Casey and Val report back on their Kauai/Big Island honeymoon

Aloha!

This is a long review, but I couldn't help myself - we had a blast!

Our honeymoon was absolutely the BEST and we have you, Anne Rose, to thank for setting it all up for us.  The champagne and chocolate covered strawberries were delicious and a nice surprise when we got to the room!  Also our perks while we were there, money credits, room upgrades, and free breakfasts were so nice and helpful.

We LOVED Kauai the best because of its lush green environment and our adventures there were amazing - it was just beautiful.

While we were at Kauai the hotel room was wonderful, it had its own kitchen! and the view was gorgeous.  The Weston Princeville was very pretty and the $50 daily credit helped us out a bunch - we even "went green" with our room cleaning service because that offered us an extra $10 off :) so needless to say, we ate a lot!!

We were woken up by roosters most days (they are everywhere!) but that is okay because Val and I were the first ones up in the resort because of our jet lag - we went to the pool or out for our adventures at 6am!

It rained a lot in Kauai but it didn't bother us much because our days were filled with fun things to do - we went on the sunset cruise which was really neat.  The south didn't rain as much as the north so we were pretty dry that day.  We saw dolphins, the Nepali Coast, caves, turtles, met wonderful people, drank, ate, learned of the Kauai history, and we even drove the boat!
It was a great 4 hours - but thankfully we have sea stomachs - there was one couple hanging off the back of the boat getting sick because it was a rocky ride out and 4 hours long. 

Surfing was our favorite day.  It was raining but that made for better waves! Our young instructor Spenser was awesome, Val and I were both able to get up on our first try! ...we did take a few spills though ;) We were on a huge beach and the water was gorgeous!


The Kayaking and hiking adventure was cool and interesting at the same time as we paddled kayaks, hiked through the woods, took a tractor to our zip lining destination, jumped on a rope swing into a deep water pool in the mountain, jumped 25 ft into the water spring... very neat!!  We went back to the hotel exhausted!!  




We went out for dinner at a delicious restaurant in Hanalei called the Dolphin.  We had a bartender named Ash who was very nice - we had him pick our meal for us.  We enjoyed fresh sushi - that wasn't even on the menu and shared a delicious fish with gourmet veggies and all.  The prices were great - especially since we were used to the resort prices - this place was a steal! I highly recommend it.

The Smith family Luau was okay... I would say next time I wouldn't go to one unless it was on a beach.  This was a little too commercialized - but cool to see hula dancers and fire eaters.

We loved the Big Island because of its huge beach and bathwater ocean. Very different from Kauai!!  We were so excited to get to the hotel and see the view from the lounge - the Palm trees, a HUGE beach, and aqua blue water. 
We were on the beach or pool every single day snorkeling, lying on the beach, swimming, eating and drinking yummy island drinks. 

Our kayak adventure there was an experience, we couldn't bring our camera because it would have gotten wet - we should have bought an underwater camera... wish we did because we saw some cool things out in the water.  The water was rough that day so paddling with Val was a real team effort!! We saw a black fin shark! ahhhhhh!!! swimming right by our kayak (and it was shark week!) haha.  We were fine though, we then paddled along to the cave but the waves were to high we couldn't go near the rocks - so we found a "quiet" spot to go snorkeling.  The current was very strong but we were fine - snorkeled ate pineapple and snacks on the lava rocks - Val got to jump off the 30-35 ft cliff (ahhh!)


The only other thing we did on the Big Island was the helicopter ride but that was canceled because of the weather.  We got a refund.  But we had a nice drive around the island :)

I hope you enjoy our photos! And of course you can send us some business cards all of our friends are getting married and we would love to send them your way!