A break from the heat : Kauai 2012

Back in June, Jamie and I once again vacationed on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Now I really, really want to move there! I’m sure I could do it… I’m sure Jamie couldn’t. Bummer! I think she’d miss the mountains too much (and pesky things like friends and family). If we sold our house(es), all of our stock, and cached in our 401k’s, I think we could do it.

The most adventurous thing we did was kayak the Na Pali coast. It was about 7 hours of paddling a kayak in the ocean. Sure, we thought it was going to be rough. However, we weren’t planning on 10 to 15 foot swells! That, indeed, was not so swell. It was still fun. I wouldn’t do it again; Jamie probably would. It was certainly a very long day. If anyone wants to see the Na Pali coast, I recommend doing by either helicopter or catamaran.

We also hiked (again) the Hanakapi’ai trail. We went to the beach, like last time, but then we hiked to the water falls. That was something! We didn’t think much of the hike. Wrong! We only had about a liter of water for, what turned out to be, an 8 mile hike. Ouch! I was just about dead at the end (and cranky as all get out). We should have brought a lot more water and lots of food. We should have known better.

Other than that, we had a pretty low-key time. We stayed at The Cliffs Club, in a town call Princeville, on the northern part of the island. There’s nothing there; only condos and hotels. The great thing about Princeville is that it’s only a couple of minutes to the awesomest town of Hanalei (featured in The Descendants, with George Clooney.). It’s quite quaint and laid back. Hanalei Bay is my favorite beach in all of Hawaii. It’s a beach that’s surround by palm trees (read: shade!) and sand. There’s also lots of places to eat.

The only bummer during the trip was that Colorado Springs was on fire. We weren’t even close to being able to evacuate should things go south (literally… we were pretty far south of the fire). My workplace was evacuated for most of the week as were many of our friends. Luckily nobody we personally knew lost their home. I would have rather be home for something like that.

Highlights:

• The Cliffs Club: Very nice condos. Flat screen TV’s, washer and dryer, free WiFi, pool, etc
• Koloa Rum Company : Do the rum tasting! Very tasty rummmmm
• Hanakapi’ai Trail (definitely head to the falls; plan for a long hike)
• Hanalei Bay/Beach (along the Western side, especially) : One of the many uncrowded beaches on Kauai
• Kayaking the Na Pali coast
• Scuba with Seasport Divers
• The town of Hanalei
• The pineapple… oh my god… the pineapple…