Standby For Kauai

More travel adventures for the #frickinfunflakes! So.... here's how it happened. One of Aaron's clients was retiring from Alaska Airlines and had a bunch of buddy passes that she said were going to go unused and offered them to us. Which means, a super cheap flight to Hawaii, but it also means flying standby. So we decided to give it a shot! Well... after going to the airport at 4 am, then going home until 8 am... going back and spending 8 hours in the airport we.... got to...Seattle.

 Spent a night in a ghetto hotel there and then Piper Brighton and I got a flight to Kauai that morning.

Aaron and Deacon spent the day in Seattle and then made a flight that night.

The girls and I got our car and headed to a beach first thing! (Well technically Walmart to get some beach supplies...) Then the beach! The boys got there around midnight and then the fun began!
We stayed in a Condo on Poi'pu beach and it was AMAZING! The beach and waves were incredible. Brighton and Deacon were maniacs playing in the waves! They'd get pounded over and over and head back for more. The snorkling right off our beach was pretty great too. Deacon, Piper and I saw a turtle swim right by us. There were also Monk Seals right on the beach. Luckily though, no crabs.

We really wanted to kayak to a place called secret falls so we took off early one morning to try to reserve some kayaks. Well we found out when we got there that due to the huge floods they'd had a couple months before, the trail to secret falls was closed. So instead we had to hire a guide to take us a little ways up the Wailua River, but not all the way up. We still had a good time though. We stopped at this little Hawaiian village they were using as a tourist attraction since the Falls and the Gern Grotto were closed.

Before the kayaking trip, while we were waiting, we found this super cool hike to  a waterfall that we jumped off and played in. Ho'opii Falls. I could have stayed there longer but Piper was freaking out about some ants and we had our kayak trip scheduled. It was super amazing though and this is the only picture we ever got of all of us!

One of the reasons I really wanted to go to Kauai was to see the Napali Coastline. The best way to see it is to hike it but due to the flood all the trails were closed, which was a super bummer. Plus, all the boat tours taking off from the coast were booked, so I booked a tour that took off from the opposite coast and drove us all the way up.

The good part about that was that we got to see dolphins on the way up, plus we got to sail under a waterfall and see caves and snorkel.  The bad part was the boat ride was super long and I got really sea sick. Piper and Bright also weren't feeling great. That night Brighton was still feeling sick, thinking it was from the boat ride. We went to a restaurant and as soon as we sat down she ran out the back door and puked off the deck onto an unsuspecting chicken. Turns out she had the stomach flu and would have it for the next two days. :( It was so sad!

This was at the restaurant, minutes before she got sick. You can see her holding her stomach. :(

She had to stay in the room for like two days and even missed the Luau we had tickets for. At the Luau Deacon started feeling sick and then he was out for the next two days.
Oh! When we got to the Lu'au he asked the girl welcoming us if her "coconuts were real". Like literally she was wearing a coconut bra. The whole line behind us started to chuckle as she responded "Yeah they are. You have to climb all the way up the tree to get em." Whoa!

The day he was sick we went to Hanalei Bay. I stayed back on a shaded grassy area with him so he could sleep and hung out with some pot-head biker dudes. It was super shady. He started feeling a little better and would play for a bit, then come lay back down. I'd really like to spend a whole day at that beach. It was gorgeous!

We snorkled at Ali'i beach, looking for turtles until the sun went down.

The rest of the trip was more beach, more waves, pool time at the resort, trying a million sunscreens because the kids kept getting burned, gelato, shave ice, Da Crack, sight-seeing, souvenir shopping.

We also really liked Glass Beach. I guess years ago they used the bay as like a dumping ground for all kinds of rubbish and after all these years the glass has been worn down to smooth bits. We collected a nice handful.

Even though we spent a week there, there are so many things that were closed I really want to go again. Out of the the three islands I've been to, I think this one is my favorite. It's so gorgeous and slow paced and amazing. The air literally smells like perfume. Ahhh. Aloha!