This place is just incredible.
It seems like every night so far I've gone to bed thinking there's nothing more I need to see, nothing could be better than what I've already seen, and then the next day comes and goes and it's even better than the day before. I'm so so so so grateful that I am able to take this trip. Who gets to go to Hawaii for a vacation for this long in my station in life? While in many ways I am dying to hold my kids in my arms and to be with my husband and share with them everything I've seen, I also am truly feeling blessed to be here...just wish my family could be here too. Going to look into internships on Kauai for Craig next semester, ha ha.
Yesterday morning we started off tending to our sunburns and lathering up again before going down to the beach, again. This time with the snorkeling gear in tow. For those of you who may have grown up putting on the mask and breathing tube and floated around the local swimming pool watching your little brother swim underneath you and flash you a dorky goggley face, this is not what snorkeling was intended for. Tunnels beach is what snorkeling was intended for. If I had known how many fish were so close to me when I got into the water on the beach, I probably would have freaked out and not gone in. But when you do it with the snorkeling gear, a whole new world opens up. It was AMAZING! I saw all sorts of colorful fish everywhere, big ones and small ones. I was honestly a little nervous that any second a big shark would come sneaking up out of the abyss beyond the drop off and chomp my arm off...but no such thing happened and I actually found myself relaxing and truly swimming with the fish. Really neat. No pictures to document that experience, although I'm going to look into getting a disposable underwater camera next time we run into town. After that I came up on the beach and tried to nap a little, but I was so scared of making my sunburn worse that I packed up and headed to the house. I sat down on the couch for a minute and before I knew it I was out and two hours later I woke up really hungry and feeling much better. Then Rose and Add and I hopped into the car and drove up the road to find some caves that a tour guide of Kauai had mentioned. We found two of the three and have a good idea of where the third one might be, but those were really neat too. The first one was called "Dry Cave", as it was just that, a Dry Cave. The dramatic lit pictures of Add and Rose below are from in there. The second was called "Wet Cave", as it was wet and had a big pool that stretched the length of it. You weren't supposed to swim in it or "linger" in there for too long as there was falling rock, so we just took a few pictures. On the way home we stopped at a rocky stream where some people were swimming and I took more pictures of the stream and lush vegetation and local flowers. We came back home after that and talked to the woman who lives in the apartment below the condo we are staying in, who was out walking her dog. Really friendly woman, she makes hats for the local markets around the area- apparently, though, a couple around here has a dog that came and attacked her dog at the beach recently, and she was really nervous because the owner of said dog had been walking said dog up and down the road by the house the last few nights and she was nervous that he would be by soon, so we continued our visit in the backyard where I met some friendly ants crawling in a line up the wall and got bit by a few too many bugs. Then Rose and I hopped into the car and took a trip down to Ke'e beach where I documented the sunset on my camera. Glorious. Also found a little stream coming out of the jungle that had a small pond pooling up before it emptied into the ocean and fraternized with the local tadpoles and climbed some of the low hanging trees. Rose also posed for some pictures for me and left her sunglasses in the pool by accident, we'll have to go back and find them soon. Then we came home and let Addison cook us some yummy pasta with parmesean chicken and/or veggie burger, and buttered toast on the side. Delish.
This morning my Mom and I got our tickets finalized for a trip we are taking next week to Oahu to visit the temple and Polynesian Cultural Center there, which we will leave for on Tuesday. Then we packed up our stuff and headed to the Hanalei farmer's market where I got a really yummy Acai berry smoothie with granola and bananas for breakfast and picked up some goodies for the kids and hubby while shopping around. Found previously mentioned couple with mean dog selling jewelery there- only reason I recognized them was because one of the owners was apparently a transgendered woman, and after I saw a pitbullish looking dog and examined the two women sitting there, one of them definitely had a more masculine physique. Avoided their shop. After that we went down to Hanalei Bay, which was just a picture perfect white sand beach from head to toe. We walked over to a covered dock with stretched into the water to find a bunch of people gathering together. Suddenly many of them were paddling to a spot beyond the dock or jumping into the water near a couple who were dressed in colorful shirts and necklaces on a boat. We couldn't hear what was going on, and finally we asked someone next to us watching from the dock, and she turned around and politely said that it was a funeral, they were spreading the ashes. I took a couple of pictures, but then immediately felt bad for intruding. However it was touching to watch as we walked away, the couple in the boat said a few words and then threw the ashes and large flowers into the bay and all the people gathered around in the water and on the dock hooted and hollered and splashed in the water making large waves. Took more pictures at the bay and passed by the house they used in the film "The Descendants", which I have not seen, but apparently was filmed on Kauai. Then we got back in the car and tried to go and find a place called "Queen's Bath" where there are some neat lava rocks with big pools in them for swimming, but it was in an obscure neighborhood and the parking lot for it was teeny tiny. We pulled in behind a man, who could have taken a somewhat differently positioned parking spot if he had wanted to and we could have pulled in next to him, leaving room for other cars to leave if they needed to, but instead he pulled in and parked perpendicularly behind two or three cars. The woman from the car got out and announced they were going to wait for a spot to open up. I tried to squeeze into the spot the other car could have taken, but the guy wouldn't move an inch, so frustrated, we decided to come back later. Then we went to the Princeville market were we picked up a few more groceries and looked at some of the shops there and I skyped with my hubs and my kids and talked with them on my phone where the cell service was good. And ached on the inside for them greatly. After we got home, we ate lunch- Add and Rose went back to Tunnels beach and try as I did to avoid another nap, it came upon me without permission (still getting used to the time difference). After I woke up and Addison and Rose had come home, the three of us went out to eat while my mom stayed home and rested and got some work done for the Oahu trip. We went back into Hanalei and enjoyed some yummy food at a small grill- I had the Blackened Ahi with rice and veggies. I think I could eat that every day of my life and be satisfied. We had to get back for Addison and Rose after that, though, as they had to get packed for their big trip- they are walking the 11 mile Kalalau trail tomorrow to Napali Beach and camping a night on the beach when they get there. My mom is worried sick and I have a mixture of jealousy and relief that I am not going. It's rated a level 9 out of 10 trail, very difficult with narrow paths on cliff edges plus crossing streams with potential flash flooding and very dangerous sections when muddy...but there are gorgeous waterfalls on the way and the Napali coast is supposed to be incredible. I wish with all of my heart that I was in shape enough to go or had experience backpacking at all, but I don't. Maybe someday...
Tomorrow my mom and I will be attending the local ward in Hanalei for chuch and praying our hearts out for Addison and Rose's safe return. And also letting my wicked sunburn on my back have a day of rest as well. Here are a few more pictures in random order, looking forward to going through all these when we get home too.
G'night!
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