At the beginning of February Jay, Wren, Grandma Sondy and I jetted off to Kauai for 11 days away. Our first experience flying with Wren was eye opening. We were those people with a cranky baby. Sorry fellow passengers! What saved Jay and I from going completely nuts was: 1. We were very fortunate to have the middle seat open between us so Wren had her own seat. 2. Alaska Airlines serves a complimentary Mai Tai before landing in Hawaii. I asked our attendant early in the flight if that was truly going to happen as everyone around us would need it after listening to our child....she snuck me a drink early! 6+ hours later we landed in Lihue, Kauai, and loaded up in our snazzy rental car (of course, an upgrade 2 classes ahead of our reservation because the only option left in our reserved class was a 2 door coupe.....really?!).
Our first stop was Costco nearby to stock up on groceries then we were headed north to our destination -
Princeville. About 20 minutes into our drive we made a stop in Kapa'a in the Long's Drug parking lot while we changed Wren out of her now vomit covered outfit and did our best to clean out her car seat. Oh, travel! That was the most time we spent in Kapa'a! Fast forward to arriving at our condo in the Pali Ke Kua complex. We had a unit that, while set back from the road and a little inconvenient for unloading, was right next to the pool and had a private grassy area outside of our large sliding doors. The condo was a duplex but the neighboring unit was under construction so aside from some workers during the day we had peace and quiet. Until.....Wren woke up about 5:45 am Hawaii time for the first 3 days and stood up in her travel bed. "Hi! Hi!"
Our introduction to the Garden Island consisted of getting to know the pool/hot tub and acquainting ourselves with the 2 miles of walking paths along the beautifully manicured resort grounds.
A steep path near our condo led Jay and I down to a pretty nice beach on a scouting trip. A scramble over lava rocks then led us around to
Hideaways Beach where Jay played in the ocean. Coming back up from Hideaways beach on a different steep and rough path was tricky. Ropes are strung to help pull yourself up and were very necessary. Not at all a stroller friendly trail and questionable for a baby carrier - we didn't test that one out.
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| Not possible to truly travel light (or stress free) with a baby |
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| Jay had a lot of fun using our new underwater camera! |
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| Looking west down the shoreline from the resort grounds |
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| Hideaways beach |
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| Did you all get your tickets to the gun show? ;) |
Hope you enjoyed Kauai. It's so much different "vacationing" with kids. It's like you need a vacation from vacation when you get home.
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