Cornells in Hawaii for Thanksgiving 2023

For the highlights you can check out the video on YouTube.

PRINCEVILLE

Wednesday morning we were off! A quick flight to Vegas and then off to Kauai! We landed in the afternoon and felt the amazing humidity. Everyone was off to Costco (except Carlie and Dan who would get there an hour later). At Costco we got the traditional pizza and of course I ordered WAY TO Much pizza. I didn’t want anyone to be hungry! We made the drive to princeville where the house was beautiful and stylish and brand new with neon signs and the most amazing pool in the back! Thanks Nat!

Thursday we were up early and Tara and I went for a walk to the “hideaway beach” which was down a cool path. The beach was beautiful and it was a great introduction to the north shore and its cool beaches. From there it was Anini beach which was my favorite because I snorkled all the way out to the reef (it’s a long way) but then I saw turtles! Two of them! Had I known that this was the only two I was going to see snorkeling I would have spent even more time with them. Dan bought a machete and the kids thought it was great fun to watch him wack open coconuts.

Then we walked down to Secret beach which was AMAZING. It was probably the coolest beach of the entire trip, at the end of this short hike and so the beach is less busy and it’s just amazing with the cliffs on one side and just totally big sand dunes and waterfalls on the other side.

We had plans to go to Kileaua Lighthouse, but my dad had left the printed tickets back at the house. We were sure they’d let us in with the email confirmation, but NO! They wouldn’t. LAME. 

Time for JOJOs shave ice. It lived up to all our expectations. We looked in lots of the little town shops and I found a frisbee. Best purchase of the trip. We had so much fun with it the whole trip. Then to Hanalei bay for sunset body boarding and sunset views. The day ended the same as every day, we would come home and eat dinner and then every kid would get in the pool. And then when the kids were done the adults would go in the hot tub. I didn’t join them till the last day because I was too tired. Apparently, I missed the best game of “Would you Rather?” Landon asked, “Would you rater eat a cup of poo, or drink a cup of puss?” GROSS.

NAPALI COAST HIKE / PIER

Friday morning was our Napali coast hike. We had to be up early to arrange things and make it happen and shuttle the birds to their stop. We finally got people on the trail and everyone did great. This hike has some of the most incredible views in the world. Everyone else turned around at Hanakapiai Beach. Blake and Jack and Michael and I made our way to the waterfall. This was exhausting. Because it’s so so MUDDY. I loved hiking it WITH Blake and seeing him jump in the waterfall at the top which is super cool and tough. Blake said it was FREEZING cold, but he loved doing it. I didn’t want to hike back in wet shorts so I passed on the waterfall dip. All in all I think it was about 6 hours on the trail. TIRING but beautiful. We were supposed to go play at Tunnels but surf was too high and we couldn’t get in the water. The kids. did find a fun little “pool” to play in for awhile. Dan found a doggie friend, and Mave had an interesting nap. After enjoying the Tunnels views, we went back to Hannalei bay for more body boarding at the end of the day.

Halle and Josh arrived! Was so good to see them! They were so happy to be there, racing to the beach to see who would be the first. Tara was nice enough to go get them from the airport. Halle said “I’m so happy to be at the beach again!”. They wasted no time jumping in the water and swimming with everyone and then jumping off the pier into the shallow water. Halle even did a flip!

Saturday was our last day. This morning everyone joined us for a walk to Seaport beach. I got us lost so the hike took longer than expected but we made it and it was a pretty cool beach with big tree overhangs. Except the bugs were pretty bad. We joked we didn’t have to walk with a purpose, but at least with a mild resolution.

We packed up and hit a couple of farmers markets. I liked the one in princeville right by our house. The music was great and the shops were cute and the banana pineapple Freezy with Mac nut honey on top was perfect. Josh also found an artist who had created a PINETURTLEAPPLE. Of course, we had to buy it for him.

POIPU

We made the long drive down the coast to our Carne Asada fish tacos (the food truck is called carne asada but the fish tacos are the best). They didn’t disappoint. The ladies went to Costco while the men and the kids went to check in at the Point at Poipu. We got three apartments together right on the bottom level so we could just open our back doors and walk into each apartment. And then Landon and Natalie were right next to each other just across the courtyard. I didn’t go in the front door ever again the entire trip. We walked over to shipwreck beach and jumped in the water. There was a seal on the beach and Mave proudly proclaimed that we had finally found the Daddy Seal. Carlie asked how Mave knew it was the daddy seal. She said, “well….it didn’t have a baby with it. And you know how dads just lounge around on the couch? This seal was just lounging around in the sand!” 

The Costco car arrived and we had SO MUCH FOOD. Oh and these Reese’s dipped animal crackers that I thought were the best thing in the entire world so much that they would disrupt my sleep because I wanted to eat them so bad.

RAIN HIKE!

Sunday was a pretty chill / crazy day. We knew it was going to rain, but it’s always hard to say when and how much. We went for a short (haha thanks Ralph) hike to the Mahaulepu Beach Trail, Cave Reserve, and Tortoise Sanctuary that he said would take 45 minutes. It started to POUR RAIN. 2 hours later we were at the tortoise sanctuary. Jack said he’d jumped in the ocean and come out dryer than on that hike. Simon whimpered for at least an hour straight, Finn had a umbrella held over him the entire time and was as good as gold. Cyrus said, “I am NOT fine, and I CAN’T deal!” Even with all that I’m glad we did it and I’m glad it wasn’t me that was underestimating! Blake was trying to outrun Josh because they were in some kind of feud. He grabbed Tara’s hand and held it at least 1/2 way back, dragging her along to escape Josh. Tara said that alone was worth all the rain. But, unfortunately, Josh’s phone didn’t make it. It was at the bottom of Tara’s backpack, and it got too wet. It was a goner. Poor Josh–that’s his second trip with a broken phone!

By evening the sun came up and we went to Poipu Beach. Where FOURTEEN turtles were hanging out on the beach. Halle was in heaven with her new camera. We grilled hamburgers for dinner and the kids played Mario Kart and drank pina coladas.

MOUNTAIN TUBING ADVENTURE

Monday was our MOUNTAIN TUBING ADVENTURE! So much fun to tube through the sugar cane fields of Kapaa. We went through 5 tunnels. It was still rainy. Our guide was so funny–she told us if we needed to use the bathroom, we were welcome to use the Facili-trees. hahah. She also said we couldn’t say and of the “C” word (cold) or the “F” word (freezing) But we were allowed to say the water and weather were “Exhilarating,” or “invigorating.” This was trip highlight for sure. Everyone had a great time.

ICE CREAM & SMITH FAMILY LUAU

Tara and Blake and Halle LOVED the Lapperts ice cream. I thought it was just okay. And we can’t go a day without hitting the beach, so off the Sheraton we went. I snorkeled for so long that Tara was beginning to think I’d drown! There was lots of body boarding and body surfing. Nat took Mave out to play in the swells, which she discovered is the best thing ever. We were all freezing, so we snuck into the Sheraton hot tub to warm up. 

Then we ate a quick dinner and all got dressed in our Hawaiian finery to hit the Smith Family Luau. They do such a great job. It was a really fun night. On our way there, Gwen said, “Get ready to see some vigorous hip action.” When I told that to Blake after the luau he said, “Oh really? I didn’t even notice because I was too busy looking into their eyes.”

WAIMEA CANYON

Tuesday we finally got to walk to Little Fish. Tara and Carlie have been dreaming of this day since the last time we were here. And apparently Little Fish has been discovered. The line was more than 30 min long! Then off to Waimea Canyon where we recreated all the great stops. The lookouts were great! Except for the very top. It was socked in. Tara thought the fog was awesome. Lunch was in the same big green meadow. Lots of chickens but no luck catching a chicken. Blake and I had a foot race to the rope swing but he beat me pretty good.

That evening was Salt Pond Beach which was great for snorkeling but the most fun was when I pulled out my frisbee I had bought a few days prior and we threw it in the surf. Landon and Michael joined in and tried to catch it over Josh. And Blake and I tried to catch it over each other. We had so much fun diving and jumping into the surf and the sun had set so we had the whole beach to ourselves. Awesome.

We got home and had a little birthday party for Finn. Can’t believe he’s two! We sang and had cupcakes. Finn doesn’t talk much, so when he started saying, “Halle” at his party, the rest of us were very jealous. And he was very proud. It’s one of our favorite videos of the trip. Allllll the cousins love their Halle girl.

SCUBA DIVING ADVENTURE

Wednesday was our SCUBA DIVING ADVENTURE. This was awesome.  The visibility was amazing. First dive was FISH BOWL which is exactly what it was. We were just surrounded with millions of fish everywhere. We saw a school of barracuda. But the current was a little strong so we had to cut our dive a little short which made me sad. And we saw a pod of dolphins on the way out. But the next dive was the best. Sheraton Caverns. We got to swim through collapsed lava tubes! We got to swim through “Arches” that were kind of like mini caves that were SUPER COOL and they were filled with fish and sea turtles. We saw 17 turtles. Our guide called it a Sea Turtle hotel. they were everywhere and they were so cool to see just floating through the water. We were so sad we didn’t have a gopro (fixed that at Christmas!). And we saw a cool octopus. It was awesome to see the octopus change colors as they went from one rock to the next. We were diving with two teenagers which made me wish I was diving with my kids! They were having an intro to scuba adventure and sounds like they had a great time too and saw turtles. After we saw the same pod of dolphins. We were starving and got Burritos from da Crack and Açaí from Anakē’s  juice bar

KAPAA BIKE PATH

Then we were off to biking on the bike path adventure. A family favorite. It also poured on us. Which again, didn’t make Simon happy. To top it off, he was peddling down the path, and someone yelled “F-ing tourist” at him. Mean. We found a great little spot to veer off the path to the beach and took a ton of cute photos.

We found the BEST shave ice. SO SO GOOD. Hee Fat market it was called. They make lots of their won fresh flavors. I think we might like this more than Jojos! Our beach-of-the-day was Lydgate, where we created our favorite grandkid pic from the last trip. And this time they’re all here!

After we got home we fed the children leftovers and I had a burger because I didn’t know we were going out to eat and I had already set my heart on a burger. We made the kids pina colodas and sent them to the pool. Where it rained again. Leo made the astute observation that we were having pina colodas and getting caught in the rain! Then the adults went out to eat at Living Foods. It was good but it was so fast because it was late and they were trying to get us out of there pretty quick.

 

THANKSGIVING IN HAWAII

Thursday was Thanksgiving morning! Walked to LITTLE FISH but NO luck for acai bowls. The website said they were open, but they were in fact, not open. We spent our sunniest day yet at Sheraton beach. We came home and quickly prepped a Thanksgiving feast of ribs and steak and ate it out on G&G’s wraparound porch. Natalie’s final wish was to eat our Thanksgiving dessert on the beach at sunset. We loaded up cars and dashed away. It was mad chaos! And Blake got left behind. Luckily a few people were still packing, so he wasn’t alone. Tonight there were THIRTY turtles on the beach. Incredible. We scarfed our guava cheesecake, and then everyone else booked it to the airport. It’s a Thanksgiving we’ll never forget!

LAST HIKE (SLEEPING GIANT)

Friday was our last day. We debated sleeping in, but decided to seize the day–who knows when we’ll be in Hawaii again. We woke up early and hiked the Sleeping Giant. The views were stunning. So, so pretty. and then got the amazing Hee Fat shave ice again and then back to the hotel to check out (an hour late). Then we hit the Shipwreck Beach and snuck into the Grand Hyatt pool. It is HUGE and lined with Lava rocks. I caught a wave on the body board at the beach and we played frisbee in the pool. Then back to our pool for fries and pina coladas and then it was time to shower and head to the plane. The short flight to HNL and then the LONG ride to DENVER!!!

Until next time Hawaii! We love you!