Kauai
Kauai 2019
I'm back! Both on the blog and in Utah. So I'm back in two ways. Aaaand when we landed in SLC this morning I was wearing black... so technically I could claim I came back in black. AY OH.
This year was an anomaly. I never went anywhere international. I traveled to Hawai'i twice, so I got close? Spring Break I went to Oahu and stayed with my cousin and her fam (see here :)
Up until last week I had only ever been to the island of Oahu. Which is the main island. It's not the biggest island, but it is the most popular. Populated. And then it gets more confusing because the biggest island is called Hawai'i. But also all the other islands are considered part of Hawaii. The Hawaiian islands. Kauai is the one I went to this time. Kauai has the nickname and the reputation for being the garden island. There's your geography lesson 🌏 😂
We were told on a tour that Kauai is the wettest place on earth, I just barely tried to look that up to verify it... the best that I could find is one of the mountains/shield volcanoes is the second wettest place on earth based on rainfall.
I suppose I could do more digging into the statistics but I'm not gonna.
This year was an anomaly. I never went anywhere international. I traveled to Hawai'i twice, so I got close? Spring Break I went to Oahu and stayed with my cousin and her fam (see here :)
Up until last week I had only ever been to the island of Oahu. Which is the main island. It's not the biggest island, but it is the most popular. Populated. And then it gets more confusing because the biggest island is called Hawai'i. But also all the other islands are considered part of Hawaii. The Hawaiian islands. Kauai is the one I went to this time. Kauai has the nickname and the reputation for being the garden island. There's your geography lesson 🌏 😂
We were told on a tour that Kauai is the wettest place on earth, I just barely tried to look that up to verify it... the best that I could find is one of the mountains/shield volcanoes is the second wettest place on earth based on rainfall.
I suppose I could do more digging into the statistics but I'm not gonna.
So Last Christmas (I gave you my heart) my family went to Hawaii without me. Not super intentionally... but I couldn't get enough work off so I didn't go. THIS YEAR (to save me from tears) I did go. Which is probably obvious by now. I don't think I've ever travel blogged about a family vacation... this will be interesting :)
My family. I have 5 siblings. My older brother is married with two children, and the rest of 'em are younger than me. My older brother and fam didn't come to Hawaii with us, and my youngest brother didn't come either. I introduce you to these logistics because I want you to know they exist even if you don't see them in the pictures. Though I suppose the people who read this blog are my family so you guys already know :)
My family. I have 5 siblings. My older brother is married with two children, and the rest of 'em are younger than me. My older brother and fam didn't come to Hawaii with us, and my youngest brother didn't come either. I introduce you to these logistics because I want you to know they exist even if you don't see them in the pictures. Though I suppose the people who read this blog are my family so you guys already know :)
First thing we did after I got there on Friday evening, was go out for for fish tacos. 🐟 Since I had plenty of time on the plane, I was able to watch The Force Awakens AND The Last Jedi and I gave my fam a quick recap so we could all be up-to-date watching the new Rise of Skywalker movie. #nerdalert #alsoLOVINGtheMandalorian #dontworryiwontgiveanyspoilers
We ate our tacos back at the hotel where we caught the end of a riveting documentary on Princess Diana's death. We were a little nervous about getting tickets to the new Star Wars movie, because it had just come out the night before... AND the theater we found wouldn't let us buy tickets online ahead of time... so just to be safe....we headed to the theater 40 minutes early. Turns out there was a line. Of 5 people ;) we got into the theater and they were playing BACK TO THE FUTURE. Which is a much better idea than playing what they usually play before the previews. #everything'sbetterinHawaii. The theater only ever filled up to maybe 20% capacity so we had nothing to worry about. We wanted to take a picture to remember the experience of seeing the last Star Wars as a family in Hawaii but the only picture we got was standing in front of this old movie poster ...😆⬇️ |
DAY 2
Morning of day 2, we drove a few minutes down the road and roamed around some local shops. We found this really cool glass blowing place, a flower shop that had orchids that smelled like chocolate WHAT?! And then a DELICIOUS Shaved Ice place. And normally I don't go for shaved ice. Why on earth 🌍 would you eat ice ❄️when you could eat ICE CREAM?!?🍦🍦🍦 However, this shaved ice had ice cream in the middle. So I was placated. The flavors they made with real fruit and it made it real good.
Morning of day 2, we drove a few minutes down the road and roamed around some local shops. We found this really cool glass blowing place, a flower shop that had orchids that smelled like chocolate WHAT?! And then a DELICIOUS Shaved Ice place. And normally I don't go for shaved ice. Why on earth 🌍 would you eat ice ❄️when you could eat ICE CREAM?!?🍦🍦🍦 However, this shaved ice had ice cream in the middle. So I was placated. The flavors they made with real fruit and it made it real good.
My mom had booked a tubing excursion which took up most of Day 2 (Saturday). For the excursion they bused a whole mess of us up a bumpy ol' dirt road through an old sugar plantation. The plan was to tube down the old irrigation ditches of the now-closed plantation. Which sounds weird, but it was super cool! Most of the time we spent in the water, we were in tunnels so they had us wear hard hats with lights. #picsoritdidnthappen
Near the end, like the last 20ish minutes in the water, there was this kid (who was maybe 5?) who looked real scared. I asked him if he wanted to hold my hand. Turns out he did and he wouldn't let go 😍. My heart melted 3 sizes that day. His parents were floating in the back of the group but they yelled up and teased him saying I was too old for him. Poor kid. I would have held his hand all day. #imasuccorforphysicalaffection
You may have noticed that everyone, except my family, is wearing clothes in the picture above. You see, we were certain that since it was HAWAII it would be WARM. It wasn't. It was cold. But Hawaii cold is like May in Utah, so we handled it like champs.
They fed us sandwiches afterwards ⬇️
You may have noticed that everyone, except my family, is wearing clothes in the picture above. You see, we were certain that since it was HAWAII it would be WARM. It wasn't. It was cold. But Hawaii cold is like May in Utah, so we handled it like champs.
They fed us sandwiches afterwards ⬇️
After we got back from our excursion we started a family game of D&D. (That's Dungeons and Dragons for you regular folk). We spent 3 hours doing that. It went a lot faster than I thought it would. And I have a few good videos of my fam. Okay so this is why I said blogging about the family might be interesting... I'm not sure you're ready to see our maddest edges. My mother (who hates violence and loud noises AND things that couldn't be real.... like fantasy or sci fi) got pretty violent fighting orcs. You have to know her to understand how significant that is. But I won't post the video of her pretending to wipe blood off of her sword. She wouldn't appreciate the internet seeing that. Maybe I'll show you the Palpatine video later on this page though?
DAY 3
We went to church in the morning and then hiked around and spent time on beaches 🌴
We went to church in the morning and then hiked around and spent time on beaches 🌴
That night we went to a Luau and I was once again amazed at the talent that Polynesian dancers have! Also the food was spectacular.
aaannnd here's day 4
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