Matt and I are here on the island of Kauai, celebrating 10 happy years of marriage, for 10 full days. There will be alot of stuff to talk about, so I am writing it all down as we go. Partly for my own personal memory and also to inform everyone of what we’ve been up to while we were here. And yes, I’ll go into detail! 
Monday was travel day. We were travelling USAirways. I have to admit, I was worried about our layover in Phoenix. If our flight out of Pittsburgh was late, we were in trouble. But, for the first time in a long time, neither flight was delayed, and the one to Kauai was even early to land.
Flying first class is awesome. It’s wonderful to be in those bigger seats and only the two of us in a row. I was disappointed that neither flight had foot rests though. I liked that we could have beverage service right off the bat, although I didn’t need any. I do have to say that the flight attendant on the first flight was “friendly-bordering-on-annoying” though. The meal we were given was actually appropriate for me. I wasn’t sure how veg-friendly it would be, or how filling, so I had a Qdoba breakfast burrito before the flight. The breakfast I was given was yogurt/granola, a croissant and fresh fruit. I ate the fruit and the croissant, and a few bites of the yogurt. Just mostly to confirm that I, indeed, do not care for yogurt. Matt slept through the meal.
In Phoenix, we had the dilemma that it was breakfast time there, but we were already up for over 6 hours and WANTING lunch, and KNOWING that there was no way the meal on the plane would be suitable, I had to find something and settled on pizza, which turned out to be VERY good. Later, when the flight attendant asked me which meal I wanted, I told her neither. She asked me if I would like it later, and I said “no, I’m vegetarian”. She was nice though, and brought me a salad (which was tasty and made of REAL greens) and a roll. I thought that was very thoughtful. It’s not her fault her stupid “boss” didn’t offer vegetarian meals on these particular flights. Nor kosher or gluten free. Wonderful, eh?
When we landed in Kauai, our first stop was to Wal-Mart. Now, I hate Wal-Mart you probably know and avoid it like the plague. But sometimes, in paradise, we gotta go where we gotta go. So to Wal-Mart we go. We wanted some groceries and beach supplies. They didn’t have beach supplies at all. But fortunately, after exploring the closet, we found everything we needed here at the condo.
Our condo is nice, our view is beautiful. The ocean waves right outside our door. I’m listening to them rush right now. It’s very relaxing. With the screen doors and windows, it keeps it cool. The bedroom and bathrooms, however, are stifling. A bit of advice to any future beach condo renters. Get a second or third floor space … then you can keep the windows open all night and sleep with the breeze!
That night, we went to bed early. I tried to stay awake until 10:00 p.m., which would have meant I was up for 24 hours, thinking it would be cool to say that and also would help to adjust to island time. But, alas, I fell asleep at 8:45 p.m. Matt was later than that. Of course, we were up before 7:00 a.m. the next morning.
Tuesday, we got up and had breakfast and took a walk. It was already hot at 8:00 a.m. Uh-oh, that doesn’t bode well for running! We then came back here and was lazy for awhile and went to Poipu beach. The beach was nice, but not practical for what I call swimming … going out into the waves and riding them. There are too many rocks, and I was afraid I would be knocked over by current and get my head banged up and at worst, die, and at best, be bruised. So we sat on the edge of the water and let the waves hit us there. I enjoyed that. Eventually, we did go back to our chairs and sat down and read. I thought we were in the shade, but I am lobster red, so I guess not. The nice thing about the beach is that there is a grassy area, so we didn’t have to sit in the sand. And trees … which, apparently, do not offer any sun protection.
Cool beach happenings … we noticed a bunch of people standing by the water and pointing and taking pictures. We eventually got up and joined them and saw a HUGE sea turtle swimming. He came nearly to shore and worked his way back out. I really wish we would have had our camera.
Another thing, we were surrounded by chickens and chicks and even, I think, quail. Chickens run all over Kauai, and the roosters are confused, as they caw “Cock-a-doodle-do” all day long. While we were sitting in our chairs, reading, some chickens came over to us and just hung out. A mama with her babies were in the area too. Now … in all of m life, I I never thought I’d share beach space with chickens. It’s surreal. See, I always say “Chickens are our friends”.
We decided to go out to the best pizza in Kauai for dinner. Our GPS had us going the wrong way (apparently when Kauai lists an address as 2-something, you need that 2- cause its not the same as 3- ). It was the best pizza! I had zucchini and green onion, and the zucchini was sliced rounds and not chopped, and looked very pretty. On our wrong way drive we saw birds sitting on cows.
Wednesday once again found us up early. And boy, did we fill it. We didn’t have any way to carry water, so we postponed our run until tomorrow, and decided to hike instead. However, before we did that, we headed up to Lihue to go to the “big” grocery store. We started out at Hilo Hattie’s so I could get some sundresses, and then to K-Mart for long sleeves and SPF 50! for the beach. The store was okay. I thought the selection small, but was impressed with the amount of organic and other healthy options it had. But food here is so expensive.
After that trip, we went on the hike. We chose a hike nearby that was recommended by our travel book. It was a bit “off the beaten path”. The directions say to follow the road until it dead ends and go on the unpaved road. It started out unpaved, but then became rocky and very hard to navigate … especially in our Mustang. The trail started at Gillen beach and travelled up some cliffs. We, however, walked down the wrong path and was at the group of four beaches first. These beaches were wonderful! Nice and isolated, although swimming would be trecherous. It was perfect for walking and hanging out though. We walked probably an extra mile to get to the trail start and had to navigate a stream. Matt managed to jump over it, but I removed my shoes and socks and walked through. Then I had sand in my shoes. Oh well, I am in Kauai after all. Anyway, the trail was made of lithified sand dunes. The water really rages up against the rocks there. We took some awesomely beautiful pictures.
After the hike, we came back to the condo to change. That is the lovely part of this trip, we have a lovely comfy space to keep coming back to. While we were here, the management company knocked on the door and wanted to swap out a couch. But then they changed their mind. Whatever.
Out to dinner at Poipu Tropical Burgers that was NOT nearly as bad as the reviews said. Our service was friendly, the fries were good. I liked my housemade veggie burger, and Matt said that his burger was “ordinary”. But ordinary doesn’t mean mad. We walked around the shops there, and we will probably go back at the end of our stay for souvenirs and gifts. Then we had some gelato. Yum! So much cheaper than Vegas’! I chose french vanilla and pumpkin spice and Matt had chocolate and french vanilla.
The only really “bad” thing to report is that Matt (it had to be him, he was the only one closing the windows) killed a poor innocent gecko, that was hanging out in the window track. Apparently, he closed the window on the poor dear thing and then when we opened the window, he was crushed. We didn’t even notice until we went to shut it again. We are very remorseful for this senseless killing.
So that is days 1-3! More fun to come!
Have fun and enjoy!
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