Life with MK: A Wonderful Week in Kauai

Well, here we go. Time to start a brand new blog about my life and other adventures. Not sure how this is going to work out since I don't see myself as a particularly gifted writer, but I guess we will find out soon enough.

I think the best place to begin is on the island of Kauai in the beautiful state of Hawaii. I returned from a week long vacation on the Garden Isle just two days ago, and needless to say I already miss it. Along with my parents and grandparents, I enjoyed beautiful weather in the 70's the entire week with minimal rain and lots of sunshine. Everywhere on the island was overrun with chickens and roosters as usual, and we had those lively natural alarm clocks cock-a-doodle-dooing at all hours of the day. My mother and I had the pleasure of doing most things together since my father and grandparents went golfing every day. During the week we went on an amazing sail up the Na Pali coast, shopped in the little town of Hanalei, went zip lining near Princeville, went to the Kilauea Lighthouse, had a wonderful breakfast buffet at the amazing St. Regis over looking Hanalei Bay, and just generally relaxed by the pool.

As soon as we got of the plane we made the traditional trip to Costco to stock up on food for breakfast, lunch, and a few dinners. Most importantly we stocked up on Manapua! Manapua is basically a steamed bun filled with red colored pork and it is beyond delicious. This Costco trip also featured a lunch built of delicious free samples as all Costco trips are. After we were all set, we made the drive up to Princeville on the north coast of Kauai near Halalei.

I have been to Kauai many times before this trip, but this was my first time since my parents bought our timeshare in Princeville. The timeshare was very relaxing, and much more low key than the timeshare we have on Maui. We had a room on the first floor that opened up onto a large lawn that culminated in a cliff that dropped off into the ocean. It was quite a beautiful view, I must say. There were also two Nenes that hung out near our room, which was awesome because I absolutely adore Nenes and couldnt get enough of them! Anyways, Sunday and Monday were pretty low key. We drove around Hanalei, had a shave ice, shopped a bit, relaxed by the pool, and took a walk to the market. Tuesday my mom and I took our first big excursion.

We knew we wanted to go sailing from the moment we booked the trip who knows how long ago since it has become somewhat of a tradition when we visit Kauai. We usually go with Captain Andy's, but our timeshare concierge recommended taking the Holo-Holo Charters boat this time around. We were a little skeptical at first since neither my mother nor I are terribly fond of changes like this, but we ultimately decided that trying something new could be an adventure. We booked the trip on Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning we were on our way down to Port Allen (at 6am, eek). At the beginning of the trip we started to question our decision to try a new company. The captain seemed grumpy and barked the rules at everyone on the boat (we later decided that he has probably had to deal with way too many exceedingly stupid tourists in his time). We also found out that we were only stopping to snorkel once during the 5 hour trip and it was right at the beginning (we were expecting three stops, most likely since our recent snorkel trip around Lanai have all had three stops and we got used to that). Anyways, we got into the water as soon as the boat was anchored in the little cove and had a wonderful time snorkeling despite our earlier skepticism. We both saw tons of fish and even a Hawaiian Monk Seal! One of the boats crew members also showed me a archway about 20 feet down that I could swim through (only after did he tell me that sometimes a huge sea turtle hangs out in there). The coolest part of the entire snorkel trip was that when I dove down and waited a few seconds I could hear all the songs of the humpback whales! It was the most surreal experience since I have never heard anything like it nor did I know it was even something that could be heard without electronics. I guess I just never thought about it before. I tried to get my mom to hear it too, but she had some trouble diving down. I did help push her down a little and I think she ended up hearing it too! Anyways, we were the last people out of the water and back up on the boat, and everything about our attitudes towards being with a different company totally changed from there on out. The crew on Holo-Holo was AMAZING. They were so attentive and genuinely wanted to help you by telling you about the animals, the island, or even just asking if you wanted a drink. They made the trip quite wonderful. The captain ended up being great too and he could literally look at the water and tell you where a whale was about to surface! Speaking of whales, we saw a TON of them. I swear they were everywhere. We saw them jump and dive and slap their tail, spout and spy hop. There was even a mother with a newborn calf sitting at the surface learning to breathe. We also saw an enormous pod of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins that were all jumping clear out of the water and doing multiple spins in the air. I have always loved the Spinners so seeing them is always fantastic. We also saw bottle-nosed dolphins, sea turtles, and brown boobies! I didn't even know there were boobies in Hawaii, but as I said we saw the brown boobies along the Na Pali coast and we saw red-footed boobies at the Kilauea Lighthouse! In addition to all of the wildlife we saw, the views of the Na Pali coast were absolutely beautiful. The rugged mountains, the cliffs, the waterfalls, and the waves pounding into the island are quite a sight. All in all the day was amazing and I would recommend Holo-Holo to anyone going out to Kauai!

The Kilauea Lighthouse was also a pretty cool little outing. My mom had been there before so she wanted to take me out there. The first thing you see when you get to the cliffs in Kilauea is a large area that is a designated wildlife refuge for a bunch of sea bird species. We drove by the lookout point since you can see the area from the lighthouse and went on the park. The various signs telling about the wildlife in the area told us that we were seeing red-footed boobies, albatross, frigate birds, and some other species that we didn't actually see while we were there. We also saw a whale breach a few times from the lighthouse point! The lighthouse itself is being refurbished, but soon people will be able to go to the top of it again. Regardless of not being able to go into the lighthouse, the views from the point are quite spectacular and it was very enjoyable.

Thursday was full of excitement as well. Mom and I went on a zip lining trip on a ranch about 2 miles from the timeshare. There were about 9 zips, including King Kong, the 1200 foot final zip where you race. I sadly lost, and I'm sure my mother will rub it in any time zip lining comes up since she still gloats that she also beat my father a few years ago. After ziping over the valleys, we met up with my grandma to go have pedicures at the St. Regis. Since they can only do two people at a time I volunteered to wait until after they finished and took full advantage of the spa facilities. I spent time in the steam room, the sauna, had an amazing shower, and did a little reading in the quite tranquil lounge. My pedicure was wonderful and I finally got the pink nail polish off from my pedicure in Maui in November (that being three months ago you can imagine how nice that nail polish looked before that day). The spa at the St. Regis was incredibly nice and so relaxing. It was definitely a wonderful day.

I probably could have gone on even further about our various other excursions, but I am getting quite bored of writing :). Sad to not be by the ocean in shorts and short sleeves anymore, but happy to be back with my puppies (and to no longer sleeping on a pull out couch), and excited to continue planning my next adventure: 2 months in Europe! I think my next post will be about the planning of that trip, but who really knows. Until next time.

Having a drink by Hanalei Bay at the St. Regis Princeville the day we arrived. The timeshare has a shuttle there every hour to use the beach and the spa, eat at the restaurants, and shop.

Zip lining near Princeville with Mom.

The pool with the best view at the timeshare (Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas)

One of my Nene friends outside our room. Two of them came everyday and one day there were six! Did I mention how much I love the Nenes?

Guava Jelly! If you don't know the song, look it up on YouTube. It is amazing.

Relaxing poolside at the timeshare was really tough.

This was near the Kilauea Lighthouse. The Red-Footed Boobies nest here along with a variety of other sea birds. All the white specks on the cliffs are the Boobies.