day trip to kauai

wanted to visit the graves of my dad and grandparents and spend the day with Nelson and Ruthie on Kauai, another island about a 20 minute flight from Honolulu. we got up early and got to the airport.

what??? not united... on the Hawaiian airlines plane

here we gooooo

can't believe we are here, it's been so long.

sleeping giant. a big landmark in Kauai.  after the airport we picked up Nelson and Ruthie at Nelson's sisters house then off to Kapaa to put some flowers at Nelson's first wife grave. 

Next stop is a Hawaiian quilt shop... so many choices but just got a book but could have stayed all day!!!

wish i could make this one, so cute

lunch time! our favorite place to eat in Kauai

it's a small shack and we had to wait since the seating is limited and it's a popular place.

started with fried won ton and a beef and chicken BBQ stick, both very good

famous hamura's saimin.  worth a trip to Kauai just to eat this!!! even good on a hot day...

OMG, is this place real??? Nelson told us they have the best taro chips here.  as we drove up we didn't think it was open cause it looked like a condemned house.  It was a dump but sorta looked open.  Jeff and Nelson went in.  Jeff said the inside was unbelievable (not sure what that meant except bad).

taro chips were very good and the best we have had.  will go back again!!!

visiting with auntie Julia at her restaurant.  had a great time talking and eating some snacks.  it was great to see her again and wish we could visit more often....

lilikoi chiffon pie, a specialty of Kauai.  super duper yummy!!!

the day went super fast, in fact we almost missed our flight back to Honolulu and had to run for our plane.  wish we could have stayed longer... as usual it was sad to leave...

We're on Vacation!!! Hawaii our favorite place to be...

We have arrived!!! View from our hotel room... 

Zippy's, our first dinner!!! rice, fried chicken, chili and mac salad...

zippy's saimin, still good

Our favorite malasdas were closed today so we had to go to Leonards.  Picked up our cousins Nelson and Ruthie (from Las Vegas) at their hotel to spend the day with them.  They visited Hawaii the same time as us but are only spending a few days in Oahu and then going to Kauai to celebrate Nelson's sister's birthday... we are going to also meet them there for a day

wow, those malasadas look so yummy!!! but had to wait since Jeff had to get his coffee at starbucks. Good thing it wasn't very far away!!!

Nelson and Ruthie

first big bite... yummy

so good

we ate the whole dozen of malasdas!!!! it was memorial day so we visited the graves of Ruthie's parents (uncle larry and auntie bessie) , our grandparents and Nelson's parents and brother.

it was really nice to visit and bring them flowers

For dinner we went to dk's steakhouse to celebrate both of our 20th anniversaries.  Nelson's Auntie gave them some mango's so he had the chef cut them for us.  very delish!!!  Jeff also brought his own wine from his collection to celebrate!!!

crab dip

Nelson's steak (he is a steak lover and wine too)

our dinner was super good and we had another great celebration.

(we are celebrating all year long)

Nelson and Ruthie were off to Kauai for the rest of the week and we hiked to makapu'u lighthouse.

It's about a 2 mile hike each way, up hill on the way up.  The first time we did the hike last year it took us 2 hours.  This time we walked up and ran back down, in 45 minutes.  It was so hard to get there and I felt so out of shape but in the end it was fun and felt great.

good thing it was a cloudy day!!!

Jeff's favorite saimin place is closed, so sad...

we'll just have to come back to Hawaii soon

butter rolls from Liliha bakery.  so good.

saimin at Liliha bakery for dinner.  good but not great.

spam and egg sandwich.  the bread was so soft and yummy.