This was a trip we originally had planned last October, but due to restrictions in Hawaii we had postponed the trip until this year. Although the wait was long, it was completely worth it! The people of Hawaii were so kind and the weather is absolutely beautiful this time of year. Here are our adventures over the 10 days!
We had originally planned to fly out Thursday morning from Fort Lauderdale. However, I recieved a notification at about 12:30pm on Wednesday afternoon that our first flight to Dallas was canceled due to a random winter storm. I immediately called John and American Airlines to figure out what our options were. The rest of our flights were showing active and on time, so the big issue was getting to Dallas to catch out flight to Honolulu. The wait to speak with a representative was over 3 hours... so after getting a call back at about 3:15pm we discovered there was only one other option through American Airlines to change our flight plan, but they wouldn't have been able to honor our first class seats. I'm not a high maintenance person... but an 8 hour flight in economy seating is not fun. John saw online that there was literally only one flight going to DFW from Miami the next morning. He booked the flight and we both rushing home and packed our bags. We took the train down to Miami at 9pm and stayed at the hotel airport. Unfortunately... the line to check into the hotel was wrapped around the airport and it took us about an hour to check in. By the time we got into our room it was about 10:15pm and we were both exhausted. We showered and immediately went to bed. Our alarms went off at 4am so we could catch the 6am flight, and let me tell you- although the process was a pain in the a** it was 100% worth it for the ease of getting through the airport in the morning. After getting through security and onto our flight, it got delayed for an hour due to a unruly passenger that ended up getting kicked off the flight. (Long story, but she just wasn't cooperating with the flight attendants) We somehow made it to Dallas and landed safely in the winter storm and had to go pick up our bags and go back through check-in/security since we had rebooked on a different airline. (Note- we both almost slipped and busted our a** on the layer of ice outside of the airport. LOL. At that point we considered it a miracle we made it to Dallas. Literally EVERY flight was canceled that morning except ours.) Our 9 hour flight to Honolulu was on time and smooth and then we had another 40 minute flight to Kauai. But finally... WE MADE IT TO HAWAII! The vacation definitely didn't start out as planned, but we were both so grateful to make it to Kauai as planned and to the resort. (Mental note- don't order room service at 9pm without checking at the prices.... $150 later for a salad, quesadilla, brownie and house bottle of wine.)
Our first full day in Kauai was absolutely wonderful. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort + Spa and it was incredible. Right on the ocean, a gorgeous sunrise and delicious breakfast. We had rented a car for this portion of the trip so we decided to go hiking for the day (of course- put the top down on the mustang!) and started the drive. We stopped and took pictures along the way of the beautiful views as we drove up a mountain. We did the Waipo-o falls via Pu'u Hinahina trail and hiked 2 miles to a beautiful waterfall. On our way back we stopped at and got burritos/bowls at a local food truck on the side of the road called Uncle Stoney's. SO GOOD. We stopped again at a cute down just outside of the resort to grab some things from the store and I stopped into a cute shaved ice spot called The Fresh Shave! ALSO DELICIOUS. We spend the rest of the evening the resort and walked along the beach. We even saw a seal taking a nap in the sun! Dinner was at the resort restaurant called- The Library, where we had sushi and tiramisu for dessert.
Our second full day in Kauai (Saturday) was full of adventure! We started off the day sitting by the lagoon pool at the hotel soaking up some sun and then headed to Lihue for our open doors helicopter tour of the island! It was honestly breathtaking. We were able to see parts of the island you can only see by air- including the waterfall from Jurassic park, Na Pali coast state park, Valley of the Kings and Waialeale's Summit which averages 450 inches of rain every year! I get some pretty severe motion sickness so you can thank John for all the content because I couldn't take my death grip off the bar and had to focus on deep breathing the entire time. It was worth every moment though! (My mom got us the helicopter tour for Christmas through Ali'i Hawaii Air Tours & Charters) Afterwards we drove about 10 minutes north and hiked the Sleeping Giant mountain on the Nounou Forest Reserve, which gave us great views of the town and ocean. On the drive back to the hotel we went though the iconic Kauai Tree Tunnel and stopped to eat at Keoki's Paradise, which had some incredible mahi mahi + seafood risotto. (Which I ended up craving for the rest of the trip, highly recommend stopping there!)
