Gidget Goes Hawaiian- Kauai & Aulani 8/2012 TR- 5/24 COMPLETE!!

[jenseib]

That is really interesting aabout that being "the beach" they had surfed off of and had the shark attack. I love that movie. I remember seeing the girl a few tims on the today show too. Such a freak thing.

And the beach is beautiful.

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by jenseib

That is really interesting aabout that being "the beach" they had surfed off of and had the shark attack. I love that movie. I remember seeing the girl a few tims on the today show too. Such a freak thing.

And the beach is beautiful.

I loved the movie, too- what a brave and courageous girl- here is a link to her bio and blog-

http://bethanyhamilton.com/about/bio/

[franandaj]

Such beautiful pictures!! I love the water shots. We definitely have to go there!

Remind me what are your CA plans for next year? I remember you saying something about switching your DL trip from the Expo week to the following.

[ACDSNY]

Another great set of pics!

Sharks! To swim or not to swim that's the question.

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by franandaj

Such beautiful pictures!! I love the water shots. We definitely have to go there!

Remind me what are your CA plans for next year? I remember you saying something about switching your DL trip from the Expo week to the following.

You will love it- it's a great place!

Next summer we will be (hopefully) staying in DL from 8/14-8/19. We start our trip in San Francisco for 4 nights, then staying in Groveland for a night at the Hotel Charlotte outside of the park entrance, 2 nights at the Ahwahnee, 1 night at a hampton on the way to DL and then DL! I switched the trip so that hopefully, we can use our points at VGC- I knew I'd never get it during D23, people were already taking about having difficulty at 11 months.

Originally Posted by ACDSNY

Another great set of pics!

Sharks! To swim or not to swim that's the question.

We never saw a shark. And we HAVE seen them before in other places (especially in Destin, Fla- a 7 foot shark in the breakers which was between my swimming family and on-the-beach me and 2 hammerheads right in the breakers - we spent the vacation at the pool after that, lol!).

[podsnel]

So if you guessed we were heading back to the Hanalei pier for lunch, you were right!



Yes...it was because we loved it there, yes...it was so T&T could get in a few more jumps....but YES it was largely due to the Taco truck parked across the street.

Of the list of food trucks I had wanted to try while on Kauai, this turned out to be the only one we ever found. But food trucks are fickle- my guess is a good day at the beach or great surf conditions probably leads to a closed for the day truck. FWIW, the other ones in this area that I was looking for were Kauai Ono http://www.yelp.com/biz/kauai-ono-hanalei-2 and Hanalei Taro and Juice http://hanaleitaro.com/24101.html. We DID find Pat's Taqueria though, and lucky, lucky us. http://www.yelp.com/biz/pats-taqueria-hanalei

While the boys swam, we placed our order-







All the tables right at the truck were already filled (this is a popular spot!), but, even better, we snagged a table under a tree down on the beach-



Our order was ready in about 10 minutes, and we called the boys to lunch.





Everything was delicious. By FAR the best fish taco I have ever had. We also had yummy rice and beans-



Pods and I were supposed to share 2 fish and 2 kalua pork tacos- but, Pods was in a grazing haze and had finished 2 of the pork before I even approached finishing my fish one, so...more fish for me! My fish taco-



The "Oh- you wanted a picture of my pork taco?" picture-



I never managed to get the carne asada taco pic or the quesadilla pic, they were snarfed down too quick. There was not alot of conversation during this picnic, just a lot of groaning and mmmmmmming.



That was for the view, of course, too-



Somehow we managed to pull ourselves away and drove across the bridge one last time-



We made a quick stop at the shopping center in Princeville so I could buy a couple of bubble bags for the leftover bottles of wine (these are AWESOME!! I packed the wine in my checked luggage to Oahu, and then brought home 2 bottles of Koloa rum in them when we left Hawaii- and I will totally be packing them with some beverages for our upcoming WDW vacay INCLUDING one of the Koloa rum bottles). We packed up the rest of Janice's condo, said goodbye to our view, loaded all the luggage onto the valet's golf cart, and headed out of Princeville one last time. A quick stop to take pics of the Princeville fountain-





And a last look at Capt Cook's pines-



And we were off! On the way, the ride is soooo beautiful. Timmy had some comments-

click to play-


That's right kid! Mommy doesn't mess around! Maybe I have lived there- in another life- but I know with every shred of my being I WILL live here for at least a month at some point in THIS life- and that's a promise.

Up next- we're not done YET!! We need to see some famous falls, and Pods needs to have his favorite meal of the trip.....

[jenseib]

What a perfect lunch setting. And now I am hungry, but my view won't be nearly as nice for my lunch.

[podsnel]

I am getting sad all over again writing about leaving Kauai! UGH!!!

Our flight to Oahu was not until 8:30 pm, so we had plenty of time before the airport. Back on the east side of the island, I wanted to visit the "easily accessible" Wailua Falls. I say it in quotes, because it actually IS right off the road- the problem is, when foloowing the GPS, exactly which road.

click to play-


LOL!! We were sent up some dirt road and on the GPS it looked no different than the main road! Too funny- we ended up just following the signs to Wailua Falls after that, and after passing lots of this-

click to play-


we arrived at a parking lot and some very famous falls-





Do they look familiar? Maybe it's because of this-

click to play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xG7Qwv23sg



If we had had more time, we would have hiked down to the base of the falls- the path was to the right of this overlook. But.....that's another time for us. Right now, we had to find the Marriot, because we were having our last Kauai meal at Duke's. After a short ride through town-



we arrived at the Kauai Marriott resort, and took the escalators down-



After getting a bit lost (seemed to be a theme with us that night) we found the restaurant down by the beach-





We were seated quickly, as it was very empty at 5:30 pm.







Over there on the left is the large salad bar, which was included with our meals-





I started with a Mai Tai-



And it was as good as it looks! We all skipped an app because we were having salad bar-



There were lots of choices up there, my plate has salad, REALLY good kimchi, a banana muffin, some taro, pigeon peas and some potato salad I think. For our main courses, Tyler and I had SLOW ROASTED PRIME RIB A cut of the finest CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF 28.95



Pods enjoyed SAUTEED MAC NUT AND HERB CRUSTED fish with lemon and caper butter (I think the fish was Ono, but I'm not sure- it may have been mahi mahi)



He LOVED this BIG time. Timmy loves ribs, so he got HULI HULI CHICKEN®* (chicken, marinated in garlic, ginger and shoyu)AND BABY BACK PORK RIBS (Glazed with our Original Mango BBQ sauce) A combination of these two island favorites 22.95



Now, all of that was very yummy, and I would be happy to go back to Duke's (which is a small chain) anytime. But the #1 reason we were having dinner at Duke's was so we could have dessert. Yes, us, the people who rarely order dessert, were at a restaurant because of....Hula Pie. KIMO'S ORIGINAL HULA PIE -This is what the sailors swam to shore for in Lahaina 7.95





No joke, Pods was completely giddy like a school girl over this hula pie. He could not get over how HUGE it was, how delicious it was, and how $7.95 it was!





We all shared- I can't even imagine NOT sharing this. Here is a link to their website, in case YOU would like to get your own slice of heaven-
http://www.dukeskauai.com/

Cont'd next post-

[Captain_Oblivious]

Originally Posted by podsnel

Hi Mark! Thanks for joining in- you are going to LOVE Hawaii!! And Princeville is fantastic! So gorgeous- where is your condo? How long are you staying? Can I come?

My parents took me to Hawaii may moons ago and I declared it my favorite place on earth--can't wait to go back! None of the rest of my family has ever been there, so it'll be exciting to discover it through their eyes.

We are staying in a condo in The Cliffs--looked nice from the pictures, and the owner has been great to deal with so far. And it was cheaper than a hotel room for a family of 5. We'll only be on Kauai for 3 days or so--we're trying to do some island-hopping, and somehow make it fit the budget!

What's that? You want to take us to Aulani? Well, of course you can come!

Originally Posted by podsnel

Woah baby!

Must have been some kiss!

My goodness, the beaches are beautiful. I wouldn't apologize for taking pictures. I'm sure the memory card was full!

I need to take notes on these restaurants/food trucks you tried. That's great info! The pork taco looked especially good.

[podsnel]

After our meal, we walked along the shore before returning to our car. This is Duke's-



Tyler took our photo-



Again-



Wow- we look GOOD out of focus!
It was a nice resort area, and we walked down past the Marriott- I was curious what their timeshare looked like here- I had considered it for our first night, but never found it realistically affordable since I knew we would only be sleeping here.



There was a coconut hanging above this, very cute!



It was very quiet here, and when timmy saw the beautiful pool, he wanted to know why he hadn't stayed in this resort with a pool like this-



300 reasons a night, my friend, 300 reasons a night!



Pretty to walk around, though, when it comes with Hula Pie and a salad bar!



Checking out the Koi-



Look! I felt like I was playing Disney Animal Kingdom on FB-





Clearly, I was milking every. last. second.



This is a great place for dinner on the way to the airport- we were pulling in to Alamo in under 10 minutes. Of course, Pods was TOTALLY confused about who was supposed to refill what gas tank (largely due to the fact that we had picked up this car seemingly in our sleep when we arrived), but it was all worked out....we checked our bags, waited a bit, and were flying VERY QUICKLY over to Oahu on Hawaiian Air (HA has jets, and WOW does it make a difference!).

Good bye Kauai...until next time....but now, it's time for....



Aloha, Aulani!

[jenseib]

Are you telling me that Fantasy Island is NOT a real island. I am crushed!!!!

I did love that show though.

Beautiful resort. And the dessert looks heavenly!!!!

[saintstickets]

Originally Posted by podsnel

Back on the east side of the island, I wanted to visit the "easily accessible" Wailua Falls. I say it in quotes, because it actually IS right off the road- the problem is, when foloowing the GPS, exactly which road.

We were sent up some dirt road and on the GPS it looked no different than the main road! Too funny- we ended up just following the signs to Wailua Falls after that, .... we arrived at a parking lot and some very famous falls-

Yup...looks familiar to me. From 30 years ago...



Fantastic TR podsnel. Can't wait until you get to Aulani!

[Wicket's Mom]

I just want to know what is in that pie! Looks pretty darn good!

Living the Hawaii photos. I don't think I would ever leave if I got there!

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by jenseib

What a perfect lunch setting. And now I am hungry, but my view won't be nearly as nice for my lunch.

Well, get on a plane to Kauai- sheesh. You give me a problem, I give you a solution. It's what I do.

Originally Posted by Captain_Oblivious

My parents took me to Hawaii may moons ago and I declared it my favorite place on earth--can't wait to go back! None of the rest of my family has ever been there, so it'll be exciting to discover it through their eyes.

We are staying in a condo in The Cliffs--looked nice from the pictures, and the owner has been great to deal with so far. And it was cheaper than a hotel room for a family of 5. We'll only be on Kauai for 3 days or so--we're trying to do some island-hopping, and somehow make it fit the budget!

We were surprised at how much cheaper the condos were, too! All the Princeville condos are pretty close to each other, it's a small area- you'll love it. So beautiful. What are you planning to do on Kauai?

What's that? You want to take us to Aulani? Well, of course you can come!

If I could, I would- you crack me up!!



Must have been some kiss!

Exactly!

My goodness, the beaches are beautiful. I wouldn't apologize for taking pictures. I'm sure the memory card was full!

I had several full memory cards. I probably could have had more, but at some point I needed to eat and drink.

I need to take notes on these restaurants/food trucks you tried. That's great info! The pork taco looked especially good.

Try to find the Wild boar truck-http://www.yelp.com/biz/kauai-wild-b...-stand-anahola It looks amazing, but we didn't see it either when we were there. It will be on the left in Anahola as you are coming to Princeville from the airport in Lihue. I think we were just driving too fast and missed it (even though I was saying slow down and we were looking for it. ) But it must be slightly off the road. Another place I would have LOVED to go is Hamura Saimin- but the timing was just off for us when we were in the area- http://www.yelp.com/biz/hamuras-saimin-lihue That place is an institution, it has been there forever- and who doesn't love noodles?

Originally Posted by jenseib

Are you telling me that Fantasy Island is NOT a real island. I am crushed!!!!

Oh but it is!! It's just been renamed Kauai!

I did love that show though.

Me too- and the Love Boat. Weren't they on together?

Beautiful resort. And the dessert looks heavenly!!!!

Sooooo yummmmmmm.....

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by saintstickets

Yup...looks familiar to me. From 30 years ago...



Fantastic TR podsnel. Can't wait until you get to Aulani!

I LOVE it!! Looks like there was a lot more water when you were there- but August is one of the drier months. And the bushes need to be trimmed in 2012!
Aulani will be coming in the next update- which will be later than now since I have a busy morning!

Originally Posted by Wicket's Mom

I just want to know what is in that pie! Looks pretty darn good!

Living the Hawaii photos. I don't think I would ever leave if I got there!

Well, you would not want to leave, I can promise that-

The Hula Pie is Macadamia nut ice cream, a chocolate shell, hot fudge, whipped cream and more mac nuts. CRAZEEEEEE delicious! And plenty for a family of 4!