i can’t believe i have been here for a full week already! even though i have been to this island many times, {Kauai, Hawaii} it still takes my breath away everytime the sun shines on the mountains and the water… or even when it doesn’t shine, for that matter!

we went up to the north shore a few days ago and i really had my heart set on watching a sunset from one of my favorite beaches up there. we got there and it was misty and rainy, like it usually is on the north side this time of year so no one was surprised. it was still beautiful, but i felt bad making everyone wait on a rainy beach for a sunset that was likely not going to happen. i took a few misty photos and we packed up and started driving back home. 30minutes later we got to hanalei and there was a huge backup of cars stopped on the highway. we were informed that there had been a road closure and it wasn’t going to open up for at least 4 hours. of course there is only one road on kauai, so we were stuck. there are definitely worse places to be trapped haha so we decided to make the best of it and drive back to the rainy misty beach just in case somehow or someway there would be any kind of a sunset through all of those dark clouds to the west ~ and besides, we had nothing else to do but wait…

…we raced up the road 30minutes back to ke’e beach just in time to watch the sun go down (if it was even possible to see through the dark clouds) i ran out to the beach and my dad followed me with my camera bag and BOOM! it was like magic and the clouds opened up to one of the most incredible sunsets i have ever witnessed in my life. it was so fun to have my dad acting as my “camera assistant” helping me switch lenses and carrying my bag while we had about 15min. of that warm silky orange light that poured into the sky and onto the cliffs, lighting up the mist in the air like pixie dust. we were even able to wade out into the water which would have been much too rough hours before. amazing the way things always come together … <3

thanks for this fun shot dad!
i was so grateful to be able to take a few photos of my mom and dad as well in this beautiful setting. their love for eachother and for their life together is so inspiring to me, and i will treasure these photographs and memories forever.

once again the stars aligned perfectly and we had found the magic ~ i am forever thankful for parents who always push me to keep looking <3

(if you want to check out more photos from our trip so far, click on over to this PASS gallery!! i LOVE how PASS makes our photos look so amazing and how i don’t have to stress about anything happening to our images when we are traveling because i know they are safe in the cloud! LINK—> http://megcourtneyphotography.pass.us/kauai2014