Kauai Day 1

For our 9th anniversary, Dan and I went out to dinner at the Porcupine Grill and talked about how we never do very much for our anniversaries and maybe it's time to plan for our 10th. So we decided right then that we'd take a big trip, and while I was pushing for Europe, Dan wanted a relaxing tropical vacation and he won. I'm not a beach person and definitely not a crowded beach person, so I wanted to find somewhere that would be more than a sit-on-the-beach destination. After hearing several people talk about their experience on Kauai, we decided to go!

Both Dan's parents and my parents were so generous to help watch the girls while we were gone. We put them to bed at the Browers the Tuesday night before we left. They weren't terribly sad to see us go!

Our flight left at 6am so we had to get up really, really early. We took a short flight to L.A., got lost in the confusing terminals, grabbed something to eat, walked around the airport looking at all the huge planes out the window, and got on the 6+ hour flight to Lihue. I was so tired but could never fall asleep.

I had some snacks but Dan needs a real meal and didn't bring enough food. He thought he'd be fine and didn't want to buy anything on the plane so made do with a coke. By the time we landed he had the start of a bad migraine and was miserable. I got the rental car taken care of while Dan laid on a bench in the parking lot. The woman helping me kept asking if he was ok. He ended up throwing up in the bushes in the parking lot. It was not a good start to our trip!

We stopped at Costco to get a much-needed quick, cheap lunch and Dan finally started feeling better. We had booked a room at the Sheraton in Poipu for the first two nights because we though it'd be a fun little splurge. When we got there, they said they didn't honor hotels.com's bed preference and all they had was two double beds. Happy anniversary! They offered us a bottle of wine, but since we didn't drink they finally just gave us a box of chocolates. Which didn't really make up for it, but did start our addiction to chocolate macadamia nuts.

We actually weren't terribly impressed with the Sheraton. The rooms weren't that great and it was pretty noisy - we could hear our neighbors talking. I think there's a more expensive newly-remodeled section, but we definitely weren't in it.

We walked down to the Sheraton beach for a bit, then decided to get dinner at a taco food truck in Koloa called Chalupas (the Kauai Revealed app was a great resource for restaurants!). We had some good fish tacos and walked around the little shops in the area. We then drove the short distance to see the Spouting Horn, then back to the Sheraton beach so Dan could at least jump in the water once and to watch the sunset.

We were absolutely exhausted by this point and went to bed at probably 7:30. Between the disappointment with the hotel and Dan's rocky start to the trip, we were feeling a little down! But I knew once we got some rest we'd feel better, and the next day proved to be much, much better.