Thank you, Kauai, for another wonderful vacation! This post is a bit late since we went to Kauai at the beginning of the month but I couldn't not talk about our trip!
As you know, we've been on the Hawaii train for several years now. I've lost count of how many times we've gone - I just know we made a point of not going last year (we did San Diego instead) and was itching to get back there this year. We rotate through Maui, the Big Island, and our favorite - Kauai. Any of the islands is a great place to go with kids, but we especially love Kauai for it's lushness, the laidback hippie atmosphere, the ruralness (well, compared to the other islands) and really awesome kid-friendly beaches. If you haven't been, we really recommend it! =)
This year, we joined Way, Kevin, Ian and Owen for a few days at the Koloa Landing Resort. Although it wasn't a beach front property, it did have three ginormous pools. The main pool had 2 levels, 2 waterslides, waterfalls, a kids section and a kids splashpad. There was a separate kids pool that was equally big, that alternated between 18 inches, 3 feet and 4 feet deep. The kids were in heaven with the pool! Since it was a condo resort, we were able to quickly come back up if kids needed to nap or get a snack, which was really convenient.
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| It was a relatively uneventful flight to Kauai. The girls watched shows and colored mostly. |
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| Made it! |
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The resort, from the hotel lobby.
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| Owen's yogurt breakfast beard! |
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| Diving right in! With 2 floaties, she wasn't afraid of the water at all! |
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| Don't worry, it's only 1.5 feet deep there. |
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| It wasn't usually too crowded. |
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| Little shark! |
Unfortunately for us, the weather was pretty iffy. It rained almost daily and sometimes, it really poured! We watched the weather closely to figure out when would be a good time to head to the beach, and then quickly geared up to go. It was also super helpful the Hanley's brought their beach tent that we could take shelter in if we needed to, but it never rained too hard while we were at the beach, thank goodness!
Poipu Beach was a 2 minute drive from the hotel so we went there first since we know it's a good kids beach.
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| This little one doesn't mind the sand anymore! |
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| The dads keeping watch on the kids. |
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| Not a bad view! |
The next time we headed to the beach we went to Salt Pond Beach. This is a beach on the Southeast side of the island and one we didn't quite make it to a few years ago. I'm glad we tried it again because we found the area where folks recommend going and can happily report that it IS kid friendly and a nice option that's not nearly as crowded as Poipu. The sun even broke through the clouds a few times for us while we were there.
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| The older kids all sat in our minivan and they could not stop giggling and laughing! |
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| When we first arrived, there were really only a handful of us at the beach. We had this section all to ourselves! |
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| This is the other side of the beach. See? no one there! |
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| Looking good! |
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| Getting sandtoys from Costco was a good investment! |
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| Salami snack. |
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| Beer in hand, sand on toes. All we need is sun. |
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| Here's the sun! |
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| This big natural rock wall kept all the waves away. |
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| It also made for some good tidepooling. |
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| Ninja Evie! |
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| Are you waving to Mommy? |
Our last beach day we tried to head to Lydgate but the weather on that side of the island was ick so we came back over to Poipu. This was the first true sunny day and holy moly, the beach was c-r-o-w-d-e-d. It was a mess. It was awesome to have the sun though.
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| You can't miss Ian, with his bright orange! |
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| Strike a pose, Evie! |
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| Uncle Kevin builds the best sand castles! |
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| Digging their "jacuzzi" |
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| Even this guy jumped into the water. |
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| You don't really need a floatie in this shallow water, Nora! |
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| Cool shades! |
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| Resting in the shade with Mommy. |
We also did some fun non water activities like getting Shave Ice, going to a Coffee Plantation and making Smores at the hotel. The highlight was going out to celebrate Kevin's big 4-0 at this neat restaurant called Plantation House - just like it sounds, the restaurant is housed in a historic plantation house so the setting is just lovely! There are gardens around it as well so the kids were able to walk around and explore a bit when they got the wiggles.
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| The start of our self guided tour of the Kauai Coffee plantation. |
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| Coffee beans! |
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| Our little flower girl |
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| Smores night at the Resort |
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| It was past Owen's bedtime, poor little guy. |
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| No Hawaiian vacation is complete without Shave Ice! |
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| Evie and Ian shared one. |
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| Owen had some too! |
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| All dressed up for Uncle Kevin's birthday dinner! |
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| I can't remember what I got, but it was really yummy! |
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| This is a split order of the Mahi Mahi, which I thought was DELISH! |
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| Kevin's Baked Aloha Pie. Happy birthday!! |
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| Family portrait, attempt 1 |
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| Family portrait, attempt 2 |
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| We fared no better.... |
We were sad to see Yee Yee, Uncle Kevin, Ian and O-O leave, but we had such a wonderful spring break with them! Thanks so much for letting us join you guys in Kauai! Here's the parting photo that we got, miraculously, of all the kiddos smiling for the camera.
AHHHHH, what good memories. You got some good photos! I need to finish organizing mine and post them. Can't wait to do Hawaii again with you guys!
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