KAUAI part 2

The past few days have been amazing, and much more relaxed. We're officially on Hawaiian time, and are in no hurry to do or see anything--except for sleep, hang at the beach and eat our daily shaved ice! :)




On Monday, we checked out of our hotel, drove to the North Shore, and checked into a little cottage on super lush property with beautiful gardens and a "secret beach" (not so secret, but kinda private). Our cottage is about 800 square feet and just has a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom--All we need.

Here's some videos of walking down to Secret Beach.



Dave's been spending time trying to get used to the different breaks here in Kauai, and has had some unfortunate run-ins with the reefs. Hence, his broken toe. :( But, he still got out there and surfed the next day-- he just tapes up his toes and he's good to go.



Along with the more lush, jungle-y atmosphere comes more bugs. Our bite count to date? Jen = 19 bites, Dave = 0 bites. Not fair.

Also, we have some gecko friends and tons of frogs all around us. Driving around at night here is a challenge because we're trying to avoid running over the frogs who just stop in the middle of the street and are also on Hawaiian time. Dave's killed at least 1 that we know of, but we've had MANY near-misses. Here's a video on a little Peeping Tom Frog by the door to our cottage last night.


Yesterday we tried stand-up paddling (SUP).

It was way too much to even consider bringing a camera along... and how unfortunate for Dave... he could have held the video of me for blackmail in the future!!

Long story short-- going on a SUP on a river with a light wind was easy. Trying to steer and navigate the SUP in ocean water was hard. Getting caught by the strong wind and rip current that took me out to sea was frustrating. Having my honey have to rescue me when I ended up on the opposite side of the bay was embarrassing. Walking the 2 miles back to the SUP store with bare feet on black gravely asphalt was hot. Finding a farmers market across the street after the four-hour ordeal was luck. Dave loved the market (it saved the day), and he supplemented all the native Kauaians' salaries by buying something from every single stand . :)


Here's a video and a few pics of Queens Bath and a freezing waterfall that we swam in... I had to prove my tough-ness (the SUP experience was humbling and I had to get some respect back).






4 more days to go! Love and miss you guys! Love Mommy (jen)

KAUAI part 1

Hi guys! I'm months behind on our family news and pictures, of course, so I know I've got a bunch of catching up to do once I'm home. BUT, Dave and I are in Kauai now for a much needed vacation and I promised the kids I'd send them updates of what we've seen and done so far. We've been here since Thursday (one more week still to go), and have been incredibly busy playing. (I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation!)

We've spent a day at the beach surfing (a 2 hour lesson for me!), gone on a helicopter ride, went on a 5 hour long boat/sailing/snorkeling trip, and on a 6 mile hike down the Awawaapuhi Trail to the cliffs above the ocean. Everything is beautiful, the weather is awesome, and we are loving it. We're able to Skype with the kids most nights and are relieved that they're so happy without us. (We're hoping Dave's parents are too!) :)

I didn't bring the right cord to connect our good camera to the computer, so everything is either iPhone pictures, or from the Flip camera.


Here we are, in front of the Welcome to Kauai sign with leis on, at the airport. (Can you even see it? Sorry, no flash and the rental car guy took it.)

Here are a few videos from our helicopter trip. I definitely had a queasy tummy during that ride! Dave kept the camera on, trying to catch me with the barf bag, but I conquered it. :)




Here are two videos from our snorkeling trip!

We saw pods and pods of dolphins, 25-30 at a time, surrounding and swimming with out boat and doing flips.


Dave took this footage of two sea turtles "swimming together", hoping to sell it to Animal Planet. :)


We also saw a humpback whale jumping in the water not far from our boat, but the footage of that makes me nauseous all over again, so I'll do you a favor and skip that one.

Here are a few videos from our hike!


The most random thing we've found out is how common chickens and roosters are here-- and they just run loose all over the place. There's like 1 rooster to every chicken, also, so the population just continues to grow. The locals hate them like stray cats or ants... I think it's funny. :)


The view at the end of our hike is probably the most beautiful vista we've ever seen.




Our rental car is a green car, an electric hybrid car. It's eerily quiet and super fun to drive (it came with an iPad, so thats been fun to play with too!). We've had to drive a little bit between excursions and Dave made up a funny game to play in the car, where we take turns singing whatever Hawaiian word we just read...but you've got to hold out the last note until you start the next new word. It's pretty funny. Especially my honey's vibrato. ;)


We're loving Kauai! I'll update again in a few days! Next we've got a kayaking trip, a beach/surf day, another hike and snorkel, and a stand-up paddling experience that should be pretty comical. :)

Love, mommy (jen)