And now for a little taste of the Islands
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| Our lunch after a 3 mile walk. Ak-mak and Tahini Hummus |
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| Boardwalk at Ironwoods along the Kapalua Coastal Trail |
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| My table gave me this gorgeous flower for my hair, they gave me a hair pin and explained in depth how to put it in. And what is even sweeter, they were grown men. Hehe |
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| My first shot at surfing since I moved here. The old wives tale of "wait 2 hours before swimming after you eat" fell true. My girlfriend Ryan and I ate a huge greasy breakfast and went surfing. The waves we huge, and I was paddling most of the time to no avail because I'm not very good at it yet. I got nauseous from the waves and laying on my stomach for so long! Haha, next round we decided to get breakfast afterwards |
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| Jonny running the Xterra. The world championship triathalon is held in Maui. They also offered a 5k sponsored by my employer Hula Grill, in which Jon ran. Lance Armstrong did the triathalon |
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This is his "Shoots, that was a hard race" finish line pose.
The 5k went up hill with an extreme incline, with branches to dodge and trees to jump over. |
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| I thought I'd throw in a picture of a drugged up kitty after getting fixed. |
So.. it was my birthday on October 23. My girlfriend Cassidy (Moments of Bliss photographer) brought me a handmade plumeria lei from the flowers in her yard. And a few presents. There is so much Aloha in this state. I worked a double on my birthday though. But it's okay....
BECAUSE...
We went to KAUAI to celebrate 2 days later :) :)
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| Stoked for Kauai |
We flew out on Wednesday morning and flew back Friday night. And somehow we squished A LOT into our trip! Up at 5am to drive to the other side of the island to the airport on Wednesday, we were pumped (i.e. photo on the left). It was nice to have a short flight, being used to the 5-6 hour flight to the mainland. Once we arrived we headed to one of my T.S. restaurant family, Duke's Beach House by the airport in Lihue. Unfortunately they didn't open for another hour. So, we figure we'd drive to the other T.S. restaurant Keoki's Paradise in Koloa. Unfortunately they opened 30 minutes even later than Duke's! Haha. Starved, we meandered through the nearby mall. There I chatted with an activity director and booked an excursion for the next day, but we'll get to that... Keoki's was okay, but we were starved so it worked for us.
Then we drove on down to Poipu, nicknamed "Sunny Poipu," to explore
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| The Tree Tunnel down to Koloa |
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| Spouting Horn down South |
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| Standard view while driving on Kauai, the whole time. |
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There were many craft fairs around the island.
It's mostly all the same stuff, and the same stuff I can get on Maui so we didn't buy anything |
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| We explored the EXTREMELY nice Hyatt and walked along Shipwreck Beach. This is the cliff from the movie Six Days Seven Nights that Harrison Ford and Anne Heche jumped off of to escape the pirates. |
My friend let me borrow his Kauai Revealed book, which is a great guide book written for each of the islands. We read about a super cheap golf course not far from where we were. So we headed to Kukui'ola Golf Course and rented 2 golf clubs and 100 balls for $8 and played around on the driving range. We shot toward the ocean!! It was REALLY far away, but nothing blocked our view of the ocean so we imagined trying to hit towards it. Ya, Jon was much better than I at that goal. ::husband bragging alert:: he hit it PAST the driving range! I've hit a few balls at the ugly Sacramento driving range, but I still had no idea what I was doing. But I improved through our time there.
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| Barfeoot and shirtless at the driving range. Only in Hawaii |
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| Award-winning swing right there... |
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| Messin' around... |
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| PALM TREE FORREST!!! |
So my wonderful auntie does PR for Hanalei Colony Resort and got a sweet discount/or comp for a room (not sure what went down exactly). BUT what I do know, is that she bought us the Premium Ocean Suite for our 3 day stay!!! It is breath-taking in Hanalei. Every person I'd talk to was stoked for our stay in Hanalei becuase it is the most beautiful place on the island and to some, all of Hawaii! Technically Hanalei Colony Resort was actually right outside of Hanalei, in Haena but still had the gorgeous views. This picture to the right was THE picture that broke the camera... Out of excitement for the the gorgeous room, we attempted an excited jumping picture, setting the camera up on the bar propped by a towel. And after landing, the thud of our jump caused the camera to fall foreward, to the ground, landing on the lense :( Bye bye nice camera we were going to use to document this goregous island.. :/
NO worries, we had our HD video camera that also takes pictures and my cell phone camera to get us by the rest of the trip!
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We made pasta that night, played scrabble, and drank a
delicious rare bottle of Voga Sparkling Pinot Grigio we found at the Koloa Wine Shop. |
The next day was a very early morning as well. We were staying at the top of the island in Haena and had to be down in Port Allen past Poipu at 7am. So we were up at 4:45am! We drove down in the dark and took a 10 minute nap before having to check in.
Check in to what you say?
oh, just the most amazing excursion I have been on in my life!!!
We took a Zodiac tour to the Na Pali coast, the most beautiful part of Kauai. These cliffs are where countless Hollywood movies and shows were filmed.
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| On the Zodiac |
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| School of dolphins 2 feet away from me! |
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| So I stuck my camera underwater and snapped a few shots in hopes of getting a good shot. I kinda did... |
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| yes, I took this picture |
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| We jumped out to cool off |
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| Gorgeous views of the Na Pali |
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| The "oh WOW" Cave, nicknamed by what people exclaim every time the zodiac zooms in. It is Completely open on top but a small opening from the front |
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| This was a closed in dark cave we took the zodiac into as far back as the darkness went! Apperently during the summer the cave dead ends into a white sandy beach, but during the winter it is a dark wet mess. haha |
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| Opening that Harrison Ford and Anne Heche run through in Six Days Seven Nights. Further back is where the "Foutain of Youth" was filmed in the Pirates of the Caribbean 4 |
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| Then we went snorkeling in a beautiful untouched beach spot so there were so many fish of all sizes and colors with endless reef to explore! |
We saw some sea turtles along the tour as well! But I figured I couldn't beat the other photos I have of turtles with us underwater with them (a few blogs ago). The tour guide would stop every few cliffs and point out waterfalls, movie scenes, ancient history, check out caves, etc. Jon and I both get motion sick and just kind of hoped for the best before getting on the zodiac. When we were going fast, we were totally fine. It was only when the captain would stop to point things out that we'd start feeling sick. Jon almost threw up. It didn't help that we hadn't eaten much at all. He was on the verge when I mentioned it to the captain and the whole zodiac tour banded together to get Jon some help. Pills, sea bands, water, ginger. The ginger is what settled his stomach. It was pretty amazing going from dry heaving to being okay.The captain helped out by positioning Jon's seat undereath one of the waterfalls streaming down from a sea cave we had just exited. Eventually we landed at Nualolo Kai Beach where the first Hawaiians had landed 800 years ago. We saw their living quarters and heard stories of their lives and bliss. Then went snorkling after they provided lunch. On the way back we were riding against the waves instead of with. I would describe it as how one would go on a tube at the back of a boat and ride the waves, getting air, that's how it was for us. It was like a rollercoaster, I loved it! But it definitely took it out of us. My butt hurt from bopping up and down in my seat, my hands were sore from clinging onto the handles for dear life, my whole body was sore trying to position my body correctly and the shock of hitting so many bumps in uncomfortable positions. On the way back I thought about our experience and realized that it was the coolest thing I have ever done. Then God threw this in there:
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| A halo around the sun. So cool. It just validated what an awesome adventure we had just had |
Needless to say after a 6 1/2 hour excursion (in which we were up at 4:45am for) we were tiiiiiired. BUT we figured while we were down South we should stop by the beautiful Waimea Canyon. There are many many trails that go into the Canyon or from the canyon down to the Na Pali. But we were too tired to go on a hike. We'll have to do it next time... The Waimea Canyon was gorgeous. Like a green Grand Canyon. We took our binoculars and spotted a few billy goats! Crazy how they can climb the steep cliffs.
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| I fell asleep along the way back to our resort (1.5-2 hours away) |
That night we soaked in the resort's hot tub. It was our first time in a hot tub in years! Odd that the first time was in Hawaii... But Haena is up North so it is cooler at night. Our bodies were already feeling the Zodiac tour stress. Hitting waves on the way back from the tour was almost like our whole body repeatedly got a small form of whiplash! The hot tub was a great end to a great day :)
The next day we got to sleep in and experience our beautiful premium ocean suite in all it's sunny beautiful day-time glory! We grabbed some of the free breakfast provided that day and packed up the place. Seemed like a fast trip huh! Yup, we packed it up and checked out. No worries, there were a few adventures left. We followed the end of the road as far North as it goes, and ended at the Kalalau Trail. The first 2 miles ends at a great beach, and the next 2 miles takes you to a waterfall. Can't go much further than that without a permit to hike because of how rigorous the trail becomes.
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| Us in front of our beautiful view |
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| That's a lot of lost lives... |
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| Stray kitties are abundant in Maui. These kitties were 2 miles into a hard hike... what do they eat?! Where do they sleep? How did they get there?! Do they have predators?! So many questions run through my head! |
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| Most would assume that the "ancient Hawaiians" did this. Nope. All done by tourists trying to embody the spirituality of the Hawaiians. But when you realise it was all tourists, the picture is kind of lame |
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| My favorite verse |
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| Our destination |
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| The falls used in Jurassic Park's shot of the their helicopter landing in Jurassic Park for the first time. It was overwhelmingly high. I could barely get all of it in two seperate pictures! |
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| A herd of goats passed the trail during our hike back (include baby goats :) :) |
The Kalalau Trail to the Kalalau Falls was 8 miles all together. It was a rigorous trail, slippery and wet with jagged rocks and sticks everywhere and had to cross the rushing river a bunch of times. Not to mention the ants!! On the dry cliff side, there were ants on every inch of the ground. If I stopped to take a photo, I'd have ants crawling up my shoes and ankles! Ahhhh now that's gross and creepy because there are so many, and much bigger than what I am used to. Most do the trail in 7 hours or more. We are speed hikers though, and did it in 5 hours. We basically run the whole time. Hopping from rock to rock. It was not without some spills, mostly on my part... even though I am more cautious than Jon :-/ And we needed to hurry to have more time to check out Hanalei before heading to the airport that evening.
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| Sweet stepping stones |
We explored the cute hippie-styled Hanalei town but didn't stay for too long so we could get dinner at Duke's in Lihue before we flew out. Twas a no brainer for dinner, 50% off dinner by the airport, or chance the traffic and eat for full price at a spot in Hanalei...
Regretably we headed home that evening, ready to work the next morning. I'd sum up Kauai as the best vacation I have ever been on :)
Maui No Ka Oi
So my wonderful auntie does PR for Hanalei Colony Resort and got a sweet discount/or comp for a room (not sure what went down exactly). BUT what I do know, is that she bought us the Premium Ocean Suite for our 3 day stay!!! It is breath-taking in Hanalei. Every person I'd talk to was stoked for our stay in Hanalei becuase it is the most beautiful place on the island and to some, all of Hawaii! Technically Hanalei Colony Resort was actually right outside of Hanalei, in Haena but still had the gorgeous views. This picture to the right was THE picture that broke the camera... Out of excitement for the the gorgeous room, we attempted an excited jumping picture, setting the camera up on the bar propped by a towel. And after landing, the thud of our jump caused the camera to fall foreward, to the ground, landing on the lense :( Bye bye nice camera we were going to use to document this goregous island.. :/
We saw some sea turtles along the tour as well! But I figured I couldn't beat the other photos I have of turtles with us underwater with them (a few blogs ago). The tour guide would stop every few cliffs and point out waterfalls, movie scenes, ancient history, check out caves, etc. Jon and I both get motion sick and just kind of hoped for the best before getting on the zodiac. When we were going fast, we were totally fine. It was only when the captain would stop to point things out that we'd start feeling sick. Jon almost threw up. It didn't help that we hadn't eaten much at all. He was on the verge when I mentioned it to the captain and the whole zodiac tour banded together to get Jon some help. Pills, sea bands, water, ginger. The ginger is what settled his stomach. It was pretty amazing going from dry heaving to being okay.The captain helped out by positioning Jon's seat undereath one of the waterfalls streaming down from a sea cave we had just exited. Eventually we landed at Nualolo Kai Beach where the first Hawaiians had landed 800 years ago. We saw their living quarters and heard stories of their lives and bliss. Then went snorkling after they provided lunch. On the way back we were riding against the waves instead of with. I would describe it as how one would go on a tube at the back of a boat and ride the waves, getting air, that's how it was for us. It was like a rollercoaster, I loved it! But it definitely took it out of us. My butt hurt from bopping up and down in my seat, my hands were sore from clinging onto the handles for dear life, my whole body was sore trying to position my body correctly and the shock of hitting so many bumps in uncomfortable positions. On the way back I thought about our experience and realized that it was the coolest thing I have ever done. Then God threw this in there:
Needless to say after a 6 1/2 hour excursion (in which we were up at 4:45am for) we were tiiiiiired. BUT we figured while we were down South we should stop by the beautiful Waimea Canyon. There are many many trails that go into the Canyon or from the canyon down to the Na Pali. But we were too tired to go on a hike. We'll have to do it next time... The Waimea Canyon was gorgeous. Like a green Grand Canyon. We took our binoculars and spotted a few billy goats! Crazy how they can climb the steep cliffs.
The next day we got to sleep in and experience our beautiful premium ocean suite in all it's sunny beautiful day-time glory! We grabbed some of the free breakfast provided that day and packed up the place. Seemed like a fast trip huh! Yup, we packed it up and checked out. No worries, there were a few adventures left. We followed the end of the road as far North as it goes, and ended at the Kalalau Trail. The first 2 miles ends at a great beach, and the next 2 miles takes you to a waterfall. Can't go much further than that without a permit to hike because of how rigorous the trail becomes.
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