The Great Kauai Adventure! Watch out, it's long!

Susan and Mark invited the whole family to go to Kauai this year! We took off on July 12th for a 9 day adventure with them, Adam, Erin, Corbin, and Neal. We've been looking so forward to this, I've been fairly desperate for a vacation, and was so excited to revisit all the places we went on our honeymoon last year. It was a fabulous trip, with lots of swimming, hiking, eating, reading, sandcastle building, and luxuriating in the beauty that is Kauai! A huge thank you to Susan and Mark for this incredible trip, you guys are so awesome!

All set to take off from Seattle. Neal was moved to first class shortly after this photo was taken, leaving loads of space for me and Kevin in our emergency exit row! Nice way to fly, I'd say!

We stayed on the north shore, in Hanalei. We arrived pretty late on Sunday night, and did the drive up from Lihue in the dark. I love that, arriving and not really knowing what's around you, and then waking up in paradise!

Hanalei Bay, a very convenient 2 block walk from our house! It's a great swimming, reading, sandcastle building beach!

Adam and Corbin get right to work on their sandcastling!

Corbin wasn't so sure about the water the first few days, but eventually he started to really like it!

But he conquered the sand!

Hanging out at our fabulous house!

Fish tacos from Pat's Taqueria near the Hanalei Pier, soooo delicious!

Kevin and Corbin reading in the evening

Beautiful sunset from out deck, looking out toward the bay

Checking out one the many incredible rainbows (a nue nue) that Kauai boasts. I went running that morning and was in awe of how beautiful they are, plus having the incredible mountains and the water on either side of me. That makes a girl feel like getting up to go running!

Adam is our french toast extraordinaire, made with Hawaiian sweet bread!

We checked out the Hanalei Farmers Market, and came back with lots of loot!

Neal made us great homemade pizza that night!

The next day we headed up the Waimea Canyon, which is one of my favorite places I've ever been. It's so gorgeous, and looks pretty unreal in places.

Mark checking out the sights!

Corbin's favorite thing to say is "Ohhh, wow!" and he said it plenty looking down into the canyon!

Pu'u o Kila Lookout looking down onto Kalalau Valley. This is quite possibly my favorite place on earth, it is so unreal looking! This is the penultimate valley of the Na Pali coast trail.

We decided to check out the Alaka'i Swamp Trail from here, which is a pretty crazy trail leading through the world's highest swamp. There is a boardwalk along a fair amount of the trail, but those parts that aren't become very mucky when it rains, which it does all the time! So we slipped and slided our way along, and had a great 8 mile hike! This was supposed to become a road to the north shore, but it was clear that it was not a great idea the further along we got!

Adam carried Corbin the whole time, and Corbin was a trooper.

Neal was not thrilled about hiking, and liked to refer to this as the armpit of the world (I'm pretty sure that New Haven, Connecticut has that title though!). But he carried on, even if he claims he doesn't like hiking!

Pretty view of the boardwalk in the fog

Neal was thrilled by the view at the end of the trail. It literally just ended at a platform looking out into white foggy nothingness, which was pretty cool to some of us, and a bit of a disappointment to others!

Attempting to show off how muddy I got, but we decided I just look like a midget body builder!

After all that hiking, we needed a day of rest and relaxation! Susan, Erin, and I hit Hanalei for a bit of retail therapy, while the boys hung out at home.

Corbin getting his cute on!

Shave ice, the best thing ever! Especially with ice cream on the bottom!

That evening we headed out to Secret Beach to try out some boogie boarding/body surfing, but the surf was a little too rough for it, so we just got pummeled by the waves!

View of the Kilauea Lighthouse from the beach

Does it get any more picturesque than this?!

Corbin desperately wanted to play in the water here, of course, where it was far too dangerous for him! But eventually he played around in the sand.

My three little duckies, waiting for a wave to thrash them about! I nearly lost my swimsuit bottoms to one of the waves, and called it quits!

Still feeling pretty worn out from hiking, we had another beach day! In the morning some of us headed out for some snorkeling at Tunnels, one of the best beaches for snorkeling on the island we think! No pictures of that!

Had to have some shave ice in that heat!

Neal grilled up some awesome mahi mahi for us that night, it was delicious!

Here is one of our many gecko friends! His name is Gary!

There were canoe races happening in Hanalei Bay the next morning, which were fun to check out! It was impressive to see how they worked together, and some of the groups were pretty young! And strong too!


More snorkeling the next day at Tunnels! We had planned on going to Ke'e at the very end of the road, but saw a prime parking place at Tunnels and couldn't resist stopping there!

I made a LOT of guacamole on this trip! We had an avocado tree in the yard, but none of them were ripe while we were there, so we made do with ones from the Farmers Market!

A centipede hanging out on our walkway! Those things are scary looking! Neal removed it from the premises.

On our last full day, we headed out for another hike, this time on the first few miles of the Na Pali coast and then up to the Hanakapi'ai Falls. It was another 8 mile hike round trip, and this time it was HOT! Kevin and I did the same hike last year, and it rained on us nearly the whole way back, which made it an extremely difficult hike. This time, it was just like being baked in a clay oven, but a much easier hike for us!

Next time we come to Kauai, Kevin and I have vowed to do the whole trail.

View of the Na Pali cliffs. They are gorgeous!

The river crossings are always fun! This time, we came prepared wearing our tevas and chacos, but its always funny watching people who don't want to get their shoes wet trying to cross!

There are awesome bamboo stands all along the trail up to the falls, and they make the best sound when the wind blows!

Adam once again was baby carrier awesomeness! What a champ! And Corbin was great too!

The falls are gorgeous, with a very inviting pool at the bottom. I basically immediately got into the water when we reached them! It was cold, but so refreshing after a long hike!

Adam and Kevin couldn't resist jumping underneath the falls. I stuck to just floating around!

Erin and Corbin gaze at the beauty around them!

Yeah, I rock at stream crossings!

Back at the beach before the trudge back in the sun to the end of the trail. There are really cool caves down around the left side of the beach.

It was an excellent hike, and I felt like I had a much easier time with it this year! Much more in shape, and doing a hike that I did a year ago was confirmation of that! That night, we had awesome pizza from Tiki Man pizza, which I highly recommend if you are planning a trip to Kauai!

The next day we cleaned and packed up to head out. Mark headed out early on a bus to Lihue to check out some museums, while the boys stayed behind at the house for the afternoon to watch the Sounders game. Erin, Susan, Corbin, and I left in the afternoon to go visit with some old friends of the family, who Kevin's family stayed with 18 years ago on their last family trip to Hawaii! Kevin and I graduated with their son, Gary, and it was nice to catch up a little bit with them! W grabbed some dinner and then headed off to the airport! Kevin and I got to ride first class on the way home, which was a real treat for me! I had never flown first class before, and very much enjoyed the special treatment! Thanks Mark, for getting us up there!

What a wonderful trip and a great chance to be with our family for a long period of time! Kevin and I have been going through major Corbin withdrawals, and can't wait to see him next weekend when we head up for a wedding in Bellingham. It was really fun to vacation somewhere I had been before, since we had some ideas of things we really liked and things we knew we could skip out on. A major thank you once again to the best in-laws a girl could ask for!