Monday

Another beautiful day! Monday morning was a bit rainy but it was still fun to run along where I could see the ocean. We did some shopping and looking around. Cathy brought us to the best shave ice on the island, "Ono's." Its like a cloud.





We went Kyaking this day up the Wailu River. Since we were kyaking and that involves water, didn't bring out the cell phone to take pictures...







My arms did get tired.





But it was way fun and really cool to see everything. We hiked up to a waterfall and it was great to see the "jungle." Can't believe how many flowers and different greens there are. It was so pretty!





















The water coming down was pretty cold. Swam over and stood under it. It was realy cool. I've never done that before.

We paddled our kyaks a bit further to a "swim hole" where Cathy and I jumped off some rocks. I don't generally go for that, but it wasn't too bad!

I don't know why, but the videos turned out awfully small so you can't really see anything. The first one has a guy swinging off a rope into the water, and the next one is Cathy and I jumping.

Pretty tired when we got back, and we hadn't planned lunch well. We wanted to try a plate lunch but most of the places close early so we went to Bubbas for burgers

As the sun came down stopped at the ocean for a bit where the powerfull waves came crashing in. I loved it and could watch all day! Took a dip in the pool and the stars were so bright!

That night started the great Yatzee tourney. I'm not good with dice.

Sunday in Hawaii

Another beautiful day. I was actually glad it was Sunday so I could rest up a bit, and let my sunburn heal. Yes, after all the warnings and all the reapps of sunstop I got burned on the backs of my legs, and two stripes down my back where I forgot to get under my straps... Actually not as bad as it could be. Jennifer's back was fried and Cathy had some red skin as well.



This chapel is actually in Kapa'a because I couldn't find a picture of the Hanalei one and I had forgotten to take my phone with me to church (unlike some people I could name, I don't text during church :). It was similar to this one. Cathy and Jennifer have a picture of us in front of it.


It was a very small branch. Most of the people there were visitors. I guess living in paradise for some people means they don't really need God. It was great to be there with no responsibilities in the middle of God's beautiful creations. Made me ever so thankful.


We stopped to get some pictures of the lookout between Hanalie and Princeville. Those Tara fields down there supply most of the State's Tara. Sad I didn't get any. I loved yutou on the mission.



(it didn't look like this when we stopped as it was misty and rainy).


After lunch and some rest we headed out to drive around and see the sights.


We drove up to Opaekaa falls and Wailua River Overlook. The falls wasn't running very high even though there had been lots of rain. Couldn't get very close to it either, but I loved all the green.
















On Monday this, Wailua, is the river we kyacked up. These fields were were the royalty lived, and the river is/was considered sacred.















There are 6 temples lining the peaks of the valledy, and this was the ruins of one.


There were chickens there too

The rain moves through pretty quickly

One of the things on my list was to see a lighthouse. The Ninini lighthouse was free so thats the one we decided to go find. It ended up being quite an adventure to get there. We decided that it was named as a taunt. We drove on this crazy dirt road that just up and ended

Then drove around through the marriot.

We could see the thing, just couldn't get there!

(This is Nawiliwili bay- got to love the names)

We walked through an old golf course under reconstruction, and as its in Lihue, the airport, saw some planes coming in low.












After walking around the point we finally found it!





For some reason I didn't get a picture of the actual lighthouse, so I had to borrow one again...











Thats Jennifer









The planes really feel super close, like you could just reach out and touch them.... There was a man with his little boy there watching the planes. Reminded me of stories of my dad when he was little.





I loved watching the waves crash against the rocks. I love the different colors in each wave. I love the sounds, and the power in it. I love that we had talked about in church, the voice of Jehova sounding like the rushing of great waters...

We then drove to the south side of the island to check it out. We saw where Cathy and Jen has stayed 10 years ago when they came before (Poipu). And since we were down on that side (the Sunny, drier side, we crossed something else off my list, and saw the spouting horn. The waves were even more mesmorizing down here with the sun going down and the sounds of the waves and spout. I guess before you could go right down there (you probably still could as we saw some people down closer on the other side), but too many tourists were dumb and got swept off to sea so they put up a fence.

hmmm self portraits leave something to be desired.



















I didn't quite time it right to get the spout really big in the picture, so you'll have to take my word for it. It originially was even bigger, but the sugar cane guy here got annoyed with the salt spray stunted his crop right there and threw some dynamite down there. Jerk.


The little park right there had lots of chickens (of course) and flowers but these looked familiar. Mangosteen. Hint: while amazingly delicious ripe, the unripe fruit is the oposite of eddible.











I tried eating lots of different berries and such around the island. Most of my experimenting was not favorable, but the coconuts, avacodos and limes made up for it. Should've done my research on edible plants in hawaii before going :)

It was really interesting to see this part of the island. Its a lot drier and not as green. I saw dragon fruit growing everywhere, its like a tropical cactus.

Saturday in Paradise

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, with the time change I was up to watch it. It was amazing. All the birds singing and colors in the sky. So fun to see the different types of birds.

Brief rain showers would come by and the morning was nice and misty.

One of the things that would be a reoccuring theme on this vacation is the roosters in the morning, in the afternoon, and basically everywhere we went :) So even thought the rooster would wake me up, I didn't mind because, I was in Kauai!

This picture wasn't quite as cool as the other sunrise one, but you can see that there is a lovely jungeling garden right outside of our back Lanai. So many different shades of green, and it seems that every tree and bush has flowers! Also interesting to see plants that I didn't recognize. Did see coconut, avocado, and banana trees.

These avocados and limes were growing back there. We really enjoyed the limes, and the avocados were amazing, although they didn't ripen till right before we had to leave.

We walked around explored the place. I went on a "run" and I must say running in paradise is not nearly so hard as doing it anyplace else...

We decided to go snorkeling and the ride took us through beautiful countryside. At every turn on this vacation it was like being in a post card.

We stopped at a farmers market and I got some "apple" bananas and some longgan! It was so cool to see and be around things that reminded me of Taiwan.





Then we came here. Tunnels beach on Hanalei bay. Oh wow. Snorkeling was so amazing. The minute I put my face in the water there were fish everywhere. Fish of every shape and color. and sea turtles. I swam with sea turtles!

The water was amazing, so clear, just the right temperature. Did you know that the ocean is really salty? I don't recommend drinking it :)

We had packed our lunch and eating on the beach made it all the more tasty. We watched kiteboarders out on the reef.

By evening we were pretty tired. Took a dip in the pool and just enjoyed the ocean breezes.

Aloha

Anyone missed me? Probably not since I'm not really a regular blogger and all. Well I didn't blog last week because I was in HAWAII!

It doesn't even seem real now, now that my body is getting back to Utah time, my ankles are no longer swollen from the red eye flight, the sand is no longer in my hair and the reality of going back to "real" life is sinking in. However, I have the pictures to prove that I really did go and I really was there.

IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME! I'm so greatful that Cathy invited me to go with her and Jennifer to Kauai. Its my favorite island (ok so its the only one I've been to). We stayed up on the north shore and it was so green and so pretty. AND whoever invented the ocean gets two thumbs up from me. When I went to visit Jamie in CA I took a dip in the ocean but it was night and dark and cold, so I didn't really swim. Kauai was my first time to really swim in the ocean. I'm a big fan of water in general, but this took the cake for me.

So now I'm debating on if I should just post the highlights, or do the gory details. I'm sure none of you really care, and would probably be very bored with 5 days of posting on the subject.... but this blog is more for me, and I'd like to record the trip because it was so great. Who know if I'll get another chance to go, I hope so because there are still things I'd like to do and see over there....

I had so much to do before leaving, including bringing in garden veggies:

I didn't get everything done, but one thing that was important was to make sure I had pretty toes as I knew I was headed to paradise and pretty toes are imperative. Good thing my priorities are so well adjusted, huh?!

The nails have little flowers on them. They don't look like that anymore... sand, ocean, and such takes a tole on cheap nail polish and applicays...

The flight was long but not too bad as I was pretty excited. Even the airport was cool.

We did food shopping for the week, ate at Hamura's Saimin (oh yum! could eat that everyday)

and drove off to the North Shore where we stayed at the Cliffs. This is a quieter Island and the Northern part of it is even quieter and less populated. To me that was perfect. Even though I was very excited to be there, due to the time change i was also very tired so no real exploring until the next day.... Aloha and Mahalo for your patience.