Personal: Looyenga Family Goes to Kauai Hawaii

Early in 2021 my family, along with some of my brothers and parents went on a trip to Kauai, Hawaii. While there we relaxed, hiked, swam in the ocean, explored and went to Costco - all the normal things. Over the course of that week I took photos - a lot of photos. I know, you’re shocked. Believe it or not, I absolutely love taking pictures, not just for work, but for life. As I say elsewhere, photos have this unique ability to capture a moment, a memory, and I love doing that. I love putting those adventures up in my home, and sharing them with others. So you won’t find any wedding photos here (although there are some couple photos I got of some random (extremely awesome) people I met on a hike - and yes, I did send them the photos). I’ll split some of the photos up in days, and let you know a little what we did that day to give some context. But I hope you see a little bit more of my family here, and sorry I included so many landscape photos - or should I say i’m sorry i’m not sorry? That would probably be more accurate.

The first day we spent just exploring the Island. We found an awesome (very large) cave, tide pools, some incredible lava-flows-turned rock, and we got splashed by some very large waves. The Island is huge, and incredibly beautiful.

The next day we did some more exploring along the coast, and went to a “hidden beach” which was down a cool little trail. We then went to a luau that evening and got a tour on their train.

The next day we had reservations to go out on a boat and view the Nepali Coast, one of the most beautiful places in the world. While there we saw dolphins swim along side the boat, we got to snorkel, saw a sea turtle, saw more dolphins (spinners and bottlenose) and of course the Nepali Coast. This was easily one of my favorite days. My father and I also attempted a hike, but the clouds moved in and made it so we couldn’t see ANYTHING. So I sent the drone up to see if I could break out of the clouds, and ended up getting some of the most incredible sunset photos i’ve ever taken. I hope you love them!

A couple days later we attempted the same hike again. Driving to the other side of the island, my sister, brother, and sister-in-law decided to go for it at sunset. This time we got super lucky and got a beautiful, sunny, incredible hike. We met some pretty amazing people at the edge of the world, and some of them were super kind to pose for me (and even more of them were kind enough to move out of the way so It would look like there was just a couple people there) so I could get some “couple” photos. Hint, take me to Hawaii to photograph your wedding.

On one of our last days there we spent some more time on the beach, boogie boarded (not pictured are the various injuries we took on the boogie boards, including a trip to the urgent care), and got some family photos done. Someone also ran into my rental car - which was awesome. That too, is not pictured but absolutely part of the story.

The last day there was the day we flew out on a red eye. A flight that would get delayed from a 11pm takeoff to a 3am takeoff.. not so great for our boys. Anyway, because we had ALL day to spend, we went and explored the “Grand Canyon of Hawaii” got some more photos and just had a good time. This trip was incredible, and i’m glad I get to share some of these moments with you.