Proof I Was Actually There!

The promised pictures are finally here!! The pictures, of course, do not do justice to how beautiful Kauai was...but here is my lame attempt. Check out Stacey's blog for prettier pictures...though she may have photo-shopped some of hers...just saying...

This was just down the road from our condo. We drove past it every day we were there and never looked until the our last afternoon.

This is one of the many one-way bridges. I was an expert at crossing them correctly by the end. Partially because a native scared me to death when he got out of his car and started yelling at this lady who had done it wrong...I was VERY vigilant about appropriate bridge etiquette after that!

Stacey in our fun convertible...and some pretty mountains.....

On our hike through the mud, the path was strewn with pretty flowers....I thought it was cool and I was sure there was some great lesson illustrated there...something about finding the 'flowers' in the mud trail we call 'life'?? Maybe??

This is the waterfall we hiked to. It's pretty.

This is me at the base of the waterfall...if you look close you can see all the mud sprayed on my legs...I was good and dirty by this point.

Stacey is up on the edge of the trail avoiding the mud down below...you can kind of see the puddles and the boards they put down to help people avoid the worst of it...we just walked up along the tree line...we still got pretty dirty and stepped in some truly brilliant mud pies.

Stacey on the trail with her arms out trying to keep her balance while avoiding the muck. It was beautiful morning though...look at the sun and all the green!

I liked this rooty tree. If I was a hobbit I would live under a rooty tree like this.

Ke'e Beach. You can see the Napali Coast out beyond the cliffs.

This is the view from our condo...other than the main road that was just past that hedge, it was pretty perfect.

Hanalei Beach was where we found the best boogie boarding...this was before we got wet...and the ocean was pretty....but mountains will always be my true love.

And, finally, this is Pepe the little gecko we found in our living room. He disappeared on the third day and I choose to believe we left the doors open long enough for him to get out into the wild where he belongs....and not that he climbed into Stacey's bed....there's no way he would have dared climb into mine!

Vacation - Day 7

So sad...my vacation is over. Today we said goodbye to the ocean...to the valley of the trees...to our cute little condo...to our lovely blue mustang convertible ...Stacey almost said goodbye to her favorite hat when she tried to take a picture from over the convertible windshield ( we were able to go back and get it) ...but by far, the hardest thing to say goodbye to is the warm weather.

I am sitting in the airport and just took off my flip flops and replaced them with shoes and socks....I almost cried...goodbye pretty pedicure. I think the one thing that is making returning to the frozen wasteland I call home not unthinkable is that in just a couple weeks I will have a two car garage of my very own to shield me from the biting cold of the early morning.

It's really been a wonderful trip and I am now a big fan of Kauai. I highly recommend! Let me know if you want to go....I could definitely be convinced to come back!!

Vacation - Day 6

This morning we had a Hawaii first...we saw the sunrise! Yep, we got up early and headed out to go kayaking up the river.

It was a little cold. But we warmed ourselves by rowing. We didn't realize we didn't have to start out so early, but it was kinda fun to be the first kayak in the water and the first to reach the waterfall. The trail was a bit muddy from all the rain last night and as we started the trek we were carefully avoiding puddles...by the end we stopped caring so much and embraced the mud splashing up around our knees. It really wasn't so bad...if it hadn't been for my uncontrollable need to scream like a little girl evey time my foot slipped at all. Just embarrassing!

The waterfall was very pretty and impressive...i think Stacey took more pictures of some dewey spiderwebs than of the falls...they were pretty awesome.

We were off the river by eleven and tried to go snorkeling at a beach we had liked last week. We saw three fish and decided it was too cold. It's funny because today was supposed to be the best weather we've had so far, but it was cold and windy and I was glad to go back to the condo and take a shower and finish my book.

We did venture out again to take some pretty pictures, check out Stacey's blog for some good ones. I'll post mine when we get back this week. They will be nowhere near as pretty.

Vacation - Day 5

This morning we went to the local branch. And we were super spiritual and attended all three hours of church. I know...very impressive. Then we weren't even tempted to go to the beach or anything because we have been visited by some serious rain...a bit of forced sabbath observance but I'm pretty sure we would have been good anyway.

I finished my book and started a new one about Siberian tigers. It is really good and I've been reading it all day long. We made a little dinner of spaghetti and it's about time for bed.

Tomorrow we will be off early to go kayaking...so we will need a good night's rest tonight.

Oh and the branch was really great today but I thought it was kind of funny that their little chapel had 12 ceiling fans instead of our usual 3...and they turned half of them off when the men left and we had relief society

Vacation - Day 4

I may have slept for ten hours last night and still had a a nap that was at least an hour long...I feel rested.

But, I did eventually wake up and get out the door. It was a beautiful sunny day and we drove to the southern end of the island to a snorkeling beach. (just as a side note, I don't include the names of any places because if you thought I was bad at spelling English words, I'm even worse with Hawaii words. Seriously, I don't even attempt to say them...I call it the a- beach, or that store after the valley with all the trees. It's like when I go to ethnic restraunts and just point to the menu item instead of trying to pronounce something hard like chipotle.)

Anyway, the snorkeling was good, pretty fish...got a little sun. Then we ate lunch at this sketchy little hole in the wall place that had good pork and cabbage. It started to get a little overcast so we headed to our sunny northern end of the island. Stacey still wanted to boogie board, but I had had my fill od beaches. ( I can only convince myself for so long that sand is not dirt and that I am not totally bugged by being covered in it...it's just icky.)

So, a had my little nap and read some more of Wuthering Bites. ( which is pretty good...the plot and characters of withering heights make so much more sense with vampires mixed in.)

The. Dinner....catch up on a little castle and I just received an invite to church tomorrow from Stacey who is learning to set up an event invitation :)

Well, that's about it. We have also been thinking and praying for little Hannah and are so glad to hear she is doing well and will get to home soon!

Vacation - Day 3

This has been an amazingly beautiful day on Kauai! We rented a movie from red box last night...Iron Man 2 ...and we were both asleep 15 minutes into the thing...that would be at 9 o'clock. Kinda sad but also kinda amazing since I slept until about 6. Eventually we did get up, though and prepared for a day at the beach.

Seriously, it was gorgeous! We drove with the top down all day!

We went boogie boarding for a few hours and met a cute little local girl who would do summersaults over the waves. Then we went to another beach to go snorkeling. It was my first time and it was fantastic! I saw an eel, and a long thin stick fish thingy, and schools of beautiful tropical fish.

Then we went to see the lighthouse and have lunch at a little cafe. I had garlic fries and they were really good...I can still taste them...the garlic was REALLY strong. Obviously, it was then time for a short nap.

Before it started to get dark we went to Ke'e beach...straight out of South Pacific....if I didn't hate that song so much I would have sung it...the closest I got was humming a few bars of 'happy talky-talk'.

I did manage to take a few pictures...I'll post them when i get home. :)

Vacation - Day 2

So, at this point, no pictures. Partly because I'm blogging from my iPad and I haven't figured out how to add pictures on it and partially because we keep forgetting to take our camera with us whenever we leave the house.

Well it rained all night and we had a moment this morning when we were a bit frustrated with the obstacle that might be to our vacation. However, it has actually been a fantastic day...a little damp but we still put the top down on the mustang...just for a few minutes, but still. Anyway we went to walmart and then to a grocery store. Then we took naps. :)

While that may sound like a lame morning, it was fantastic because it's truly beautiful here and it's fantastically warm. I love it!

After my nap, we went for a little walk to the Queen's Bath. It was a short little hike, but the trail was so wet that we probably won't be doing much more hiking at all. We got down to the rocky shore and found a big rock slab with etched tally marks representing all the people who have died on the cliffs we were on (28). But we were there at low tide and it wasn't too dangerous. What it was was beautiful!

Anyway, that's about it. We had dinner and are back home relaxing. Hopefully there will be snorkeling tomorrow!

Vacation Day 1

The big news of the day is that the sale of my home is finally final! Hooray!!! I'm homeless!

Also, I'm in Hawaii! Stacey and I have had a lovely day traveling. In case you were not aware, it's cold in Utah. So, the minute I entered the airport, I removed my inadequate jacket and shoved it into my suitcase. We had decided to just check one bag between the two of us and as we checked in, we were surprised and delighted to find that Stacey had a free checked bag because..well we don't actually know why...but we still embraced the opportunity. That was travel miracle numbero uno.

Then we flew a long ways and I successfully avoided having to use the airplane bathroom....they freak me out. We watched 'life as we knew it' as our in flight movie. It was cute....Josh what's his name is a hottie.

Then we arrived in Hawaii. The car rental place gave us vacation miracle number two when they didn't have our compact car available and I am now driving around the island in a blue mustang convertible. Im feeling pretty sporty!

Now we are in a beautiful little condo watching a movie on a comfy non-wicker couch (our one vacation rental requirement) watching knight and day.

I wish you were here.