15

    Corey & I were married on January 2, 1999.  It was the perfect time to get married when you're in college.  A wedding over Christmas break with time to spare for the honeymoon.  What we didn't think of (or likely we were to love-struck to care), was that our anniversary would be hard to celebrate that time of year.  After we had kids and a few years of weak anniversary celebrations we started celebrating later.  Not too much later, but just enough past Christmas to catch our breath.  So last fall we started talking about "15" and Kauai was the place. 
     We had the benefit of having three of Corey's siblings come here last year so we took all their advice, itineraries, etc and planned away.  We flew in at night so we didn't see much until the following morning.  It had rained all night (with flash floods on the other side of the island) so we woke to mountains covered in waterfalls...welcome to Kauai!!

    We decided to do the most recommended hike on the first day, but because of the rain the Napali Coast Hike was closed.  We spoke to a local park guy who directed us to a safer hike.  Because of the rain we were the only ones on the mountain.  It was wet and muddy and amazingly beautiful.  There were steep parts on this hike that had ropes by them to help you get down "rappel-style."  The whole time I kept thinking..."we're in Hawaii!!!"  It was super misty through the trees and then clear once we got above on the ridge.  The canopy of trees was breathtaking!  We got a few pictures of wildlife to send to our kiddos. 
     Our condo was on the north shore which I fell in love with for it's rugged beauty.  The closest town to us was Hanalei.  It was a great little town with a grocery store, a few churches and a strip of shops.  We spent the afternoon checking out the town and picking up groceries for the week.