Family Vacation *Kauai* Part 1

About two years ago my parents said they wanted to plan a Hawaii trip once my Dad retired. They would cover the cost of the resort if the kids could get themselves there and pay for our own food/activities. Tim and I were TOTALLY on board. We were so excited to have a reason to go to Hawaii, aside from just wanting to go because it's awesome. We started saving immediately and also opened a Delta card to pay our groceries with so we could hopefully rack up enough points to cover a ticket or two. We ended up going to Kauai. Tim had been 20 years before with his family but that was the only time he'd been to Hawaii. It was my first time and I was happy to start with a less touristy island. Honestly though, it was pretty touristy 😄!!! I think the tourism there has grown a LOT in the last 10 years. But it still was probably more laid back than Oahu or Maui {those are next on my bucket list}. We tired convincing the boys to let us move there. They were super skeptical about leaving our beautiful home in Eagle Mountain, we love it here so much. And after spending a week on Kauai, Emery decided he could move there....TJ on the other hand agreed to 3 months max. HAHA. He just hates change. Also we wouldn't be allowed to sell our house in Eagle Mountain. Just rent it out while we're gone.

Honestly, Kauai was a dream. We loved it there. But there's just something about coming back to the Rocky Mountains that will always be home for me. I can't imagine living anywhere else. I would miss these mountains and yes even our dry desert air. I love the humidity in tropical places. I know it does wonders for my dry skin but man, I just love my Utah desert.

DAY 1:

We left Eagle Mountain at 7:30 am on Sunday June 9th. We hitched a ride from Papa Mike. He was house and doggo sitting for us while we were on our trip. We were soooo grateful to him and it really meant so much to know the dogs were taken care of while we were gone. Our flight was leaving at 10:05 am and we knew we would get to the airport a little after 8am. We felt we had plenty of time to get through security and to our gate. But SLC airport decided to give us a minor heart attack. THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE THERE!!! We just don't travel enough to realize that Sunday's are cray-cray. The line JUST to check in our bags was insanely long. Like, I can't even begin to describe. HUNDREDS of people in just the Delta line. It spanned all the way to past the baggage claim area. Luckily Delta was on its "A" game. They moved people through that line so fast. I think it took us 20-30 min or so. THEN the security line was an even crazier story. I can't believe how many people there were. We started out on the bottom floor in a VERY long line which then proceeded to move us up to the top floor. We were really unsure if we were going to make our flight. But as the line moved along we started to get a bit more relaxed. It seemed to be moving quickly and I felt confident we would make it to our gate before they started boarding. Sure enough, boarding started at 9:40am and we were to the gate by 9:30. I was so impressed with the efficiency of the airport. WE MADE IT!

And then once we were all boarded and getting ready to pull away from the gate, our flight got delayed, haha! There were some mechanical issues with the plane. They were able to resolve them and we took off about 30 min behind schedule. Because of the delay the Delta app informed us that we could change our connecting flight if we wanted to. Now, because we used points and wanted to cover two of our tickets to book our flight we had gotten basically the worst connections possible. We were flying to LAX, had a 90 min connection then on to Seattle. Then a 2 hr connection in SEA to Lihue, Kauai. We were scheduled to leave SLC at 10am Utah time and arrive in LIH at 9pm Hawaii time. Keep in mind that Hawaii is 4 hrs behind us. SO it added up to about 15 hrs travel time. Well when we looked on the app we saw that there was a direct LAX to LIH flight that would leave LA at 4pm. It would make our connection in LA about 4 hrs BUT it removed our flight to SEA AND we would get to LIH about 2 hrs earlier.

Now we were not looking forward to a long connecting in LA but the thought of getting there sooner at no extra cost was very exciting. So we went ahead and switched our tickets. Of course we flew into one of the worst terminals in LAX. And it was equally as crowded as SLC.  Old, small, and stuffy. Just miserable. But we found a spot outside {in the pet relief area, haha} to get some sun. We grabbed some Panda Express and lugged all our carry-on items out with us.

After a nice soak in the sun we headed inside and found a little quiet corner to set up shop for a bit. There weren't many chairs and honestly we were all pretty tired so we laid out on the ground. We snacked and watched movies/played games.

Of course about two hours before our flight was going to depart we got a notification that our LAX to LIH flight was an hour delayed. We were disappointed to not get there as soon as we were hoping but we were still an hour earlier than originally planned. ALSO because we were getting in earlier I got on our rental car reservation and cancelled it. We booked a different car DAY OF and it was half the price of our rental we had reserved four months earlier. Pretty much I am going to always double check my rental car price day of JUST IN CASE it ends up being less than we originally booked. So all in all it seemed like we got a good deal even though BOTH of our flights were delayed!

We finally landed in Kauai just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful! We picked up our rental car and headed to our cute AirBnb. It was only about 15 min from the airport. If you've been to Kauai then you know there's pretty much only one road that goes along the coast to travel around the island. About 2 min outside of the airport the traffic was at a standstill. We were SO READY to be at our place and to get some rest, but it looked like we were being held up again. They were doing road construction and had it down to one lane. Emery lasted about 5 min in the car and then he was asleep. It was midnight Utah time and we were all exhausted. We were also starving, haha! We decided to grab a quick drive through meal. So our first Hawaii food was McDonald's 😂. We were getting the authentic island experience. Once we finally settled into our room we were all ready to crash. 

DAY 2:

I was sad to not get out to the ocean our first night there but I was up at 5am Kauai time ready to hit the sand! I was patient though and waited for the rest of the fam to stir. We were all up and ready to go at 7am. The boys found some awesome giant snails just outside our room. Our place was right by the ocean and the Coconut Marketplace on the East side of the island in Kapaa. We grabbed some granola bars, snorkels, sunscreen, and water. We were ready!

We spent the entire morning at the beach by our resort. It was beautiful with really course but soft sand. I hadn't seen sand like that before. It was almost pebbly and would just brush right off once it dried. There was a lava rock reef about 30 ft off the beach. We snorkeled out and saw lots of fish and even a HUGE sea urchin. We didn't leave until we were starving and ready for lunch. We ate at Sleeping Giant Grill. It was in a little shopping center right next to our room. The grounds around our place were so stunning with large palm trees and plumerias. There were so many flowers and bushes. We just adored our little place.

After lunch we headed back to the room to get out of the sun and have a little nap. We were all still pretty worn out from our long day the day before. After our rest we jumped in the car and headed to the one mini golf place on the island. It was in a botanical garden and had lots of history of Kauai along the course. It was gorgeous and fun to read about all the different plants.

 When we were done golfing we grabbed some natural popsicles. The flavors were really interesting. The boys got salted watermelon. Tim tried vanilla pineapple and I got lilikoi {passion fruit} cheesecake. Mine was the best for sure! All the flavors were yummy but that lilikoi was tasty! Next to the mini golf place was a new playground that they built to look like a volcano. It was awesome. There was also an older skate ramp. The boys had fun running up the ramp. They were really good at it!

On our way back from the mini golf place we grabbed Taco Bell for dinner. Again looking for something quick and cheap because we just wanted to get back to the BEACH! We spent the evening swimming and playing in the waves. We stayed until the sun went down and then had a relaxing night back in our room. We were ready for an early bed time!

DAY 3:
We woke up Tuesday morning and got packed up. We were only staying at our Kapaa AirBnb for two days while we waited for my parents to get to Kauai. We couldn't check into their condo until later that afternoon. We decided to spend the morning on a hike and the afternoon exploring the North/East side of the island. We packed up and jumped in the car. The Sleeping Giant hike was only about 10 min away. It was 5 miles round trip, moderate with some bouldering and mostly shaded. We got to the trail head at about 8:30 and took off. It was a spectacular hike and one of the best parts of our whole trip! The views at the top were stunning, and a bit scary, haha! It was pretty sheer up there. As long as we were careful and the boys stayed by us we felt safe enough. 

While on the hike back down Emery caught a little lizard. He was so excited! He had been trying the whole time. It started out kind of brownish and turned green while he was holding it. We all thought that was pretty cool. He carried it the rest of the way down and released it at the trail head.

Before we left for Kauai I downloaded an app called GypsyGuide. It is a driving tour of the island. As you drive along certain routes it will chime in with scenic places to checkout, stops to make, and interesting history or stories. We absolutely loved having it. We felt like we saw the WHOLE island and actually got to know the area. So many of the places we stopped {including this hike} were found on this driving tour. Once we finished the hike we took the driving tour to the North side of the island. We saw so many wonderful sites. The next place we stopped was the northern most point of all the Hawaiian islands, Kilauea Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge.

Next we headed into Hanalei for lunch. We had some delish fish tacos at Tropical Taco. Then we hit up the shaved ice stand. SO YUMMY.

Our final stop on the way back towards Lihue was Opaekaa Falls. It was right off the road and we saw a banana tree just starting to get some fruit. We saw a gorgeous view of Wailua River. This place is truly magical.

Once we were done with our drive we headed back into Lihue and met Papa Joey and Gma Wendy at their condo. We were staying with them in Lihue at Banyon Harbor. It was right across from Kalapaki Beach. After we got settled we walked over to the beach for an evening swim with Papa Joey. While there we saw a group of longboats come in. We loved seeing the different teams power their boats up onto the beach.

After our swim we showered and got changed into jammies. TJ and Emery stayed at the condo with Gma Wendy while Tim, Papa, and I headed to the grocery store. One of our favorite things about staying at my parents timeshares are the full kitchens that most of them have. We love being able to come in at night and have a quiet meal as a family. Also it makes for quick breakfast. Most days we packed a lunch and headed off on our adventures. We love the convenience and were so grateful for my parents being able to share these amazing locations with us.

We ended day 3 by meeting Dee and Jefferson at the airport. Our whole group was finally here! SO excited for day 4.