I've been to Kauai probably at least 10 times in my life...always with family and always staying at the Kiahuna plantation. Situated on Poipu beach, my dad discovered it before he knew my mother. When they went there together, my mom was in the tiny drugstore, buying a pregnancy test, when she ran into Barbara Streisand, and then later that day found out she was going to have me.
The picture is of "Baby", my first doll, purchased before I was born. Baby has gone to Kauai with me throughout childhood, through the trips my parent's initiated for relaxation and then to save their marriage. When my dad died when I was 13, it was Kauai that I imagined as the place that would always be his final resting spot, even though it was just in spirit.
Since then I've been to Kauai three times, at 15, 26 and again at 30. No matter how many times I see new and unfamiliar things that expand my view of my place in the world, I find that I crave to come to a tiny corner of paradise to find my family.
The trips of course change as the family members change and age. One thing always stays the same. Get off the plane, rent the car, drive under tunnel tree road, take the left to go to the local grocery store, stack the car full of supplies but especially with raw tuna, and before you get to unpack go to the beach and eat fresh tuna in front of perfect waves on poipu beach and soak in it all. Perfect Aloha