up representing all the different cultures that influenced the area. Then you can go watch the Imu ceremony where they tell you how the pig was cooked and they remove it from the ground. After that it's dinner time (all delicious) with some live music and dancing. Once dinner is done we walked over to the amphitheater for the show, which had various costumes & dances to represent different cultures-- the traditional Hawaiian, Tahitian, Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino.
Day 7 was departure day. Boo. We left from Lihue to Honolulu. From Honolulu back to Honolulu... yes. We were in the air about 45 minutes I think before the captain came on to say we had to return to Honolulu because something was wrong with the map display. I had secret hopes that once we landed the incoming hurricane/tropical storm would force us to stay in Honolulu. No such luck. We were back in the air within an hour or two, finally back to PHX.
When I spent the summer in the Florida Keys in 2004 I came back knowing my dream job was to drive a snorkel boat. Like if I just packed it all in and said forget conventional life I would head to the Keys and drive a snorkel boat. I would now like to add to my list working on a catamaran. Sign me up. I will happily go live in a very small overpriced house/apartment to live in Kauai and work on a boat. Or in a hotel. Whatever. Let me just get my affairs in order! ;)
