On Saturday, the 15th of December, we flew out to Kauai for an incredible week. I could not even have fathomed what it would be like to be in such a green place. At every turn I was "oooing" and "aaaahing" over the beautiful scenery. The week went about like this:
We flew into Hawaii, picked up our bag, and headed over to
the Alamo car rental desk. Skip greeted us at the counter, and we dodged all
his upselling tactics. We then went to pick up our compact car, and the man
outside asked for what occasion we had come to Hawaii. When we said for our
honeymoon, he asked if we wanted to upgrade to a convertible for free! (Do people expect you to say no to offers like that?) We said
yes and took off in a snazzy bright blue sebring convertible. We drove to our resort a few mintues down the road. We tried to check in
but the room still wasn’t ready, so we went for a drive. We were in awe of how
green Hawaii was, with some many beautiful trees, flowers, and plants, and kept
saying “Look at that, look at that!”.
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| This is the place we stayed at, a picture we took the first night. |
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| The amazing scenery. I now know what "green" looks like |
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| Cruising in the car |
We then checked in to our condo, and then
went to sushi for dinner. It was okay but not spectacular. Then we drove to
Walmart to buy groceries for Sunday. Stan was soooooo tired, as in almost falling asleep at the wheel, but we made it home safe.
Sunday we slept in and then went to church at 1 p.m. The
beautiful church building was literally across the road from our resort. The
members were very friendly, and there was a new investigator confirmation. We both had a really hard time with the time change, so these first few days we were both exhausted! We had to keep poking each other to stay awake during church :)
On Monday, we slept in and then drove north to Tunnels
Beach. We tried to go further to Ke’e Beach but the road was closed. We got out
and walked around on the beach. It was
raining off and on so we didn’t get in the water for very long. Even though it rained a lot during the week, it was nice to have it be a warm rain so it wasn't too miserable. We then drove
back to the condo, but stopped a few times on the way back to admire the views.
The view overlooking Hanelei Bay was breathtaking!
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| Tunnels Beach |
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| Overlook to Hanalei Bay. (Hawaii did a number on my hair, two seconds after straightening it, it was crazy again. There was no hope there. Humidity and Melanie with straight hair are not friends.) |
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| There were chickens EVERYWHERE!!!! I opened my door and there this little girl was. Think of how we have pigeons, they have chickens. |
Tuesday we promised we would get up and go out early, but
still slept in some :) We went to Snorkel Bob’s and rented snorkel gear, and
then drove west to Poipu Beach. We got out and went snorkeling, and there were
colorful fish everywhere—it was amazing! Then we relaxed on a rock next to the
ocean until it started to rain. We got in the car and drove further west along
the coast until the road ended. We wanted to make sure and get all the roads covered on the island we could.
On Wedensday we realized that we only had a few more days in
Hawaii and that we better make the best of it. We got up and drove up the
Waimea Canyon. It was so beautiful. We drove on to several more overlooks, and
came to a beautiful valley overlooking the Na Pali Coast, with a rainbow across
the valley. It was the most beautiful sight we had ever seen. We then drove
back and took the top off of the convertible for a while, which was fun. We
snorkeled more at Poipu, but lost the waterproof camera.
Thursday we took a tour boat up the Na Pali Coast, the only coast of the island you can't get to by car. It has crazy huge cliffs, so it would be a little hard to build a road on. Though the water was rough, we loved seeing the wildlife on this tour: whales, bottled-nose dolphins, and spinner dolphins. So neat. Halfway through the day, they stopped so we could do some snorkeling. We saw some more neat fish, but not as close up as at the beach.
We went home and
got changed then went for a hike up in Wailua State Park. It was
beautiful!...as everything tends to be in Kauai...
Friday was our last day to see more beautiful fish so we got up and went snorkeling one last time at Po'ipu. Went to lunch at a place near Po'ipu and had delicious fish, went home, got all packed up, and then went for a walk through town along the beach. The whole trip was a dream!....and we are still dreaming about it :)
