A week in Hawaii with Trish and Jeremy, AND NO KIDS! September 2025 Kauai.

9/2 - Lindon, UT.  We left the kids with Nana and Granddad and blew that popsicle stand!  

We flew from SLC to LAX, where we met up with Trisha and Jeremy and flew to Kauai together. 

A full day later and yet, only 7 PM. A smiling girl with a flower in her hair... Hawaiian sign that she's single? 

9/3 6 AM, we followed the Frey's out for sunrise walks once or twice.  It was nice to be out, but sleep won over most of the mornings.

Grandpa Aurich hooked us up with a timeshare and we were just a short walk from Nukoli'i Beach. 

We all brought the full face mask snorkel setups and Melissa was able to spend quite a bit of time in the water with just one panic.  The ladies at Tunnels Beach. 

A hurricane years ago broke many chicken coops and now the island is full of wild chickens.  Melissa caught this great shot of a protective mother and her curious brood while we were looking for lunch in Hanalei. 

9/4 after breakfast Thursday morning we went for a walk and stopped to admire the tree tunnel entrance. 

Then went back down to the Nukoli'i beach 

We went tubing in the irrigation canals on the former sugar cane plantations.  The chicken spreading hurricane also destroyed the last of the sugar plantations. 

Melissa has a little organic Hawaiian mud on her face she picked up during the tube ride.  Snorkeling, check! Tubing a canal that passed underground, check! What a brave girl!

This Cattle Egret, a heron, was hanging out at the lagoon were we stopped for lunch with the tubing company.  

After tubing we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at Poipu Beach.  We watched the honu, green sea turtles, come up to sleep on the beach.  In the background, near the rocks, there was a sea lion all afternoon.  Then an hour before sunset, the turtles came in.  There were 4 on the sand at our last look. 

Since we were waiting for the turtles, we ate dinner locally.  Puka Dogs, very big hotdog, with lots of sauces.  Yummy. 

9/5 Friday is cheat day!  Malasadas for breakfast from Kauai Bakery.  Custard, Guava, and Ube fillings.  Yummy, but 3 for 2 people was too much.  

We then headed up into Waimea mountain to explore.  We stopped to see the view, and found a small animal grave yard!

We hiked down a mile into the canyon, 400 feet elevation drop for this viewpoint, then 1 mile and 400 ft up and out.  That probably counted for about a half of one of those malasadas from earlier. 

We then spent the rest of the afternoon at Salt Pond Beach.  It was a nice protected bay, but the water was really cloudy and we couldn't see much.  

9/6 Saturday morning boat ride!  We went out with a charter to see the Na Pali coast from the water.  We entered some sea caves, got dripped on by a fertility waterfall and saw a dolphin or two. 

After lunch on the boat it was in to the water for deep/open water snorkeling, check!  Another of Melissa's terrors knocked off the list.  

Someone needed to review the rules with this turtle.  I think she forgot that she was supposed to stay 20 feet from me!

Riding back to shore

There are three Jojo's Shave Ice shacks on Kauai.  If you eat at all three, the last one was free and they gave you a sticker.  This is number 2!

A ride on the bow of the boat and a sugar high was too much for these sleeping beauties. 

9/7 Sunday morning we went to church at the visitors meeting.  They have a 9 AM service for tourists.  It was a testimony meeting and a local got up and told horrible stories of abuse, wouldn't sit down, wouldn't leave, they ended up calling the mission president and the police.  By the time we dismissed there were 5 or 6 police cars in the parking lot.  Poor guy was obviously emotionally struggling. It was not a fun church meeting.  So Trisha took us to her church, a long walk in the outdoors. 

The Ho'opi'i Falls trail was a 3.1 mile out and back.  It was HOT today, with very little wind on the trail.  Hurricane Kiko was on its way to Hawaii and was predicted to make landfall the next day.  The hurricane shifted, decreased in power and missed the islands.  

This sign hangs... you guessed it, 3 houses from the Ho'opi'i Falls trailhead. 

After a long hot hike, acai bowls really hit the spot!  So much fruit, so many nuts and thick nut butter.  Delicious!

Jeremy had never seen a moon rise and it was supposed to be a full moon, so that night we went down to the beach and watched the moon try to break through the clouds from 7-8 PM.  It was a beautiful night. 

9/8 Monday morning saw Melissa conquer another fear.  Heights!

Yahoo!!!!  5 zip lines, and 5 smiles growing bigger and bigger.  It was a blast.  Andy even flipped himself upside down for part of a couple of rides.  

After riding back from the ziplines to the strip malls, there were hula dancers performing!  So we got gelato and watched. 

9/9 Tuesday, last day.  We were DONE with sand and salt.  So we hopped on a river boat and rode down the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto.  It was actually a really relaxing and calm last day.  

We hit the third Jojo's and I celebrated by actually getting one of my own instead of just mooching off Melissa's.  

We dropped of the Turo car and while waiting for the shuttle to the airport, Jeremy finally found a wild chicken egg.  We were amazed they weren't everywhere!

After flying through the night we parted ways in LA.  Goodbye Frey's and goodbye vacation!