Kauai Feb. 2026

Friday

Horrible Uber ride to LA. Took almost 3 hours because driver ran out of gas and was trying to hypermile by driving slowwww

Five Guys at hotel (also took forever to be delivered)

Saturday

Sore throat. I was awfully sick this whole trip but steroids (which I was on for a perma-migraine the first 3 days) helped a bit.

Flight was fine. I sat with Ada; Cliff was in very back with Ryan.

Took forever to get rental car. 

Met briefly Amy Kevin/Target pickup 

The Fish Express on way north to Airbnb. Pretty good self-serve poke.

Boys brought back Red Hot Mama's for dinner

Sunday

Breakfast at home

Wai Koa loop trail--so muddy but made it to Stone Dam; Ada whined a ton. 

Poke back home (from Foodland?)

Kids went to playground

Hot tub, Kevin grilled tri-tip and asparagus for dinner.

Watched Olympics.

Monday

Breakfast at home

Tunnels. Ryan tantrum. Parking was almost empty when we arrived at 830ish but full when left. Very windy and sprinkled a bit. We all snorkeled a little but only Cliff saw a turtle 

Big Nicks just our fam. Meh chicken sandwich. 

Wishing Well shave ice. Wishing Well Coffee & Tea place next door (order ahead next time!)

Hanalei chocolat. Good truffles; passion caramels were hard

Tahiti Nui just me and A/K. The Mai Tais are now touristy and have pineapple! Not authentic anymore. 

Back to house. Ryan ran away. 

Hot tub, leftovers for dinner. Olympics and Cutting Edge movie.

Tuesday

Donuts from Holey Grail. We were the first customers. 

I grabbed kalua pork eggs benedict from Saenz Ohana food truck next to the urgent care; holy crap this might be in my top 3 breakfasts I've ever had. Huge portion. Came with spiral crispy potato skewer.

Drove to Poipu. Stopped for malasadas and loco moco from Passion Bakery in Kapaa. Soo good.

Baby Beach. Sooo windy ugh.

A&K met us after about an hour. Then Cassie and Matteo.

Stopped at Target for a few more groceries. 

Dinner at home. 

Wednesday

Slow morning

Club Med hike. Super super windy, lost my hat but Ryan/Cliff saved it. Very overgrown. We had never been down to the beach access there; that was really pretty.

Nourish Hanalei closed for break RIGHT when we finished hike but we waited and I finallyyyy got to have it. I got the Hanalei Bowl. It was pretty good; definitely nice to have veg after so much fried stuff.

Cliff and I walked to bank/library but coffee was closed 

Went into Hanalei with the kids plus Penelope. Pier (soo goddamn windy!), JoJo's shave ice (good), they grabbed souvenirs. 

Headed home for hot tubbing while Cliff played pickleball.

Dinner at home, Olympics, finished Cutting Edge movie.

Thursday

Breakfast at home

Drove to Kapaa/Lydgate. I stopped for chai at the Kapaa Holey Grail. It was okay; both locations only have iced now.

Passion Bakery for more malasadas.

Lydgate Beach for a tiny bit because holy crap the windddd. Sand in eyes.

Kamalani Playground for a while.

Little Fatties food truck for fish taco and barbacoa taco. Very good. Also grabbed fried musubi (good) and chicken, loco moco (not good) from Pineapple Express food truck next door.

Everyone but me got Korean shave ice from Familee after we looked around the little cottage-like shops for souvenirs. I got shave ice from Honu in Kapaa. Really good.

Drove by Anini. Didn't realize what a long stretch/how accessible parking is here. 

Drove by the lighthouse.

Back home for dinner, more Olympics (finals women ice skating--yay Alysa Liu!) (we also watched a lot of curling on this trip)

Friday 

Finally starting to feel better and it's time to leave :(

Cereal

Packed up 

Java Kai in Kilauea. Took long even ordering ahead.  Love that Mac nut latte though.

Jackie's fabric store. Bought a bunch of fat quarters that Ryan wanted, plus some clearance mermaid fabric AND beautiful purple flowery fabric for myself.

Looked at beach for a bit. 

Headed toward South, stopped at little suspension bridge where there were so many butterflies. 

Poipu food trucks-Cliff and kids got from two different ones--Smash and something else?

Sueoko market I grabbed poke.

Skinny Mike's for shave ice. I was skeptical of the touristy looking setting but they're so generous with the ice cream which was fluffy AND had a lot of macadamia nuts.