DeLappenings: Kauai 2022

Well, peeps.

Aloha from…KAUAI!

Holy, moly, moly…despite a lot of obstacles that kept trying to foil this trip, we finally made it!

It was a long, 14-hour travel day yesterday, that began with a three-hour delay out of Austin, involved a legitimate Home Alone-style airport re-inactment to make our connection in San Jose, and a whole lotta snacks and juggling to keep the kiddos entertained for that many hours, but…we did it. :)

And you know you’re true Texans when you head to Hawaii to cool off, ha. All five of us were marveling at the amazing temperatures and breeze, just as soon as we deplaned in Lihue.

The sun was setting as we checked in, and by the time we made it to our room, it was nearly dark, but the balcony view was still incredible without much light.

Fast forward to this morning when we woke to gasp-inducing beauty. I mean, the property is just UNREAL.

After a peaceful, 6 a.m. balcony shrine, we spent the early hours at breakfast, then wandering the grounds before a drive to neighboring Poipu beach, followed by more resort swim time, and then a quick change for our main event of the afternoon/evening: a 4.5 hour, sunset catamaran cruise along the Napali coastline.

I’ll break up the pics into categories without too much commentary from here on out. The visuals say it all!

Balcony/Sunrise:

Resort Exploring:

Poipu Beach/Resort Time:

Catamaran Sunset Cruise/Napali Coast:

Okay…pause for a few words about this incredible experience. But first, let me admit a FAIL.

In my angst during the first hour or so (hello, over 17 nautical miles in speed with lots of open air and space whilst white knuckling three kiddos because this Mama is one ANXIOUS sailor), I failed to take any pics of the whole boat, ha. So use your imagination. And these are a couple reference pics from the company’s website:

It’s like two giant “feet” that sail on the water, with a raised platform in between the feet.

At the front of the boat (starboard?) there are these trampoline things (that are not trampolines, but that’s the best way I can describe them), that you can sit or lay on, and the water can splash up through the material from all those feet below.

It’s wild.

And fun.

And stressful (again, anxious sailor, here).

You can go below deck, where they prepare the food—and even brave a below, below deck tiny restroom, accessible from a ladder. And if you thought plane restrooms are “fun,” then lemme tell you how hysterical a catamaran restroom is. ;)

Special shout-out to our awesome (female; girl power, woohoo!) captain and the two entertaining crew members.

And another special shout out to the five-member bachelorette party we bonded with during the last hour. They were just shy of being obnoxious and mostly just really fun and living their best life. And they were sweet to my kiddos, who were getting a big kick out of them, as well. Especially during that final hour they involved a lot of sing-alongs to raucous music. :)

Oh! And one final note: we came across an amazing school of spinner dolphins! Fun and active, and we even saw a baby with its Mama amongst them. The hubby got some fantastic video. Epic.

This was truly an incredible experience. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Now…a massive amount of pics: