I figured it was time to finally tell you about our trip to Hawaii! I look back and think, "Did we really do this? Did we take a 3 month old baby to the middle of the Pacific Ocean for a week?" Yes, yes we did. And we live to tell you about it. At first I was going to do one big post about the trip, but I decided to save you from photo overload and break it up and feature one island at a time. You will find entries from my trip journal and pictures to accompany. So, aloha Kauai, our favorite island and where our trip began!
May 26
We left the Tupelo airport around 8 am and had a 30 minute flight to Memphis. Turner cried just before take off then slept the entire time. Our layover in Memphis was about an hour, then we were off to LA. This flight was 4 hours and Turner slept about 2/3rds of it. We had another hour layover in LA, then we took off for our 6 hour flight to Hawaii. This was the most challenging of all the flights. Turner didn't sleep as much as we hoped and a lot of the flight was spent standing and bouncing. We finally landed on Kauai at 5 pm. The views from the plane were beautiful! It felt like we were flying into Jurassic Park.
Overall, Turner did pretty well on the flights. Didn't sleep as much as we expected, but overall he did about as well as you can expect out of a 3 month old!
The airport at Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii was open air and beautiful! We got our luggage and rental car and had a 30 minute drive to the resort. We went ahead and called it a night after a long day of travel.
May 27
We started off our day with baseball and breakfast. Mississippi State was playing Vanderbilt in baseball for the SEC championship and they won! It's not everyday you get to watch baseball at 9:30 am (2:30 pm at home). After the win, we drove to the end of the highway on the north side of the island and went for a hike on the Kaulaulau trail. Turner rode along in the BabyBjorn and conquered his first trail! There were many impressed hikers that Jesse was doing the hike with a baby on board. When we come back we want to hike the entire trail and camp at the end. We have heard that the beach and waterfall at the end are incredible! We also walked into a cave and waded through a creek.
We had a late lunch at Hanalei Pizza -we got the pizza with Kalua pork and pineapple as well as an all meat pizza. We shopped in the Hanalei village and Jesse bought local coffee and honey. We made our way back home and went to the grocery store.
I learned an interesting fact today about the island. There is legislation on the island that restricts any building to be built taller than a coconut tree! We took this day to drive around Kauai. There is a walking/bike path right outside Kapa'a. When we come back, we need to get bikes and ride along the coastline.
We drove to the desert side of the island to see the Waimea Canyon and mountains. From the top you could see the beaches. It was beautiful! I nursed Turner on the edge of the canyon. We really want to come back here for a week long hiking trip! The overlooks past Kokee State Park are really good.
We made a stop on the way home at the Kauai Coffee plantation. We sampled coffee, had guava sherbet, and toured the plantation. I also nursed Turner here. Jesse and Kelley cooked monchung fish for dinner and we called it a night!
May 29
Kelley and I were set on spending a day at the beach so today was our day! Based on many recommendations, we chose Tunnels beach. We stopped in Hanalei to rent snorkel gear and drive to the beach. The weather was overcast with a cool breeze, but it ended up being a beautiful day! The setting was amazing- beautiful mountains and a crescent shaped beach. The reef was pretty and the fish were so cool. Highlight of the day: swimming with sea turtles! After our snorkeling adventures, we determined that Pixar was dead on with Finding Nemo. I nursed Turner on the beach and we had a picnic lunch. We stopped in Hanalei on our way back to return our snorkel gear and grab a snow cone.
We came back home, took naps, showered, then headed to Lihue to pick up John. We went to dinner at Garden Island Barbeque where we were surrounded by locals. Great pick, Jesse! I had the BBQ chicken and it was great! Jesse had shrimp and pork.
On our way back, we stopped by the lighthouse and Kilauea point wildlife refuge. We called it a night early because tomorrow we are flying to Oahu!
Today was our last day on Kauai, so we woke up, packed up, and drove around to show John the island. We took a little too long and cut it really close on making our flight! We arrived to the airport, returned the car, checked in, went through security and made it to our gate, with ten minutes to spare.
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