Vacation in Kauai (Part 1)

When I was miserably sick and pregnant with Kenadie during the frigid Minnesotan winter, I dreamed of laying on a tropical beach somewhere but recognized that it would be years until we had the pennies for such a vacation.  (sigh)  Enter Garrett's parents who had a time share in Cancun, Mexico and invited us to join them over Garrett's spring break.  We jumped on it! 

Although I was 7 months pregnant and still popping Zofran like M&M's, it was heaven. 

A little over a year ago Garrett was planning on starting his own practice, we had just sold many of our belongings and moved out of our home, and I was great with (our 3rd) child.  Life was CRAZY.  And then Garrett's parents invited us to join them at their time share in Maui for his birthday.

At nearly 8 months pregnant, puking, and with the worst cold of my life, we still had the absolute BEST time.

Garrett and I must be pretty awesome vacation buddies, because this February his parents invited us to join them at their time share in Kauai.  

The best part?  This time I was not sick and I was NOT pregnant, which meant I got to enjoy this vacation to its full extent! (I highly recommend going on vacations when you are healthy and don't have cankles and heartburn.  Plus, snorkeling puke-free is much more fun!)

Thanks to my amazing parents for watching our brood, we were able to have a fabulous, 9 day, kid-free date (though I bawled like a baby driving away from my parents house on the way to the airport.  I have a really hard time leaving my kiddos and I feel super guilty about having anyone else put up with their antics for longer than 3 hours).

Day 1

After getting settled into our little condo (The Point at Poipu) the night before, we spent our first morning strolling around the grounds of our resort and exploring the shoreline.  We had amazing views!  

Our condo was right next door to the nicest resort on the island (Grand Hyatt) with an awesome beach.  

The 80 degree weather and sun was perfection. 

pointing out our condos in the distance

We had amazing fish tacos for lunch at "Chalupas" before heading north.  I highly recommend them.

Anyone who's been to Kauai knows that these birds are e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e!  There wasn't a place on the island (in the mountains or by the waterfalls) where you couldn't hear roosters crow or see mamas with their chicks.

We spent the afternoon biking along the coast.  It felt SO GOOD to get out and be active in the sun and warmth.  We enjoyed looking out at the ocean and watching the humpback whales breeching and splashing around. 

We stopped by Wailua falls on our drive back home and saw even more chickens.  I jokingly made a comment to a merchant selling pearls there that Kauai could be nicknamed the "Island of the Chicken".  Not at all amused, he snapped back that this is NOT the "Island of the Chickens", it is the "Island of Rainbows and Waterfalls"!!!! (Note to vacationers: don't tick off the locals)

Beautiful Wailua Falls

Day 2

We spent this day paddle boarding and snorkeling (so many turtles and fish!) near our condo.  (I think I spent a grand total of 30 minutes laying in the sun before I had to get up and do something)

Brennecke's Beach

Soooo happy! 

We ate lunch at Puka Dog, theeeee best hot dog I've ever had! 

With the garlic lemon secret sauce and coconut relish, we were are in heaven.

Because every restaurant on the island was already booked for Valentine's Day over the weekend, we celebrated a few days early with a dinner at the Tidepools, a restaurant inside thatched bungalows overlooking pools of koi.  

It was beautiful.

And the food was deadly-delicious. 

Claire with our dinner table buddies ;)

We went down to the shoreline that evening with our flashlights to look at all the fish and zillions of crabs crawling around in the tidepools (no pictures of that fun escapade).

We finished off the night (and every night) in the hot tub looking up at the stars.  It felt soooooo nice! 

Day 3

Started with a 6:30am run along the greenbelt between our place and the Hyatt (I don't think Garrett ever let us sleep in past 7am.  Too many things to do and beautiful sunrises to witness!) 

Finished up with a little yoga on the rocks.  

We spent the majority of the day kayaking up the Wailua River.  The scenery was beautiful, the work out was awesome, and is something I would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Kauai.  It rained on us a lot on our trip up and down the river, which actually made it even more fun. 

 We parked our kayaks along the river and took a beautiful (and pretty easy) hike to Secret Falls. 

Best hiking footwear and my all-time favorite shoes.  I love Chacos!

Nothing like eating lunch by a waterfall.

After taking a swim under the falls.

We enjoyed the entire excursion (and our tired arms sure did enjoy the hot tub that night after all the paddling).  

We finished the day with Lappert's Ice Cream--again, the best ice cream in the world!  Seriously, if you ever go to Kauai, you'd be crazy to leave without treating yourself to this stuff.  Sooooo good!

Another great Kauai day in the books.