Hawaiian Family Vacation Day 6 – Kauai
Date: February 23rd, 2026
Five days on Maui, five days on Kauai. That was our plan for this trip and it was time to say goodbye to Maui and hello to Kauai. Maui sent us off with one more glorious rainbow from the parking lot as we prepared for our trip to our new location. Hawaii is known as the rainbow capital of the world so it was no surprise that we saw one at least every other day.
As we flew from the island of Maui to Kauai, we passed over Oahu. Jill and I spent the first 2 days of our honeymoon trip there 20 years ago and visited Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor. It warmed my soul a little to be able to look out the window during the flight and see both of them from the sky.
After the short flight, we grabbed our new Turo rental vehicle, punched our VRBO address into the GPS, and started our adventure on Kauai. Our new condo was a bit more modern than the one in Maui, but it only had one bathroom, which wasn’t ideal for a family of four. But it really wasn’t inconvenient, even with a 17 year old daughter.
Not long after we settled in we grabbed our swimming gear and headed down to check out the beach which was only a 5 minute walk. As we walked beside the black lava rocks along the shoreline I thought I saw a sea turtle in the waves, but couldn’t really make it out. I’m guessing it was one because when we approached the Keiki Cove (the shallow, sandy beach that Hawaiian ancestors built for kids) we saw over a dozen sea turtles resting on the beach. Volunteers there to help protect the reptiles had said there can be anywhere from half-a-dozen to 80 turtles resting on the beach at one time. The record number counted on this beach was 112. We were able to snorkel a bit in the shallow water and found a moray eel, unicorn tang fish, and lots of other colorful fish.
We scoured Google for a nearby place to eat and found a place within walking distance by the name of Honu Cove Bar & Grill. It was a beautiful walk along a paved trail that weaved behind some gorgeous houses. I didn’t realize it until we got there, but Honu Cove was walk-up bar at a vacation club’s poolside. We ordered some drinks, grabbed some menus and sat in the shade to cool off after our long walk. We all got burgers accept for Jill, who had the fish tacos. The food was great and the people watching was also entertaining.
When I went to the bar to order our food, I hear the female half of a seventy-something couple tell her hubby that she felt like going to bed. After about four times of repeating herself, the man finally stopped saying, “What?” and said, “You mean like have sex?”. I bit my lip to prevent myself from snickering and kind of looked the other way. By the time I had finished ordering my food, they had started their walk back to their room.
After we finished our food, we walked back to our VRBO but along the way we got to meet a couple of kitties. We tried to see if they wanted any of our leftover french fries but they weren’t interested in the fries as much as some attention. We gave them a couple of scratches along their ears and back and went on our way.
We made it back to the beach for a breathtaking golden sunset before heading back to our condo to prepare for our first full day on Kauai.
