Hawaii Sketching part one

My husband pointed out that we flew the opposite way. We call this artistic license, people.

We just returned from the trip of a lifetime in Hawaii (Kaua’i) celebrating our daughter, Reese’s, high school graduation. Everything was extraordinary, breathtaking and exploding with color. I’ve been sketching our Hawaii experiences in a travel sketchbook. I still have to finish a few pages, so for now, here is part one of our trip to Hawaii!

I’m so excited to be able to put just a tiny bit of what I felt onto paper so I can remember those wonderful emotions every time I look at my travel sketchbook. I’m also incorporating these into the memory book I’m putting together for my daughter.

Now I get why Israel’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is so moving. It truly feels like another realm in Hawaii.

Scenes around Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club while sitting poolside.

Hawaii was the most magical place I’ve ever visited. I cannot put into words what it felt like experiencing the most gorgeous colors, terrain and creatures. If you ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend it.

This was the view on Kalapaki Beach right in front of our resort - Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club - which I also highly recommend.

The chickens all over Kauai were a trip! I was not expecting that at all. It was so quirky. We kept saying there’s Hei-Hei’s cousins!!

I sketched this one poolside as the roosters kept coming up to us and some getting a little territorial with each other.

One evening we went to a luau and had an extraordinary experience. We started with a 4 course dinner at the Plantation House and then we were escorted by a fire bearer to our VIP seats for the luau.

Experiencing the Luau Kalamaku at Kilohana Kauai was one of my absolute favorite moments on our trip to Hawaii. I am also a gardener, so touring the Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens was another magical moment.

I am so proud of this page, in particular. I’ve been so nervous to sketch people for whatever reason for quite some time now. People still aren’t my expertise, but I decided that if I want to be better, I need to practice it. My travel (and everyday) sketchbook is the perfect place to play and practice. I’m also so happy with the colors carrying throughout the page. In person, the lighting for this portion of the luau was very purple on stage, so I really wanted to capture the essence of that moment. It really was incredible and moving.

Some of my favorites around Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens.

More favorite places at Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens.

The chickens were fun and quirky… at first. But at the restaurants they were pretty obnoxious, so most of them had water guns and spray bottles for customers to keep the chickens at bay. My mother-in-law took this as a personal challenge and she sort of went wild spraying them. They finally realized she was not a fan.

We took an all day tour one day and one part was riding on a large boat down the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto. A wonderful Hawaiian band entertained us and we had a wonderful time. When we arrived at the Fern Grotto, we saw the most extraordinary, vivid colors in the plants everywhere. It was such an incredible experience and I am so grateful we were able to experience it.