SOCIAL MEDIA

Monday, October 14, 2013

Honeymoon Part 1

Let me start by saying that I had the best honeymoon.  We were gone for 11 days, and it was amazing.  AMAZING!  We flew from Reno to San Francisco, San Francisco to Lihue, Hawaii.  Warning, this post is picture heavy, and the next post will be too.

Here is my lovely husband at the San Francisco airport.
After we got to Kauai with our (ok my way over packed luggage plus golf bag) luggage, it was rental car and condo check-in.  Easy is an understatement compared to my other work travels.  We didn't do much that day since I was still on pain killers and we wanted to acclimate and watch some football.

Monday we drove to Hanalei (cool little surfer town in the Northern part of the island), but once we got there, we had to turn around since it was raining and the one lane bridge was threatened by flooding waters and we would stuck there if we didn't leave.  These are from the Kapaa area and a bit north of there.
 Lookout from the lighthouse
Surfer at a beach near Kapaa

Tuesday were to hike (more of a walk) to a more secluded beach and hang out.  After poor trip advisor notes (basically everyone said to just drive there and hang out rather than walk it, but not in those blatant terms), we ended up there without the walk/hike on the Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail.  We did hike around a bit in that area and these are some of those photos.  Breath taking.
 A hidden beach on the Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail
 
 

This little monk seal was so cute.  He was just chilling on the beach, and he didn't mind people coming up to him.  He even sneezed and would make noises for us.

We drove around to another beach, state park area to just hang out and have a beer (which you are not supposed to drink at state parks, but everyone else was doing it).  And we saw the Spouting Horn, but since the tide was up, it wasn't blowing (no pun intended) as big.
State Park
Wednesday we decided to play golf.  Now I am not very good, but after this trip, I can say I am a whole lot better.  Finally keeping my head down and it all comes together.  But before we could golf, we stopped at Rainbeau Jo's (food/coffee truck).  They had the best lattes and they were in an industrial part of Lihue.

We golfed at Puakea Golf Course which is in Lihue and it has the backdrop of the area that Jurassic Park 1 and 2 were filmed.  This area is gorgeous, but to the right is a Costco which takes a bit away from it.  The course played well and the greens were very fast.

We had an amazing dinner Wednesday night at Merriman's.  This was part of a gift from our wedding.  We were told by my husband's uncle that we had to go to their favorite dinner place on Kauai.  It did not disappoint.  We had two cocktails each (mine was a special that had pineapple soaked in vodka with other juices....AMAZING), a fresh sashimi trio appetizer (the fish was like butter....best raw fish I have EVER had), I had the pan roasted diver scallops which came with creamed sweet corn, asparagus and bacon.  Best combo ever.  Rory had the special of the day Mahi Mahi.  It had incredible flavors.  We had wine with our dinner, and banana lumpia (vanilla bean gelato, house made chocolate sauce and Kauai coffee caramel dulce.  Everything about this meal was amazing.  Here is a food shot.

Thursday was a partially rainy day, so stayed in the Poipu/Koloa area.

Did I mention Kauai has some amazing sunsets?  No, well here are a few of them.

I have more sunsets for my other post.  Next up, was our trip to Waimea Canyon (Thursday).

Waimea Canyon is said to be the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  It did not disappoint.  We drove to the first look out point, and then the rest of them.  We started a hike on one of them, but it was really muddy, so we turned back and headed up the canyon.
Unbelievable, right?

This was one of the best sites in Kauai.  Tied for a hike that we took that will be in the next post.

Did I mention that Kauai has a ton of chickens?  I am talking like everywhere you turn there are chickens.  There was a hurricane that hit in 1992 and the people in Kauai let all the chickens out of their cages because you get fined for killing chickens.  Plus they wanted to save them.  Well many years later, they just roam around.  And if you kill one, it is a minimum of $300 fine.  Ouch.  This one was one of my favorites.  He was at a lookout point on the Waimea Canyon.
Isn't he cute?
In the words of my husband..."Kap would have wanted me to Kaepernick here".
A few more photos from the Waimea Canyon.

These little guys were so cute and so annoying at the same time.  At the top of Waimea Canyon you can go to a museum and hang out and have a picnic.  We brought some food from the Koloa Fish Market plus a sandwich from the Koloa Deli to share, and these little guys decided to join us.  What you can't see is about another 10 chickens surrounding us.  They are very brave and/or stupid and get so close to you.
As we were finishing our lunch, the fog started to set in and you couldn't see that far out over the canyon, so get there early if you go to get it all in.  So glad we got there when we did.  After Waimea Canyon, we headed back towards our condo, but not without a stop at the famous Jo Jo's.   Jo Jo's is a shaved ice place.  I have always liked shaved ice, but I have never had this kind.  Amaze-balls.  They put ice cream at the bottom if you want (I got macadamia nut) and then the softest snow like shaved ice and just the right amount of flavoring.  There wasn't too much syrup where you are left with a bunch at the bottom.  Nope, just right.
I got the #2 and my husband got the #6 because they were out of the #11 he orginally ordered.  So good.  This is basically what mine looked like.

Next up will be our awesome but hard hike on the Kalalau Trail, Hanalei, football, more golf, Roy's restaurant and our atv tour.  Best trip.  I love reliving our honeymoon.

Plus this week, we get our wedding photos back from our photographer.  I can't wait.  I have been dying to see them.  And one of my mom's friends had her wedding at our venue on October 5th, and I must say ours was so much better.  Mean, maybe, but true, definitely.

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