Kauai honeymoon in photos

Kauai is gorgeous: Just look at this photo we took on our last day there, at Poipu Beach. When we got back, we made this shot into our thank you notes design. Well, a cropped version of this shot. But this is what I want to remember of Hawaii, blue sky, blue ocean, sand, sunshine, palm trees ... and the fun John and I had!


Unfortunately, this condo is where I spent too much of the time in Kauai, when I had the flu. Not that it wasn't a beautiful condo - it was gorgeous. Comfortable bed, nice living room, updated kitchen. I just would have rather been outside exploring. We got into Kauai late morning July 5. I was in bed/on the couch from the time we got to the condo (about 2 p.m.) until the next day. And I still lounged around most of that Friday.


But finally around 4 p.m. Friday we ventured out and took a drive to see a blow hole, Spouting Horn. It's crazy, the waves crash in under rocks, and the water spouts up and makes a trumpeting noise. You can just sort of see one behind me in this not-so-flattering photo (hey I was still not feeling so hot!)


Saturday, we were determined to cram a vacation's worth of fun into one day. We headed to Kipu Falls based on a recommendation from a bartender at a local restaurant in Poipu. He said it was "just off the road." Ha! There is a road called Kipu Road, but we drove to the end of it and saw no signs of any waterfall. We asked at a four-wheel place, and they said "park where you see the cars alongside the road and take the trail." We remembered seeing some cars pulled off the road, so we headed back and joined them. The trail was a narrow 1/2 mile or so dirt path through a field of 6-foot-high sugar cane plants. I felt like I was a little kid in a giant cornfield. But suddenly, you come to a small clearing and lots of giant rocks, and there is a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole with a few dozen people taking turns swinging from a rope and jumping off a cliff - and then climbing a ladder and maybe trying it all over again.

I, unfortunately was wearing flip-flops. And with the sharp-edge rocks and the need to climb a giant ladder, I decided to skip the jumping/diving. My suggestion to anyone venturing to Hawaii: Buy watershoes before you leave! John bought some while I was sick, but I didn't have any. They would have come in handy so many times, and are probably much cheaper at a mega-store here than the surf shops in Kauai.

Here's a good shot of John swinging from the rope. Looks like fun, huh?

Our next adventure was snorkeling, which I enjoyed much more than my Bahamas snorkeling/seasick trek several years ago. Here you just walk out from the beach and the fish are EVERYWHERE. We had an underwater camera, so we got some awesome shots of fish and each other, including the Hawaiian state fish Humuhumunukunukuapuaa. Another note: If you get a new bathing suit before your honeymoon, ladies, test it out first. I discovered the hard way that my suit didn't really have enough elastic for snorkeling. Beach lounging, yes, swimming, no. A quick trip back to the condo for one of my other suits (pictured below) was the best solution. Another suggestion is to rent a float in addition to your snorkel gear. I can swim fine, but do not float well, and I liked having the support of the float so I could just lie there and stare at the fish instead of flailing. I think the floats were $4 for the day.


Our only nice meal out in Kauai (after I subsisted on rice, applesauce, jello, crackers and Gatorade for 40 or so hours) was courtesy of a gift certificate from friends of ours who had dined there on their honeymoon 2 years ago - courtesy of a gift certificate they got from friends who had dined there ... (it seems a trend.) The food was good, though I still felt uneasy eating a whole lot since the restaurant was on the North Shore in Hanalei and we were staying on the South Shore, with 90 minutes of driving before we'd be back to our condo. We did order some dessert and take it back with us to enjoy later!

Saturday night, we knew we needed some sleep because we weren't really going to have a Sunday night of sleep. But about 3 a.m. I awoke to an odd noise. I tried to ignore it. But it got worse. I listened harder. It was a rooster. The sun was nowhere near rising, but the rooster felt the need to cock-a-doodle-do about, oh, every 5 minutes. John woke up too, and I was like "make it stop." We were trying to figure out where it was, so John went outside and couldn't find it. He came back in and the noise started again. I was like "can you throw something at it?" He went outside again, and I hear a loud noise and then lots of clucking. He came back in and said "There was a rooster and about 8 chickens in the tree outside the bedroom window. But they're gone now." So, you never know what you'll see in Hawaii. You might see a rooster and 8 chickens in a tree at 3 a.m. Too bad I have no pictures of the flock flying off.

Sunday we checked out the oldest Catholic church in Kauai, St. Raphael. Here's a picture of John in the grotto on the grounds. It was an interesting site, and you could take a mini self-guided tour of some of the original buildings on the grounds from the 1850s. It was hit by a hurricane about 15 years ago, so some of the structures are quite damaged.


So, Kauai in a nutshell: beautiful, tropical paradise. Someday, we want to go back!