We flew to Hawaii on June 16th to celebrate Halle graduating from high school. This was her first time experiencing Hawaii!
We had a longer layover in Oahu. The airport had this beautiful garden that we could wander around and enjoy. Halle loved seeing all the ducks.
We got to Kauai late that night. We stayed in Princeville at the North end of the island. This was the beautiful sunrise that morning over Hanalei.
It was Kev's 46th birthday! We drove into Hanalei for our boating excursion of the Napali Coast.
We took a small boat out to the bay where we boarded a bigger pontoon boat.
We saw this pod of dolphins swimming while we were in the Hanalei bay.
We saw all kinds of cool caves up close. I love the blue color of the ocean.
We saw many majestic waterfalls along the coast.
The cool thing about this excursion is that we were close to the shore and even got to go in some water caves. We stopped by Tunnels beach and did some snorkeling. We saw several sea turtles there.
Back in Hanalei we found Halle a place that had Acai bowls. They are her favorite!
Kev and I shared some shave ice at a place that was recommended to us.
We went back to get changed and Kev even got a birthday nap.
He opened up some of his birthday presents. Some of them he will open up when we get back home.
That night we went and ate dinner out. The food was good but the view was better.
We drove to Ha'ena to watch the sun go down. There was a wedding taking place further up the beach and we also saw a couple get engaged!
Halle took this picture of Kev and I. We had come to Kauai for our honeymoon 24 years earlier. It was the first time we had been back to this island.
We partied sun up until the sun went down. Kev had an epic birthday in Kauai!
This is a picture of the Airbnb that we stayed in at Ali Kai.
This was the view from the back porch. The ocean is behind the palm trees. There were so many chickens, roosters, and Ne Ne's running around. They would make a lot of noise outside our windows each morning. They were the loudest wake up call that you can get!
Halle loved feeding the birds every morning when she got up!
That next morning we went on an adventure to get to the Queens bath.
We all enjoyed cooling off in the water. Halle and Kev both jumped off some rocks into the bath.
Later that day, we went snorkeling and a nearby reef. You had to swim far out to get there but there were many fish to see.
We got some more shave ice that night from the Wishing Well. I loved how mine had fresh papaya and coconut on top. We went to Hanalei bay to watch the sunset that night.
We drove that day to the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.
There were so many birds to look at. We also saw some sea lions through the binoculars.
Halle had a Hawaii bucket list. One of the things on her list was she wanted a fresh flower lei. We just happened to be driving along when we saw this road sign. We pulled right into this yard. We rang the doorbell next to the garage. This cute women came out and got this flower lei from her outside fridge. It is a local grown flower and it smelled amazing.
That day we took a river barge to the Fern Grotto. Kev and I had visited here on our honeymoon. Back then they let you go right into the cave.
We saw some exotic flowers as we walked to the grotto. There were even birds singing in the trees. It reminded me of the Tikki Tikki room.
The Smith family runs this excursion. It was fun to hear them sing and perform on our way back.
We drove to see the Wailua Falls.
We saw this road sign for fresh coconuts. It was also on Halle's bucket list. This Polynesian man got out his machete and cut it up for us. He also made us smoothies from fresh fruit from his land. My favorite one had watermelon and guava in it.
We were close to Lihue so we drove to the Kauai Marriott where we stayed on our honeymoon.
Kev and Halle had fun snorkeling in the bay there.
I enjoyed reading my book with an ocean view. We called Kenna to wish her a happy birthday. She turned 23 years old on June 19th!
Halle and I found Hawaiian plumeria flowers to put in our hair.
We drove back to Hanalei and ate at a restaurant called Tahiti Nui. Halle tried a BBQ chicken pizza.
I was happy to order some coconut shrimp. I love eating seafood when I'm in Hawaii!
The next day we signed Halle up for a surfing lesson. She was really looking forward to it!
They took them out in a calm part of Hanalei bay. Halle got up on her first try!
She had a 90 minute lesson. The last 30 minutes it was just her and the instructor. She made it look easy. Kev and I had fun cheering her on while she surfed.
After that, we walked the Hanalei peer. Halle and Kev both jumped off the pier.
Kev found another beach to go visit. It was a jungle adventure trying to get to the beach. We did see this cool tree along the way.
Kev and Halle enjoyed snorkeling while I read on the beach.
This rooster just went strutting by me. He reminded me of HeHe from the movie Moana. There were also baby chicks running around behind me.
We saw this rainbow as we were driving that day. It rains a lot on the North side of the island but it doesn't last long and you get rainbows like this.
We watched the sun go down from another spot in Hanalei bay. You can tell it was the golden hour. We went and got dinner after. Halle ordered a Kalua pig quesadilla and it was delicious.
On our last day we drove further South to Po'ipu beach. Many people told us we had to try a Puka Dog.
Kev waited in a line for 45 minutes for us to eat there. Halle and I shopped while he waited. They cook the Hawaiian sweet bun on the grill and heat it from the inside. We all chose Polish style hot dogs. They let you choose your mustard and relish. I tried pineapple relish. We ate them on the beach. We also went and saw the Spouting Horn Blowhole.
We stopped in a little town called Hanapepe. It is where the Disney creators got their inspiration for the movie Lilo and Stitch.
We drove to Waimea Canyon. They call it the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. We stopped and walked to many of the view points. One of the view points even looked out over the Napali Coast.
I love looking at all the Hawaiian flowers. This one reminded me of an Hydrangea.
We drove a crazy bumpy road to get to a beach. At one point Halle thought that she might be sick. Kev told her, "Don't puke up your Puka dog!" We all laughed about that and were happy to get out and walk to the beach. Halle found this stray cat and wanted to take it home with her. The only food we had was Korean beef bites from my backpack. Halle made sure the hungry cat was fed. She has always been the animal lover in our family.
We enjoyed putting our feet in the water. Then we had to drive to the airport for our flight home. We loved seeing Halle experience Hawaii for the first time. She loved the people, food, and culture. We loved having this time just with her!
