In celebration of 10 amazing years together my sweetie and I made our way back to one of our most favorite places, Kauai. We spent 12 heavenly days swimming, hiking, snorkeling, eating, relaxing and enjoying one another's company. It was so nice to be together and have quiet moments. Don't get me wrong, I adore my kiddo's with all my heart but it was nice to have a car ride that didn't need a referee.
We also rented a Jeep! This has been a bucket list item for me for a long time! It was a lot of fun! Cody even let me drive!
Our goal for this trip, besides relaxation was to experience things that we had never done before. We wanted to eat at new places, visit new places and experience as much as we could. I fee like that goal was a success! We went the entire trip and didn't eat at one fast food chain! I even was brave and tried some very local food.
We also experienced many new sites. If we saw a sign for somewhere we hadn't been we'd pull over and check it out. Between that and some advice from locals we discovered some great places.
Shipwreck Beach
This cave was pretty amazing and the guy that volunteered here was hilarious, in kind of a creepy old man way. We also met the scientist that has been working at this site for the past 10 years.
Feeding and petting turtles at the reserve near the Cave.
Sunday we spent the afternoon up Wiameia Canyon. We explored all over! We hiked and hiked and learned that hiking in humidity causes me to drip like a faucet. Less than becoming, but after a ride in our awesome jeep with the windows down and AC on high I managed to dry out a bit.
The beautiful Napali coast!
Our favorite beach of the trip was Barking Sands. It was rarely crowded and the waves were big enough on occasion to get Cody excited but calm enough for me to enjoy.
Since I'm married to a mountain goat, we spent another day hiking. We hiked from Ke'e beach on the Hanakapi'ai trail to a hidden beach and then up to a waterfall. This one I thought was going to kill me. I may or may not have been a bit grumpy the last little bit. Looking back I blame the lack of food. We didn't quite know how long it would be.
It was however, incredibly beautiful and totally worth it! I'm so glad that we got to experience it together. I'm also glad that the waterfall was freezing cold so that my overheated body could cool down.
About half way through our trip our good friends, Becky and Clint, who were also celebrating their 10 year anniversary arrived on the island. It was so much fun to have another couple there to hang out with and share in our adventures. We decided to do a Kayak tour together to the Secret Falls. Cody and I had done it once before and remembered it being really fun. Well, it was fun but it was also messy! Horribly muddy and messy!
We slipped all over the place. Poor Clint ended up on his backside more times than he probably cares to remember and ended up in the river to rinse himself off. He was a great sport about it though and we laughed a lot.
Made it to Secret Falls, despite the mud's efforts to stop us.
Double Date at the beach! Love this beautiful friend of mine!
And I REALLY love this handsome fellow of mine.
Our final day of adventure together we decided to go on a zip-line tour. It was so much fun!!
These two crazies kept us laughing the whole time.
This was our final zip, the King Kong! It was 1200 feet long! It was incredible!
Here we are headed down King Kong!
Another random stop to visit the Kilauea lighthouse. I had never visited a lighthouse before and it was darling. I realize that's very girly but that's how I felt about it.
Wailua Falls
Our farewell shave ice. Those things were incredible! I need to find a shave ice shack here in Utah next summer that comes close. But I realize that's a tall order.
