This morning we flew from Honolulu to Kauai to experience our second island of our trip. We’ve heard good things about Kauai and were told that it was completely different from Oahu. We were going to spend three days there, but ended up having to make it only two because of booking activities in Maui.

In the Honolulu airport waiting for boarding to begin, I saw the reflection of a rainbow in the interior window in front of me. It was so vibrant in the reflection that I didn’t think it could possibly be real when I turned around to look outside, but it was! It was the most vibrant rainbow I’ve ever seen and it turned out to have a faint double rainbow accompanying it!

It was crazy how short the flight was between islands. We knew it was only going to be about 45 minutes, but, man, as soon as you get somewhat in the air, you’re already coming back down again! Somehow they still managed to serve refreshments on the flight, which included really yummy POG (passionfruit, orange, guava) juice – a staple in Hawaii.

We noticed right away how much greener Kauai is than Oahu. It’s known as the Garden Island and is very lush. We expected Kauai to be more humid since it has so much vegetation, but to our delighted surprise, nowhere in Hawaii has been humid at all!

Out hotel room wasn’t ready for us to check in when we got there, so we stowed our luggage and headed to the pool. We stayed at Kauai Beach Resort and it was absolutely beautiful. There was a big sprawling lawn, two pools, a nice pool bar, and it was set right on the ocean. However, the waves were too crazy on that part of the shore to swim off the beach.

At one point, we were lounging in the pool and this guy walking past us asked Jared, “Are you from Tampa?” because Jared had a Rays hat on. Turns out, this guy and his wife were on their honeymoon and are also from Sarasota! What are the odds?! We ended up hanging out with them at the pool bar for a while before our room was ready to check in. They were really fun and we had a lot of similar interests. We exchanged numbers and went our separate ways for the afternoon.

Our activity for that afternoon was Jared’s choice – golf. When looking for a golf course in Kauai, Jared googled, “nicest golf course in kauai” and The Ocean Course at Hokuala came up. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! The course was right on the water and the staff there was so nice and accommodating. We had a 3 o’clock tee time so there weren’t many other people out on the course, which was nice since we could take our time enjoying the scenery without feeling rushed by other players. Since it was later in the day, the staff arranged for us to start with the back 9 to make sure we saw the most incredible views.

I hung out on the golf cart and read while Jared played and it was just so beautiful. When we were making our round on the front 9 we ran into rain on hole 7 and had to head out. It was the first time I’d ridden along while Jared golfed and now any other course will be so disappointing!

When we got back to the hotel we got dressed to get dinner when our Sarasota friend from earlier texted us to come down to the hotel bar to hang out. We got down there and he had already had wayyy too many
beverages.” His wife was upstairs asleep. Apparently shortly after we left the pool bar, he turned it into a real party and spent $2,000 buying everyone at the pool bar a few rounds of shots, which naturally drew a crowd. He was pretty rowdy while we were at the hotel bar, but he was buying us drinks so we weren’t complaining.

We ordered pizza to the hotel for dinner so when that came, I took it upstairs. Jared said he was going to be right up when he finished his drink. Then, when I got out of the shower I had a text from Jared saying our new friends just got kicked out of the entire resort… Basically for drunk and disorderly conduct. I can’t imagine him having to go upstairs, wake his wife up, and tell her they have to leave the resort immediately (at 9:30 at night). He texted Jared and told him they were headed to the airport and booked a flight out for that night. We couldn’t believe that all happened within like 7 hours of meeting them!

Tomorrow will be our only full day in Kauai so we’re looking forward to soaking up all of its beauty!

SIDE NOTE: If you like the athletic dress I wore golfing, it’s from Halara and if you use code “Sammy” on their website, you get 20% off your order! I’m wearing the Everyday In My Feels dress and it’s such high quality athletic material, has a built-in sports bra, and has shorts underneath WITH POCKETS! It’s perfect for tennis, golf, amusement parks, or just running errands! Check it out!