Kauai Photos

First morning in Kauai, waiting for the sun to rise!

Worth waking up at 4 am.  Just kidding, I was long awake by 4 am since I had gone to bed at 4 pm the night before.  That time change is a killer!

Day 2:  We spent our second day kayaking.  We rented some kayaks and packed a picnic lunch.

After a little kayaking, we headed down a trail to Secret Falls.

One of the prettiest hikes I have ever seen.

Coming out of this little foliage tunnel and it looked like we were on the set of Lost or Jurassic Park.

The Falls.  It was busy.  As soon as we stepped into the water, I slipped on a rock and sliced open my heel.  So I stayed on the rocks while Matt swam (there was some warning about the bacteria in the water and open wounds...eeek.)

Matt under the waterfall

Me just chllin'

I couldn't resist trying to climb this tree that was growing sideways!

Back on the kayak and we decided to explore further up the river.

We were the only ones on this part of the river and it was so quiet and peaceful.

We paddled up to the Fern Grotto.  Cool, and bonus, they had bathrooms!

Day 3:  Beach!! I think this was Ke'e beach.  Matt did some snorkeling, and I napped.  We hit up several beaches that day.  The snorkeling was so fun!  No sea turtles, but tons of colorful fish and sea urchins.

Day 4:  On Saturday we headed out on a zip line adventure.  It was beautiful and fun, but too pricey for the experience in my opinion.

This area really was where parts of Jurassic World were filmed.

Matt went upside down, of course.

Sunday we spent in the hotel watching General Conference and preparing for our epic hike!!  The next few days were spent there.  (See previous post).

Day 8:  After returning from Kalalau, napping, showering and finally feeling clean again, we headed out to explore a bit.  This is on the beach next to the Marriott Hotel.  We went to Duke's to check out the Hula Pie.  Fabulous.  

Day 9: Our last day, we decided to drive up to Waimea Canyon.  It was a long, winding road.  We were both a little sick by the time we got to this viewpoint, and decided to turn around.
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We had already check out of our hotel and we had several hours before our red eye flight, so we went back to the beach, attempting to get a little more color before heading home.  (we both got fried.)

After a night time flight, we arrived in Phoenix bright and early, like 7am?  My brother in law and sister in law and their daughter were there to hang out with us!  What a fun way to spend a layover.  We were so excited to get home to the kids, who basically didn't miss us at all, but we had a wonderful vacation.  It was so much fun to hang out, just the two of us.  I think we would both do this vacation again in a heartbeat, even the crazy backpacking trip.  In fact, I think we would do a longer backpacking trip....