Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Aloha, Part 1

Cam and I got to go on a much needed vacation to Kauai, HI over "Spring Break!" (can I call it spring break??) A huge THANK YOU to my parents for letting Harper take a little vaca at their house for the week!! Our hotel

Cam and I flew out Tuesday morning and arrived in Hawaii 11 hours later! We met up with our friends Josh and Ashlee whom we met in Italy and hadn't seen since! Last time we hung out I was pregnant, and 9 months later they had Baby Hannah!

After landing in Hawaii we went straight to Hertz and rented our convertible Mustang aka Mustang Sally! (lovingly named after my mom) If you go to beautiful, sunny Hawaii you MUST get a convertible! It totally made the trip...Cruisin' was was much fun! We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. The accommodations were incredible! Unfortunately, we just slept at the hotel and spent 1 day at the pool/beach. There was so much that we wanted to do. The rest of the week was spent exploring the island. Thanks to our gps, Hertz never lost, (must get one of those) we were able to go everywhere. Here are a few of our highlights and a list of things to do if you ever find yourself on the island.

One night we had appetizers at Beach House and watched the sunset followed by fresh fish tacos at Keoki's Paradise. This place is way better than Berryhill and had live music!
Beach House

waiting for the sunset
Cam, Allyson, Ashlee, and Josh
Spouting Horn was a little overrated... it is a blowhole that spurts water in the air when water rushes under a lava shelf. There was a market located nearby that sold fresh water pearls so that was a plus!
Spouting Horn
We spend a whole day making our way to Waimea Canyon. We stopped along the way at local farmer's markets and purchased fresh fruit! We tried applebananas, tangelos, and rambutons! Delish!! (I want a garden!) We stopped at the State Park and hiked for about 2 hours in the midst of gigantic Sequoia trees.

Our friend Josh is a surfer! We spend several hours looking for the "surf." I had no idea how many conditions had to be present in order to surf. Here is a picture of Josh with his 4th board to rent......long story! On this particular day we watched him surf until sunset. Josh riding his "rip stick" with board in hand!


This is Hawaii's equivalent to a taco stand in Texas! We stopped in a little town on the west shore and had the BEST coconut shrimp!

One morning we got up at 5 am to watch the Baylor basketball game. So while Cam was cheering on the bears, I went and layed in the hammock and watched the sunrise. I need to do this more often.

There was a luau at the hotel and I got called up on stage to dance! So here are my blackmail pictures from Cam. Please notice what my partner is wearing!

2 comments:

S, J, B, & S said...

Gorgeous!! I so need a vacation, and looking at these pics just reminded me of that even more. :) Looks like ya'll had a wonderful time. And did you really meet that other couple while you were on vaca in Italy? So fun!

Allyson, Cam, and Harper said...

Yes, we meet them in Florence! They live in Corpus Christi and they are super fun to travel with:) He also works for EJones.