Christmas Trip 2012

The Gentleman and I are not big on gifts as mentioned here.  Exchanging Christmas gifts, for us, feels like trading fifty dollar bills and we’re a bit anti-consumerist so instead of showering our loved ones with more possessions, we prefer to shoot out a few Christmas cards (see below) and donate the money we’d spend on gifts to a worthy cause.  This year we gave our Christmas funds to the Angel Tree and Salvation Army.

Still, it’s nice to do something special with the holidays, so it’s become our tradition to take a trip during our time off.  This year, we got more time off than usual thanks to the weekend, so we island hopped over to Kauai.  Y’all, this quiet, unplanned trip was all I needed for Christmas: quality time with the husband and soaking in God’s creation.  Amazing.  Here are some pictures from the adventure:

Hawaii is the land of the rainbows.  Kauai got the memo and gave us light shows at Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Coast.

Kayaking along the streams in Hanalei.

The destination for our kayak trip.

We boated down the Na Pali coast.  We were lucky to get a “low” surf day.  Note to travelers: Kauai in winter is not all sunshine and sparkles.  Actually, nowhere in Hawaii is.  We get some crazy big surf, battering winds and rain storms, so keep that in mind for vacation planning .

The weather in winter may not be fantastic, but it’s whale season!  We saw dozens of Humpbacks while on our boat trip, though not very many close up.  It’s still early in the season, though and I can’t wait to hit up Maui in February to see some more!

Strong recommend for touring the Na Pali coast, by the way.  Miles and miles of movie-set-looking coastline.

The sun played some cool tricks for us on the way back to harbor.

No photoshop here.  That IS a rainbow surrounding the setting sun.

Sunset as we pulled back in to harbor.

We flew back to Oahu on Christmas Eve and enjoyed great entertainment on Christmas morning…from our cat.  More on her antics tomorrow.

Mele Kalikimaka, Y’all!