Kauai – We’re Here!

Aloha!

We jetted off for Kauai on a blustery day. As much as we love that textbook Seattle weather, It’s always fun to embrace the drama of escaping the drizzle for some sunshine.

The packing and getting all-set-to-go process went as well as it could. With our NVR life, we’re always pretty prepared to head out, but we were doing our usual scrambling around as if we had never been out of the state. It’s actually comical. After nearly going out of our minds searching for our house key (which we eventually found left in the door), we were off!

We packed our business and everything else (for a month!) in two backpacks and a small bag. We were able to carry everything on the plane.

Hasn’t this happened before.

The flight to Kauai started innocently enough… We were getting a kick out of the guy across from us who was wearing a visor that doubled as a hair piece, and we were hoping that the kids filling the rows in front of us wouldn’t drive us nuts the entire way to Kauai. Then, out of the blue, just as the food and beverage carts were rolling up the aisle, the plane started to bounce back/forth up/down in a way that seemed inconceivable (had this not happened on our way to Maui last year). The pilot described it as “getting adjusted to the jet stream” while we struggled to hold down our Maui onion chips. No joke.

The poor guy next to us – up against the window – had just confessed of his extreme fear of flying over water. We weren’t as comforting as we would have liked to have been, focusing instead on gripping our own arm rests. Finally, the shaking and careening stopped just as quickly as it had started. You could have heard a pin drop. No one on the plane resumed their pre-massive-turbulance aloha vibe. It was funeral quiet.

Getting settled in.

We’re not big fans of arriving someplace new at night. We’re always eager to get a feel for things, and darkness doesn’t help. After securing our car from the Dollar counter, we made our way to the highway for the trip to our condo rental up on the north part of the island.

We should have been arrested for our driving. We: missed turns, stopped on the highway, went in reverse and slammed on the breaks. Not a pretty picture. After just over an hour, though, we successfully found our complex among a confusing maze of condos and homes. After ensuring that we had actually found our unit – so as not to scare the shit out of someone – we flung the door open to find the perfect place waiting.

We’ll get into details of all this in future posts, but the picture accompanying this post is the view. Not bad!

Administrative stuff.

Ever since writing the post explaining the case for travel insurance, lots of people have asked us for more details about the cost and the process of securing quality coverage. We wanted to let you know that medical coverage for both of us came to just under $40 for this journey to Kauai. Not bad at all. And the peace of mind = priceless.

Our post that got into some entry-level deal finding tips also sparked a lot of “how to” questions from readers. On this journey, we found a nice car deal via Dollar’s “lock low and go” program (where you don’t know what kind of car you’ll end up with). A little mystery is good. We drove away with a badass minivan. Yep, we’re workin’ it.

Also related to the post on finding deals, we contacted many rental owners in search of a value-loaded bargain. We decided to go with a place we found via VRBO. Be sure to check their offerings out. Our experience with our rental’s owner, which we’ll get into in future posts, has been outstanding and we’re pleased with how thing ended up. Again, we direct you back to that picture up top.

That’s all we have for now, as we continue to get settled in.  Stay tuned as we document our journey. Pictures coming soon!

Do you have any questions/suggestions about our visit to Kauai or how to visit a place like this without going broke? Leave a comment, and we’ll address it in future posts.