Weekend Getaway to Kauai

The best part about this trip was that it was the first time I got to visit my mom while she was working in Hawaii, a place she travels to at least twice a year. It was also a lot of fun to be able to take my brother on a trip and have him get to go to one of his favorite places--the beach. I had been to Hawaii twice before, but never to Kauai. I found Kauai to be a much more relaxing and secluded island compared to Oahu.

Quick Tips:

Do not forget the sunscreen! Also, if you plan to go to the inner parts of the island or the north side, be sure to bring some rain gear.

Best Way To Get Around:

We rented a car to get around the island. We had a four seat convertible, which was great for riding with the top down, except when we suddenly would encounter rain.

I stayed in a condo with four other people. We had a dining room, kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and two balconies. The dining room had a table with six chairs. The living room had two couches, a chair, coffee table, two end tables, and an entertainment center. The entertainment center includes a television with cable television and a DVD/VHS player, but our DVD player was broken. Each bathroom had four towels, three bars of soap, and one small bottle of shampoo/conditioner for the week. I suggest that you bring your own shampoo, unless you are only washing your hair a maximum of three times. One bedroom had two twin beds, a chair, a closet, and two dressers. The other bedroom had a queen-size bed, a chair, a closet, and two dressers. Both decks had a table with two chairs. One deck is in the front of the condo off the living room, and the other is off the back bedroom.

The most important room in the condo is the kitchen, in my opinion. After spending the day out at the beach, it was much easier to have the option to make dinner and eat at the condo rather than having to go out to eat. Also, it tends to be much cheaper. The kitchen has a fridge, microwave, stove, and oven. It is also equipped with all the pots, pans, plates, silverware, and other basic utensils needed for cooking, including Tupperware for storing leftovers. Also available for cooking is a grill a short distance from the condo.

The condo is a near a pool with a spa. To get into the pool area you need to use a key provided in the condo. Beware of getting stuck in the area, as you need the key to get in and out. We found that our key was very hard to use to get in and out and also discovered that most other people staying in the villas had the same problem.

Conveniently, there is a walking/bike path that leads to Brennecke Beach. I do not recommend trying to walk to the beach on the main roads, as there are no sidewalks and it makes the trip twice as long.

Brennecke's Beach Broiler is located across the street from Brennecke's Beach, hence its name. The actual restaurant is located on the second floor. It serves mostly burgers and seafood. It is very casual, as you can attend in you beach wear.

Downstairs there is a small snack shop. Here you can get traditional Hawaiian shave ice. They offer a wide variety of flavors, including pineapple, passion fruit, cherry, watermelon, and coconut. You can choose up to three flavors per shave ice. My favorite combination was pineapple and passion fruit, and my brother's was cherry and watermelon. Something I found very unique is that you can have ice cream put on the bottom of the shaved ice, though it may melt before you get to it, as I know my shaved ice was melting fast outside. A very Hawaiian ice-cream choice would be macadamia nut.

Also, there is a deli downstairs where you can get sandwiches to eat at the beach, maybe with a shave ice for dessert.

Kee Beach is located on the north side of the island of Kauai. It is at the end of Highway 560. To go any farther into the island, you must park your car and hike, or you can just stop and end your journey at the beach.

Kee Beach was featured in the film version of the Australian setting book, The Thornbirds. Kee Beach is also one of the best snorkeling spots on the island. When I snorkeled here, there were plenty of fish, but I found it too shallow to easily swim over the reef to see most of the fish. I was able to see a variety of fish by swimming along the edge of the reef, though.

If you plan to go to Kee Beach and are staying on the south side of the island, as I was, I suggest leaving for the beach around 7am. We left at 8am and arrived by 10am and found the beach nice and empty but took one of the last parking spots, as many hikers had already set out on the trails. By the time we left around 1pm, the beach was crowded and cars were parked in places they should not have been, such as on the beginning of the hiking trails. I also suggest bringing a picnic lunch, as there is no close place to get food or drinks.

Brennecke Beach is on the south side of the island in the Poipu resort area. The beach has restrooms, showers, a playground, picnic tables, and plenty of grassy area.

At this beach, the ocean is very shallow for a good portion of the area, making this a great beach for small children. The beach is also protected by a reef creating very calm waters. The snorkeling is great here, with a large underwater rocky area for them to hide in.

Monk seals can also sometimes be spotted on the beach. They come up to sleep during the day and go back into the water at night to eat. When they are present, ropes are put around the area of the seal to keep people from getting too close.

As a maker of simple melt-and-pour glycerin soap, I am always interested in seeing soap shops, especially when I get to watch them make the stuff. I loved being able to watch them make cold process soap, something too complicated for me to ever think of trying myself. Cold process soap is made using a lye solution. Island Soap & Candle works using coconut, olive, palm, macadamia, and kukia nut oils to make their lye solutions, although it can be made using animal fat. What I found unique about the way they make their soap is that they leave the glycerin produced in the soap making process in the soap, which is something that is often taken out by the manufacturers of soap that you see on the grocery store shelf. The lye solution is mixed with potash, which is a synthetic that imitates wood ashes, and water. It is then poured into molds. After 24 hours the soap is removed from the molds and cures on a drying rack for 21 days before it is ready for use.

At the store you can watch them handpour the soaps and candles. They offer both products in a variety of scents. Some of the more Hawaiin soap scents are mango coconut, papaya oatmeal, and vanilla papaya. They also offer a line of coconut soaps that includes five types: coconut, mango guava coconut, pikake, plumeria, and passion fruit. I bought a gift pack of 4 of the coconut soap types $13, which I felt was a pretty good price for the soap as I only pay a little less than that for 8 oz. of cold process soap at our local street fair.

During my visit to this store, I was also fascinated by the different styles of candles they had. I was especially attracted to the candles that were poured into coconut bowls, although I ended up buying a strawberry quava scented candle in a wood bowl base ($10). A few of their candle scents are coconut, chai tea, mango, and pineapple.

Also, available as Island Soap & Candle Works are other bath and body products, such as lip balm (in tins and sticks), lotions, perfumes, shaving soaps, aromatic bath oils, and surfer's salve, which soothes sunburn, minor rashes, bug bites, chapped lips, and dry skin.