Our First Day in Kauai, Hawaii
At the end of December, Adam and I went on a sort-of-planned-but-not-really trip to Hawaii. Our friend Veronika got married in Hawaii in October, but since we were just getting back from our honeymoon at the end of September, we sadly had to decline. We both still had our hearts set on visiting Hawaii though, so we kept our eyes peeled for deals. We got lucky at the end of November and discovered that traveling from Seattle to Kauai after Christmas was super cheap! We both had off work that week, and leaving on the 26th still gave us the chance to spend Christmas with our family here, so we jumped on the idea and booked the tickets.Well, that was all fine and great until we tried finding somewhere to stay in Kauai... We had almost NO luck on Airbnb. I couldn't believe it. I only found one night available (the night we were set to arrive) for $130 and immediately booked it. Other than that, every single night for the remainder of our trip was totally blacked out on Airbnb, and every hotel we could find on Kauai was charging $400+ per night. No joke. (And $400 was reasonable compared to some of the other prices I was seeing. Craziness!) So... We were sorta screwed.In the end, we decided it made the most sense to just fly from Kauai to another island on our 2nd day in Hawaii and spend the remainder of our trip there.
Oahu flights were by far the most inexpensive, so that's what we settled on. I honestly didn't know much about Kauai or Oahu before we decided to go to Hawaii, so I was totally fine with either island. This was my first ever trip to Hawaii! I didn't care where we went, I was just so happy to be going. (Of course, the joke's on us for initially thinking we found an amazing deal on Hawaii flights and were getting away with a cheap mini vacay, haha. Oh well!)So, the day after Christmas, we arrived around 4pm in Kauai. We rented a car using Turo, which is basically like Airbnb for cars. That whole experience was sort of bizarre, to be honest... The guy who rented it to us was a character. The car smelled musty, the windshield wipers were awful, and the trunk was missing the whole top fabric area, so our luggage was just out in the open for all to see if anyone decided to poke around and look in the back windows. The remote control was also missing buttons, so every time we got in or out of the car, it was like a game trying to find a stick on the ground small enough to fit inside the lock or unlock button holes on the remote. BUT, it was way, way cheaper than renting a car from the airport, and it was electric, so we were super hyped on that. Definitely made up for all the other quirks. It wasn't fully charged when we got inside of it (another slight annoyance), but it was kind of fun driving around Kauai, stopping every now and then for "juice" as Adam likes to call it. There are free, public charging stations popping up all over the US and we were pleasantly surprised to find so many in Kauai. Though this particular Turo experience was a bit ~meh~ I'm glad we were able to zip around in and experience an electric car for a day. Our next car will definitely be electric! (And shout out to Turo for giving us a $50 credit to use on our next rental after I explained the car wasn't exactly in tip-top shape.)First observations in Kauai: Wait, is that a chicken? Okay, I guess there are chickens INSIDE the airport. Whoa, check out all the chickens in the parking lot! WHOA, uhhh, there are literally chickens EVERYWHERE, not just at the airport...So why are there SO many chickens in Kauai?"
Local lore is that many of the Kauai chickens are descendants of birds that escaped when Hurricane Iwa in 1982 and then Hurricane Iniki in 1992 blew open coops. Feral chickens are found on other Hawaiian islands, but not in overwhelming numbers. Some speculate that Kauai is overrun because mongooses, which like to eat eggs, were never released there. Another reason could be that the two hurricanes only sideswiped the other islands." (source)
However they got there, I was into it. I love chickens! Our dream is to have our own chicken coop someday. Adam raised chickens when he lived in Utah. He said he bought them for a dollar each, lol. Here's a cute photo of his chickens! I imagine we'd name our chickens after Gilmore Girls characters. Rory the chicken, Sookie the chicken, Paris the chicken... Adam named one of his chickens General Tso... I don't know about that
!Anyway, back to Hawaii.
By the time we got our car, dropped our stuff at our Airbnb, and changed out of our airplane clothes, we were ready to find some grub. We ate at an adorable vegan restaurant called Eat Healthy Cafe.
The restaurant only had outdoor seating, and the skies kept getting darker and darker, but we stayed dry under their umbrellas. We even made a kitty friend! The food was super good. I had a kimchi burger and Adam tried their blackened tofu dish. I also ordered a Thai iced tea and was pleased to see the drink stirrer was a sugarcane stick! How creative. If you ever find yourself craving vegan food in Kauai, I highly recommend this spot!
We stopped at a grocery store on the way back to our place, and in the produce section, I spotted giant avocados and a basket full of rambutan! Adam and I sponsor a little girl named Nay who lives in Myanmar. Through Save the Children, we send and receive letters to/from her, and a while back, she told us rambutan is her favorite food. I had never eaten a rambutan (or seen one to be honest!) so I was pretty excited to stumble upon them at the store. We bought one and kept it with us in the car to honor Nay while we were in Kauai. (We split it at the airport the next day before we flew to Oahu.)
In the morning, we drove straight to the nearest beach! We rented some snorkel gear and spent a few hours checking out the beautiful fish and coral at Poipu Beach. We couldn't believe just how much there was to look at. We went snorkeling in Greece and hardly saw anything at all, but in Hawaii, it was sensory overload. It felt like every time we turned around, there was a new fish neither of us had seen before. So many shapes and colors! We're pretty sure we saw the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a (Hawaii's state fish) but sadly didn't get any photos of it. Here are some of the shots we were able to get on our Go Pro:
We even saw a SEA TURTLE! I honestly didn't have my hopes up when we got to Hawaii. I knew there were sea turtles but figured we wouldn't see any. But then we saw this dude surfing on the beach!! It honestly made the entire trip worthwhile. It was sooooo cool!
After swimming, we packed up, changed, and headed out to find veggie hot dogs at Puka Dog. I still think about this hot dog a lot. It was the greatest veggie hot dog ever, of all time. You're able to choose different sauces, mustards, and relishes, so I chose the Hawaiian mustard and mango relish. Ugh, so good.
After we ate, we drove to Waimea Canyon, but I took too many photos there so it'll have to be a separate post, haha. BUT, along the way, we saw this market that just happened to be across the street from a public charging station (FREE JUICE!) so we pulled in there to charge and walked over to eat some more.
Fresh coconut water, passionfruit shaved ice, and an entire container of juicy mango... YUM. Eating in Hawaii was just the best. There were also lots of chickens walking around there of course... At least they're friendly! As always, thanks for reading! xo