Kauai – The Garden Island of My Life

It’s a miracle – I finally am posting the last of this series on my trip to Hawaii last year. I realize it has taken me 7 months but, hey, here it is! Life of a Mom, Director, Designer and Wife isn’t full of spare time as you know! I hadn’t been to Kauai in over 20 years since I last went to the island so it was essentially like never having been there. Everything was different to me but it hadn’t lost any of it magic that I remembered from decades ago when I last visited. The garden island does not disappoint – I wish we had stayed o this island the bulk of the trip as it was my absolute favorite of them all.

When you take a quick charter flight and hop over to the next island, and arrive to these images, you know why it is truly the garden island – I cannot remember the last time I encountered beautiful, natural majesty in every direction you looked. It’s also a very temperamental island, so the weather changes left and right, rain can move in anytime and its generally very warm. Not one good hair day on this island for me but SO worth it – this curly haired girl can’t wait to get back. I mean, this is right out of the airport and a few minutes down the street….

A la rogue and natural hair…I think it’s just time to stop fighting nature. And I read perms are making a comeback now. I think I might be the perfect candidate.

The pics really don’t do it justice and I shoot everything now on IPhone so sometimes the color isn’t quite the same had I shot these on my Canon but it’s heaven. On earth. No place like it and I cried when we left. Home sweet home for the last leg of the trip was a quaint Airbnb that was a house so we could change it up from the resort hotel we had just come from.

You know, just your average backyard street walk down to a local beach…heaven. The weather is so temperamental, being the wettest place on earth, that one minute its hot/sunny and the next windy/rain. I wouldn’t say cold though. Definitely not cold. The beaches are also much choppier and not as calm as in Maui but they are stunning.

There is no bad view in Kauai, no matter what side or part you are in. It feels like a lost world that still hasn’t been touched much and as if just you and the island are there together. So many amazing trails off to the sides of roads and one included hiking down a very steep, rope contraption at points, which wasn’t the safest for a 5 year old but we loved the adventure…and found the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life. We found this spot driving through a neighborhood and climbed down the side of cliff to find the most epic beach ever.

The ocean was peeking at us from below the cliff, which was muddy and dark, but we had no idea this green-blue oasis was waiting below.

Magnify the colors times 20 because that is what this looked like in person. White sands, blue crystal waters and black lava rock colors amplified. Plus nobody on this beach, so all to ourselves, which seemed unreal. I felt like I was on an episode of Lost.

I was so inspired by this roadside, hidden oasis that I ended up buying a bunch of local artist prints and paintings with Hawaiian flowers. The colors were so vibrant that it made you want to pick up a paint brush and go to town!

Muggy + Moisture = crazy hair

I’m actually quite impressed by my 5 year olds camera abilities here…but when you are alone on a “desert” island this is the only us shot we could get

We could have stayed there all day…the pics really don’t do it justice. I really left a piece of my soul on that beach when we left. It was truly spectacular and I will return again.

All I really wanted for my birthday (aside from chocolate cake, getting to that below) was to go lava cave tubing. I believe that for vacations you should go half R&R and half adventure. So when I found out you can do this only in Kauai, I was all in from the start. We had a sitter since this is not something little ones can do and took off to the caves. It’s muddy, dirty, wet and fantastic. You float with guides down a river in the back woods of the Hawaiian “Grand Canyon”, which Johnny Depp even took because it was too pirate-y to pass up, and have the best time of your life…it was beautiful, fast, and totally worth the jeep trek into the jungle!

My view… no cute shoes for this adventure

Here’s what going down a lava tube cave in an inner tube looks like – you don’t have any control over anything, so if you are a control freak like me, this is a great way to conquer your need to be in charge…because you aren’t. The water, tube, and river are. Totally amazing! Yes, you crash into walls and each other, spin, and go fast to slow. It was so fun. This was a slower part of the tubing:

The Mr. sure looks comfortable on that tube

This entire trip I whined about wanting a piece of chocolate cake. While we had plenty of treats nothing compares to Icing on the Cake bakery back home so my perpetual whining must have taken a toll on the Mr. because on our last morning of the trip, I woke up to the warm smell of chocolate….and found this creation waiting for me:

I have not laughed so hard in a long time….I mean, the sloppy, goopy, warm cake with a 5-year old licking his fingers in every moment of its creation was the best present ever. Not to mention the candle – it came home with us and will be used on all cake’s in the house from this point forward for anyone over the age of 18. Age: Undisclosed.

At the farthest tip of the island (near Princeville) we found the most amazing scenery and a pink Winnie…its like they find me folks. I swear, I’m working on creating one in real life because they just talk to my soul. We are in the middle of nowhere in a rainstorm and this little pink bundle of heaven rolls up selling coconuts outside a giant lava cave. I mean, does it get better than that?

Just your average back yard…

They just couldn’t get enough of that hand sign…cheeseballs

I did not have one good hair day or moment on this island – that’s the only negative

I can find if you are thick, curly haired girl. It’s just out of control. Period. I gave up on fighting nature.

Starting to say our goodbye’s

Downtown Princeville is just as quaint and tropical cute as it can get….this is the outdoor shopping mall/dining food court area. Um, my local mall’s eatery looks nothing like this that is for sure.

Love, love, love the hanging rattan basket lights…

He really got into posing on this trip…

I need windsocks in my life…

A visit to Postcards Cafe, an infamous spot in Princeville, but i can’t say the food is that great like it was 20 years ago…but a very quaint, beautiful restaurant …

I need that picnic spot at my own house

The most beautiful mountain range I’ve ever seen…

Until next time Kauai…I’ve missed you everyday since we left and plan to go back again soon. The most spectacular of all Hawaiian islands in my book and a land where technology is almost non-existent. Win, win. Aloha.