Hawaii – Day 8 – Vella Marie

Our last day in Kauai! Saturday we were flying out but not until 11:30. We had to check out of our hotel but when I did and told them we had the whole day they said we could hang around the hotel if needed. I didn’t think we would but we did end up back there.

First though we went and rented bikes to ride along the beach. We rented them for 2 hours. I thought that sounded like a long time but it went pretty quick. We rode the bikes 4 miles north up the beach. It was beautiful.

We turned around when the trail ended and went the other way. We took it as far as we could until we ended up in town. Then we turned around again. On our way back we saw some swings on trees. I had the girls sit and do a mini photo shoot. It was just so pretty.

We decided to stop and get ice cream from a shop we’d been to earlier in the week. By the time we ate our treat we only had 10 minutes to get the bikes back. Luckily, it wasn’t too far to the drop off.

We’d seen this donut place a few times and hadn’t stopped yet so even though we just had ice cream we went and had donuts. Turned out they had a lot of other yummy looking stuff so we also had fries and mozzarella sticks.

We decided to drive up to a waterfall we didn’t stop at earlier in the week because there was a bus tour there. We took a quick snap by it.

After that we drove to the tree road. It is so pretty. I wanted to get pictures. It was pouring though and cars kept coming by so it was hard to get a picture. They do not do it justice this road was beautiful.

After that, we weren’t sure what to do. We didn’t really want to get all sandy and have no where to clean up since we’d be on a plane later – so that eliminated the beach. So we went back to the hotel. The girls went swimming while I read. When they were done we went to a park for a bit.

I had decided we’d go to Duke’s near Kalapaki Beach for dinner so we made our there. I am so glad we did! It was the best meal we had the whole time. The atmosphere was awesome, a man singing beautiful songs and great service!

After dinner the sun was setting so we walked around the beach and we had the most beautiful sunset. The sky was filled with color. I was so mad that I didn’t have my big camera – the only time I didn’t! I’d left it in the car a ways away so I made due with my phone.

After the sun went down we still had time to kill. Not many of the shopping places were open so we found our selves at Target wondering around. The girls found a whole bunch of clothes to try on.

We eventually decided to just go to the airport early. We just sat and read or watched our phones until it was time to board. We had an easy flight to Seattle. However, we had a 4 hour layover in Seattle. We’d flown all night and were tired and just ready to be home. It made the time go by so slow. We eventually got on the plane and had no issues. We landed back in Boise about 1 o’clock on Sunday.

It was such a great trip. One of those that everything just seemed to go right, the weather, the travel, everyone got along, we got to do all our excursions. It was really a great time.

I will say now that I have been to Hawaii twice and Mexico I would chose Mexico over Hawaii. Both are amazingly beautiful so you can’t go wrong there. But Mexico wins out with the food, their hospitality and overall is way less expensive. Greg and I have a trip planned just the two of us to Mexico in a few months so we’ll see if that still holds.

Jaelee got these bucket hats at Christmas time for her and Leora. They have flamingos on them (Leora’s favorite) and we had Idaho patches put on them. We thought they’d be perfect for Hawaii. They didn’t wear them until the last day. At least we got one photo.