The Na Pali Coast

On Monday, June 10th, we boarded the Spirit of Kauai with Captain Andy's Sailing Adventures and headed out for our tour of the beautiful Na Pali Coast. The Na Pali Coast has some of the most gorgeous mountains, valleys, waterfalls and beaches I've ever seen. It has been the filming sight for countless movies including Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Six Days, Seven Nights. There are no roads that can access the coast so the only way to see it is by helicopter, plane, or boat (or if you want to brave the level 9 hiking trail that takes you through it go ahead; but Mount Everest is a level 10 sooooo......). Here we are after just setting out on the boat:

We actually met another couple from Overland Park while we were on the boat. Small world! Anyway, along our way to the coast the captain slowed us down a bit to check out the dolphins. We got to see both bottlenose and spinner dolphins. Since spinners travel in larger numbers, they were fascinating to watch. They just come right alongside the boat! Chris was amazed!

Dolphins are not easy to photograph from a moving boat! Anyway we eventually stopped at a decent spot to snorkel. Brian and I snorkeled and although Chris didn't want to, he still came in the water with us and swam. At a certain point, both he and I started feeling a little queasy but we plugged along. After the boat started up again, it got really rough and we both got even more queasy (along with many others on board). But we were determined to see the Na Pali Coast no matter what! Chris fell asleep for awhile but managed to see some of the beautiful scenery. Here are some of the pics from the day. Again, they do the real thing no justice...

It was an incredible day and we are so glad to have had the opportunity to see one of these wonders of the world!

Beautiful Kauai

Ahhhh Kauai, the Garden Island! This little piece of heaven is possibly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We rented a condo on the north side of the island--a little town called Princeville. We flew from Maui to Kauai on Friday, June 7th and as soon as we walked in the condo and looked out the window, we knew we made a good choice. Our condo was on the second floor and literally 50 feet away was a steep cliff going straight down to the ocean. Here is the view from our bedroom, living room, and deck...

From the moment we walked in, we opened the windows and sliding doors and kept them open the full week we were there, listening to the ocean, the rain at night and, of course, the morning rooster on the front lawn. We were glad we rented a place on the north shore because the waves there in the summer are nice and gentle. Apparently where we were gets 20 to 25 foot waves in the winter! I like to surf but not on those kind of waves! Anyway, we got settled at the condo and went out to get groceries (cha-ching). After that trip I made a wrong turn out of the parking lot so I said, "Oh well I'll just turn around at that scenic overlook and go back." Well! We got to the scenic overlook and were stopped in our tracks by what we saw--an amazing view of the Hanalei River valley and its surrounding mountains.

Disclosure: All pictures of the scenery of Kauai do it absolutely no justice! This place is so gorgeous you just have to see it for yourself.

Here is the scenic overlook followed by another one we found the next day...

And on the morning of the first full day in Kauai, I went for a morning run and was greeted half way through by a beautiful rainbow:

In trying to decide how to blog about Kauai, I think I'm just going to have to really break it up into little sections. So first I will tell you how we hiked down "stairs" on a cliff with all our beach gear holding onto a rope...

When I read the description of the condo before booking it, some of the reviews talked about the stairs leading down to the beach (at the base of the cliff) being "very steep, but manageable." Ummm, well, very steep was true, manageable if you are not carrying what would typically be considered standard beach accessories, and stairs? Stairs? Maybe the first 7 concrete blocks were stairs but the rest really was rocky slope peppered with random 3 inch iron posts (where your foot should go, mind you), and a railing that started as a railing and turned into a "hold on for your life" slack rope. I hope my tone doesn't sound complaining as I write about this because my intention is to make it sound like we hiked down the first thousand feet from the summit of Mount Everest! Anyway, here is Chris and Brian before our adventure began...

Eventually the path evened out and after we passed the turn with the unprotected hundred foot drop to the ocean below, the finish line was in sight. The beach was called "Hideaway Beach" (Ha! No kidding...) and the only access to it is via said trail or kayak. The hike down was worth it and the snorkeling and swimming was great. Here are some pics from our beach morning...

We had a great morning and Chris was especially happy that there were chickens and roosters at the beach. In fact, there were chickens everywhere on Kauai! There are so many that there is a whole line of postcards and greeting cards devoted to the overabundance of chickens on the Garden Island... Anyway, we made our trek back up the mountain which Christopher handled even better than we did. The next day we found a much easier beach to handle called "Tunnels" that had nice snorkeling and two dogs who walked to the beach with their surfing owners and waited two hours in the same spot until said owners came back! It was so cool. Not to inundate you with beach pictures, but that's essentially what we did everyday for two weeks so here's another two...

Luau time

Cheers to Christopher's (and Mommy and Daddy's) very first luau experience! Our first hotel in Maui presented a Polynesian luau and it was a great night for all of us. Christopher is holding up his big boy drink that he was greeted with as we were shown to our seats. (He's very excited because it is juice mixed with soda and he got to have two of them!). While we waited for the buffet line to start, we were serenaded by a Hawaiian band (complete with a ukulele) and several hulas. Here are some pictures...

And our host for the evening, complete with deadpan jokes and coconut cracking skills, was very entertaining throughout the night.

Once we ate dinner (and yes, vegetarians do have lots of options at a luau these days), the heart of the show began. It was filled with Hawaiian history and dances from Hawaii as well as Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand and other parts of the South Pacific. It was so much fun to watch and Chris was mesmerized!

At one point in the show, they asked honeymooners and people celebrating their anniversaries to stand up. Then they basically asked all the couples present to stand and they proceeded to play the Hawaiian wedding song. Brian and I danced with Christopher at first until, that is, he found his own lady to dance with!

The little girl Chris is dancing with (she was probably 2 1/2 or 3) was so sweet and she was completely mesmerized by the women dancing at the luau. When they would get up on stage, she would stand right in front of them below the stage and try to dance like them. It was so cute! The big finale of the luau was the fire show!

After the luau was done, Christopher got to meet some of the stars of the show!

As we walked back up to our room, I asked Christopher what his favorite part of the luau was. His response? "I liked the girl dancers Mommy because they were soooo pretty." Smooth, buddy, very smooth.

First stop: Ka'anapali, Maui

On Tuesday, June 4th, we headed out of Kansas City on the short flight to Dallas and then the long flight to Kahului, Maui. Chris, experienced traveler that he is, did great during the whole adventure. He watched a movie, took a nap, watched another movie and was very excited when we finally saw land on our approach to the island. Here is Chris getting excited for the plane...

As you can see, Piggy made yet another trip with us--he is a well-traveled pig! Anyway, one of the first highlights was at the rental car place where we were greeted by a decent number of very tame chickens and roosters...

As we later saw in Kauai, there are chickens everywhere on the island... Anyway, in Maui we stayed at the Westin Hotel at Ka'anapali Beach. It was a beautiful location and we really just relaxed and recovered from traveling, adjusting ourselves to the time change. Here we are out and about at the hotel...

Our first full day, we went a little farther than we intended to find a beach and when we got there, let's just say the waves were a little too strong for us to go into so we played in the sand instead!

We eventually found a much calmer beach, closer to the hotel (because the beach in front of the hotel was a little rough as well) so Chris got to swim there. We saw a sea turtle swim right by us too! Below is a picture of the view from our hotel and in true Hawaii style, we were welcomed by a rainbow when we checked into our room. Beautiful!

Our first few days in Maui were very nice. Tune in for the next entry where I will talk about our first experience at a luau!

Teaser

We have returned! We are back from Hawaii and we had a wonderful trip. Because I took over 500 pictures (the best of which I will share with you), I am going to have to divide our travel stories into multiple blog entries. I'll take you through some of the highlights of the trip and share some of the unbelievable scenery we saw in Maui and Kauai. It was especially amazing to share this experience with Christopher as he is now old enough to really remember and appreciate the things he saw. If you asked him what his favorite part of the trip was, he would probably say the shave ice and the penguins (yes, there were penguins at one of our hotels in Maui--highly accidental on our part but highly awesome for Chris!), but he got to see sea turtles and dolphins, went boogie boarding, hiked up and down a cliff, met a professional surfer, attended a luau, and saw the most beautiful coastline any of us have ever seen in person. Keep checking during the week for updates from the trip!

(PS--The picture above was taken at sunset from the patio of the condo we stayed in on Kauai!)

Dishwasher

Who needs a dishwasher when you have a dog?

By the way, it is June 3rd and when I went running this morning I could see my breath. It was 46 degrees and felt like a crisp October morning. Crazy weather!

Street Fair

It had to be a good day with cotton candy, right? We walked over to the Mission Hills Street Fair tonight to check out this event that everyone was talking about. We had a nice time, although someone was not really into the bouncy houses they had there. Chris only went on one and then he preferred to run around Belinder Circle instead. It rained on us a couple times but nothing too bad. While we were there, Chris got to try out shooting a real fire hose!

We tried it out for a little while before heading back home for an early evening. It seemed like the ideal age range for this was 9 to 16 and they all congregated together in their tween and teenage packs. It was a nice evening nonetheless and we will try it again next year! (And no one sent us the memo about standard Mission Hills attire. Next year we'll be sure to dress Chris in his Vineyard Vines attire as 80% of the people were wearing their VV finest...)