Ok, I am going to really try not to go crazy with posting pictures on this site because I have two other places where I'm going to be printing Kauai pictures. I always print all of my photos for my photo albums and then I am also going to make a big Shutterfly book with pictures just about this trip too, so I really need to try and control myself and just post the writing parts here and only a FEW pictures.
Here I go!
Tuesday night, September 25
The Kauai trip began on Tuesday right after school, when we got home, finished packing our last few things into our suitcases, and drove down to Salt Lake to stay in a hotel near the airport. We decided to stay at the same Comfort Suites that we had stayed at when we went to Disneyland in June because they let you leave your car there for a cheaper price than parking it at the airport. So, we slept there for the night, then checked out and took their shuttle van to the airport on Wednesday morning.
Wednesday, September 26
On Wednesday at 8:00am, we left the hotel and went to the SLC airport. Our flight didn't depart until 11:00am, but we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to go through security and everything. The funny thing was, we got through security and had plenty of time to spare. We sat at the gate just killing time from about 9:00-10:30, and then just as they called for boarding, we looked around and realized, "Wait, where is the other little black rolling carry-on with all of Caleb and Josh's important stuff in it??" We had basically two rolling carry-ons and then each person had their own backpack. But the one rolling carry-on wasn't there! I thought back to where it could be and realized I was the one who had sent it through the conveyor belt at the security line, and I didn't remember ever grabbing it off the belt! I had also been grabbing my backpack, Avery's backpack, and my laptop and shoes, and I guess I forgot I had the black little suitcase in its own bin too! So, the next 15 minutes were like a scene out of a movie. I RAN through the airport back to the security area (literally probably over a mile) and arrived out of breath as I asked the security guys, "Have you seen a black roller carry-on bag that was left on the security belt?" They radioed over there and a guy responded that they had it. I ran over and grabbed it, said thank you, and began the run BACK to the gate, this time with the suitcase AND my backpack on (don't ask me why I had kept my backpack... I think part of me wondered if I would miss the flight and my family would go on without me and I would have to catch a later one, so I wanted my backpack.) Luckily, I made it back to the gate, completely dead and sweating from head to toe. But I made it! We got on the plane and sat down, and we probably even waited about another ten minutes before they closed the gate, so it wasn't even like anyone else had probably known I held things up!
So then we flew to LAX, sat there for about 3 hours, I helped Avery do some homework, and then we flew from LA to Lihue! The flight from LA to Lihue took about 5.5 hours. For our bodies, it was from about 5:00pm to 11:00pm, but Hawaii time is 4 hours behind Idaho time, so when we arrived it was only about 7:00pm, but to us, it felt much later. We were pretty tired. But we got our rental car through Enterprise pretty quickly, and then we headed to the nearby Walmart to get some things for the condo. I really didn't feel like we got THAT much stuff - cereal, eggs, some snacks - but guess how much the total was at checkout.... $380! I was floored. Hawaii prices are waaaay higher than Idaho prices. Some of the most insane prices were for bread. One loaf of Walmart-brand white bread was over $6! That would be about $2 in Idaho. I took a picture of a little stand of cantaloupes - $9.98 EACH! For one little cantaloupe! A bag of Doritos was like $7.50! The most reasonably priced thing was probably eggs. I think an 18-count of eggs was about $3.80. We did ramen and eggs a couple of times while we were there! We also got some frozen pizzas (about $7 each) and a lasagna (about $18) for a couple of meals, which compared to spending $80 per meal for our family to eat out, I guess that was pretty cheap.
Anyway, we made our way out of Walmart with our stuff that we didn't have in bags (because Josh was too cheap to spend the extra few dollars on the cloth bags and they don't give you plastic ones), and we loaded each individual item into our van! Then we drove the 50 minutes to Princeville where we would be staying. The kids all fell asleep in the van and I barely made it there awake. We found our rental house in a nice little neighborhood of Princeville called Nihilani, and we finally found our unit (8C) and figured out how to get in with the door code from my email. We woke up the kids, unloaded the groceries and all our suitcases, got the kids settled into their rooms (Gabe ended up with the room to himself since this was his last family trip), and we went to sleep exhausted.
Thursday, September 27 - Beach exploring day (Secret, Hanalei, Anini)
Thursday morning, we woke up in paradise! I walked out onto the balcony of our master bedroom and looked out and thought, "Why don't I live here year-round?" It was a beautiful day and the area that we were staying in was so nice. We stayed in a townhouse that had a downstairs with a living room, kitchen, dining area, and a half bath. Upstairs it had the master with a big closet and bathroom attached, and then two additional kid bedrooms that shared a bathroom. One room had a big queen bed in it, which Gabe took, and the other bedroom had two twin beds, which Avery and Caleb took. It was pretty perfect for us.
We started out the day with breakfast at home. We had bought some pancake mix and eggs, so Josh made that for breakfast, and then we walked around the neighborhood for a little bit to just see what was close by. The area we stayed in was basically like a ton of different vacation rental communities and they all surround a big golf course that has walking paths around the perimeter of it. We would see a lot of people walking their dogs or riding bikes. It was definitely the most "posh" part of the whole island. There were probably some permanent residents, but I'm sure a lot were tourists, either long-term or short-term. Gabe said, "I think you can easily divide the people in Kauai into 3 groups. First, there's the tourists like us that come for about a week or two and then leave. Then, there's the people who lived somewhere else and made a lot of money in their life and are now moved here and living off of their riches. Lastly, there's the locals that have always lived here and are probably considered the poorest group, but they work in all the restaurants and local businesses that cater to the tourists." That basically sums it up! Among the locals, there's the ones that probably do alright and live on the north side in older, but decent houses. They maybe have remote jobs or something on the island where they do really well, like real estate or something. But the majority of the local Hawaiian people probably don't make a ton of money.
Anyway, we decided after our little walk that we would try to find "Secret Beach." This was a beach that Josh and I had found with Devin and Charm back in 2017 and we remembered it being really nice and uncrowded. However, it did take us a couple of wrong turns and looking at Google Maps for a few minutes on the side of the road to figure it out. After about maybe 30 minutes, we found the little dirt road and drove to the end of it. Then we recognized the little dirt path that leads down the beach. You have to hike down for about 10 minutes through the trees and down over this tree-rooted, rocky path, but when you emerge you are right on the most beautiful beach! It's pretty long too and there were never more than like, 15 other people there. We hung out there, playing in the waves, Caleb and Josh boogie boarding, and just having a relaxing fun time for a couple of hours.
Then we went into the little town of Hanalei and ate lunch at a taco stand. We were going to eat at Chicken in a Barrel, but when we went there, they told us they don't do the tacos or hoagies anymore, which was such a bummer! I remembered loving that place last time and this time it just didn't seem as good. So we left and went to that taco stand across the street. It was pretty good! But for a few basic tacos and quesadillas, it was still $80! Yikes! That's why we didn't eat EVERY meal out.
After lunch, we went to Hanalei Bay and swam and boogie-boarded some more there. That's a little bit more of a calm spot because it's a bay that's surrounded by land like a horseshoe shape, so the waves don't get as wild and it's really swimmable.
After a couple of hours there, we went to one more beach. The kids were really hoping to see sea turtles on the trip and we had brought the snorkeling gear from the rental house, so we went to Anini Beach because that's where Josh and I had seen turtles on the last trip. Sadly, we didn't see any that night though. The kids saw some fish and we all swam and it was pretty calm, but no sea turtles.
That night, we came home by about 5:30 and we just made the frozen lasagna from Walmart, relaxed, and Josh, Gabe, and Avery also went swimming at the pool. We were all asleep by 9:30! We had a big hike planned for the morning, so we were ready for bed!
Friday, September 28 - Hike Day
While we did a lot of little hikes here and there the whole week, this was definitely the BIG hike day! Josh and I had done this famous hike, officially called the Kalalua Trail, in 2017 with Devin and Charm. I remembered it being hard, but also being one of the most beautiful hikes in the world. It's always on the top 10 hikes in the world lists! So this time, because of Covid and things changing, I had to make an online reservation a month in advance so that we could get a parking permit! We arrived at 8:00am and parked easily. Then, we walked to the start of the trail. The first 30 minutes are probably the most intense because you are working your way up this mountain right next to the coast. You just feel like you're doing a StairMaster exercise with no end in sight as you carefully step up rocks and big tree roots in the muddy ground. It's pretty tiring! But eventually, you get to this first lookout point where you can see the ocean down below, and it's soooo beautiful! Then, you keep going and it kind of weaves up and down and through the trees again. Eventually, you start the descend down the path toward the beach. The trail stops at this beach, which is where we stopped and took a little break and ate our packed sandwiches and snacks. Some people continue onward to this waterfall, or even camp overnight! We definitely were not fit enough or prepared enough to even think about doing that. The hike just to the beach was plenty for us! Then, we hiked back out. The hike back out seems to go faster than the hike in. You aren't going up quite as much. I was glad we did it during the morning though, because I was already dripping with sweat and it was only getting hotter! We were all basically in our swimsuits by this point. The boys had no shirts. Avery had swam on the beach, so she just was wearing her swimsuit and nothing else as we hiked back out. We ended up leaving the parking lot at 12:28pm, just 2 minutes before our parking permit was expired! I definitely think that hike was harder at age 39 than it was at age 33. I don't think I will be doing it again in my lifetime!
After the hike, we went back to the house and showered because we all needed it! Then we decided to try this place close to our house called Red Hot Mama's for lunch. It turned out that they did in fact use a very hot sauce on all their food, and I had a hard time eating my fish tacos even though I was hungry because they were sooo spicy! That was a bummer!
The rest of the afternoon, everyone just kind of relaxed. Gabe and I had to run out and buy a plunger at Ace Hardware because he had a poopy moment and clogged his bathroom toilet. While we were out, we snuck over to an ice cream shop called Lappert's and had some of the best ice cream ever! We ended up going back there two more times later in the week with the family!
In the evening, we went to Secret Beach again and swam as we watched the sunset from about 5:30 - 7:00. When we hiked back out, it was getting dark and the trail was kind of hard to see. Then, we sat in the hot tub at the resort and ate Ramen with egg for dinner and fell asleep by 9:30 again! We were exhausted!
Saturday, September 29 - Shopping Day
Everyone wanted to sleep in this morning, so we didn't leave the house until probably 10:00. We decided to do an "explore the south side of the island" day. We drove down to Poipu and ate lunch at a burger place called Bubba's. I had wanted to eat at the Kalapaki Beach Hut, but sadly, the internet search told me that it had closed in 2019! I was so sad. Bubba's was okay, but not as good at Kalapaki. After lunch, we did a little shopping. There was a shopping center right there and we explored some shops. We also stopped at Ross. The boys got some T-shirts. Avery ended up getting a sweatshirt. Josh got a hat. We stopped at Blowhole Beach and just watched it "erupt" for a few minutes. It wasn't super exciting. We briefly stopped at Poipu Beach and it took my kids about 2 minutes to realize that the north shore beaches were prettier and way less crowded, so then we left. We didn't even get into the water.
We stopped at Walmart on our way back and got a few more things. Then we went home, dropped off the groceries, and went back to Hanalei Beach again and swam in the calm waters and watched the sunset. Josh and the kids also went swimming again that night at the pool. Dinner was pizza and fresh pineapple that I had bought in town.
Sunday, September 30 - New Beaches Day (Sealodge and Tunnels)
We started the day with bagels, eggs, and cereal, and then listened to general conference a little on our phones. We had decided we wanted to find this nearby beach that I found online called "SeaLodge Beach." According to the maps, it was located really close to where we were staying, but we weren't quite sure how to get down to it. After a couple of wrong attempts, we figured out we had to park near this Sealodge Resort. We found the little path and started hiking down after we chatted with some other tourists who told us we were going the right way. They said they had seen sea turtles there the previous day, so we took our snorkel stuff and were excited to go look! The hike down was a little longer than to Secret Beach, but not quite as steep. It kind of went down through the trees and then along the rocky ocean side for a little bit. Then you make your way down further and there's a small sandy area. Luckily, there were only about 10 other people there. One group was this set of 3 older couples from Utah, and this lady took one of the best pictures of our whole family. There was a rainbow that appeared right over the water and it was so cool! The kids and Josh snorkeled and said it was the best snorkeling yet! They saw lots of fish and tons of cool stuff, but no turtles.
We left there at about 10:30 and went home and ate ham sandwiches for lunch. We didn't shower, we just repacked our water bottles and headed north to Tunnels Beach. Avery was scared about this beach because I had told her that this was the beach where Bethany Hamilton got her arm bitten off by a shark years ago. But it's a beautiful, long beach with views of the Napali coast right there in the background. It's a little more of a touristy spot because it has an actual parking lot and bathrooms, but it's so big that it still didn't seem very crowded, even though there were more people there than at other beaches we hiked into. We had a lot of fun swimming in the waves. Even I swam there! The water was warm and it was fun letting the waves bounce you up and down.
At about 3:30, we left Tunnels and went back home. The kids ate Ramen and eggs while me and Josh went to dinner at a nearby place in Princeville called the Lotus Garden. It was actually right next to Red Hot Mama's. I wished that we had eaten there the night before because it was so much better. I got the honey walnut shrimp and it was amazing. We went back and got the kids and took them for ice cream at Lappert's before they closed at 6:00, but because it was about 5:30, they had already run out of the waffle cones! Darn it, we would just have to go back again!
Back at the house by 6:00pm, Josh and Gabe went for a run and everyone else showered and relaxed. Caleb and Avery watched a movie and I think we were all in bed by 9:00.
Monday, October 1 - Wailua River Kayak and Hike Day
On Monday, we woke up and made the fancy macadamia pancakes again with coconut syrup for breakfast. We kind of had a slow morning at home because we didn't need to leave for the kayaking reservation until 11:00. In retrospect, I kind of wished we would have done the kayaking trip in the morning like we did last time with Devin and Charm. I think there's less people and it's not as hot if you start at 8am instead of at noon.
But anyway, we left the house at about 11:00, we drove through McDonald's in Kapaa (our cheapest meal out!) and then we arrived at Wailua Kayak at about noon. We had rented two double kayaks and one single. On the first half of the kayaking trip, I shared a kayak with Gabe, Josh went with Avery, and Caleb had his own. It was kind of a struggle for Caleb to figure out how to maneuver his kayak. At one point, Gabe and I were so far ahead of everyone that we stopped and Gabe got out and just swam in the river until the other three caught up.
Shortly after they caught up, the kayaking part stopped and we parked our kayaks on the river bank to begin the hike. You basically kayak in for about 45 minutes, then you hike for about 45 minutes. You get to the "secret" (not really) waterfall and you can swim and relax and eat your snacks or whatever. Then you hike back out and get back in your kayak and then row down the river back to where you started. The whole thing took us from about 12:15 to 4:30. We didn't row to the Fern Grotto this time because it was kind of off the main part of the river and I was tired and hungry. We had done it with Devin and Charm and I didn't really feel like it was anything to write home about. Also, my sandals had broken as I was walking across the river in the first 15 minutes of the hike, so I had ended up doing about 90 percent of the hike barefoot. It was okay for a lot of it where there was this wooden planked walkway, but on the rocky parts, it was a little rough. I was ready to be done at 4:30.
We decided to eat at Chicken in a Barrel in Kapaa, despite the fact that this location STILL didn't have the hoagies or tacos, They just had the basic chicken breast, some mac salad, and some cornbread. It was probably a 7 out of 10, but not the 10 out of 10 I had remembered from 2017. We drove back to our house, stopped at Foodland for a couple things (still spent $100 just on those few things!), and then went swimming in the pool at night.
Tuesday, October 2 - Train Ride Day
On Tuesday morning, we left the house by 8:15 and drove south again. We stopped in Kapaa at a bakery called Passions, which I had found on Instagram. Everyone said they had those most amazing malasadas, which were made fresh on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. We stopped there and got a variety of them in flavors like coconut, passion fruit, POG (papaya, orange, guava), and Nutella. I personally liked the POG ones the best. The coconut ones were surprisingly the worst.
We arrived at the Kilohana Plantation at 9:40 for our train ride, which started at 10:00. This plantation used to (and still does) grow sugarcane and other things, but I think now it's mostly a tourist attraction. The train tour lasted about 45 minutes and took us past banana trees, orange trees, sugar cane, taro root growing in little ponds, and more. Then we stopped at this little area that had pigs. We got off the train and the conductor handed out tortillas to everyone. We got to feed the pigs, who went crazy for the tortillas! The big pigs would even knock the little bigs out of the way, so we were always trying to throw the tortillas directly to the babies when the big pigs weren't looking! We also fed some cows and horses.
We left the plantation at about 11:00 and stopped at Ross again to get Caleb some new headphones (he had lost his.) We had lunch again at the McDonald's drive-through in Kapaa and then went back to the house to change into our swimsuits.
We decided that we wanted to try and find this other beach in Princeville called Hideaways Beach. It was supposed to be located just at the end of the main road about 5 minutes (by car) down from our resort near this big beachside hotel. A lot of the online blogs said this one was the spot for sea turtles! The problem was that the only parking lot that was considered "public" for this little beach only contained about 8 parking spots and the guy working at the hotel valet hut told us that if it was full, you have to just come back another day because they will tow your if you park anywhere else. He seemed pretty joyful as he told us about how he got to watch as people got towed all the time, so we figured we better not try it. So we had decided to have Josh drive us all down to the parking lot, drop us off, and drive our van back to our house and park it. Then me and the kids were going to start walking down to check out the beach and we were going to call him to tell him if it was worth it.
The plan went a little off-track though. The path (with about 1000 downhill steps) that the kids and I followed (which had a sign that said "Beach Access") was NOT actually the right way to Hideaways Beach. It was leading to the private hotel beach! We got down there after literally walking 1000 steps and it was not only super windy, but it was crowded with people, and it was definitely not anything scenic or hidden. So we went and asked the cabana boy if this was Hideaways Beach, and he politely explained that it was not. He said that we needed to go BACK up the 1000 steps to that little parking lot and then it was off the OTHER direction toward the north. So I was a little grumpy as we walked back up. I called Josh and was like, "This wasn't even the right beach. Just come back and get us. I give up." He drove back over with the van, but then just as we were walking towards it, we saw a car pull out of the tiny parking lot! I was like, "Quick!! Park there!!" So we ran over to the van and he parked there, we got our snorkel stuff out, and we headed in the right direction toward the correct path.
This path was definitely more like the path that had been described online. It was a very steep downhill drop, but there were nice rope rails and some wooden planks that had been installed recently, so it really wasn't that bad. The hike down only took less than ten minutes and it was sooo worth it! It was a small, but cool beach with lots of trees and a small stretch of sand. There were maybe 10-15 other people down there. We laid out our blankets and I started chatting with this couple that was from Utah and they told us that there were sea turtles out there in the water just a few minutes ago. Our kids threw on their snorkel masks and booked it out into the water!
Sure enough, within just a few minutes, all of the kids and Josh were seeing the sea turtles in the water! We only had three good masks, so I tried to use Avery's little one. It did not work. I started to get water flowing in and then I kind of panicked and flailed my feet around in the water and scratched them on the reef! I still have some scabs from that now. I did eventually get a turn with the good mask and I swam out and saw one. I even petted it a little (which is probably against the rules). We swam there from about 2:00-4:30. We met a nice family from Arizona that also took our family picture. Then we went back to Lappert's for ice cream round 3, and went home and showered. Josh also went swimming again with Caleb and Avery. We had pizza for dinner, relaxed, and did some laundry.
Wednesday, October 3 - Last Day in Kauai :(
This morning, I woke up sad because I knew it was our last day in beautiful Kauai probably for a loooong time. I wanted to get everyone out the door as soon as possible to maximize every minute of our last day, but it seemed like everyone was moving at a snail's pace. We tried to somewhat pack up our suitcases a little bit and make sure all the laundry was started so that when we got home in the afternoon we could throw in our last things and get out the door quickly. We ate some scrambled eggs and muffins and bagels for breakfast. Then we went back to Secret Beach (probably the overall favorite beach of the trip) for the last time. We were there from about 8:30 - 11:30.
We came home for lunch for about an hour and tried to finish up any food we had left. We had some buns and ham left, so we made some sandwiches, ate some chips, and tried to finish up anything else we had. In the end, we still ended up leaving behind some peanut butter and jelly and some other things.
Then, we went to Tunnels Beach one more time from about 12:30 - 2:45. This time, the ocean had kind of come up even higher than the day before and it had formed this little pool that was separated from the ocean by a strip of sand. Caleb, Avery, and Josh spent most of their time swimming in the little pool because the waves in the ocean were so big that it was hard to swim there. Gabe and I decided to go for a walk down to the end of the beach.
It took about 30 minutes to get to the end, and were were pretty tired, so Gabe laid down in the sand. I looked out into the shallow water and I could see these dark spots that at first I thought were just rocks. Then I swore I saw one of them move. I said, "Gabe! I think I see sea turtles right here!" He sat up like, "Yeah right." But then we kind of waded out into the water and we could tell they were moving. Gabe went out a little farther and started yelling, "They ARE turtles!" I was stuck holding Gabe's towel and I was trying to film what was happening, so I didn't go out as far as Gabe did, but I was probably about 10 feet away when one of them peeked his head out of the water right in front of where Gabe was standing! I got a video of it and then was able to screenshot one of the frames with the turtle peeking out! It was so cool!
Gabe and I walked back to where everyone else was then and told them about the turtles. Then we decided we better start to head back to the house and get ready to go to the airport.
We spent the next hour or two showering, getting packed, cleaning up the house, taking out the trash, and just getting ready to go. We ended up leaving our cute house at about 4:45 and then we drove down to Lihue. We stopped at Walmart for some airplane snacks, filled up the van with gas, and went to the airport. We returned the rental van, got our bags checked in at the airport, and then boarded our flight at about 8:00pm and flew back to the mainland. We flew first to Seattle, then to Salt Lake, and then finally arrived back home in Rexburg at about 3:30 pm on Thursday.
It was such a fun week and I'm so glad we were able to go as a family! I hope someday we get to go back again!
Now here are what I consider the best pictures of the trip!
