kauai beaches

at Poipu beach in the south, our first {windy} day

Before we left for Kauai, we made a list of all the things we wanted to do when we were there. Many of those things just didn't happen (there were a variety of reasons for this, but the primary one was lack of time), but ,lots of beach time and snorkeling were two things we were NOT going to skip!

We are HUGE dorks. We have accepted this fact.

Believe it or not, the weather was pretty terrible when we went to Kauai--incredibly windy, high swells, lots of chilly rain. It was warmer and sunnier back home! We only had two sunny days while we were there: our first day and our last day! In that time, though, we'd managed to visit Poipu beach, Waimea beach, Kapa'a beach, Queen's pond (a beach in Polihale state park), Ke'e Beach, and Tunnels Beach. The weather was pretty bad when we tried to go to Hanalei Bay, which was also on our list, so that one didn't happen. Still. I feel pretty good about what we got done :)

Poipu beach on a WINDY day

Poipu beach is down in the south near where many hotels are located, and it was lauded by our concierge as great snorkeling. We had fun there, to be sure, but it wasn't our favorite! The swells were pretty high this particular day and it was intermittently rainy (we were in the water so we didn't know until we found our stuff wet!), and the water as a result was very cloudy. There were some fun fish to see but overall it wasn't the best snorkeling on the island. We did have fun, though!

Snorkel at Poipu beach

 I was most impressed by Polihale in the West and the beaches we visited in the North; all the southern and eastern beaches were either crowded, the swell was too high to swim, or the weather was bad.

the dirt road to Polihale State Park on the Western side of the island

Polihale State park is only accessible by dirt roads, and it's a good forty minutes from other towns? Our little compact rental struggled a little over the roads, but the end view was so worth it. Stretches of white sand, almost deserted, framed by the gorgeous Na'Pali coast.

Polihale State Park

Polihale State Park

We went out to Polihale at the end of a very long day, and we weren't able to stay very long because we had a good two hour drive back to a dinner reservation, but it is definitely a spot that we would recommend to anyone heading to Kauai in the future.

Queen's Pond in Polihale

Our favorite part of Polihale (aside from the lack of people!) was Queen's pond, a huge sandbar under the water that protects the beach from the pounding surf. The swell was quite high the day we went, and yet the Queen's Pond area was quite calm, not to mention gorgeous!

We finally made it to the North Shore on our last day (darn weather!), and were so glad we went! Our camera died partway through the day so we only got pictures from Ke'e beach, but we were so impressed with the beauty of the North Shore.

Snorkeling at Ke'e Beach

Perhaps we had a good day because the storm had cleared, but the waves were calm (ish), there was little wind, no rain, and the water was crystal clear. Lots to see!

Have you ever been to Kauai? 

What is your favorite beach?

a shopping chain made our vacation happen

So, we just got back from a week in Kauai. Before I tell you all about our trip, though, I have to share with you how it happened. It's pretty awesome.

Long story short, we had to get to Kauai at the end of April because our friend Alanna was getting married. We decided to make it a vacation and extend the trip a few days on either end, and thanks to a bunch of random incidents, we were able to make it happen. That's where we left off last time we talked about it.

the beach in front of our hotel, the Aston Islander on the Beach in Kapa'a Town

Here's the thing, though. I knew next to nothing about Kauai when we started planning the trip, so the initial process of picking places to stay was really difficult. I've heard 100 different things from 100 different people about the best hotels to book and the best beaches for snorkeling and the best part of the island to rent a room, and soon I was swimming in way too much information.

Adding to all of that, flights from our town to Kauai at this time of year were going to be a LOT of money, so we didn't really have a ton of wiggle room in terms of rooms and a rental car (which was a necessity in our case because we had to make it to the wedding at the very least).

Headache central.

To save on some of the headache, I started looking at vacation packages on sites like Livingsocial and Groupon. My extensive (ugh) research showed that the pricing on these packages were comparable or cheaper than booking everything separately, and they would save me some hassle by picking the town in which we would be staying. We jumped around a bit before landing on the surprising winner: Costco Travel.

Yep, turns out our membership is good for more than bulk groceries and a fabulous return policy. All things held constant, Costco's prices were a good $500 cheaper than any other travel site I checked, and trust me when I said I checked a lot of them. Most of the packages included fun extras, too: some had extra tours, some included free upgrades for room or car, and some had daily breakfasts for two! You could also upgrade or downgrade in a few places to control the experience you wanted, which was pretty cool; we upped our room's view and downgraded to a compact car.

I just entered Kauai as our destination, selected our dates of travel (settling on a Tuesday-to-Monday schedule because it was the least expensive), and added in the required details (class of travel, number of people, include a car, etc), and hit search. There were only a few packages in Kauai from which I could choose, which for me was great: eenie-meenie-meiney-mo!

We ended up picking a hotel package in Kapa'a Town, a town on the western coast of the island. For our first trip to Kauai, it was a good location because it was almost equidistant between the beautiful North Shore and the Poipu area, from where most of our excursions departed. We did a LOT of driving, but feel like we know enough of the island to pick a spot to stay next time :)

Our hotel. Our first room was garden and partial ocean view, and we later moved to an ocean front room. See why below:

We ended up staying at the Aston Islander on the Beach, an older plantation-style beachfront hotel on six acres. I took a gamble on selecting this hotel, because the reviews on Costco.com weren't great. Turns out, reviews are helpful little tidbits; should have listened to them! So, future reference, the Aston Islander on the Beach in Kapa'a isn't fancy or updated in any way.

Our teeny oceanfront room with mini-fridge and microwave.

 They were also undergoing construction, which was a fun surprise. To be fair, we booked pretty early so the construction notification hadn't been posted on the hotel website yet.... and there really isn't a great time to undergo construction. But still. This was our view on one side of our balcony:

View from our balcony the first half of our trip.

...and this was our view on the other side:

The caution fencing and scaffolding is a nice touch, huh? Now add in jackhammers, nail guns, table saws, and other myriad power tools. Happy Vacation? The part that irked me was that I'd sprung and paid extra for an ocean view, which we sort of had, but construction was so loud outside during the day that we couldn't even open the slider. The final straw happened on our third night, when our fridge malfunctioned and leaked a huge puddle of water across the tile floor and soaked up into the clothes still in my suitcase. Not thrilled.

The lanai view from the second half of our week.

 Customer service was very gracious and apologetic, and they moved us to an ocean-front room free of charge (uh, duh!), as well as removed ALL of the daily resort fees. Whoo!

We had breakfast on the balcony every morning. I will blame Tim's beer on jetlag; our bodies thought it was afternoon...?

Despite the oddness of the hotel itself, I was really happy with our experience with Costco Travel, and I will definitely consider them again for our next vacation. We saved enough money on the room/car/flight package to go on two excursions while we were there: an ATV adventure and a snorkel trip around the Na'Pali coast. We also got in a bunch of beach and snorkel time AND had the wedding day, too, so it was a packed trip! More on all that later :)

*I was not compensated for this post, I just had a great experience using Costco for our vacation and wanted to share!

the getaway that was meant to be

This past year has been pretty crazy, life-wise. We've had quite a few twists and turns; many were life-altering, most were unexpected. Some were devastating.

We needed a break, bad. A getaway. SOMETHING. We traveled a lot last year for weddings, and sometimes would extend the trip to include a weekend. Those were GREAT, but since we had jobs at so many of the weddings we didn't really get to enjoy the time. What we needed was a REAL getaway. A three-day weekend, longer if possible!

Lumahai Beach, Kauai via

Then, things started adding up. My good college friend, Alanna, gets engaged and books her wedding on her home island of Kauai. Flights would be expensive, but we knew that we wanted to be there for her, or at least I would go. We would figure it out. Another wedding weekend getaway. 

Could we both do it? Could we EXTEND it? You know, make the cost of the flight work double-time, a wedding and a vacation?

Aerial view of Lihue, Kauai via

The cost for the flight was painful for two people, but once our friend started getting really serious with her boyfriend, we started saving. By the time she got engaged, we knew we both could probably go! Another obstacle down. 

Then, Tim lands a new job with a new company, and he was given an extra five days of vacation time as a signing bonus. Which is paid, by the way, as vacation days are. FIVE! We could do a whole week, if we could find a good enough deal that wouldn't cut into our plan of saving for a home. 

via

So I start researching. Just to see. 

The final detail closed in a few weeks ago, and we were blown away. 

The Lord provided :)

via

A commission check we'd forgotten all about (from Tim's old job) arrived at our house, a check that would allow us to cover our whole trip and still have some left over to put into our savings. Seriously, praise God!

via

Vacation in Kauai 2014 just got booked. This is so happening. Seven days, six nights in paradise, with a great friend's wedding in the middle. All completely provided for. Can't get better than that.

Have you ever had the pieces for a plan fall together like that before?

Any recommendations about what to do while we're on Kauai?

cotton

So last week was our second anniversary (whoot!).
The traditional gift for the second year of marriage is cotton; you're more comfortable with your spouse by year two. Sweet right?

Except here's the thing. What the heck do you do for a cotton gift??! Even creative me was stumped. All the websites said T-shirt or fluffy robe or socks or something, blah blah blah. Boring as heck.

But then I saw on some wedding blog or something (I read a lot, don't judge me for not remembering where) that someone had gotten a getaway for her husband for their anniversary, and counted it as cotton because of the hotel linens.

Sweet! Since Jordan and Elisse were getting married on a Friday, we would extend our stay in Ojai through the end of the weekend as a little Anniversary getaway.

Boom. DONE. That totally counts. Don't you dare tell me otherwise ;)

So, from Thursday until Sunday morning, we rented a little guest house just two blocks from "downtown" Ojai through AirBNB. Thursday and Friday were filled with the rehearsal dinner and wedding, and Saturday and Sunday we had mostly to ourselves to celebrate two years of marriage.

Our rental cottage was a dog-friendly mother-in-law unit in the backyard of a local home. It was a teeny tiny little studio with a kitchenette, dining area, bathroom, sitting area, bed, and patio. All we really needed, right?

The room from the front door (showing kitchen and bathroom) // view from patio door (showing bed and sitting area

Outside the french doors in the dining area, there was a cute little patio with a stone wall setting it off from the main house's backyard. Yes, I did find it a little creepy that the owners of the house had full view into our little patio area, but they never went out there so I worried for nothing. The wedding was Friday and Tim had the morning "off" from best man duties, so we enjoyed breakfast out on the patio before it got to be scalding hot outside (temps hit 110 in the afternoons!!!!!!!). I was able to get some sun and reading in before the wedding out there, too, but I made sure to sit under the umbrella!

The cottage's patio // Daisy watching the chicken coop

It was charming and woodsy (read: unfinished) and although it fit our needs, I wouldn't have recommended it to anyone else. Simple amenities like trash bags or a pen to sign their guestbook weren't provided and the owner did not communicate very often with us (um, what's the wifi password? When's checkout? Where can we park? What's the ADDRESS??!). This was the first so-so experience we've had with AirBNB though.

Saturday morning we slept in (a ton!!! we were exhausted after the wedding) and went to a late breakfast at a little place called Eggs n' Potatoes. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and this place passed muster. They gave us complimentary breakfast crepes while we waited for our food (read: the food took a good long while but we didn't really care because the crepes were free and yummy. Good ploy!).

post-wedding excitement // free breakfast crepes while we waited!

After breakfast, we decided to spend some time poolside at Ojai Valley Inn with some of our friends who were staying there. While parking by the lobby, we ran into Jordan and Elisse, who were on their way to the pool too!! After making sure they wanted to hang out with all of us on the first day of their honeymoon (they would leave that night at 1am for Thailand), we headed down to the pool with them.

Tim debriefing the wedding with Jordan and Elisse!

The Newlyweds! (Not sure why this picture's color is so funny!!)

It was so fun to catch up with Jordan and Elisse and debrief the wedding with them. I was so humbled and blessed that they wanted to spend the first day of their honeymoon with us, because we could think of a bunch of other stuff they could have been doing ;) It was a really special time.

The six of us alternately lounged poolside and took dips to cool off. 

I had to take the picture like this because every other angle made us both look naked haha

After the newlyweds left to go check out and head to LA to catch their plane to Thailand, Tim and I spent a little more time by the pool before heading to the nearest beach in Ventura (because frankly we were a little bored with Ojai). Daisy had been locked in her kennel most of the morning and needed to get a little exercise in, and we were a little tired of the ridiculously hot weather. It was time for some ocean breezes.

ready to RUN // ahhhhhhH!

We walked up and down the beach while Daisy chased birds and children, stalked other dogs, and tried to eat a dead seal. It was adventure for all haha

Daisy is more interested in stalking other dogs than playing with them, most of the time.
She'll sniper-crawl all the way across the beach sometimes to sneak up on some unsuspecting animal!

When Daisy had her fill of chasing things and we were sufficiently cooled down, we headed back to Ojai for our anniversary dinner. We chose Suzanne's Cuisine as the restaurant, mostly because Yelpers said it was good and there wasn't a whole lot else to choose from.

The food was delicious (we ordered a mushroom crostini for an appetizer, Arugula salad with grilled veggies and goat cheese for him and butter lettuce salad with bleu cheese and pecans for me, followed by a delicious scallop dish that claimed to be thai curry but they must have forgotten the curry). Unfortunately, both of us got food poisoning from the mushrooms and had to leave before having dessert! We picked up a box of instant hot chocolate to have at our cottage once we were feeling better.

The whole night wasn't a bust, though, because we got to pop open the last bottle of wine left from our wedding. We finished most of it a few months after our wedding, but saved this bottle to be opened on our second anniversary. There was dust on the bottle and everything! It was so totally worth the wait; even though it wasn't an expensive bottle or anything, it still got better with some time :)

In all and with a few exceptions, it was a fabulous weekend. The setting was beautiful, the company was fabulous, and the occasion for visiting Ojai was meaningful, but the town itself left us underwhelmed. We recognize that we are incredibly blessed with a current hometown that never ceases to surprise us, and we were a little disappointed with what Ojai had to offer. We probably won't visit again, but are we glad we went?

You betcha.

Year 1 from him & her