September Awesomeness

This has been a fabulous month so far! After I returned from Kauai, 2 days later Becky and Bronwen arrived! Bronwen is here to stay and promptly moved into the guest room here at the Hart B&B. We're actually less breakfast and more cocktail hour, but whatever. We've had a blast the last week and a half. We spent crazy amounts of time at the beach, like full days! We did Waimea Bay, Papailoa with baby sea turtles, hiked Diamond Head, rented stand up paddleboards, did a dolphin cruise, drove the other side of the island (Waianae), CRH took them snorkeling one day, saw a mama and baby monk seal, and drank enough wine to float a Navy ship. It was a MUCH needed, super fun, jam packed good time.

Today, we took Eve to the new Disney Aulani resort near Ko'olina. It is impressive! I feel badly that she's made it to 8 years old and has never been to Disney, so I appreciate Disney bringing a piece here to the island. They are stupid expensive with their room rates, so we won't be staying there but we can totally afford the character breakfast and walking around the grounds (free...lol). It was a blast and Eve got to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Stitch.

Kauai Weekend

I have been dying to go to Kauai for the longest time. We've talked about, but it's just never happened. A friend of mine was taking his son racing this weekend for the State Motorcross race and invited me along. I am thrilled that I went because it was a fabulous time.

We flew in Friday night and ate dinner and went to bed. They got an early start to the track on Saturday and I laid by the pool literally all day reading my book. O-M-G...it was pure bliss. We started happy hour around lunch time and it was just a day of relaxation.

Sunday was race day and my prissy self spent the day in the dirt at the track. While I was definitely out of my element, it was very fun and Jesse took 3rd place overall. It was a great day followed by a lovely dinner and a party at the track to give out trophies and such.

Today was an epic vacation day! We got up, had breakfast, and lounged by the pool some more. I'm always at the beach here, but for whatever reason the pool was calling me this weekend. After pool time, we took a helicopter tour over Kauai before flying back to Oahu tonight. Robby and Jesse had never been on a helicopter before and it was a gorgeous day to go around the island.

We started in Lihue and flew up the coast into Waimea Canyon.

We were able to see Niihau, which is a private island right off of Kauai that only Native Hawaiians and the guys that own the island can live on. Visitation is limited. There's some trippy stuff going on with that, but we'll save that for another day. From here, we flew over Manawaiopuna Falls (aka Jurassic Falls because they filmed a scene from Jurassic Park here).

Then we hit the Na Pali Coast. This is a stretch of coast that is amazingly beautiful and only accessible by boat, air, or foot. It's an 11 mile hike in from the parking lot if you are so inclined, so 22 miles round trip. I'm thinking this may be above my hiking range abilities, but I bet it's awesome!!

As we flew along the coast, we veered over into Waialeale Crater. This place was chocked full of waterfalls. I mean I've never seen so many at once! It was amazing. I didn't take many pictures because we were flying super close to them and because it was rainy, but wow. After this, we flew over Ha'ena Beach, Hanalei Bay, and by Princeville.

Then we headed back to Lihue with a view of the Sleeping Giant. Awesome trip!