Passports and Peep Toes: January 2012

What blog of mine would be complete without a little travel writing? I love to travel much to the dismay of my poor husband (who also loves to travel, but doesn't love getting stuck with the bill for every.single.trip.) :-) All in good time my love, I'll start pitching in. Eventually.

Our most recent trip was to Hawaii and we visited both Maui and Kauai for 5 days each. Here is a review of these fabulous islands!

Flying:

I hate flying, mostly because all the value of airfare has been sucked out. I will say that if you can fly out of (or into) T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island, do it. This is possibly the greatest airport on earth, great people, rarely a line, quick and efficient, I love it.

As for airlines, never fly with Continental or United. It's so nice that two of the worst lines in travel have merged to form one truly horrifying airline. Zero customer service, zero value, and worst of all least leg room in the industry.

Resorts:

Maui

On Maui we stayed on the Four Seasons Wailea. This resort does everything right, literally like Heaven on Earth. Absolutely without a doubt this is the place to book if you are looking for the most relaxing, perfect experience that money could buy. I could go on for days about this resort, but I'll spare you the gushing, for that you can go to trip advisor and get all of my gushy details :-)

This is the Serenity pool. Go here. Do not leave. You will not be sorry.

Because the Four Seasons was like a magnet and gave us absolutely no reason to leave the property, we only left for one afternoon where we drove the west shore and stopped in Lahaina for lunch. We ate at Kimo's which was very good. Great view, great Mai Tai's, Great Service, Great Cheeseburger with grilled Pineapple. Delicious, if you are in Maui, stop here for lunch or dinner you won't be sorry!

Kauai

Next up was Kauai, where we chose (poorly) to stay at the St. Regis Princeville. Bad, bad idea. This resort is beautiful, and is situated on the most gorgeous area of Kaui (on the North shore with a perfect view of the Na'Pali coast) but that's about all the good news I can share with you.

Overall the St. Regis was a huge disappointment, terrible service, no included amenities, hell no included coffee. I should say that if you HAVE to come to Kauai (which you all should at least once) and you HAVE to stay at a St. Regis, then by all means, do so. But I will tell you that the Westin Princeville does it about 100x better and for one-third the price that St. Regis does it at. Live and learn. Again, trip advisor has my angry details of this resort.
The good news about the resort being so crap-tastic is that we really got to get out and see Kauai.

We hiked the Hanakapi'ai Trail, 8 miles total to a waterfall and back, a tough hike but well worth it! I should put it out there that I am NOT a hiker. As in this was my first real hike and I did just fine. Except of course the parts where I thought I was going to die, or almost died. Here are some of the views along the way:

We also had some great opportunities to get out and eat our way through Hanalei Bay, so we took full advantage. I should note that we do our best to enjoy locally owned restaurants and bars everywhere we go (hell even at home) so this is a compilation of good eats in the North Shore Area.

Tahiti Nui - How could I not start with a place that scenes from the Descendents was filmed in? My butt was possibly in the same spot as George Clooney's. This place was great, we went in around 6:30, got seats at the bar, were served immediately, and the food was amazing. We got a total of 4 Mai Tai's which were amazing, and a huge pizza with pork and pineapple for a grand total of $52. How much better does it get? And they had live local entertainment and the guy was a fantastic musician.

Postcards Cafe - It was fairly obvious that the specialty here was local fish. My favorite thing about this restaurant was that it was small and quaint, a very "homey" kind of place. It was almost like going over to a friends for a good casual dinner party. They have a "fresh catch" section which features a selection of toppings like macadamia nut butter, pineapple something salsa, yum yum yum. The fish is whatever is fresh that day, I had Opah with the macadamia butter. Oh so good. And on top of the fresh catches, they also offer a Chef's special which is difficult to pass up. My husband didn't and it was amazing. Overall, great great meal here. Arrive early because the lot was full by 6:30 and there was already a wait list.

Bar Acuda - This one was just ok for us. I really think our selections led us to not have the best experience, because everyone seems to love this place. The menu changes very frequently, so when you visit you will have all new goodies to look forward to. What I can say is that we were unimpressed with the fish dishes we ordered, but the beef dishes and salads were all good, and the pizza looked pretty good too. Our server was awesome though, I had to send back a Mahi Mahi (which I never do) but he was great about replacing it and taking it off our bill. Major thanks for that!

Packing Tips:

I am a seriously bad overpacker. I have no idea why I pack so much. Here are some lists of the necessities:

Bug Spray (if you are doing any hikes you will need lots of spray)

A Hat - the sun is strong your going to need one!

Half the clothes you packed (I probably wore 1 pair of shorts, 3 sundresses, 2 nicer-dinner dresses, 7 tops, 2 swimsuits and a cover-up) What I brought was about 65 pounds more crap.

I know I said it earlier, but really, retailers are knocking it out of the park this Spring!! Everywhere I turn I am falling deeper and deeper in love with the colors, styles and textures of Spring. My love is currently settling in for the long haul at Nordstrom.

For anyone who knows me, they know how deep my love for Nordstrom runs. I have a serious love affair with that store, and honestly, if it was legal I could easily settle in and never leave. Hell they even serve wine, I could be happy forever.

Here are some of my favorite pieces.......

I love the color combination here, and the swingy skirt is something I could wear all summer. Total outfit cost around $200.00