So, we went to Hawaii!

Yeah, we know this poor little blog is severely out of date, but a lot has been happening at the Cloud household that has kept us from blogging, like we went to Hawaii!

For Spring Break this year we decided we wanted to go somewhere big, and C found some stellar flight deals, so to Hawaii we went!

We first visited the island of Kauai, the garden island.  If you went there and drove around you would think that you were on the set of Avitar, which is where it was filmed. The island is beautiful!

We tried to maximize our time on the island seeing and doing as much as our slight jet lag would allow.  On the first full day there we took a sailing tour of the Na Pali Coast with Captain Andy's Sailing Adventures.  The trip was everything and more that it was advertised to be!  A few days before we arrived the weather was really rainy, and the water had been murky, but not for us!  On the boat we saw sea turtles, dolphins, whales, dolphins, and countless tropical fish.  The tour was really cool, and very relaxing.  Once we got up to the coast we had lunch on the boat, and this was the backdrop:

The Na Pali coast was gorgeous!  We would totally recommend seeing it by boat - opposed to the 9 day hike it would take to see it!  C did a little snorkeling and thought it was cool.  I got on all of the gear, took 3 steps into the water and decided it wasn't for me - maybe next trip?

After the boat ride we went to the Waimea Canyon to check out the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  It was fun driving up to the canyon, it kind of reminded us of Logan Canyon and USU.  As you are passing huge mango trees all of the sudden you look over and are up at the top of the canyon, and you don't even realize it.  The canyon was breathtaking, the colors in the canyon looked like a painting.

The next day we took a helicopter tour of the island - wowza!   Ok, so one thing about Kauai that you should know, it is also known as the newlywed and retirement island (the older folks have figured out the best island), so C and I were definitely the youngest on the helicopter.  Neither one of us had been on a helicopter, and it was totally worth it.  We saw island in its entirety - the waterfalls, whales again, all the beaches, small canyons and mountains.  Most of the land on Kauai owned by only a few families, and the land they own is private property, so parts of the island you can't see unless you're in the air.

Note the unneeded life preservers around our waists!

The cool thing about both the boat and helicopter tours is that they are run by locals, born and raised on the island.  You might say, "Oh that's nice."  But you learn so much from these people!  For instance, Kauai is inundated with these beauties . . .

 

Yes, I have a ton of photos of Chickens and Roosters - even a video of me trying to catch one!

So why are there so many on this island you ask?  Well there was a fire at a chicken coop and some chickens escaped, mated with the wild ones, and ta-da you have flocks of chickens taking over the island.

In our down time we adopted the island style visiting little towns, eating local favorites, and being beach bums.

Hanging at the beach. C becomes a little boy on the beach - building sand castles and watching the waves destroy them.  We sure had fun catching the sun!

Shave ice (NOT shavED ice) with macadamia nut ice cream in the middle.  Spam and Eggs from Micky D's - when in Hawaii eat like a local!

The view from our Kauai Resort room - awesome hotel if you ever go!

After 4 days in Kauai we headed to Oahu for 3 days.  We stayed in Honolulu near Waikiki - incidentally the same hotel that the Biggest Loser was at this past season, I don't think we were there at the same time.   That part of Oahu was very big city and kind of shock after the island life of Kauai, so we escaped the city and headed to Laie and the North Shore.

As per our tradition we attended the Laie Hawaii LDS Temple, it was spectacularly beautiful and very peaceful, a nice break during the trip.  

My cousin was living in Laie when we visited, so we got to see her and she hooked us up with tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  The night show, Ha: The Breath of Life, was amazing.  At the PCC we met a Tongan friend who gave a a coconut to mail back to my dad in Colorado (a which is logistically a little crazy, but it can be done!)

Pardon my cheesy grin - but I was so excited to finally have a coconut!  I had been searching the whole trip!
The mail man delivering it to my dad

Laie is a tiny town with only 1 grocery store as far as we could tell - milk went for about $8/gallon and a simple boxed cake mix was almost $5!  But they have the best street side restaurant - Tita's Grill.  Oh my!  It was delicious, we had breakfast and lunch there (yeah, we travel on our stomachs - and having a foodie inclination to eat how the locals eat doesn't help)!

Sweet Hawaiian Bread French Toast
Guava Garlic Shrimp with Macaroni Salad (an island staple - along with potato mac - a mix of macaroni and potato salad - something that sounds nasty but is surprisingly delightful!)

On our last day in Hawaii we hiked the Diamond Head crater just outside of Honolulu.  It was a nice hike and relatively easy as long as you were in decent shoes - don't follow some of the tourist's examples by wearing little kitten heels, it makes for rough terrain, just FYI.  At the top of the crater the view is like this:

It was sunny - thus the squinting . . .

Alas after one more afternoon as the beach and watching the sun set in Waikiki, it was time for us to head back to the mainland.  Back to our jobs, callings, and other responsibilities.  My favorite part of the trip was hanging out with my sweet husband (who is so fantastic) for 7 days, 24 hours a day and making memories.  Thanks C for pushing me to fly over the ocean to experience the island life.

Aloha from Cloud 9!

B + C