The kids turn 16 this year so I thought we’d go on a trip for their 16 and bring a friend. Both the kids wanted to do something different. We couldn’t pick a trip they both liked so we let them pick one each. Jaelee wanted to go to Hawaii and Greg talked Jayse into going to Texas and doing a hog hunt.

As I started planning we couldn’t go in May their birthday month because they both have school and sports. The only time we could go was spring break. For Hawaii, it was WAY more to go during Spring Break so I looked at going in February and it was much cheaper so that’s when we decided to go. We asked her friend Leora’s parents if she could go with us. They were really excited for her and said yes. So the plans were set, Jaelee, Leora and I were going to Hawaii in February.

I picked the island of Kauai, I thought it would be less commercial and give them more of a feel of Hawaii. I have been to Maui before and also wanted to experience another island.

The time went by so fast and before I knew it the day was here. We left on a Friday afternoon. I went to work for half a day and then met Jaelee, Leora and her mom at the house. Leora had never flown before so her mom wanted to be the one to take her to the airport and see her off. I totally understand that.

At the airport we got some lunch and waited for our flight. It was an easy flight to Seattle. We didn’t have much of a layover in Seattle so when we got there we went to our next gate. We had about 15 minutes before we boarded our flight to Lihue Kauai. Our plane was delayed a bit for paper work but then we were off. We had an easy flight – watched a few movies, had a few snacks and then we were there!

We got in about 8:40 local time – which would be 11:40 our time. I was pretty tired. We got off the plane, got our luggage and rode the shuttle to get our rental car.

While we were waiting for our rental car I ordered some pizza for us to pick up. We had snacked but hadn’t had a meal since the Boise airport and were pretty hungry. We picked up our pizza and went to our hotel. We checked in and got to our room, ate pizza and went to bed.

I had planned a few excursions but wanted the first couple of days free to do what we wanted and get an idea of the island.

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. It was very good but very expensive. After breakfast we went to the grocery store to pick up some items for the week for breakfast and lunch.

After getting groceries we went down to the beach. There was a nice one below our hotel. It was beautiful – high 70’s but really windy. After exploring the beach we went back up to our hotel and asked where we should go for shopping. We went to Kapa’a. We found some nice shops and each bought a dress and other trinkets. We found a nice little Mexican restaurant to have lunch. We found it so funny that there are chickens everywhere, even in the restaurant.

After lunch we went back to the beach to look for shells. It was still really windy!

That night for dinner we just had leftover pizza in our hotel room. It was a great first day!

The landscape around our hotel was so pretty.

Koi fish.

The water was the prettiest teal color. Hard to believe it was real.

Found this fort.

Don’t know what this was but we thought it was dead. Leora picked it up and then it moved. It wasn’t dead, ha!

Red jungle fowl (aka chickens and roosters) everywhere!

Jaelee made it her mission to get into a coconut. She managed to get a little hole in it and get some coconut milk out by waving it around.

Jaelee was so excited to find a coconut with a tree starting to grow out of it.

Love the roots at the bottom of these trees.