KAUA'I

Sorry it has taken me oh so long to blog about our trip last week. We got back Saturday afternoon and were welcomed back to the mainland by Allen's family! They spoiled little Cuba rotten while we were gone. I was so excited that they were able to come up and see our little house :) Anyway, I STILL am suffering from jet lag, therefore have put blogging off all week. Enough about that and a little about the trip. We would have stayed forever if we had not missed our little puppy so much! I GREATLY recommend Kauai as a long get away for anyone who is wondering where their next adventure should take place. It truly is paradise! We stayed active most of the time (imagine that with my sweet hyper husband), but Allen did allow me some down time on the beach and by the pool. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt on the south shore and were treated like royalty by all of the staff. Here is a picture of the view from our table at breakfast every morning.

Breakfast was one of our highlights of everyday...it was WONDERFUL!
We never completely got on island time, so we were at breakfast around 6:00 every morning and were able to see the island "come alive". Most mornings after breakfast we walked around the resort or down the beach and then while Allen went for a run I took a good book down to the pool :) We did lots of driving during the day. Here is a picture of Allen is our Mustang convertible (he surprised me with the upgrade to convertible and we both agree it was WELL worth it!).

Most of our tan came from hours spent in the car just riding and looking...anything from a tour of a coffee plantation, watching whales from a lighthouse lawn, checking out the grand canyon of the pacific (Wimea Canyon), hiking to a lookout on the north shore, and eating shrimp tacos at a great itty bitty shrimp shack all came as a result of just "riding around".






The island is truly spectacular in the fact that there is a little of everything! Beaches, mountains, farmland, pastures and of course Allen wants me to mention great golfing. We spent an afternoon on the Poipu Bay Golf Course (home of the Grand Slam) and Allen played great! I was the cart driver and photographer. Here are some of our favorite pics from the course...




On of my favorite activities was the sea kayaking. We went with a group of 4 other people (including 1 guide) and spend about 4 hours in the ocean (paddling about 9 miles) and 2 on secluded beaches! I will admit it was MUCH tougher than I thought it was going to be, but worth it! About 10 minutes into the tour we paddled right into a pod of about 100 dolphins. They surrounded us, jumped out of the water, swam under our kayaks, and pretty much just showed off for about 10 minutes. We got some great pics with out underwater camera, but I will have to post those later since I don't have them on a cd yet. Later in our trip we saw a sea turtle and paddled about a 1/2 mile out, then jumped in to snorkel where a point of volcano comes up (this made me incredibly nervous since we were so far out and I just knew that a shark was probably right behind me so even though this was very cool, I couldn't really enjoy it). For breakfast and lunch we surfed our kayaks onto secluded beaches for an hour of eating, snorkeling, shell finding, and coconut busting...here is Allen eating the coconut he spent at least 20 minutes trying to open on a rock :)

The last 30 minutes of our tour, everyone (except me) saw a little shark swimming beside us. I am glad it happened at the end of the trip. I was a nervous wreck trying to get our kayak in without flipping :) Overall it was a great activity (and I was sore for days after it!)!

Our last full day, we decided to cancel our snorkel tour and instead head out on our own...so glad we did. We found a little beach on the south shore (where some of the tours you pay big bucks for take place) rented $8 snorkel gear and took off. I have never snorkeled anywhere other than Destin, so it was quite an experience. I LOVED it!
There is still so much more to tell you about, but I think I've written enough for now. I'll leave you with my favorite picture of the trip. This was taken at The Beach House (probably one of the best places I have EVER eaten) on our last night.

Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of our honeymoon!
Look for more pictures of the trip next week on my first "Wordless Wednesday".