Seven years ago I was in Mexico, riding bikes with a guy I had just met.  He was telling me all about his recent trip to Kauai where he hiked the Napali Coastline with his brother.  In fact, he wouldn't shut up about it.  Nor would he shut up about the scrumptious banana pancakes with coconut syrup.  I vowed then and there that I would do that hike some day.


Little did I know I would be doing it with HIM, this very cute, soft spoken guy, seven years later.

********WARNING********

This entry is definitely on the lengthy side... I tried to make it concise, but I have such a hard time leaving stuff out.... you've been warned

Ben and I just got back from a glorious week in Hawaii...


Before you go on thinking we're all hoity toity, we did, for the record, attempt to do this trip on the cheap.  Our "plan" was to take a free military "Space A" (Space Available) flight from Travis Air Force Base, stay at the less expensive Hale Koa military resort, and camp in Kauai.  Of course, not everything went according to said plan, but what else is new, right?


So, rather than present a detailed travel log of our week (interesting to me, but boring to the rest of you), I'll just hit on the highlights and of course the "lowlights" of our adventure:


First, the bad:


*Getting our camera stolen by a hitchhiker in Kauai.


We were coming off of our hike along the Napali Coastline and saw this young native standing in the dark road with his thumb out.  Ben pushed all the stuff in the backseat to the side and let him in.  He sat right behind me...I was on high alert, a little nervous, listening to his every move.  He didn't make a peep until the very end of his ride with us... I heard him fidgeting with something... it sounded like velcro (our camera case) but at the same time he was jingling change in his hands.  I figured he had a velcro wallet and was counting his money.  The next morning we realized our camera was missing from the car and searched everywhere to no avail.  We can only conclude that this punk stole it!!  But, at least part of the joke is on him because when we picked him up we had just finished hiking 15 miles and we stunk to high heaven.  We had the windows rolled down and he definitely caught wind of our body odor.  So, Unfortunately, several of the experiences I'll be describing won't have a picture to go along with it  :(  The pictures below were solely taken on our camera phones.


*Sitting at Travis Air Force Base for over six hours hoping to get on a flight to Hawaii, only to be told that flight #1 had zero seats available and flight #2 was cancelled.  We were pretty disappointed, and didn't want to gamble wasting another day of our vacation.  Luckily, we were able to find commercial flights at a very reasonable price considering we bought them 18 hours out.  We did meet some hilarious people though:  John and James Smith, father and son, from Arkansas.  They had been at the airport for three consecutive days trying to get a flight to Hawaii!  We felt so bad for them... they had no car and no place to sleep.  We took them to In-n-Out Burger.  They were quite the characters with their thick southern drawls.  It made me miss the southern culture we were a part of for three years.


*Attending a Giants/A's game in Oakland while waiting for our flight out the next day.  Have you ever been to the Oakland stadium?  SCARY.


*Traveling all the way to Pearl Harbor (as a big history nut  I've always wanted to go there) only to be told that the USS Arizona memorial was closed due to high winds.  What?!?!


*Getting attacked by a gecko in the dressing room of the PX.  While looking in the mirror I found him perched on my shoulder.  Freak out session ensued.


*Trouble with the rental car:  I thought I had reserved a compact car, but I unintentionally reserved a  gas guzzling Ford Crown Victoria which is about the size of a BOAT.  We had some adventures trying to park that sucker.  Ben's funny line, "No wonder so many old people wreck!"


*Watching our carefully planned camping trip unravel before our eyes.  We had planned to hike the famed Napali Coastline in Kauai... hike 6.5 miles in to a waterfall, camp, and hike 6.5 miles out the next day. Well, luck was not on our side.  We had a series of delays... and at about 1:00 when we were finally just a couple miles' drive from the trailhead, we came upon a roadblock.  The police officer told us that there had been a fatal accident and that the road would be closed for five hours.  There is no other way to get to the trailhead but by this road.   Our itinerary was pretty inflexible, these were the only two days we had to do it.  So, we ended up camping on a random beach, and hit the trail the next day at 7:30 a.m.  We did the entire 13 miles in one day, but it ended up being more like 15 since we got lost on the way to the waterfall, which brings me to my next lowlight:


*Getting lost on the way to the waterfall.  Everything was going swimmingly until we hit mile 6, at which point we could not find the unmarked "trail" to the waterfall we had been dying to swim in.  We wandered in the vicinity for almost two hours, getting cut up by branches and climbing over boulders along the riverbed... it was getting late in the day and we were about to give up.  Ben said a little prayer.  Not long after, a big group of guys from PROVO of all places showed up with a topographical app on their iphone.  They led the way!  haha.  I'm sure this is great fodder for a church talk.


*Reviewing our credit card statement after coming home.  Good golly. 


*Missing my girls.  Ben's mom came out to California for the week to watch them. I had never been separated for so long from them, and it was TOUGH.


Here are some pics from the Napali Coastline:

Lover Boy who made this dream possible

One of the beaches on the hike

Crossing a stream... I gotta say I look pretty tough in this pic

Parts of this hike were VERY steep

Waterfall we were trying to hike to

The ever elusive waterfall.  This thing was stinkin' tall

On the way back as the sun was setting...the plant life on this trail was amazing!  So many kinds I had never encountered

Sunset... we finally got off the trail at 8pm, in the pitch dark.  That last mile was creepy!

The pictures don't show it very well, but there were some very steep narrow portions of the trail!  Definitely not for those who are afraid of heights (that would be me!)

And now for the HIGHLIGHTS of the trip:


*Visiting the Pearl Harbor museum (learned a ton!) and the USS Missouri where Japan surrendered to the US.  Very interesting.

*Snorkeling and cliff jumping at Waimea Bay on Oahu.  I was perched at the top of the rock, looking down, and was about to chicken out.  I looked behind me and there were about ten big native guys staring back at me with an impatient look, "Are you going to jump or what?"  Ben was down below on the beach waiting.  Total peer pressure.  I finally took the plunge and it was fun! (sadly, pic on stolen camera)


*Walking around the beautiful LDS temple grounds on Oahu


* Hanging out at the random beach on Kauai when we were supposed to have been camping on trail.  It was a beautiful bay and we were able to do some kayaking

Watching the sunset and having a foot beauty contest.  I totally destroyed Ben.

*Camping at said random beach.... listening to the waves crash on the shore and the rain fall on the tent.  It was kind of freaky because there were random psychos on the beach late at night.  I was afraid of a) being hit by a wave b) being attacked by bugs and c) being attacked by a psycho.  But, luckily we survived the night.  Sunrise was beautiful.

View from the tent at 6 a.m.

*Napali hike... definitely the highlight of the trip:  so tough but so amazing.  The whole thing is 22 miles round trip... maybe some day we will attempt the whole thing (we went half way), but we decided against it since later in the hike there are some steep eroded parts of the trail... we have responsibilities people! (known as Em and C)

*Returning to the resort after twelve hours on the trail.  I have never slept so well.

Beautiful grounds of our resort

* Helicopter tour of Kauai.  With a mini grand canyon, waterfalls galore, steep rugged mountains, miles of coastline, and a crater to boot... this is the ideal place for a helicopter tour. Only 20% of the island is accessible by foot or car.

No doors... very exhilarating, but not great on the hair 

I was a little nervous about how young our pilot looked

This is Hanopu Beach (both sides of the rock) and is supposed to be the most beautiful beach in the world (only accessible by swimming from Kalalau Beach, on the upper left corner).  Kalalau Beach is the beach that awaits those who complete the 11 miles in (we only did halfway).

My phone doesn't do it justice.... it was much GREENER than what it depicts!

The back of the crater, again, camera doesn't do it justice

Kauai's Grand Canyon (Waimea Caynon)

So, happily, we have now figured out what Ben will do when he retires the army... become a helicopter pilot and live on Kauai... perfect!


*Eating banana pancakes with coconut syrup! They lived up to their hype




*Hiking Stairway to Heaven with Ben's cousin Jimmy who is stationed there.  I know you're thinking this is overkill.  4000+ stairs.  It was miserable and nerve wracking, but the view was unforgettable!

In Jimmy's words, "Perfectly safe hike"

Cousins

That's the beginning of Pearl Harbor on the right

*Relaxing on beautiful beaches (again, pics on stolen camera)

*Eating all the Doritos and drinking all the cherry pepsi I wanted.  I usually refrain here on the mainland, but on vacation I just let it all go.  Yes, I ate an entire bag of Doritos.  Mmm...

*Hanging out with this stud for a whole week

Ben, fashion icon

*And of course, coming home to my beautiful girls after being separated for eight days.  

No amazing Hawaiian adventure could ever come close to the happiness that these girls bring me.  Cheesy, but true.