Hawaii

Ok, I’m finally getting around to posting these pictures. I’m not sure why I was dragging my feet so much, but here’s a small sample of the 1,315 (I’m not even kidding) pictures I took during the ten days we were there. 

Andrew and I went to Kauai for our honeymoon, which is one of the smaller islands. It’s pretty low-key place. Most of the island shuts down around 7 PM, so our evenings were spent eating leisurely dinners (so like 3 hour dinners for us), or hanging by the pool, or chasing sunsets. It was definitely our kind of place.

Most of the island is inaccesible by car, so the only way you can see it, is either by boat or by helicopter. 

 Like there was any doubt we’d be seeing the island by helicopter! It was pretty awesome. We got up early on the first Saturday morning we were there (happy birthday to me!), and got a sweet, doors-off helicopter ride. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turned out to be much smoother than taking a ride on a small airplane (no barfing, hurrah!), and not as cold as I was expecting (I only wore one of the two jackets I brought with me). It was incredible. The views were amazing and it was pretty incredible to view all these hidden spots. The waterfall is maybe the one that was in Jurassic Park. The coastline is the Napali Coast which you can only get to by boat or by helicopter. It was stunning.

 Of course, if you could access it by car, we tried. We didn’t try super hard though because we had a tiny Chevy Sonic. Which is a terrible car and after taking a one and a half mile off-road detour in it, I think Andrew was really questioning my judgement. But we drove the paved roads of Kauai up and down like nobody’s business. 

Our little detour brought us to this little secluded beach. 

 And on the south side of the island we saw Spouting Horn which is this crazy blowhole thing on the coast. It’s a little bit random, but kind of neat. Plus, we got to see a few turtles take a swim.

And what would a trip to Kauai be without a little ziplining? (I guess it would be a trip without ziplining.)

Andrew was super stoked to try it out and it was really fun. Turns out he has basically no fear when it comes to this stuff, as he was practically dancing in the trees.

Also, there are chickens EVERYWHERE.

The other major attraction on Kauai is Wimea Canyon. You can drive up into the canyon and see some spectacular views. If you get to the top early enough in the morning, before the clouds roll in, you can also get a glimpse of the Napali Coast.

The first time we drove up, it was decidedly cloudy.

But on our last day there we got up early and we were rewarded with a beautiful sight.

It was a great trip. We accomplished the rare feat of being able to see most of what we wanted to, while still being able to relax. There was plenty of time by the pool, amazing food, getting drunk off of 2/3 of a mai tai (me), enjoying pina coladas as the sun went down (Andrew), and just enjoying ourselves.