Hawaii - January 2004

Maui Beach

We took our first week-long beach vacation together to Hawaii to the islands of Kauai and Maui.  We were looking forward to hiking and relaxing on the beach, especially given that we had been working like crazy before this trip.  However, luck was not on our side and it rained almost the entire time - the kind of rain that the locals had not seen in decades!  So what was supposed to be a cheap trip (hotel and flight on points), ended up being quite expensive as we ate/drank at the hotel and watched quite a few in-room movies.

Accommodations:
Doubletree Alana Hotel - Located in Waikiki, Honolulu.  We stayed here one night before we flew to Kauai.

Sheraton Kauai Resort - Great hotel located in Poipu.

Westin Maui - Another great hotel located in Lahaina.

Activities:
We flew into Honolulu and stayed one night before we took a local flight to Kauai.  In Kauai, we took a boat cruise along the Napali Coast and snorkeled.  We attempted to do a hike on the northern part of the island.  However, the rain put a damper on these activities.

Napali Coast

When we arrived in Maui, we had hoped that the rain would have subsided but it did not.  We attempted a helicopter ride three different times but each time it was rained out.  So instead, we hung out at the hotel and watched movies.  We did drive the road to Hana but didn't get to see too much because of the rain.

On our last day there, the rain stopped just as we were entering a luau which was scheduled to be in doors due to all of the rain.  So we quickly ran around and took photos.  The luau was not as exciting since it was indoors but we enjoyed it.

Kauai

On our last morning, we went to the pool for an hour before we had to head back to the airport to fly home.  This was the first sunshine we had seen on the trip since the first day that we had arrived.

Unfortunately, while we were there, Shawna found out that her grandfather had passed away.  She tried to get an earlier flight home but because it was the holidays, all flights were booked.  So we flew home as planned and then she immediately flew to Louisiana the day after to attend the funeral.