Kauai
Over the weekend our family flew over to the neighboring island of Kauai so that I could run the half marathon there. The flight was great and took us only about 25 minutes from takeoff to landing. Caleb was so excited to go "bye bye na airpane" and was so cute with his little backpack and blanket.
We flew out of Honolulu on Thursday evening and arrived in Kauai at about 6:30. We picked up our cars, yes you read that right, cars as in two of them. It turns out that it is cheaper to rent two economy cars than it is to rent one mini van. By about half. Go figure. Anyway, we picked up our cars and drove to the hotel where we received our first unpleasant surprise. You see when I booked the hotel, they gave me the impression that it was in the same town as the marathon, but it wasn't. Hmmm, you'll hear more about the race later, as it will receive it's very own post. The second of our nasty surprises came when I was checking in and asked for a playpen for Chase. They said " sure, that will be $20 a night extra." What?! I could have brought my own for $10 on the airplane. Grrrrr! I have never been charged extra for a playpen at a hotel, and I have stayed in a lot of them. OK, deep breath! Don't let them break you. Moving on. The hotel room was not stellar, but it was the cheapest I could find. At least it was clean and although the beds were uncomfortable, there was a pool and we were on the beach (although in Kauai, almost everything is on the beach).
Three kids in the bed.
On Friday we drove down to the marathon headquarters so that I could get my packet. It was a beautiful day and a lovely drive, although it took us longer to get there then I had hoped. After that was done, we decided to go and see the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and do some hiking. It was so beautiful and we had such a great time. The only bad thing about it was that my camera battery died half way through the hike so I don't have any pictures of the waterfall and pool were we played for awhile before heading back to the car.
Smelling the flowers along the way.
On Saturday we drove up to the North Shore and went on one of the most beautiful hikes EVER! It is called the Kalalau Trail. It takes you right along the coast and it was breathtaking. Unfortunately we did not even come close to hiking the whole thing. For one, my race was the next day and we didn't want to exhaust my legs. For another, we didn't want to miss the BYU game, so we hiked part of the trail and then hiked back to the car, but we had a great time and got lots of great pictures. We hope that some day we will be able to come back and backpack the entire length of the trail. Then we went back to the hotel, watched BYU pull off a shocking win, went swimming with the kids and had some yummy pizza, the dinner of champions.
On Sunday, I got up bright and early (4:30 am) to go and run my race. That blog is coming next so keep checking back. Anyway, after the race I got back to the hotel and we were able to attend a local ward that started at one in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day hanging at the hotel with the kids and went to bed early because I was exhausted!
Monday we checked out of our hotel and drove around the island checking out some of the waterfalls. We almost went for another hike, but we didn't want to be rushing around trying to catch our flight later so we decided not to do it. We had a lot of fun and were able to make our flight with plenty of time to spare. All in all, a great mini vacation for our family.
This was the water fall on Jurassic Park
We flew out of Honolulu on Thursday evening and arrived in Kauai at about 6:30. We picked up our cars, yes you read that right, cars as in two of them. It turns out that it is cheaper to rent two economy cars than it is to rent one mini van. By about half. Go figure. Anyway, we picked up our cars and drove to the hotel where we received our first unpleasant surprise. You see when I booked the hotel, they gave me the impression that it was in the same town as the marathon, but it wasn't. Hmmm, you'll hear more about the race later, as it will receive it's very own post. The second of our nasty surprises came when I was checking in and asked for a playpen for Chase. They said " sure, that will be $20 a night extra." What?! I could have brought my own for $10 on the airplane. Grrrrr! I have never been charged extra for a playpen at a hotel, and I have stayed in a lot of them. OK, deep breath! Don't let them break you. Moving on. The hotel room was not stellar, but it was the cheapest I could find. At least it was clean and although the beds were uncomfortable, there was a pool and we were on the beach (although in Kauai, almost everything is on the beach).
Three kids in the bed.
On Friday we drove down to the marathon headquarters so that I could get my packet. It was a beautiful day and a lovely drive, although it took us longer to get there then I had hoped. After that was done, we decided to go and see the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and do some hiking. It was so beautiful and we had such a great time. The only bad thing about it was that my camera battery died half way through the hike so I don't have any pictures of the waterfall and pool were we played for awhile before heading back to the car.
Smelling the flowers along the way.
On Saturday we drove up to the North Shore and went on one of the most beautiful hikes EVER! It is called the Kalalau Trail. It takes you right along the coast and it was breathtaking. Unfortunately we did not even come close to hiking the whole thing. For one, my race was the next day and we didn't want to exhaust my legs. For another, we didn't want to miss the BYU game, so we hiked part of the trail and then hiked back to the car, but we had a great time and got lots of great pictures. We hope that some day we will be able to come back and backpack the entire length of the trail. Then we went back to the hotel, watched BYU pull off a shocking win, went swimming with the kids and had some yummy pizza, the dinner of champions.
On Sunday, I got up bright and early (4:30 am) to go and run my race. That blog is coming next so keep checking back. Anyway, after the race I got back to the hotel and we were able to attend a local ward that started at one in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day hanging at the hotel with the kids and went to bed early because I was exhausted!
Monday we checked out of our hotel and drove around the island checking out some of the waterfalls. We almost went for another hike, but we didn't want to be rushing around trying to catch our flight later so we decided not to do it. We had a lot of fun and were able to make our flight with plenty of time to spare. All in all, a great mini vacation for our family.
This was the water fall on Jurassic Park
Comments