Visiting the Garden Isle: Day 1 – Two Tickets to Paradise!

Early on the morning of Friday, April 1^st, our alarm clock went off, letting us know it was time to get up, get showered, get our crap, and get out of the house – to head to the airport to start our vacation to Kaua’i!

A bit of backstory – we’d been planning our trip to Kaua’i for several months, since we received a letter from the folks at the Westin Princeville Ocean Villas (we're members of the Westin points club) last August, advertising a great deal - $759 for six days, five nights at their property on the north shore of the island.  We didn’t have a vacation planned at that time, and we hadn’t done a beach trip in a while, so we figured we should take advantage of the super price and book it.  We later followed up with plane tickets (we bought those in December), which ended up costing us about $1300 total, round-trip.

Overlooking the bluffs from the resort

At the Westin, getting ready for pool time

A shot of the koi pond near the main pool

Anywhoo, back to Day 1.  Our flight left Phoenix early – around 8am – and given the recent events in Belgium, we planned to err on the side of being extra early, just in case security was nuts.  As it turned out, we didn’t really need to be as early as we were, as we breezed through the line (didn’t even have to take off our shoes, actually.  Feeling safe here, folks) and had plenty of time to sit down and eat breakfast at Tequilera in Terminal 3 of the airport (I had the chorizo burrito – it was awesome).  Our flight eventually boarded, and we waved goodbye to the dry heat!

So long, Phoenix!

We flew Hawaiian Airlines for our trip, and they were great.  We’d heard less than stellar things about them from friends, but they were the cheapest flights by far, so we figured we’d take the risk.  However, we were happy to experience nothing but positive things while we flew with them.  On both stretches, we flew between Phoenix and Honolulu, waited for 3-4 hours in the Honolulu Airport, and then caught a short flight from Honolulu to Kaua’i.  Given the length of the Phoenix leg (5-6 hours), we were happy to be able to purchase preferred seating in the bulkhead/exit row on both long flights; while I’m short enough to sit anywhere (hobbitses!), Chris really needs the extra legroom on long flights, if he wants to be comfortable walking anywhere at all the day after we fly.

No feet on the bulkhead wall, please!

We were fed a decent breakfast on the way out and lunch on the way home, and both meals had complimentary cocktails and wine.  Score!  Here’s our “welcome to Hawaii” rum punch with local chips:

Aloha, indeed!

Given that we had the long layover in Honolulu, we reached out to my cousin Aren, who happens to be stationed in the Navy on the island (so rough, you guys, so rough).  Thankfully, the planets aligned and he had the entire day off!  We arranged to meet at the last surviving tiki bar in Honolulu, the La Mariana Sailing Club, only a few minutes cab ride from the airport.  We had a wonderful time catching up with Aren over cocktails and munchies.

Cheers to family!

The folks at La Mariana had a great time decorating within the tiki theme, as evidenced by these shots of the interior:

Also, my first mai tai of vacation!

Eventually, it was time for us to head back to the airport, and Aren graciously gave us a ride there in his shiny new Chevy Silverado; it was so new, I sat next to the owner’s manual, still wrapped in plastic, in the backseat!  What a great ride!  After checking back through security and eating some ice cream, our flight to Kaua’i got underway.

Bye, Honolulu and Aren!

Although our plane to Kaua’i was pretty small, it wasn’t a tiny puddle jumper/prop plane, which was nice.  However, the tray tables left a little to be desired:

Approximately the size of a postage stamp

After only 30 minutes of flying, the Garden Isle started to come into view…

…and then we were there!

Aloha, Kaua’i!  Aloha so many chickens!

We landed right around 5pm, so we decided it was high time for happy hour, and after picking up our rental car at Avis (a black Mustang infested with several roaches – more on this in a later blog), we headed to the Kaua’i Beer Company (KBC), only a few minutes away from the airport.  We had a sampler flight, and several of their brews were really great (the Lihue Lager, Tropical Armadillo, and Sleeping Giant were standouts); we also grabbed some pupus (appetizers), and those were yummy as well.

Cheers!

After KBC, we started on the drive to the resort.  Princeville is on the northern coast of Kaua’i, which is about a 45 minute drive from the airport in Lihue, on the eastern side of the island.  Kaua’i is really small – its permanent population in 2010 was only 60,000 people – and there’s only one major highway which runs ¾ of the way around the island.  The highest speed limit is 50, and the road winds through several tourist areas, so there’s a lot of starting and stopping.  Driving anywhere on the island can be a test in patience, but we just planned for drives to take a bit longer than we expected, and we were always fine.  Embrace the island time, folks.

Anywhoo, we eventually made it to our hotel, checked in, had the limits of our patience and jet lag tested by a concierge who tried to pigeonhole us into a time share presentation (“but there’s a cool touchscreen you can use!” No dice, lady), and made our way to our room.  Our room was great – a queen bedroom on the second floor complete with a patio and a small kitchenette with fridge, microwave, and small stove, plus a washer/dryer combo and a spacious bathroom.  Overall, it worked out really well for our needs, and we’d absolutely stay there again.

We initially planned to go out to a place called Bar Acuda in nearby Hanalei town for dinner, but we were beyond beat after all that travel and the time change.  We ended up getting a few more apps at our hotel’s onsite restaurant, Nanea, and those were quite good (although the accouterments were somewhat odd – who serves a standard Caesar salad with pico de gallo or Asian-style short ribs in steamed buns with guac?  It was good, but strange); after a short meal, we passed out in bed, ready to start our first full day in Kaua’i! 

Coming up next time, we hike the Na Pali coast and encounter around 7000 chickens!

Later!

Amy