We ♥ Kauaii!

In fact, we ♥ Kauaii so much that we've decided we're not ready to leave tomorrow and we called Delta today to postpone our flight reservations and get one more glorious day in paradise!  We are beyond excited to be able to extend our vacation by a whole day!!!

Today was a great mix of relaxation and excitement.  We took our time getting ready this morning and then headed to Hanalei.  Keith and I hit the beach while his mom and Rick did some shopping in Hanalei and then joined us on the beach about noon.  They brought with them yummy lunch from Bubbas' Burgers which we scarfed down and then the four of us went for about a mile and a half walk down the Hanalei Bay Beach...to the pier and back.  Keith and I had originally planned on snorkeling at Tunnels Beach today but when we stopped to rent snorkel gear the shop owner said, "I'd love to rent you my gear, but I'd also love for you to not die."  The rip currents were pretty severe today and the waves, as we found out when we got to Hanalei Bay were HUGE!

Hanalei Bay Beach.....the waves washed my artwork out to sea seconds after this picture was taken. 

I LOVE the ocean!

Keith and I next to the HBB pier.

On the HBB pier.

Keith's mom and I "surfing."

Mid afternoon we headed back to the condo to get dressed for "Smith's Tropical Paradise Luau."  The evening was way better than we could have even imagined.  We were each presented with a shell lei necklace as we entered.  The luau itself began with an Imu ceremony where the kalua pig is taken out of the ground and the conch shell is blown calling everyone to dinner.  Next was cocktail hour (watch out for the mai tais...they're yummy....TOO yummy!) followed by a fantastic buffet (where I liked almost everything served!  A small miracle!) accompanied by dinner music.  A hula dancer also performed the hula and then called for volunteers.  Since Keith thought volunteering me was a fun idea, I made him come with me and we both joined the group onstage for a hula lesson.  It was hilarious!  After dinner ended we all traipsed over to an amphitheater for an incredible stage show that explained the diverse Hawaiian culture through dance and costumes of the Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Samoan, Tahitian and Hawaiians.  The show featured lots of hip shaking girls, some awesome drumming, and even a chinese dragon!  We went home enchanted and exhausted.

Keith and I at the front entrance to the luau.

Mr. Smith gives the history of the Smith family, welcomes all the guests, and explains the Imu oven cooking process in front of the Imu oven.

Mr. Smith's grandson blows the conch to signal the beginning of the luau.

The yummy Kalua piggy!  Mmm mmm  good!

Keith's mom and I with the two guys who dug up the pig. 

Keith and I demonstrate hula dancing at the dinner table for the enjoyment of his mom and Rick.

Keith and I demonstrate hula dancing onstage for all the guests to see.  :)

Real hula dancers kick off the stage show.

Hula dancers spice things up a bit by swinging around flaming coconuts on ropes.

The entire cast of the Smith's show take their bows.

P.S.  I realize that I have been posting insane amounts of pictures on my blog these past few days and hope that no one finds this annoying.  However, let's be honest....you'd much rather see pictures than hear me babble about stuff, correct?  Hope the picture overload is acceptable!  Mahalo (thank you in Hawaiian) for taking the time to read!

Exploration day.

Today was an overcast day in Kauai so we decided to sleep in a bit and then head to Hanalei to do a little shopping and have lunch.   We walked around lots of little shops and art galleries, ate the best banana nut muffin EVER at a little coffee shop and just enjoyed strolling around.  We also ate an amazing lunch at the Hanalei Cafe...apparently a favorite spot of Pierce Brosnan!  I had fish-'n'-chips made from swordfish and Keith had a fresh grilled ahi tuna (tumbo) sandwich.

The shops at Hanalei.

Hanalei Center...where the shops are.

Hanalei Cafe....a favorite of Keith and Bethany...AND Pierce.

"on the road to Hanalei" my favorite shop of the day!

More of the Hanalei shops.

After we'd shopped until we dropped and eaten our fill of yummy fish we set out exploring. Our Kauai "Blue Book" suggested that Hideways beach was a "gem" of a beach...it warned that the hike down was a bit treacherous...even with the "steps" and guardrails...but that the beach at the bottom of the cliff was worth it.  It also mentioned that because there is limited parking (6 spaces) and the hike is tricky, that the beach is usually pretty vacant.  This was true today as there were only 2 other couples on the beach when we reached the bottom.  We climbed on some boulders, make a pitiful attempt at a sand castle and took a quick nap.

Me on the hike down...

the view of Hideways beach from about halfway down the trail.

another shot of the beach from the middle of the trail.

frolicking in the waves!  

Surveying the ocean, cliffside. 

King of the cliff.

View of the ocean from the trailhead.  The beach can be seen through the trees in the left center bottom of the picture.

After a catnap on the beach we drove down the road about a mile to visit Queens Bath.  Huge volcanic rocks create these amazing cliffs that the waves pummel.  The Queens Bath itself is a large pool in one of the cliffs.  Apparently this can be a swimming spot during the summer months, but today the waves were incredibly violent and I wouldn't have gone anywhere near them (although some local boys were thoroughly enjoying themselves in the pool.)  The highlight of the Queen's Bath adventure was a sea-turtle sighting!  We've been so lucky to see oceanic wildlife on this trip...whales, seals and a sea turtle...all we have left is a dolphin!  Hopefully we'll get to see one in the few days we have left.

ummmmm..........yet we kept on hiking.....

surveying a waterfall along the way.

Keith and the waterfall.

Ummmm......28 drownings?  Seriously? In case you can't read it all, the sign says, "Queens Bath Drownings 28.  Unexpected large waves will knock you off rocks and sweep you out to sea!"

Contemplating the sea. 

Our sea turtle friend!  (I had to zoom in on this picture many times so it's not the best).

Large, unexpected waves: exhibit A.

Local Hawaiian boys playing in the surf....large, unexpected waves: Exhibit B.

After Queen's Bath we headed back to the condo to take own baths.  :)  As I sit on the couch to blog this, Keith and I are munching on appetizers and watching the video of our helicopter flight from yesterday.  It's so cool to get to see it all again!  His mom and Rick are cooking grilled zucchini and mahi mahi for dinner!  Yummy!  Yet another amazing day on Kauai!

Aloha!

P.S.  As a side note...Keith's parents decided that they wanted a slightly more leisurely pace today and decided to hang at the condo a bit longer and then do some shopping of their own while Keith and I were out adventuring.  They ended up heading in the wrong direction, and arrived at Kapa'a instead of Hanalei, but thoroughly enjoyed their day nonethess.  :)

Mahalo for reading!

Although I'm writing this on the morning of the 3rd day, instead of the night of the 2nd...here is an account of our second day in Kauai!

We began the day with a helicopter tour of the entire island...by and far one of the most amazing things I've ever done in my life.  (IF you ever visit Kauai...splurge and do it...and use Blue Hawaiian and request pilot Andy).  Helicopters by themselves are just amazing...you feel like you are just hanging in the sky and like you are really flying instead of being in something that is flying like you feel in a plane.  We did amazing things like fly down inside a volcano crater (inactive for thousands of years...don't worry!) and get so close to cliffs it felt like we could reach out and touch them!  We also saw another whale breaching in the ocean and flew by the Napali coastline which is only reachable by hiking, helicopter or boat.  Beautiful!

Keith's stepdad picked these amazing flowers for us to wear on the drive to the south shore for our helicopter tour!

Keith and I with our headsets on ready to go!  The tour guide gave us a super informative tour and we could ask questions through a special microphone...and we got a DVD of our exact tour complete with footage of ourselves and the audio of the tour and all of our questions!

Our fantastic helicopter in action!!

View of Waimea Canyon from my seat!

Waipo'o Falls....the waterfall in the famous scene in Jurassic Park where the helicopter lands at the base of a waterfall.

After the helicopter tour we had an amazing brunch of pancakes and omlettes at a diner around the corner from the airport and then explored the south shore of the island.  One of our stops was the Hyatt resort where we took the following photos of fun natural stuff!

Black swan and coy at the Hyatt pond.

Bird of paradise plant at the Hyatt garden.

After some more driving around and a bit of shopping we took the rental car off-road down this BuMpY dirt road and parked at the end where we hiked among some cliffs and then curled up on Shipwreck beach for about an hour before heading back to the North shore.  The highlight of the beach excursion by far was another monk seal....this time it was a baby monk seal camped out on the beach.  The forest rangers had put up signs and roped off the area where it was camped so we couldn't get too close...but we got a few snapshots.

You found us!  :) Goofing around on the cliffs.

the surf crashing against the cliffs.

hiking along the volcanic rock...don't trip! That stuff is SHARP!

hole in the cliff where the surf comes in under the rock and makes crazy splashes inside! Don't fall in!

The beach where we laid out. All to ourselves! Love it!

Warning sign for the monk seal.

The baby monk seal.  Nighty nite, little baby...it's naptime!

Keith's mom and stepdad made these self-portraits in the sand while we hiked off to see the baby seal.  The one on the left is his mom...complete with hair-do! and on the right is Rick...who went so far as to give himself ribs!  Hilarious!

After our adventures for the day were over we headed back to the condo where his parents grilled yummy steaks and made yellow yams.  One of the best dinners ever!  We ate at the dining room table and then swapped stories and laughed for about an hour.  Keith and I took a stroll on Hanalei Bay Beach after dinner and got back to the condo just in time for the heavens to open and rain to POUR down!  I fell asleep with my windows open listening to the rain pound the ground.  A perfect end to an amazing day!

Aloha!

So apparently it's been a REALLY long time since I wrote seeing as my last post is from Christmas tour....and like the beginning of Christmas tour. Oh well.

To catch you all up....Yesterday, Keith and I flew from freezing cold, rainy, windy Nashville, Tennessee to beautiful, sunny, warm, relaxed, amazing, Princeville, Kauai. We are spending 6 days here in a condo with his Mom and his stepdad, Rick. Today was our first real day in Hawaii since we got in late after dark last night. Keith was so sweet and ran to the gift shop as soon as we touched down and bought a lei for me and for his mom. (insert whatever jokes you want to about "getting "lei-ed" at the Hawaii airport here). We got an sweet new Mercury Mountaineer as our rental car and set off from the Lihue airport to the North shore where we are staying. Our condo is amazing! This is a view from our back deck!

view in the morning.....

and as the sun was going down!

Keith's mom and I sporting our leis.....remember....this was after about 15 hours of travel!

We had an amazing first day! We kicked it off with a 9 am tour of Na' Aina Kai Gardens where we saw lots of amazing flowers and really cool bronze statues. We walked through part of the gardens and then rode a little golf cart/train/tractor hybrid around the rest of the property which included several hardwood forests. One of the coolest things we saw there was a "Sensitive plant" that actually curled up when you touched it! The stems were really leafy but when we poked it with a stick, the plant all but disappeared....what a creative defense mechanism! There was also a tree that had roots hanging off the branches. The bigger the tree grew, the heavier the branches got, and eventually they would sag to the ground where the roots would take hold and nourish the tree! I never cease to be amazed at the Lord's creativity! The pictures below are from the garden tour.

Keith and I overlooking part of the hardwood plantation.

a waterfall at the garden.

overlooking the lagoon in the center of the garden.

Joining in the fun of "Frog Legs" one of the many bronze statues throughout the garden.

on the tour vehicle and ready to roll!!

We ate lunch at the Kilauea fish market and ate yummy deserts from the Kilauea Bakery! Then we ventured to the Kilauea Lighthouse where we not only saw the lighthouse but a monk seal napping on a rock and some humpback whales playing in the ocean! This island is SO beautiful!  After that we drove to the end of the island and then took a long stroll on Tunnels Beach.  It was amazing to just wander down the beach with our feet in the sand and the waves lapping at our ankles.  By that time we were all pretty exhausted since our bodies are still adjusting to the time zone change, so we stopped in Hanalei to have a famous Hawaiian shaved ice (ice cream with a snow cone essentially on top) and then headed back to the condo where we are right now relaxing before a light dinner of tapas.  I've posted some pictures from our time at the Kilauea

lighthouse.  

Keith and I in front of the lighthouse sporting our sunglasses.  It's tough being a celebrity. :)

With Keith and his mom overlooking the island off the coast in front of the lighthouse.

If you look in the center of this pic on the rock, there's a monk seal..the 2nd most endangered mammal in the world!

This is the tail of one of the whales that we saw....they were sort of far out....this was the best we could do photo-wise!

Aloha!!!!