Kauai Travel Journal
This recap is from our trip between Christmas and New Year’s (I’m working on being more timely :)). The first time we visited Kauai was 8 months before this trip. We went for our babymoon and fell in love. Because I was pregnant, I was so excited to return to eat all of the sushi and poke.
For your first trip with a baby, I recommend going somewhere you’ve already been. I think if we went somewhere new I might have felt like we were missing out. But since we had just recently been there, Kevin and I embraced living like locals, eating a lot of supermarket sushi, and being on an earlier schedule.
December 26th: We flew out the day after Christmas and proactively got to the airport 4 hours before our flight. This was way too early, especially when we were embracing for 6.5 hours in the air. However, we were nervous about post-Christmas travel, San Diego Terminal 1 construction, and Alaska Airlines employees striking, but of course, none of this happened.
Margot did okay on the flight. I tried to get her to breastfeed during takeoff to help with the pressure change, but she was distracted whenever I fed her. We also started her on formula around this time and didn’t pack enough because I didn’t anticipate she wouldn’t breastfeed. There was also turbulence so we couldn’t stand up for the majority of the flight, and she didn’t poop, so she was just fussier than usual. Overall, for the length of the flight, she did well and it was a relief to get there.
We landed at 7pm and by the time we got our rental car and plugged in our Airbnb in Princeville, everything would’ve been closed for dinner. So we had our first Safeway sushi dinner!
December 27th: Our first full day we started with coffee (and bottle) on the lanai. Watching the chickens and runners along the Makai Golf Course path became part of our slow and peaceful morning routine.
We stopped for smoothies at Kalalea Juice Hale on our way to Anahola Beach. We loved this beach last time because the coral barrier almost makes a calm pool within the ocean. However, the waves were much bigger this time so we just hung out on the shore. For lunch, we went to The Musubi Truck in Kapaa (big musubi fans here) followed by coffee at Java Kai. We were able to go for our first swim when we got back to the Airbnb, however, between the time difference and over-stimulation of the new environment, we put Margot down for a nap at 4 pm, anticipating that we’d be able to go out for dinner. She slept until 8 am the next morning (with her normal feeding wakeups), so Foodland dinner it was for us!
December 28th: This day was a little rainy, so we started in Hanalei on what ended up being a self-led sweets tour as we decided what to eat for breakfast. From Holey Grail which makes amazingly unique taro doughnuts (naturally gluten-free) to Hanalei Bread Co. for coffee and a pastry. It took us so long to figure out where we wanted to eat that it was almost time for Hanalei Poke to open for lunch, so that’s what we did. Our other big to-do for the day was getting to the Fish Bar Deli’s happy hour in Kapaa (clearly it was a day of eating). It’s only from 5-6 pm but well worth it. Cocktails are $10 and regular menu items are significantly cheaper. Before our trip, I made one dinner reservation at JO2 Cuisine in Kapaa. It was our favorite meal the last time we visited and we were supposed to go this night but it seemed a little dicey so we cancelled it. A quick HH meal at Fish Bar Deli was the right choice.
December 29th: For breakfast, we went to Kai Bar in Kilauea with plans to go to Secret Beach. It was supposed to be a mellow ¼ mile hike, but it was pretty steep. Add in rain from the day before and it was slippery. I’m very cautious when walking down hills, and since I was also wearing Margot, it didn’t feel worth it. We turned around before getting too far and pivoted to Anahola. The waves were much more tame than the few days prior and Margot got to experience her first ocean float! For lunch, we picked up sushi rolls from the Dolphin Restaurant Fish Market and made our way to Black Pot Beach in Hanalei for a picnic. This ended up being one of our favorite meals – the fish is so fresh and even though I’m not a spice person (read: cannot do spicy food), their wasabi soy sauce was so good. We were all having a good day and finished our outing with happy hour at Tiki Iniki. I was excited to try a mai tai (and now I’ll say my fave is The Iniki so I don’t forget it) since last time I was limited to virgin lava flows.
December 30th: Black Pot ended up being our favorite beach this trip. Kevin was able to surf out front and I was able to take Margot in the ocean safely by myself when we weren’t hanging on the shore. The river feeds into the ocean so there’s no riptide or cross current. It’s shallow a good ways out, only waist deep for 100-150 yards, perfect for a SwimWays infant boat float!
Since we loved our Dolphin Fish Market picnics so much, we decided to go to the restaurant for dinner (Tahiti Nui would’ve been our first choice but it’s closed on Saturdays 😕). It definitely redeemed itself because when we came here on our previous trip, we were underwhelmed (I blame it on not being able to eat raw fish and Kev hanging in there with me in solidarity).
December 31st: This was technically our last day since our flight wasn’t until 11:30 pm (red-eye on NYE baby!). Kev picked up Hanalei Bread Co. to-go for one final meal on the lanai. We checked out of the Airbnb at 10 am and somehow lived out of our car with all of our stuff. We headed back to Black Pot Beach to spend the majority of the day there.
We headed south to make our way towards the airport and went to Koloa for a little shopping. There’s a cute kid's store called SoHa Keiki where we got Margot a few things before she was born and wanted to get her some souvenirs on her first actual trip (like this crinkle shaka and this monstera teether).
Last time we were in this area we went to Keoki’s Paradise (part of the TS Restaursnt group that has Kimo’s, Jake’s Del Mar, etc.). I liked their Kailua pork nachos and non-alcoholic slushies. Unfortunately, we didn’t have reservations and since it was NYE, it was slammed…so was pretty much every other place in Koloa and we were running out of time. Since we still needed to drive to Lihue, return our rental car, and check-in, we got ourselves in a bind. So why not close out our trip with parking lot Safeway sushi, watching fireworks from the tailgate of the car while Margot slept?
The only negative about the red-eye was that it was delayed until 1:45 am. We were banking on Margot sleeping the entire flight home so we were unsure how this would play out. Plus we were completely exhausted. Fortunately, the flight home was slightly shorter, we had an empty seat in our row, and she slept in my arms the whole time.
Traveling with a baby made this trip look a lot different but we wouldn’t have changed anything. And even though Margot won’t remember anything, it made it so special for us to witness her experience things for the first time – like roosters, floating in the ocean, and all of the trees and greenery.
See related post: What To Pack When You’re Traveling With A Baby