Kauai

Our honeymoon was my first time in Hawaii, and what a spoil it was for both of us! Rob planned our entire honeymoon, flights, hotels, car rentals, you name it! He had thought of everything. He is amazing in so many things, but he is particularly amazing with travel planning and having been to Maui with his family when he was a kid, he planned our stay on two of the other islands so it could be a new experience for both of us. I couldn’t have asked for a more picturesque place for us to spend our first week and a half of married life together.

Kauai was our first adventure; my first time on a tropical island! The island is gorgeous, covered in green. A relatively small island and a lot less touristy than some of the other islands, which we were grateful for. For March, the forecast predicted rain throughout the week, but we were blessed with sunshine everyday, except for the day we flew out – it was a miracle! Our first day we enjoyed a tasty shrimp lunch and ice cream for dessert; made me feel like singing “these are a few of my favorite things!” from the Sound of Music. We are seafood lovers through and through, and if you are just discovering my deep and abiding love for ice cream, you will quickly learn, for it is no secret of mine. Diamonds are not this girl’s best friend, but if you substitute ice cream for diamonds and sing loudly for all to hear, you will be right on the money! Ice cream is this girl’s best friend, next to my cute hubby of course. 🙂

We spent an afternoon basking in the sunshine on the beach and swimming in the blue ocean water. The water was perfect. We had so much fun swimming! We laid out on the shore to dry off and relax. Our white bodies absorbed the warmth of the sun’s rays like a piece of breaded chicken soaks up grease in a frying pan… and we got burnt to a crisp!  We walked off that beach looking like crispy critters! Classic couple gets fried on their tropical honeymoon kind of deal. Haha! We spent the rest of the afternoon stocking up on fresh fruit and aloe vera.

Rob is the king of finding the best places to eat no matter where we go. He found this incredible hot got place on Kauai called Puka Dog. Hot dog!, these people know how to make a hot dog! The buns were made of long thin sweet homemade Hawaiian bread rolls that were speared by a hot roasting spike until the inside was a toasty golden brown. The bun was not pierced all the way through the other end. No hole in the bottom. Then the polish dog was slid right into the warm bun and was flavored with your choice of Hawaiian mustard and/or fruit relish. The fruit relishes were amazing! The savory and sweet combination of the juicy polish dog with the fruit relish was a match made in heaven, an explosion of flavor in your mouth – a party that doesn’t need a reason! The Puka dogs were so good, we went back three times while we were on the island. We tried every flavor of fruit relish: pineapple, mango, star fruit, papaya, coconut, and banana and we were never disappointed. When we are feeling low, we dream of the land of Puka dogs, flowing with Hawaiian sweet rolls, and fruit relish. Ummmm! Yum! We will return to this blessed establishment many times in our lifetime.

We drove out to Waimea Canyon one afternoon. and WOW was it impressive. We could see a huge waterfall from the lookout and the massive mountains with their jagged edges and green cliffsides were stunning. I so wish we would have had more time to explore Kauai. There was so much to see on this beautiful little lush island. When we go back to Kauai one day, we will be spending a lot of time hiking and exploring this spectacular canyon and the whole coast of the island. Coming back is not an if, but a when. We can’t wait to return to Kauai soon; such an easy place to love.