Kauai Part 2

WARNING: LONG POST

Most days we were in bed by 9:00 and up by 5:30 or 6. Our bodies didn't adjust to being 3 hours ahead very well. It was heaven! I miss it now that I climb into bed at 11:30, and up at 6:30. It really helped being up and out before any other tourists.

Tuesday we were up and gone by 7:30, we wanted to be to Tunnels beach early. We stopped to see the Hanalei valley first thing. They grow a lot of Taro there. Beautiful place. So we made it to Tunnels- it is the place where the surfer girl lost her arm from a shark, and the locals told us that snorkeling there was dangerous in the winter because of strong currents and high tides. There was a surfer there who was just leaving. He said the tide was really low so we would be fine to snorkel. It was pretty early and only in the low 70's and I was SUPER nervous, so we walked the beach for a while, waiting for it to warm up and for other people to snorkel. I finally got brave enough and we were able to see some really awesome fish and coral. We even saw a turtle that looked just like a rock sitting on the bottom of the ocean.

Hanalei ValleyThis is what I looked like after we would go snorkeling!  Bathing beauty!   I didn't know how everyone could be so beautiful all the time.   They obviously didn't go snorkeling every day!

Tuesday we also went to Queen's bath. Because it was such a low tide day we were able to get inside the bath. It was crazy fun!

I am in towards the left, talking to some hilarious ladies from Seattle.
It was a beautiful place! On Thursday- 2 days later- it was a high tide day so we came back just to see how it looked, and it was CRAZY different. The place we are standing in this picture was constantly being splashed with waves. The queen's bath itself was way to dangerous to get in. It was amazing to see the difference in the ocean and to see how dangerous it could be.

The cute little hike down to Queen's bath
Our awesome little car! We really loved putting gas in this thing. It didn't require much!

Tuesday we also went to the local Hanalei farmer's market. It was so fun! It down poured on us right as it opened and by the time we were ready to leave I had to take my jacket off, it was so warm. This is all the yummy stuff we got. The red things are rubatans, they were very weird. We tried taking some home to the kids, but they couldn't go on the plane.

There are chickens everywhere! These guys are in the parking lot of our condo.
Tuesday we also snorkeled Anini beach. I did a lot better getting in, it felt like a much safer place and I was just getting more used to it! (I'm such a wimp) We swam a long with a turtle, he was so graceful and didn't care that we were swimming with him, beautiful. We also saw a whole family of my favorite little black and white fish, I loved it. We got a yummy ice cream that night.

Wednesday we were up early again headed to the Waimea canyon, it is like the Grand Canyon of Kauai. It was clear on the other side of the Island so we drove about an hour and a half to get to it. It was very amazing.

The kids favorite picture! 12 baby chicks with this Mom. Right in the parking lot of a look out in Waimea Canyon.
At the top of the canyon was the Pu'u o Kila lookout, which looks down the Kalalau Valley, which is part of the Na Pali coast line. The clouds would come over into this valley and you could watch them fall into the valley and they would instantly evaporate because it was so warm, Brandon would have loved it.

Waipo'o Falls, we hiked to the top of this waterfall.

 Waipo'o Falls hike, it was a pretty good hike. I was wishing I had my hiking shoes, but they were still wet from hiking the Kalalua on Monday.

Cabbage on a stick- this plant only grows in Kauai.

Swinging bridge in Hanapepe, it would twist a little as we walked across it.
We took a dinner cruise out of Port Allen. We were able to see LOTS of wales.

A school of spinning dolphins rode with us for a while. One even did some tricks for us.

The other end of the Na Pali coast.....stunning.

Beautiful sunset. It was a really fun relaxing ride, with a great dinner provided.

You can't see these trees very well, but they were our favorite! Driving between Princeville and Kilauea these trees were so tall and bare looking, but had lots of leaves. We wished we could bring a few trees home with us.

Thursday we finally slept in until 6:30 a.m.! It was a high tide day, so we played at the condo. They had a putting green, shuffle board, we layed out at the pool, we went back to secret beach and read our books, we went back to queen's bath to see how it looked with the high tide, we watched another movie and then we had the Tsunami......ahh.

This is the lava pool area. We came here on Sunday and there was a local person fishing on these rocks. Today these rocks were being covered with water, absolutely no one could fish.

Another shot of the crazy water. Same rock.

So the tsunami...... We had just watched a movie, it was 9:30pm and we were getting ready for bed. We turned on the weather channel to see what the tide was for Friday. We really wanted to do more snorkeling. The report came on about Japan, then they said there was a tsunami warning for Hawaii. We both looked at each other and I then freaked out. I started crying, saying we need to go..... I had the whole condo packed in about 5 minutes. Darin was calm- still very nervous- just watching the TV. We took everything down to the car and stopped at the office on our way out to go....somewhere, we didn't know where! So funny now. They told us we were at the safest place on the whole island, we were 300 ft. above sea level. The worst that would happen is we wouldn't be able to get around the Island for a few days. I was still thinking we were going to die. I wanted to go get gas....and another red box movie....of all things! Dumb I know. I figured we would be up all night, why not watch another show. We didn't end up doing either of those things. We went back to our condo. Brought our stuff up and waited. We really wanted to call our kids, but it was 12:30 mainland time. It was amazing how fast I missed them and I felt bad for not missing them more. We watched the news until midnight, then went to bed. The tsunami sirens went off every hour, so we didn't get much sleep. We got up at 3:00 because the tsunami was suppose to hit at 3:07, coming to Kauai first. We waited and waited, watching TV, it never really did come so we went to bed at 3:40. When all our family woke up and heard about it we had several people call to make sure we were okay. It was very nice to feel so loved. They were really worried about us. The tsunami didn't do much to Kauai, it did more to the other islands, but it did the most damage to California. Very life changing. Helped us think more about the most important things in life. So grateful that Families are Forever.

So Friday we slept until 7:30, kind of. We were just lazy, read books, slept. We went to the pool again, Darin had brought these pool floaties, so that was fun. We watched some basketball, read our books. We finally ventured out over to Kilauea to go mini golfing. We learned that pineapples don't grow on trees.... we had been looking for a pineapple tree the whole time. They grow on these bush things. We drove down to Anini beach to see if there was any damage, didn't look like it. Then we went to Hanalei- ate at the famous Bubbas.....amazing hamburgers. Then did a little shopping. It wasn't the day we were hoping for, but we were safe and we could still get to the airport the next day, that's all that mattered.

Saturday we packed up our condo and headed out.

Opaeka'a falls

Wailua Falls

Kipu falls. Darin was really brave and did the rope swing in, he also jumped off a cliff into it.

Susy, this picture is for you. He's grown some.

We saw the spouting horn, we snorkeled at Po'ipu beach....that was awesome. We found the old Sugar factory and took a road that said no trespassing so we could see it better. On our way out that road had been chained off so we couldn't get out. It was a little nerve wracking, and funny. We did find a way out...phew. We went on a hour long search for some fabulous shave ice. It was well worth the search! We saw Lyngate beach, ate dinner at Kauai Pasta, then headed to the airport. Our plane was late and finally left at 10:30 p.m. We were tired and ready to go. There was ALOT of turbulance on the flight back, it was a long night!

People have asked me my favorite thing. I think it was just seeing all the couples together. Best Friends together, having these amazing experiences, just the two of us. No one else to talk to, but each other. It was wonderful. We did learn that we would be pretty bad on the amazing race!

Thanks for the amazing trip Darin! It was been a wonderful 15 years and we have learned and grown a lot together. I love you and I'm so lucky you chose me!