Hawaiian Honeymoon: Day 5 (Thursday)

From the first day we booked our trip, we heard the same thing over and over again, "You HAVE TO visit Waimea Canyon!"

They were all right.

In one word, Waimea Canyon is...breathtaking. I have never seen the Grand Canyon, but I have a hard time believing that it can beat the combination of canyon AND ocean.

The road to the canyon is long and not exactly marked well, so we found ourselves stopping to take pictures of what we thought was the canyon.

We were wrong.

Those pictures? Weren't even within the state park limits.

These were.

We haven't even gotten to the best part yet. If you keep on driving into the center of the island, there are tons of additional lookout points. Lookout points that give you this view:

Yeah, I want to be there now, too.

On the way back down, we decided to stop off at a local restaurant for lunch - the Shrimp Station.

Um, the coconut shrimp? I could have had the whole plate.

Later that night, we finally went to the long-awaited Luau. Now, I don't want to give the wrong impression. The food was pretty awesome.

But the entertainment...left something to be desired. At least in my opinion. The emcee was a white guy. He was surrounded by beautiful island women. He sang them songs of love and lust. He changed outfits every song.

Again, not bad...just not a true luau. It felt like we were sitting in the Kauai Variety Hour.

But Stephen liked it. And that's good enough for me. :)

Next up: ATV, yeah you know me!

Hawaiian Honeymoon: Day 4 (Wednesday)

On our first full day in Kauai, we made use of the on-site Expedia concierge service to book a few activities for the remainder of the trip.  One of those things was a 5 hour snorkeling tour of the Na Pali Coast.  Unfortunately, 30 foot waves the morning of our tour prevented us from actually going to the Na Pali coast, but we were able to travel around the southern coast, past our resort.

The southern coast. The red pushpin is the location of our resort, and the photo below is our resort as seen from the boat.

The tour started at literally the crack of dawn, requiring us to be at the port by 6:30AM.  Once we were under way, breakfast was served and we began sailing out towards the snorkeling point.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not bringing my camera on the boat in fear of it getting wet or thrown overboard.  We did bring a disposable waterproof camera that took all of the pictures you’ll see below.  Let’s just say that we’re not the best at using non-digital cameras anymore.  :)

Probably the coolest part of the tour was seeing whales that were incredibly close to our boat.  They even put a microphone in the water so you can hear them!  (You can see a whale in the picture below.  Don’t ask me how we actually managed to capture that on film.)

In addition to seeing at least 12 whales, we saw a group of hundreds (not exaggerating) of spinner dolphins.  We attempted to capture a picture of them, but came up with this:

I think there is a hint of a fin at the top of the picture, but who knows.  They were a lot more clear when you were looking down on them!

As we continued to sail on, Survivor Man Stephen returned commenting that he wanted to catch a crab when we went snorkeling…and wondered if the crab would bite him.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any crabs while snorkeling, but we did see lots of fish.

…But you wouldn’t know it from the pictures we took.

Fortunately, we were saved by a few of the non-underwater pictures we took.

The water was very…refreshing…so we only snorkeled for about 30 minutes before we returned to the boat for some lunch.

Snorkeling was hands-down the. best. decision. we made while in Kauai.  I just wish we had taken better pictures!

Up next:  The “Grand Canyon” and the Luau variety hour.

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Hawaiian Honeymoon: Day 3 (Tuesday)

Armed with one of his new Hawaiian shirts, Stephen and I began Tuesday morning with a walk along the beach.

Enter:  Survivor Man Stephen.

Stephen commented that he noticed quite a few coconut shells along the shoreline and wondered where they were all coming from.  Within seconds, he was off on a mission to find a coconut and “break it open like in the show.”

 

And find one, he did!

A rotten one.

Not one to be robbed of his Survivor Man dream, he attempted to break it open with a lava rock…

…and was met with disappointment.

---

Awhile later, we decided to have a drink at the Seaview Terrace and catch some of the live entertainment they have every night.

Tuesday night’s entertainment was the Torch Lighting Ceremony followed by live Hawaiian music and adorable little hula dancers.

We ended the night at Tidepools Restaurant where we had a pretty delicious dinner overlooking another Koi pond.

  

Up next:  Survivor Man Stephen returns and the best decision ever

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Hawaiian Honeymoon: Day 2 (Monday)

When we woke up the next morning, we couldn’t believe our eyes.  Saying that it looked like paradise may seem cliché, but it really was.

As part of our room package, we were able to eat breakfast every morning at the Ilima Terrace restaurant in the hotel.  And every morning, we ate breakfast overlooking this:

Yep, that’s a swan in a Koi pond.  Overlooking the ocean.  Every morning.  I’m just sayin’.

We took a walk around the property after our amazing breakfast and saw just how beautiful the property really is.  There were 3 levels of pools, complete with lazy rivers, waterfalls, grottos, and hot tubs.

At some point, Stephen began to feel a little out of place and wanted to go to Wal-mart buy a Hawaiian shirt.

  He bought 4.  And a Hawaiian hat.  (Don’t worry – you’ll have the pleasure of seeing all of them in the upcoming posts.)

The trip to the store (and our beautiful convertible) gave us the opportunity to see even more scenery.  Illinois really starts to feel pretty dull at this point.

After an unfortunate mishap with an improperly-stowed bag of postcards  and the top down on the convertible(sorry, everyone!), we decided it was time for lunch.  Off to the poolside bar we went!

The fish tacos?  Delicious.  The Mai Tais?  Even better.  Losing count of how many Mai Tais you had during the day?  Probably not the best idea, but it was our honeymoon!

We made fast friends with our bartender, Mark, who gladly took our picture at “the honeymoon spot.”

(I know, I know!  I am as shocked as you are that Stephen is actually smiling AND has his eyes open in a picture!  Those Mai Tais work wonders, I tell ya!)

We took a walk along the beach in front of the hotel…

…and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the saltwater lagoon.

Followed by an amazing sushi dinner and more swimming in the pools.

Next up…Stephen finds his inner Survivor Man.

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Hawaiian Honeymoon: Day 1 (Sunday)

For those of you still actually checking my blog, you’re about to be rewarded.  A promised recap of our Hawaiian Honeymoon that ensures at least 6 (!!) more posts.  Amazing, right?

As we left Chicago, it was raining and cold…which made it all the more easy to leave!

After an uneventful 4 hour trip to LAX, we landed just in time to pick up a quick lunch and drink at the standard airport version of Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant.

For some reason, we didn’t have seats together on the ride from LAX to Lihue, Hawaii.  After a quick trip to the service desk, I managed to score us some seats in Economy Plus in the very first row…which meant tons of leg room for my incredibly tall hubby.

As we were taking off, one of the flight attendants apparently witnessed us making “googly eyes” at each other and found out that we were on our honeymoon.  The next thing we knew, we were being served champagne from First Class for the duration of the flight! (THANK YOU AWESOME FLIGHT ATTENDANT!)

When we FINALLY arrived in Hawaii, it was almost 7PM, but it was still sunny and beautiful.  Hello, paradise.

Once we grabbed our convertible, we were off to Poipu to our hotel:  The Grand Hyatt Resort and Spa.  We weren’t able to see the extent of the hotel since it was dark out by the time we got there, but we did manage to grab our first Mai Tai on the patio and then go swimming in the (many) pools before we went to sleep.