After coming back from the islands, I've decided I'm going to run away and become a hula dancer so I can stay on the islands.
Gah! So beautiful. We really loved both of them.
I've posted a bunch of pictures of
Kauai in my blog here - several of them were taken on a photo tour we did of the island with
this company. It was really, really cool to get an overview of the island that way! They're website isn't very impressive, but their operation is really, really good.
While on Kauai, we stayed at the Whaler's Cove condos (very nice) and at the Hyatt (Eek! The luxury! To hear about my husband exposing himself to a maid, click on
his tumblr here). We really enjoyed both - the Hyatt more so, but I'm a total sucker for swimming pools. I think we were in the water for the better part of 10 hours over the course of 3 days. We did the Lover's Escape at the Anara Spa, and OMG, it was divine.
Oh! And we ate at Josselin's Tapas Bar twice in a row because I loved it so much. Huge thumbs up there. It's not for picky eaters, nor for people looking for a quiet, romantic meal, but if you're looking for fun and interesting, it's great. Don't miss out on the sangria cart either. The lychee one is soooo good.
Maui - we stayed at the Kahana Village condos again, which reinforced my idea that they're really the best condos I've ever stayed at. We've been in 5 different units now and they're all really well taken care of. When I make a few million, I'm totally buying one.
As this was our third trip to Maui, we didn't feel the need to do a lot of stuff like the road to Hana or the Molokini snorkel tour.
Anyway, we ate at Haliimaile General Store for lunch. It very good, but don't order the duck salad. Do order the sashimi napoleon because it is INSANE. Explosion of flavours in my mouth!
We did a super fun hike up the Kapalua trails. You can either do a 6 mile hike up a ridge, or take a free shuttle from the Kapalua Ritz resort HQ and do one of the 1 or 2 mile trails at the top and get a ride back down two hours later. There aren't much in the way of views on the 1-2 mile trails, but it's still a fun time and you get to see some Hawaiian flora.
We also did a photoshoot with Joanna Tano (our wedding photog) and jumped in the river at the I'o Needle. I can't wait to see the pictures of that! She released one to us already (though not one of the ones of us in the water):
We also went to the winery (love the drive) via the Baldwin House (worth a stop off, IMHO).
We spent a lot of mornings at Kahekili beach (it's just north of Black Rock), which is such a lovely place and less crowded than Ka'anapali Beach, especially if you move further away from the pavilion with the bathrooms in it.
Ooh, and we had beers at the Maui Brewing Company - which I think has really improved. Their lilikoi beer is far superior to the Kona Brewing Company, IMHO. I wouldn't have said that two years ago.
Whew, I feel like we didn't do very much this trip. Next time we go back, we're just going to stay in one place. All the island hoping (we landed on Oahu, then went to Kauai the next day) just takes up too much valuable exploring time!