A Visit from the Parents!

Is just seems like a few days ago was Mother’s Day and now we are already on the back end of May! 😦

We had a wonderful week with my parents here! We took them to most of the favorite tourist stops as well as a few of our own. Warning! Lots of pictures in this post! 🙂

I snapped this right after they arrived…first visit deserves leis!

My mom’s belated Mother’s Day floral arrangement was stunning! Thanks Safeway Floral Dept.!!

First up, we had a mini family reunion with my mom’s cousin (well, she is my cousin, too!) at one of our favorite restaurants. You can go back to this post to see how we met Debbie and Chuck for the first time!

We went to their home for more photos and to show my parents their lovely acreage!

We were entertained and fed very well at the Smith Family Luau. These were my favorite photos – my parents by one of the water features in the tropical gardens and Mr. G and me waiting for the food!

Next up was the west side of the island…Waimea Canyon and the Kalalou Lookout at Koke’e Park. The first stop was the Kauai Coffee Company!

Then the splendor that is Kauai!

Waimea Canyon waterfall

We only got a brief glance of the beach through the cloud cover.

 

 

 

A picnic in the clouds

A brief stop at Poipu and the Blow Hole…south side of Kauai

Natural blow hole

Trying to get a picture of the sea turtle

Off to the north side is next…

Pier at Hanalei

Waterfall in the distance

Taro fields-right

Taro fields-left

How about a riverboat ride to the Fern Grotto? You bet!

Our ride is by the umbrella…

complete with singing entertainment and a hula dancer!

This is NOT our golden retriever, Ruby!

The cave is large enough to not be easily captured in one photo…

and the sun was just right above to put a glare on almost every shot.

But the flora and fauna were outstanding!

Of course, a trip to the Kilauea Lighthouse is a must see!

This is view as we walked up to the lighthouse…

Our week went by quickly but not without a quiet beach day before their last day. Papa gave snorkeling a try…and liked it a lot! One more waterfall and a dinner by the ocean before they left.

Wailua Falls (the Fantasy Island waterfall!)

I am so glad they were able to come to Kauai and hope they took back some great memories! We jammed in a lot to see…but didn’t even make a dent in the list of other things to see and do. We’ll save those for another visit!

I hope you enjoyed the photos…we took a bunch as did the folks. These are just a few of the best ones. Some are still on Mr. G’s camera…who knows what gems are still to follow! But we did have a silly family photo taken…gotta get those every now and then, right?! 😉

No one even fell down!! Ha!

Sunburns were kept at a minimal…one slightly bald head got a bit pink and a v-neck blouse revealed a healthy glow to take home…they said their sunscreen was SPF 100…I guess it really works! 😉

Aloha!