Aloha! We got back from our 10-day vacation late this past Sunday, and we all had to hit the ground running on Monday morning with school and work. (Our schools were open on Columbus Day) It was a busy week, and I needed to get my house clean and other boring stuff like that. ;-)
My husband and I were part of a large group of other employees from his company, and we were all treated to a 6-day stay on the island of Kauai. (Our girls were not allowed on this trip, so they stayed with my mom in Texas) We stayed at the
Grand Hyatt in Poipu, and what a gorgeous hotel it is. The grounds and the views are beyond breathtaking! At the resort, the air is positively perfumed with exotic flowers and plants, and photo ops are literally around every corner.
We traveled
all day to get to Kauai, and by the time we checked in it was dark. Though it was only about 7:30 in the evening, our bodies were on Eastern Standard Time, so it felt like 1:30 AM to us. Talk about tired!! This is what we saw while walking to the public areas to grab a bite to eat:
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| The moon was full that night. The grounds are lit so beautifully, and torches are everywhere. |
The next morning, we saw this sunrise from our balcony. We could see the ocean from there. It's just beyond the palm tree line to the right:
I walked around with my camera that day, snapping shots here and there and everywhere. It's a slice of Heaven.
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| Looks like a golf course, but it's not. It's a lawn on the Hyatt's property. |
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| Looking up at a Plumeria tree. |
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| Plumeria blossoms on my pool lounge chair. They look fake to me, they are that perfect. |
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| Stephanotis, the wedding flower. Smells absolutely heavenly. |
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| This is a tree whose name I do not know, but love the interesting pendulous flowers. |
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| The above two flowers are hibiscus. The bushes are everywhere you look. |
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| When we arrived the first day, we each received an orchid lei, and a kukui nut lei too. |
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| This is Duke, and he lives in the Hyatt's Lobby Atrium along with many other birds. Duke's 18 years old. |
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| We took a helicopter ride of the island. It's magnificent, and hard to describe completely in words. |
Famous movies were filmed here, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, The Descendants, South Pacific, and more. We flew over many of those areas. These photos were taken from the helicopter:
The next day, we took an ATV tour of a working ranch. It was interesting, and DIRTY! LOL The red dirt of Hawaii gets EVERYwhere while you are riding, and even after showering, it still rubbed off on the towels. :-) Our guides joked that the spray tans are free with the tour. ;)
I'm afraid to ride my own ATV, so my husband drove the Rhino, while I took pictures. Here we are, posing in front of our vehicle:
Because we drove in a bigger vehicle, it meant that we needed to be at the tail end of the group, with a guide behind us. The dirt kicked up by so many ATVs and blown back toward us made us dirtier than anyone else, I'm convinced! LOL I also asked for three bandannas to cover my face, instead of the customary one.
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| This is a driveway lined with ironwood trees. They have an interesting shape, rather like a bottlebrush. |
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| Several times during the tour, we'd all park our vehicles, get out and take pictures and hear a bit about what we were seeing. This is a view from further up the mountain. |
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Can you see the ironwood tree-lined drive way out in the distance? A road lined with trees in this manner is a sign that you are on royal property. This cattle ranch was once owned by
Princess Ruth, the great granddaughter of King Kamehameha I. |
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| My 'spray tan'. |
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| During our tour, we stopped along a riverbank where Raiders of the Lost Ark was filmed. Indiana Jones himself swung on this rope swing. This is my husband taking the plunge. I stayed onshore. :-) |
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| This was our final sight on our ATV tour. It's also where they filmed part of The Descendants. |
My husband's company entertained us each night, with lavish dinner parties. One night, we were asked to dress up for a Masquerade. They supplied the masks for us, too.
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| See the Tree Man behind us? He was in costume, on stilts. |
Another night, there was a living statue to behold while we had cocktails and hors d'oeuvres:
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| Her lips were glittered red, and water streamed from her fingertips. Fascinating! |
Each morning, we had breakfast at the Tidepools restaurant, overlooking a man-made lagoon. Pure tranquility!
Boy, if only I could see this every morning of my life, with the koi fish swimming in the water beneath my feet. Sigh.
There were many pools for swimming at the Hyatt. One of our favorites is a saltwater lagoon. Its bottom is part-sand, part-lava rock, and is located closest to the ocean. See the red flag in the photo below, on the far right? We saw that red flag every day, which meant swimming in the ocean was not safe. :( That's okay, because the pools were incredible.
The pools are all located on a slope, and it's laid out so nicely. Here's a view from up top, where the Adult Pool and Winding River are located:
One day, while my husband played golf with his co-workers, I went to the spa and had an acupressure massage in an outdoor room like this one, overlooking a private garden with lava-rock outdoor shower:
Of all the places I've had massages, this one tops them all. What a treat. The whole spa experience there is indescribable. A girl can get used to this life!
This is me and my favorite guy, dressed up for the last evening event:
On the beach, one last time:
Thank you SO much for letting me share my vacation with you. The beauty of Hawaii is so unique, and it's all in technicolor. I hope you've enjoyed my pictures. Hugs!
