Ka-ua-i

Well, if I'm honest...and that's what this blog is all about...I spent 10 days in Kauai and I just learned how to spell Kauai today.  K-A-U-A-I.  For some reason, despite my fantastic spelling skills, I could not remember for the life of me how to spell this island! 

Hawaii?  Easy.

Maui?  Simple.

Kauai?  I still type the word so slowly and have to sound it out in my head.  I want to spell it Kawaii..and come to think of it...that makes perfect sense!  Hawaii...Kawaii.  Why don't people think of these things?  I guess I'll have to visit again to get it in my head. ;)

We had a wonderful time in the Garden Island.  We celebrated our 10 year anniversary which is so hard for me to believe.  And yes...we got married young...because I have been married 10 years but am still SUPER YOUNG...right? ;)  I got married at 21 which is so unheard of these days!  I could do a whole blog post on marring young (the positives vs. the negatives) hmmm.....maybe one of these days.

I am not going to bombard my blog with the 1, 572 (no lie) pictures that we (my husband) took.  I will post a few albums on my facebook page for you to view the pictures, but here is a run down of our week with a few pictures included...some of MY favorites...because it's MY blog. :)  What that means is...I like pictures with people in them...husband likes scenery pictures.  My blog will have mostly people pictures but I will certainly include the beautiful scenic pictures in the facebook albums.  The scenery is definitely something to be seen and the pictures don't really even do it justice.

Ok...on to the week!  Here are some of the highlights of our trip!  I hope these pictures make you want to start saving your moo-lah and GO!  It's a must see, people!

After flying from 8:00 a.m. Knoxville time and landing at 8:00 p.m. Hawaii time (which is really 2:00 a.m. Knoxville time), we were really happy to see this sign!

And I was even more excited to know that this was where I would be spending the next 9 days!  You can see from the palm trees how breezy it was there.  The Tradewinds are present there every month except August (according to the locals) and there is never a humid moment.  We in the South appreciate that because we know what humidity does to our hair.  Right, ladies? (*Disclaimer--this in no way means my hair looks fab on this trip because, let's face it, I am not one to fix my hair and put on make up to lay out at the pool/beach.  Can I get an Amen? ;)

The first thing we loved about Kauai was that it was much smaller on a touristy scale than Maui.  Our resort in Maui was HUGE.  Probably about 3 times the size of this one.  However, we didn't see the crowds here in Kauai that we saw in Maui.  Smaller resort...less people.  Nice.

Our first night there, after lying in the sun all day and sipping pina coladas (which were insanely good and probably insanely fattening), we went to dinner at a place called "Roy's".  I didn't really expect to go to Hawaii and eat at a place called "Roy's"...that sounds more like an East Tennessee place. ;)  It was recommended by a local couple we met and it was delicious!  They even brought us out an anniversary dessert (after asking us if we were on our honeymoon) which I thought was very sweet.  I'm not sure they knew how to spell "anniversary" because the end of the word looks kind of fishy to me...like they weren't sure so they made the cursive writing all fancy in case they misspelled it.  But hey...I can't spell the name of their island so I really have no room to talk.

The next day, we hopped in our Jeep (squeal!!!) and literally drove almost the entire island coast.  It was beautiful to see the coast line and all the little beach parks along the way.  Here are some pictures from that drive.  Imagine me hanging out of the Jeep snapping shots...cause I was.  I felt like a National Geographic photographer on location.  It was awesome.

We also snorkeled on this day.  I love the beach.  I love the ocean.  It's my favorite place in the world and where I plan to retire one day.  But I am petrified of swimming in the ocean.  I don't like walking on the ocean floor where things touch my feet and since my brother's favorite movie was "Jaws" when we were young, I obviously have a large fear and respect for the creatures in the ocean.  It's their home, people!  If I invade their territory and get eaten, it's kind of my fault... which is why I usually am content to sit on the beach and watch it.  I did want to snorkel though.  We snorkeled on our honeymoon in Aruba and I didn't want to be a big chicken 10 years later.  This picture is when we were finished...thus the big smile...and horrible hair on my part.
 P.S. Snorkeling with longer hair is a nightmare...talk about knots. ;)

The next day, we drove up to the Canyons.  I'll be honest in saying that when I knew we would be gone from the beach for a day, I was not a happy camper.  However, the sights we saw from the Canyons were absolutely incredible.  I am so glad we experienced it first hand by walking it.

Then, of course, we had to walk ALL THE WAY up to the TOP.  Because these views were not enough.  I smiled and put on my hiking shoes and away we went.  I literally crawled the last few feet up to the top after all of the climbing (literal climbing).  It was brutal, but we made it!  And my gel manicure survived! :)



Pretty happy at first...even though most of the trail looked like this...straight up.



The "I want to kill you" look towards the end.



Finally at the top.  And yes...that is sweat that covered every part of us.

The next day was relax day...hallelujah!  We kind of did 2 days "on the go" and 1 day at the resort.  It helped us not get bored, but also kept us relaxed as well.  That night, we went to a fun place called Keyoki's for dinner.  I LOVE that almost every singe place we ate was outdoor dining.  It still felt like you were at a restaurant, but instead of walls it was all nature.  Guess that is the advantage of beautiful weather/temperature 365 days a year!

Matt loved the glasses they served Mai-Tai's in.  So...he brought home a few..ha!

Our entertainment for the evening.  They were in the middle of playing and I nervously walked up to take their picture.  They stopped playing, posed for me, and then continued on playing.  Everyone in the restaurant died laughing...and then I had to tip them for that!  They were awesome!

One of my favorite days was when we did the raft tour of the Napali coast.  We did a semi-private tour on a small raft.  There was only 5 of us total and our boat was small enough to go inside the caves on the coast...a dream come true for my husband.  A dream come true for me was sitting in our raft with hundreds of dolphins swimming all around us and being able to lean down and pet them in the ocean!  I was a happy girl!  We also saw sea turtles (which attract tiger sharks) and got to snorkel a little bit too...once we were far away from tiger shark area.

No zoom lens needed! :)

One of the sea caves we got to go in.  One of these caves was used in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie!

Not sure if the water color stands out here, but inside these caves the water was unlike any other color we have ever seen.  Gorgeous!

Beautiful scenery all the way down the coast.

 The last major thing we did outside of the resort on this trip was our all day hike.  Notice I didn't say it was my favorite thing.  It wasn't.  However, I knew my husband wanted to do this hike more than anything and after all he did to plan this trip for us, I was going to suck it up and git 'er done. 

The hike was 8 miles total.  Not alot some of you may say.  However, this was no trail hike.  I can't even classify it as a hike.  It was torture.  Climbing, scaling rocks, crossing streams on slippery, itty-bitty rocks, pulling yourself up on tree roots, and FIRE ANTS...ok...not my idea of vacation.

The result?  An over 200 foot waterfall pouring down into a big fresh water pool to swim in.  It was unlike anything I have ever seen up close.  I am so glad we did it, but boy was I hurting by the end.  We took pictures of us at every mile and when we look back at them, Matt always says.."man, we look rough"..ha!  We did because it WAS rough!



Hiking up the coast the whole time.  Beautiful views!



Mile 1...still happy hikers!



Mile 2...a beautiful beach!  This is where most of the hikers stopped.  Not us. (And yes, I realize now it looks as if I am giving the "West Side" sign...I am not)



Mile 3...hiking through bamboo forests.  Matt is still smiling.  I am getting a little leary of what's to come.  We had to wear our hats backwards most of the hike due to all the climbing!



Mile 4.  Thrilled to be at the waterfall!  Dreading the walk back.



Of course, this isn't even half the waterfall.  You can't get the whole thing in the camera when you are right up on it.



Swimming in the ICE COLD water.  I have never felt water that cold.  Your body just goes numb.



Starting the hike back.  I was freezing!



Mile 5...fake smile.



Mile 6...my legs are starting to shut down at this point.  Back at the beach with 2 miles to go.

 *Note to readers...I did not post Mile 7 picture because I may or may not have been giving Matt the bird.  I was ready to be DONE!



Mile 8..finished.  Oh GLORIOUS DAY!



Reward!



Well deserved dinner after that hike from Bubba's Burgers!



And of course...topped it off with Hawaii's amazing shaved ice!

Well...this post is much longer than I planned so I'll stop here.  I covered most of the basics and you can check facebook later for more pictures.  Much later...since this post took me about 2 hours I can only imagine how long it will take to upload hundreds of pictures on facebook!

I will leave you with a picture of my absolute favorite memory of Kauai.

For our anniversary, we went to a small outdoor Italian restaurant.  The singer there heard it was our anniversary and called us up to the front.  He sat us down in front of him and sang us a love song he had written and then gave us his CD with it on it.  It was SO SWEET and SO EMBARRASSING at the same time!  We ran into him at a lounge later and he ran over to us again asking us how our trip had been and to "say hi to Noah for me"...Bahahahaha!  He was a riot (and I think a little drunk)! :)

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our trip!  We SO enjoyed our first long trip by ourselves and have already started planning our 20th anniversary trip.  I'm kidding...but not really. ;)

Aloha!