Kauai, Day 1-October 22, 2008

We had a 9am flight from Maui to Kauai with a short stop on Oahu in Honolulu. The flight was only about an hour or so long. Neither of us had ever been to Kauai (Tim hadn't been to Maui, I had) so we were both excited to see the island.There were two things that were notably different about Kauai that we noticed right away upon our arrival: 1) Holy crap, this is what a tropical island should look like. We have never seen so much green lushness. 2) There are wild chickens all. over. I kid you not. It was the most bizarre thing ever. If you have ever been there, you know what I'm talking about. However, if it was prior to 1991, you probably don't have a clue... I guess with the hurricane in 1991, there came an abundance of wild chickens. Weird!

We stayed on the south side of the island in Poipu, which is known as the sunny side of the island (hence the reason we stayed there... there is enough rain for us in Seattle as is!) And, as a sidenote, this turned out to be an excellent decision. We went up to the Princeville side (the north shore) a couple of times during our week there and got absolutely drenched both times (more on that later).

The sign that greeted us at the airport... would definitely agree that Kauai is the garden island.

We stayed at the Hyatt Poipu resort. Here is a shot of the grounds (and basically what the whole island looks like).

The first waterfall of many that we saw on Kauai.

Eating lunch at the grill by the pool at the Hyatt resort. Not quite as good as the Fairmont's pool bar/restaurant but still delicious!

And a picture of me at the poolside restaurant.

The resort grounds were absolutely beautiful, the pool was absolutely astounding. It was basically just uniform with the grounds so you didn't really feel like you were in a pool, more like you were just swimming out in the wild. It was lined with black lava rocks, complete with caves, etc. Pretty cool. There was also a lagoon down by the ocean that was salt water if you didn't want to rough out the ocean waves.

More of the resort grounds. There were hammocks and swings all over. It was great at night just to sit outside in the warm air by the ocean.

Main building of the Hyatt... it was pretty impressive. Honestly though, if I had to choose, I would say that I liked the Fairmont on Maui better. It was nicer, more personal, and not so HUGE.

We spent that first afternoon at shipwreck beach (the beach directly down from the Hyatt). That rock in the middle of the picture jutting out into the ocean is the "trademark" of shipwreck beach. Apparently people jump off of it. We didn't. It's a lot more daunting than it looks. Plus, the ocean was really rough that day. Tim body surfed, I didn't. I went in the ocean and got toppled by waves, even though I am a strong swimmer (I've been swimming my whole life and even taught swimming lessons as a teenager!) But the currents that day were too much for me... seemed more fun to just lay on the beach!

That night we went to tidepools restaurant, a restaurant at the Hyatt. It was very good. I was getting tired of fruity drinks (imagine that!) so I had wine but Tim had a lava flow, which I have to admit was very good here. I believe we both got some sort of seafood... I think that every restaurant on the islands is just amazing because you can't really screw up seafood when it is that fresh.

Next up: Kauai day 2... JoJos and the grand canyon of the pacific.