Aloha!

Jared and I have been back for almost three weeks now, and really, I have no good excuse for why I haven't blogged about this sooner. I mean, how could I not be excited to share the fun we had in Hawaii!?

I suppose the truth is, I still want to be on vacation! I know Jared thinks much differently.. He was excited to come home and get back to work! (is it just me, or does everyone agree that's insanity?) 

I'm going to try to make this brief, because part of me is still on island time. Which means I'm basically too lazy. 

Our trip started out at 3:30 am. I think I literally got 3 hours of sleep. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve again.. When you wake up and it's finally time to open presents, you're so tired you don't remember everything you got in an hour. Did that ever happen to anyone?

Our flight was long.. I mean- 7 hours cramped in a tiny plane with a wall behind you so you can't recline your seat but the people in front of you are leaned all the way back-long. I'm just glad I'm not as tall as Jared.. His poor legs were stuck wedged in between the side of the plane and the seat in front of him to get that extra inch of leg room. 

But it was all worth it when we arrived. The moist air welcomed us, and my skin instantly soaked it up- like it had been dying of thirst for a decade.

I honestly was worried our first day at the beach, my white legs looked like they'd never seen sun before, but within just a few days I was darker then ever before. Darker than spending an entire summer in the sun.

Kauai being the wettest island, and January being the rainy season, had me thinking we might be spending more time inside than anticipated.. But out of 14 days, we had only 3 days of rain!

I can't imagine visiting Kauai and not exploring the island. Yes, there is more to this lush isle than gorgeous beaches. We spent an entire day hiking through just a piece of Waimea Canyon.

 The canyon measures 10 miles long, 1 mile wide, and more than 3,500-feet deep. The pictures we took don't even begin to do this canyon justice. I'll admit, I wasn't thrilled at the beginning of this hike. I mean why weren't we on the beach!? My mind was quickly changed as we came through the trees to a cliff. Nothing but the air to hold us back from the giant canyon that appeared before us.

Many days were spent at the beaches in Poipu. But we couldn't skip the waves in Hanelei. No trip would be complete without it. Jared brushed up on surfing while I enjoyed the rays of the warm Hawaii sun. (although in hindsight we both realized a day where the waves weren't 12ft wouldn've been a better day for J to brush up on surfing..)

Oh! And I can't forget to mention Shipwreck beach. Our favorite spot. This beach nestled in a quiet corner of Poipu offered privacy, sun and waves. And a giant cliff.

You're probably wondering who that crazy person up there about to jump is? Yes, it is Jared. And yes, I feared for his life. It might not look that far, but trust me, I went up there and it was terrifying. 

A couple days before we left we decided we needed to squeeze in one more hike. As warm as the air was, clouds covered the sky and we made our way to the Napali Coast. The most beautiful place in the world -not even joking.

The sprawling empty beaches were to die for. I could have sat there for the rest of my life. But the real beauty began on our hike. I wish we would have spent a whole weekend here.

Once again, the pictures don't do the views justice.

Although we only got a taste of the Napali Coast it was definitely enough to make me hungry for more.

On what was supposed to be our second to last night of the trip (I'll get to that later...) Jared and I went to this super classy restaurant at the Hyatt called Tidepools. It was incredibly fancy. You know how you can tell when a restaurant is incredibly fancy? When the bring you complementary gluten free bread.

Im not sure if I can't even explain my excitement. For those of you that don't know.. I found out about two years ago that I shouldn't eat gluten. This was devastating. As a child, whenever we'd go out to eat, I'd always fill up in the bread before the meal came. Bread is my favorite! So going to restaurants and being deprived of this bread has been quite a trying feat. So you can imagine my astonishment when the brought out this bread, that not only was gluten free, but also FREE! 

I didn't even need the prime rib I'd just ordered. 

As we made our way to the airport, I was sad to be leaving this beautiful oasis and already anxious for our return. We arrived almost two hours early for our flight- only to find out, we didn't have tickets!? Cheaptickets.com reserved our seats- but didn't pay the airline for our return flight. Disaster. Stranded at the airport at 10 o'clock pm. We spent three hours on the phone trying to get them to fix our reservation with no luck. We missed our flight and were "stuck" in Hawaii another day. Bittersweet I guess you could say. (sweet for me and bitter for Jared..) However, it was just about a monsoon that extra day in Paradise, so we spent it snuggled up and my Grandparents house watching movies and playing cards.

And lastly, no trip to Kauai could be complete without beautiful sunsets, coconuts, and exotic fruits.