Traveling Toward Retirement

Whelp. It’s our last day so we decided to get out and do something. First, we had a delightful breakfast of fried eggs over Hawaiian fried rice. Seems like a staple right? We started with a full mini van since Joe stayed behind to watch the Masters golf tournament on tv.  We drove up a mountain to a monastery but along the way we stumbled upon another waterfall. Opaeka’a Falls is a 151 foot waterfall and it’s completely visible from the road so there is no hiking involved.  It’s a look from afar kinda experience but the walk across the road gives you beautiful views of the Wailua River State Park. That was an impressive view! Pretty huh? It’s very green and lush. Our next stop was the Kauai Hindu Monastery which we visited in 2015. It’s a tranquil place to visit with beautiful gardens and a place to meditate if you’re into that sort of thing.  It’s a lovely place to stop and learn about a culture and religion that maybe you don’t know much about. It’s the kind of place th...

This morning started off with some fresh papaya and fruit that we picked up at a farmers market. Coffee, tropical fruit, and a view like this… Next, we filled our morning lusting after the high life with a trip to the Grand Hyatt. Why did we go to that resort? Well we saw online that they had a very nice restaurant overlooking koi ponds and the ocean. This is only a half a mile from our condo complex but it was more than double the cost, hence why we didn’t stay there. But it made for a nice trip this morning and a lovely walk around their lagoons.  Yeah it was bougie! I would have to have a lot more followers on this blog to get them to sponsor my next trip to Kauai… We enjoyed the walk and they had not one but four parrots in the lobby on display. That was a pretty cool bonus find! We snapped lots of photos near the koi pond and made our way down to the ocean where Katie and I found a few tide pools and very white sand.  Some people chillaxed in a swing to avoid getting sand...

Yes, I realize there are only three sleeps left and I’m sad and I don’t want to think about that.  Bacon and toast breakfast was our treat today courtesy of Todd’s amazing cooking skills. A slow start to the day but we drove into Lihue for some shopping of Hawaiian gifts and maybe some coffee creamer - because we have priorities.  These are the only photos I took and yes that’s a Starbucks. Have you seen the Been There series of cups? They are popular in the gift giving world and the world of Starbucks junkies. On my side of the family, we have a lot of former Starbucks employees. Or “partners” as we were all once called. These mugs have become collectors items and now my sis will have one for her birthday! After shopping and grabbing some necessities for the condo, we headed back to lounge at the pool. The pool is pretty quiet and not too crowded so our afternoon was tranquil as we attempted to sun and tan ourselves. This girly was happy! Dinner was in tonight and Grams had ...

We didn’t move much today. We thought about getting up and going out. We talked about it for a bit. We even showered and got ready. But then we hung out and watched the Masters golf thingy on tv and some of us tanned in the rain/sun. A pretty standard day in paradise.  Check out the downpour as Katie and I attempted to get some color on our winter white skin.  We came back after an hour and played some George which is a family card game. Katie won.  Some light snacks were eating and a few people napped  our day was lazy in many ways but our early birthday dinner at RumFire at the Sheraton was something we were all looking forward to. After getting dolled up and grabbing a nightlight from the local Longs, that’s a story for another day… we had just enough time for a few photo ops before our reservation. There is lots of wind here!  Our dinner spot was suggested to us by friends Doug and Denise who were here just a few weeks ago. The ambiance and decor was lovel...

Today the water at the condo was off from 10am to 2pm so we planned a trip to Waimea Canyon. It rains here a lot even though there is no rain in the weather app. It poured in traffic as we drove to the canyon. There is a reason that this island is so green! It was an hour drive from our area of Koloa and we arrived to the top of the lookout point just before noon. The curvy roads weren’t fun for the motion sick inclined party members, but the views were pretty incredible at the top.  It was worth the drive, but the bathrooms were nothing to write home about :/ You would think for the steep entrance fee that the bathrooms would be nicer.  https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dsp/parks/kauai/waimea-canyon-state-park/ After milling around for a bit, we decided that lunch was needed and we headed down the steps and winding hill. Thankfully the drive down the mountain is much faster!  We stumbled upon a highly rated Yelp restaurant called Japanese Grandma’s Cafe in the town of Hanapepe. W...