If you haven't heard yet (or seen one of my excessive number of Facebook posts), we were blessed enough to go on a 9-day trip to the Hawaiian island of Kauai. My step-mom has a HUGE heart and offered to take Jacob, Jaxon, and I with the rest of her family to celebrate her mother's life and enjoy the island with one another.
Flying with a baby - not so fun. But for the rest of the trip, our kiddo was an absolute BLAST. He handled the time change like a champ and really added to the overall enjoyment of the vacation. I want to remember this trip long after it is over, so this is the recap of our time there. PICTURE OVERLOAD WARNING. (But it was paradise! Can you blame me???)
DAY 1: Our day started at 5:00am (and with only about 5 hours of sleep). Our wonderful friend Rocky picked us up and drove us to the airport that morning. After getting checked in, Jacob promptly got in trouble with TSA for packing a POCKET KNIFE in his carry-on bag. Bless him. Not to mention, the TSA agent made fun of him for packing a year's worth of snacks in a backpack that required individual inspection of each item. It wasn't his shining moment of the trip. Thankfully, they let him go retrieve our checked bag and put his knife there. We passed the inspection of our food, and (FINALLY) made it through security. Onwards and upwards.
The travel portion began with flying out of Austin to Denver, and then taking a 7-hour flight from Denver all the way to Lihue, Hawaii on the island of Kauai. Jaxon did pretty well considering it was his first flight, but the kid defies science with his ability to stay awake (he was awake for nearly 18 hours straight). Unfortunately, for this flight we were in the back row by the toilets so EVERYONE in line wanted to smile and play with him. The social bug would not have anything to do with taking a nap when he could laugh and interact with strangers. Thankfully, the worst of it was a short scream fest and some stinky smells from the bathrooms:)
When we arrived to the island, Jaxon was most impressed by the airport chickens. We got our rental car and drove around the island enjoying the beautiful drive until we made it to Hanalei Bay to our resort.
It was only about 7:30pm by the time we settled into our condo, but we still managed to crash hard for the day as it was 12:30am in Austin, TX and we had been up for almost 24 hours straight.
Day 2: The next day Jaxon woke up ready to take on the world at 2am (7am Austin time). Thankfully, we were able to put him back down at 4 and sleep until 6am Hawaii time. The rest of the trip we were able to get him on a 5pm-4am schedule, so we cannot complain too much. It worked for us and even felt like we were sleeping in until 9am. #travelingwithababyprobs
When everyone was up and ready to take on the world, we headed over to the Kilauea lighthouse. It is a popular area for birds and a great photography location. It was on our way to the lighthouse that we discovered that it rains every day in Kauai. Thankfully, this was the only day that we were caught in the rain while out and about. At the lighthouse, my dad was a hit with tourists due to his excessive photography gear. He was probably on a hundred different stranger’s Instagram stories that day. Regardless of the judgment, he didn’t care what people thought. He was there to get great shots, and I cannot wait to see his edited photos.
After taking in the views at Kilauea, we went to eat at Kalypso. This was by far my favorite food on the island. I had the seafood burrito and a delicious Mai Tai (Kauai's specialty). The entire family, consisting of 6 adults and 6 kiddos enjoyed lunch together. After that, we returned to the condo to swim in the fancy resort pool and get Jaxon to bed early. Later that night, Jacob and I were able to get out and have a date night while checking out some of the scenic overlooks along the way.
Don't forget to follow the rest of our time in Kauai!
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