Christopher and I spent last week on the island of Kauai, which has become one of our favorite places to go together. This year, we were joined at the beginning of our trip by Christopher's partners and spouses for his annual work retreat. While I've enjoyed Salish Lodge the past few years, this was definitely a fun way to do the retreat! We stayed at a Marriott Resort and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Here are some highlights of our trip--
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| Dinner at Roys: Christopher, Me, Mistee, Ryan, Kelli, Mike, Sheila and Darrell. |
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| We all hiked together Saturday morning....Kauai's "sleeping giant" |
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a wild beautiful wild orchid
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On Sunday after going to Church, we joined Mike and Kelli in their Mustang convertible and toured Waimea Canyon.
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| Kelli and I both with our guidebooks |
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| A cool wood carving of the island at a musuem |
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| This was above one of the displays in the museum and scared both Christopher and I when we looked up at it. |
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| At the top of Waimea hoping to get a view of the beautiful NaPali coastline |
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| The clouds cleared up a bit |
After Waimea we stopped at Glass Beach, where Christopher found an old cemetery with hundreds of Chinese tombs that had been left uncared for. It was pretty sad.
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| Sunset from Glass Beach |
On Monday we toured the island via helicopter with no doors. It was a bit freaky, but also very cool. Christopher and I took a helicopter tour when we very first came to the island, but really enjoyed going again now that we know the island better and can tell where we are and what to look out for. There are parts of Kauai that are uninhabited and impossible to get to, making it pure and in my mind a very sacred place. This tour did not disappoint.
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| Aerial shot of the Marriott that we stayed at. |
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| Tree covered road into Poipu |
Waterfalls!
Waimea Canyon
The NaPali Coastline
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| baby whale seen from above |
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| now with its mommy |
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| Taro fields |
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| Another helicopter coming out of the crater at Mount Wai'ale'ale, the rainest spots on Earth! |
Something we've never one on Kauai, but did on Maui last year, is take a boat tour. Mike and Kelli were game, so we signed up and it was amazing! While the snorkeling wasn't as good as Maui, we saw a ton of dolphins, which was super fun and got to see Na Pali from a totally different perspective than the helicopter. Here are a few fun pics of our day.
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| These are spinner dolphins |
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| A turtle swimming by our boat |
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| A whale poking it's head out to see what's going on |
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| cool waves |
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| More dolphin tricks |
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| And more whales! |
After the boat tour we took Mike and Kelli to Wailua Falls, because Kelli has always wanted to swim in a waterfall. We did this with our friends on our first trip, and it was just as much fun years later!
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Kelli and I
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One of Christopher and I's favorite places on the whole island is Poipu beach. It has great snorkeling, is almost always sunny and is just a great beach to go to.
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| A display inside Big-K on Valentine's Day. |
We did find something new this trip...at that is the Hula Pie at Duke's. It is absolutely divine and we found ourselves eating it three different times during the week :)
One of the best things about Kauai is the great hikes. My favorite thing to do is hike in the morning and then go to the beach in the afternoon. We found a pretty easy hike to do one of our last days. It was to Ho'opi'i Falls near Kapaa' River.
Pictures never really capture the moment or memories of a wonderful place, such as Kauai. It was definitely a wonderful trip that I will always remember :)
