Warm Weather Adventures

When we completed our paperwork, everyone recommended that we take some time to travel while we still could. We did and had a great time!

As this process has stretched out, we’ve decided that visiting warm places is a great way to cope with the long and cold Chicago winters. In November, we traveled to Hawaii for the first time, expecting a referral when we returned home. This trip was great!

We spent two days in Honolulu and got to meet Jaydee and Jolon in person. Jaydee is one of Kristen’s now not-so-Secret Pals. She has sent us (and Jenny) all kinds of cool stuff. Jolon’s mom has made us fancy covers for Jenny’s carseat and shopping cart seat. It was a delight to finally meet these folks and enjoy their hospitality. Not only did they make us home-cooked meal, they also took us on a mini-driving tour! We got to go to places we would never have seen, but for their kindness.


We stayed in Waikiki and enjoyed the beach and the Honolulu bus system. We visited Chinatown, Foster botanic gardens, and Hanauma Bay for snorkeling--all via “The Bus” aka the metro bus system.



Another highlight of the trip was the food! We had Thanksgiving dinner at Keo’s--some of the very best Thai food we’ve ever had (second only to Drover's Inn in Wales). We also got to watch the chef’s work their magic at Alan Wong’s--an Asian fusion place.

While in Chinatown, we had dim sum at Legends Seafood, which was quite amazing. The dim sum experience is pretty nifty: the staff wheels carts of dumplings (and other goodies) around the restaurant and you choose your meal by the piece. We had all kinds of seafood, pork, and veggie stuffed dumplings. Yum!

After a few short days in (and around) Honolulu, we went to Kauai--the garden island. We spent a week there, and tried to explore as much as we could without exhausting ourselves.

After a few minutes of unnecessary excitement checking in ("I'm sorry, ma'am, your reservation was canceled a month ago"), we settled into our hotel. The Sheraton Kauai Resort is on one of the best sunset viewing beaches on the island and we tried to take full advantage. We have never really been big on the “resort” scene, but came to like this place pretty well in the time we were there.

But the highlight was the natural beauty of the island. Well, that and (you guessed it) the food. Perhaps our favorite spot was the Na Pali coast. Na Pali means “the cliffs” in the native language, and it is a great description.

No roads go there, so you either have to walk or float to see it. We chose the latter and went by boat. Catamaran, actually. Blue Dolphin Charters, to be precise. Party catamaran (highly recommended--great crew, great food, lots of wet spray and even more fun)



The very heavy rains made walking not only very messy, but dangerous. On our way up the coast, we got to see whales--a momma and baby, spinner dolphins, sea turtles, and some pretty interesting birds (including blue-footed boobies--above our heads in the picture). And rain. As they say in Hawaii, you can’t get rainbows with out rain... we got both.

We spent some time in the ocean near our hotel. The snorkeling wasn’t bad, but the high surf limited our visibility. Highlights of the aquatic kind included Moorish Idols (like the character "Gill" from "Finding Nemo"), Triggerfish, Butterflyfish, many varieties of Wrasse, parrotfish, lots of sea urchins and others.



What we re-discovered was how much fun playing in the surf can be! We body-surfed and just goofed around.


It was great! We got more sand in places it shouldn’t have been that we ever imagined we could.

We only had one day of rain. By one day, I mean 24 hours. By rain, I mean RAIN--a 'let the skies open and the rivers swell, find some high ground, build an ark and start pairing up animals' kind of rain. Some roads and bridges were closed. Many at the resort stayed inside and moped. But one of the interesting things about these islands is that they all come with mountains. This means that if it’s wet on one side, there is an excellent chance that the weather on the other side is fine. So, on our “rain day” we ventured to the North shore of the island and played in the sunny “rain shadow” made by the mountains. We visited Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge, a bird sanctuary (saw red-footed boobies, red and white tropicbirds, shearwaters and frigate birds) and Ke'e Beach, the jumping off point for the hike along the Na Pali coast at “the end of the road.”



Again, although the water was too rough for swimming, we enjoyed the surf (this time by watching it). We developed a healthy respect for the surf during our week in Hawaii. There were times snorkeling when we could feel ourselves being pulled out to sea, then pushed back in towards shore, by quite strong tides and currents. One can feel the power of the ocean here unlike anywhere else.



We visited Waimea Canyon, Hawaii's "grand canyon," which was also beautiful--at least what we could see of it. When you use your mountains as “rain blockers” they trap clouds. On the day of our visit to the Canyon, the clouds came with us. So, a few of the more impressive and well maintained overlooks were pretty choked with clouds.



Not to be deterred, we sought out others, less cloudy, and a bit more...primitive. So we stopped on the shoulder of the road, and ventured our onto the cliffs for some great views.










Well, that's enough for now. More on the wonderful food, and other trip(s?) later...