Debbie, the kids, and I spent 10 amazing days in Kauai just before school started last week!
Special thanks to my good friend and web/marketing strategist extraordinaire Daniel Decker for posting for me while we traveled. (Not only did I stay away from blogging, I even kept away from my blackberry).
Some highlights:
For a great photo overview, visit Debbie’s site.
Eating the best hot dog in the world at Puka Dog (imagine a polish sausage with a buttery spicy garlic sauce and coconut relish), fresh fruit, a loco moco for breakfast (rice, hamburger, fried egg, and gravy), kalua pork at a luau and Keoki’s, and Shave Ice (better than a snow cone), carnescara (fried coconut mochi), malasada (portuguese donuts), among other things.
Swimming at the pool and snorkeling at the beach
Seeing Waimea Canyon, Wailua Falls, the Spouting Horn, Polihale State Park, among other beautiful places (see all the pics here).
Staying at the beautiful Point at Poipu
Man, Kauai is beautiful.
I was fortunate enough to visit there from the UK with my wife a few years back, having bounced over from Oahu, where my sister-in-law, her husband and kids lived for a time. We LOVE Hawaii!
Mahalo for the memories, Eric! 😉
The food alone sounds like it was worth the trip. Aloha and welcome back to the mainland.
Hey Eric,
Our family was in Kauai last summer for a vacation. Seeing your post brings back such great imagery. What a place for some down-time… or up-time… or anytime for that matter. Oh, and the shave ice was a definite highlight.
Our best vacation so far was two summers ago, when we went to Alaska. We spent one week (out of two) in Wrangel-St.Elias National Park, which is 6 hours east of Anchorage. Even though it is the largest national park in the park system it gets less than 30,000 people a year. We hiked on a glacier and toured the old copper mining town that is currently under restoration. But the best part was crossing paths w/ a mama bear and her three cubs. We were hiking up toward one of the old mines when she and her brood stepped out of the underbrush to cross the trail. Over the next 15 minutes or so, we played cat and mouse on the trail. Every time we thought they’d finally moved on, she’d re-appear. The final straw was when my husband rounded a bend ahead of the rest of us, spun around in his tracks and said it was time to head back down. Mama had treed the cubs, a sure sign she felt threatened, and we had no idea where she was because the undergrowth was so thick. She got the trail that day; after all we were the interlopers on her turf. 🙂 My daughter just happened to have her camera out and got several (blurry) shots. Then there were the 5am gun shots a few days later at the place we were staying…but that’s another story. :-0
the best vacation was when I was 12. We were up at the family camp site in Radium Colorado and everyone had left to come back to Greeley, everyone except my dad and me. My dad is my hero, and to spend time with him, me, a girl, had to compete with the boys, all three of them. Remember, we are talking of 1972. Anyway, as we sat at the campfire, watching the day start to fade, I was so happy to be in Radium, with my dad. Started fishing and caught 6 fish in a row and to have that joy shared with him, was just perfect. A once in a lifetime vacation. My dad passed away in 1988, but this memory will be with me forever.
that hot dog sounds amazing. personally, the best vacation i ever went on was an alaskan cruise. juneau, alaska was one of the most beautiful places i’ve ever been. over the course of my week i saw so much amazing wildlife… bears, bald eagles, orca whales, seals, it was awesome. taking a float plane over the misty fjords (a roadless area) was amazing and sitting on the balcony on the ship as we cruised through the inside passage was awesome. seeing glaciers in person was really crazy. it was so beautiful to see the ice falling into the water and saddening at the same time to realize that we contribute to the destruction of this beautiful land everyday.