How an Olympic Gold Medalist Spends Her Family Vacation on Kauai With Three Teenagers

Kerri Walsh Jennings has spent most of her life on sand. As a three-time Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball, the beach has meant preparation, pressure, competition, and a particular focus for someone who has built a career on performing when it matters most. She knows what it feels like to be fully present for a reason. Kauai taught her what it feels like to be fully present for no reason at all.Three-time beach volleyball Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings Daniel RahalKauai, a place already woven into the fabric of the athlete and her husband's marriage Daniel RahalWalsh Jennings and her husband, Casey, honeymooned in Kauai in 2005 and have returned several times since. But bringing their three teenagers—Joey (17), Sundance (16), and Scout(13)— to the island at this precise window of adolescence felt different from the start. "As our children get older, we are starting to feel time differently," she says. “Their worlds are expanding beautifully and naturally, and we've been realizing for a while now that these sacred windows of uninterrupted togetherness become rarer.”Why Kauai—and why nowWalsh Jennings and Casey had been watching the calendar differently lately. The years when children simply come with you are quietly running out, and they both knew it. Kauai, a place already woven into the fabric of their marriage, felt like the right place to spend one of those remaining windows together. At home, everyone is moving in separate directions: Sports. School. Training. Friends. The machinery of a full life. Kauai offered the opposite: an island with a pace that resists urgency, where the mountains and the ocean conspire to pull you back into your body.For Walsh Jennings personally, the draw runs deeper than scenery. "I feel a peace and a resonance there that is hard to find anywhere else," she says. "There's something about the island that immediately brings me home to myself." She describes Kauai as a place that fits, the way a few rare places in the world simply do. “I feel deeply at peace there. Grounded. Clear. Grateful. Alive.”The first nightThe trip announced itself early. On their first evening, the family sat outside watching the sky shift through the colors it seems to reserve for itself. Nobody reached for a phone. Nobody had anywhere to be.She had expected her teenagers to want the usual teenage latitude: a little separation, some independence, the quiet assertion of their own preferences. Instead, they leaned in. They explored local spots and hunted for hidden beaches and trails. They searched for the best shaved ice. They surfed and snorkeled and played games on the back lawn above Hanalei Bay. "It reminded me that teenagers still deeply crave connection and simplicity," she says, "maybe now more than ever, even if it looks different than when they were little."Family snorkeling at an hidden volcanic rock beach. Taken in Kauai, Hawaii, during the day. GettyHow they spent their daysThe Walsh Jennings family doesn't do idle well, and they didn't try to in Kauai. There was surfing, swimming, snorkeling, and hiking through what she calls the "unbelievable beauty" of the island's interior. The kids found their own rhythms of exploration, local spots, hidden beaches, and the particular pleasure of discovering somewhere that wasn't on any list.The trip was also intentionally built around slowness. Long dinners that turned into long conversations. Slow mornings with coffee on the balcony before the day began. Sunset walks every night as a kind of ritual. "Kauai naturally invites you into a different rhythm if you let it," Walsh Jennings says. They let it.The local market was her favorite place to return to. Music played at the house. The ocean set the pace.What she will remember, she says, is the accumulation of smaller moments more than any single afternoon. "Laughing in the car after long beach days. Watching the kids encourage one another in the ocean. Family dinners that turned into long conversations. Hiking through the unbelievable beauty of Kauai together. Quiet mornings with coffee while the kids slowly woke up." Her husband, who she describes as "the biggest kid I know," was fully and happily himself. "I hope that never changes about him," she says.The conversations you only have on vacationThere's a thing that happens, Walsh Jennings says, when you remove the usual distractions. People open up differently. Conversations arrive that wouldn't have found their way to the surface at home."Without the usual distractions, conversations happened more organically and deeply," she says. "We talked about dreams, fears, life, growing up, purpose, relationships, and what matters most." About friends and family. About the kind of people they want to be, together and separately. "The entire trip felt like an unfolding conversation around what's most important and who we want to be in life, as a family and as individuals."The beauty of the island, she believes, creates the conditions for that kind of honesty. Something about being surrounded by that much wild, unhurried nature lowers the ordinary defenses.Ke'e beach on the island of Kauai with view along the Na Pali coast. GettyWhat she'll remember mostSeveral times during the trip, Walsh Jennings caught herself simply watching. So much of daily life as a parent is logistics, managing, scheduling, moving the pieces. There's rarely time to stop and witness who your children are actually becoming. Kauai gave her that time."I remember thinking how proud I was, not of accomplishments or achievements, but of their hearts," she says. "Their curiosity. Their kindness. Their humor. Their spirit. They are so beautiful to me, I think those words every single day, and yet being in Kauai allowed me to sit in it a bit more."The bottom lineHer advice for parents traveling with teenagersWalsh Jennings's advice for parents considering a similar trip is short and direct: Do it."Just book it and know that you can't get it wrong," she says. Less is more. Don't over-schedule. “Leave space for wandering, resting, spontaneous adventures, and meaningful conversations. Let Hawaii slow you down.” And then the part she means most: put your phone away. "Watch your children," she says. “Soak in their expressions, their laughter, their funny faces and reactions. Those moments go by so quickly, and they're all precious, truly sacred. That's the real gold.”