Aloha Kaua'i

They say better late than never, so this trip actually happened in April, but hey what can I say....I've been preoccupied since. 

Back in beautiful Kaua'i, here on a study-cation, but before getting into the happenings of this vacation, I need to rewind the clock 6 months and recall a forgotten trip to Maui. We booked our stay at the newly renovated Wailea Marriott. Here we were treated to a wonderful room upgrade that put us in an Oceanview, ground floor room with walk-out access to the serenity pool (adult's only pool). What was very special about this room was the size of the private deck which not only had the standard table and chairs, it also had a sectional couch along with a reclining, cushioned sun-bed for two. These little amenities made it very hard to want to leave the room. Shortly after we settled in, a special delivery arrived to our room - a chilled bottle of chardonnay and a pre-sliced pineapple. It was a pleasant surprise and wonderful treat to kick off our vacation and celebrate our Mauiversary. This trip was pretty chill, I had to study, and Z got to spend his time at the beach. Z experienced a bit of a misfortune this time around. On day 2, he got stung by something and didn't think much of it. Except that the following day while we were enjoying a lovely evening out at the Hyatt's Lu'au with friends, we noticed that his foot was starting to swell. Again, not thinking too much of it, but now realizing that maybe something wasn't quite right, yet still willing to "see what happens", we continued on with our evening and enjoyed the cultural show and a great dinner. By the next morning his foot had swollen so much that it no longer looked like he had an ankle. Reluctantly, Z went to a medical clinic and found out that the sting was infected and that he needed antibiotics to treat this. This put a little damper on his fun because he was also instructed to stay out of the water for 2 days which also meant he had to skip out on a night dive he was looking forward to. Thankfully towards the end of the trip he got the all-clear and was back in the water.  On our last day as we were checking out, the hotel offered us a return package for a pretty good deal, which is what brought us back to Hawaii so quickly. 

Fast forward......to Kaua’i. We fell in love with the raw, natural beauty of Kaua'i on our first trip here 2 years ago and we had wanted to return at some point. The return package we bought was just the opportunity. We spent a fabulous 10 days on the island and split our time between Lihu'e and Poipu. Not sure which area is my favourite yet, both have great things about them. The Marriott resort in Lihu'e is situated on a cove which generally has calmer waters. Though this time, there was a high surf advisory our first few days which meant the swells were surprisingly larger despite being in a cove. We got to see plenty of surfers because of it. The Marriott had recently undergone some renovations and we were fortunate to stay in a newly renovated one bedroom suite with a view of the ocean and pool. Needless to say we had a lot more room that we needed but it was nice because it gave me separate space I needed to study. Outside of chilling, we didn't go on any adventures this time around; we managed to tackle all the major things last time, so this was truly a beach vacation. Good thing we did the Nāpali Coast hike on our last visit because a bad storm last year wiped out access and it is still inaccessible. Terrible shame to hear that happened. We enjoyed many great meals and experienced a few new restaurants along the way. We met up with a former colleague of Z's and her partner for breakfast one morning at a quaint restaurant called Art Cafe Hemingways. Situated in a cute blue house, in Kapa'a the restaurant is a named tribute to the author and world traveller. A farm to table restaurant that sources its fresh locally grown ingredients from its own farm, this is a great place to eat. We enjoyed not only great food, but great company too. A short walk front our hotel is Lilikoi Bar and Grill. We went there another day for breakfast. One of their specialities is the macadamia nut liliko'i pancake and is really tasty; liliko'i is Hawaiian for passion fruit. This restaurant has nice peek-a-boo views of the cove and the atmosphere is pretty cool. Unfortunately I was not feeling well that day and so I didn't get to really enjoy the food, but Z really enjoyed his breakfast. I ended up in bed the rest of that day and didn't want to eat or really drink anything. Not sure what hit me, but by the next day I was feeling better and all was well again. 

We talked about getting some art from Hawaii for our place so we have a visual memory of the beauty we experience on each of our trips. Z had heard that a town called Hanapepe had an art night one evening so we drove there hoping to find a piece we really liked and could bring back. While we didn't find that special piece, we did find a great restaurant called Bobbi's and had dinner there. A very basic, nothing fancy restaurant that serves amazing tasting food with very large portions; in fact we took our leftovers back for a full dinner for two another night. Serving many local Hawaiian favourite dishes, we finally got to taste huli huli chicken. Now while this wasn't the street side version which we've always been on the look out for, it was super tasty. Amazingly moist and full of flavour, it was the best chicken ever!! Huli huli chicken is a must try for anyone visiting the islands, it's a grilled chicken that is barbecued over mesquite wood and basted with a sweet huli huli sauce. So good!! And in fact I didn't want to eat the pulled pork dish we also ordered because of how good the chicken was. 

For the second half of our trip we relocated ourselves to Poipu and stayed at the Sheraton Kauai Resort. We booked ourselves an oceanfront room and it did not disappoint in the least. Being able to relax on the lanai and just look out at the memorizing blues of the ocean was such a treat. As an added bonus, with the way our lanai was situated we also had the pleasure of watching the incredible Hawaiian sunsets. The room was very spacious and well appointed providing us with everything we needed during our stay. This resort actually has two distinct sides; an ocean side and a garden side with a road splitting the two. The check-in area is on the garden side. The resort is undergoing renovation as they work on converting this resort into a vacation club property but none of this really affected us because the work was all on the garden side. Staying on the ocean side gives you easy access to the beach. The resort has plenty of beach chairs and there are cabana style beach loungers for rent. The beach is a descent size with good swimming and waves for body surfing. The snorkelling here is alright, but the better snorkelling is actually at Poipu beach by the Marriott's Waiohi Beach Club, a short walk from the Sheraton. Z saw a monk seal sunbathing on the beach when he ventured out one day while I chose to stay behind and studying. Can't complain about the views I had while studying except to say that they were rather distracting and really tested my ability to focus.  

The resort has plenty of places to relax. On the ocean side besides the beach and pool areas you can find several fire pits between the buildings that you can sit around in the evening, there are rocking chairs that line the centre grassy space between the buildings along with plenty of chairs lining the edge of the ocean. The pool is rather small and we honestly did not spend any time there. The resort hosted a luau once a week on the grass area by the ocean. It would make for a very scenic luau and seemed quite popular as we snuck a peek as we were heading out for dinner. 

The restaurants on site are Lava's and RumFire. Lava's is an open-air casual restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is situated on the resort's ocean-side and right by the pool. We had breakfast included in our stay which was at Lava's. The food itself was pretty good, though I was highly disappointed to learn they served Starbucks coffee instead of local Kaua'i coffee. The service here was a little hit and miss though particularly during breakfast where one waiter that we kept getting was not only slow but kept carelessly pouring our coffee and spilling it everywhere without even seeming to realize what he was doing. 

RumFire is a more fine dining restaurant. We had dinner here one evening and really enjoyed the food and atmosphere where they have live music in the background. This restaurant has incredible ocean views and would make a great spot to enjoy a sunset dinner.   

We visited the Kilauea Point lighthouse and bird sanctuary during one of our excursions. The history on this site dates back to the 1913 when the 52 foot lighthouse structure was commissioned. The lighthouse sits 180 feet above the Pacific and was restored in 2013 and is now a popular tourist attraction. We took a tour of the lighthouse and got to learn more of the historic operations and the construction of the structure including the unique clam shaped lens. It originally operated using a kerosene lantern which ran the risk of blowing out if the air vents in the lighthouse were not properly managed. The views from the lighthouse are stunning and provide a great vantage point for birdwatching. During whale season it would probably provide great views of the humpback whale migration. This area is also bird sanctuary. We spotted the red-footed booby, the white-tailed Koa'e Kea, and the layman albatross to name a few. The $10 entry fee per person was well worth it. This is also where we found our Hawaiian art work by a local artist Patrick Ching. 

This was certainly a relaxing vacation, even with the studying part, and definitely helped reset the body and mind. We had awesome sunny weather. The few tropical rain showers were mostly over night but the one time during the day was no big deal as we just jumped into the ocean to wait it out. It's always so hard for me to leave what has become a favourite happy place of mine. But alas we had to come home...

To travel is to live...until next time...life is good!