We started in Oahu for 3 days so that we could see the history at Pearl Harbor. We stayed at Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel in a room with a view of Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach.
We didn't rent a car on that island and all of our exploring was done by tours or on foot. The first tour was to Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is a must see for anyone planning a trip to Hawaii. We enjoyed the history and were struck by the sacrifice made by so many.
The second tour we took was the Circle Island Tour. We were picked up at our hotel in a little tour bus and driven around the entire Island. We were able to see a lot that day. We visited a sugar cane plantation, macadamia nut farm, the Dole Pineapple Plant, historical points of interest and saw many beautiful beaches.
We toured the Byodo-In Buddist Temple. The grounds were beautiful.
The evenings found us enjoying the interesting people in downtown Waikiki. (Well, I enjoyed them. Hubby was a little taken aback by them.)
After three days, we flew to Kauai for 8 days. We stayed at the Lae Nani Resort. Our condo was a few feet from the pool and it was just a few more feet to the ocean. This was the view from our condo:
We thoroughly enjoyed Kauai. We took a helicopter tour:
We went on a boat cruise to the Na Pali coast on the Catamaran Kahanu. We were 18 passengers and a crew of 2. The water was really rough with waves occasionally coming over the top of the boat. Many people were extremely seasick. (Thank goodness for dramamine) We saw majestic cliffs, lave tubes, sea caves, waterfalls and porpoise. The catamaran was a family run operation. The captain was gruff, but his son was friendly. He made all of the women roses out of some type of grassy reed. He was kind of cute too. (did I say that out loud?)
We enjoyed a Luau at Coconut Beach. The food was great and so was the entertainment.
We took a kayak, hiking trip up the Wailua River to Secret Falls. We kayaked for 2 miles, parked the kayaks and hiked for a mile to have lunch by the falls. It was beautiful. This was my favorite activity on Kauai.
We had a convertible while we were there, so we were able to do a lot of exploring on our own. We drove up into Waimea Canyon. It is very pretty, but it was very windy the day we were there.
We drove to Kilauea Lighthouse. The view from the lighthouse is amazing.
We visited the north end of the island with all of it's beautiful waterfalls, beaches and old buildings.
We snorkeled at many beaches, including Queen's Bath.
We enjoyed many quiet dinners and beautiful sunsets.
And before we knew it, it was time to go home. The trip was everything we had hoped it would be and more. Total for 11 days in paradise: $5028.00
2 comments:
Your pictures from there turned out really good. Kauai seems to have a lot of waterfalls! It looks nice. I stayed at the Aston when I went to Waikiki too. I can't remember if we knew this already?
I can't believe you didn't mention that you weren't sure if you would still have a house when you came home or if it had burned down! You left paradise and came home to what looked like a war zone!
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