Kauai Anniversary - Part I

I knew the only way we were going to fly over the Pacific to celebrate our 10-year anniversary was to surprise Wade with non-refundable tickets. So that's exactly what I did...in January...for a July trip to Kauai, Hawaii. (Say that ten times fast...Kauai, Hawaii, Kauai, Hawaii, Kauai, Hawaii...)

The entire trip was a dream. And if it weren't for three little people waiting for us at home, we may have stayed on Kauai's north shore forever.

Leave it to me, a self-proclaimed (and proud) geography nerd, to plan and map every adventure. It was the perfect balance of GO and RELAX. I read, and re-read THE best Kauai Guidebook, researched every beach and restaurant on the island, and took a copious amount of notes.

Day 1 - OKC to Kauai, Hawaii

Thanks to flying through four time zones, we departed OKC at 6:55 AM and arrived in Lihue before 2:00 PM. After we scored a 4WD/convertible Jeep for the week (thank you, Enterprise), we were off to explore!

We grabbed an early dinner at Tahiti Nui, where I fell in love with Mai Tais, did some grocery shopping for the week, and were at our condo early enough to watch the sun go down.

 

Best Mai Tai on the planet.

 

Did I mention how great the Mai Tais were at Tahiti?

 

The roosters. They were EVERYWHERE.

Even our trip to the local grocery store was lined with one incredible view after another.

 

The view from our condo/lanai...sunset on Day 1.



Day 2 - Helicopter Tour

 

The perfect start to every day on Kauai = Kona Coffee while ocean gazing, followed by a handful of macadamia nuts and a review of the beaches and waterfalls to hit along the day's journey.



 

Sunrise from our lanai. Not a bad view, eh?

The state bird of Hawaii is the Nene (aka. the Hawaiian Goose), which Wade and I found hysterical because this is what Charlie affectionately calls her pacifier. Every time we saw a nene (pronounced nay-nay), we thought of our baby girl.

 

Another frequent morning visitor - Spotted Dove.

 

Every day it rained, but not for more than 10 - 15 minutes at a time. And following the rain were spectacular rainbows. This rainbow greeted us the first morning in Kauai.

And we're OFF! One (plus) hour on a doors-off helicopter. We saw nearly every square mile of the island. AMAZING. Without a doubt, one of the highlights of our trip (for me). Wade tossed his cookies about mid-way through...he studied the back of our pilot's head for the second half of the trip.

 

All of the following pictures on this post are from our helicopter tour. I took HUNDREDS (literally) of photos and tried REALLY hard to narrow them down to my top 20...but failed.

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more from our Kauai adventure!