My daughter spends every summer with her father, but every other year I get about 10 days at the end of the summer with her before school starts.  Vacations every other year are always the biggest and best I can afford. I start paying for them a year in advance. This year, we went to Kauai.

I have been dreaming of going to Kauai since I was a little girl. I experienced Hawaii for the first time 2 years prior when I went to the Big Island with my parents and Melia, but this was the island of my dreams.

Here are a few things I learned and would suggest about visiting Kauai. 

1. The number one thing we did was take a helicopter.  It went around the whole island and was really fun!!
2. There are coupon books everywhere you look. In stores, along sidewalks, etc. Those came in handy
3. There’s a free hula show in Kapaa at the coconut marketplace. Much cheaper than a Luau and it was great!
4. There are tons of beaches to choose from and we went all over. The 2 that were best for kids swimming around were Salt Pond Park in Hanapepe and Anahola Beach Park north of Kaelia
5. The North Shore at the end of the road is very busy. We opted to not even park and stay as there were so many people. I would suggest not going at Peak hours
6. Queens Bath is a popular spot but the parking lot is tiny and you will have to wait for a spot. Plus this time of year the tide was low and the water so stagnant, no one would even swim in it. It didn’t seem that impressive at all to me.
7. The cheapest place we found chocolate covered Macadamia nuts is at Foodland in Princeville. I think under $9 a bag.
8. Everyone there drives realllly slow….so it takes a while to get places.
9. Waimea Canyon was awesome. The hike we chose was Cliff Trail which was short, but the trail to get to the trail was steep and slippery.
10. Shopping at Costco did NOT save us money. If you have a kitchen, I would suggest just buying from Safeway. If you are not buying premade meals there, the prices are fairly close to on the mainland.
11. There’s a little known cave near Poipu that turned out to be really awesome. It’s called Makauwahi Cave.  If you google it, it may say “closed” but that’s because a guy sits down there and tells you of the history. You can still hike down there when he isn’t there.
12. I WISH we had tried the right kind of shave ice. The ones with real fruit are in Kapaa.
13. I wish I had the money for a catamaran tour of the Na-Pali coast but I opted for the helicopter instead. If I had to choose again, I’d probably still pick the helicopter. 😊
14. Don’t forget sunscreen!! The sun is so much stronger there.
15. I wouldn’t suggest going to Kekaha Beach Park. It was horribly windy, a sharp dropoff and smelled like dead fish.

Another bucket-list item is to have photographs of my daughter and I in matching clothes. My grandfather passed away this March. At his memorial, we watched a beautiful slideshow of him and family.  I saw that my grandma (who has also passed) would make matching clothes for her and her daughter. I fell in love with the idea. I had a friend of mine make dresses for Melia and I and send me the pattern. I was able to successfully make the blue dresses you see below.