Me and my girls

If you think there are a lot of kauai posts, you are right. In my defense I was there for three weeks and had such a great time. The last week I was there without my husband and had so many fabulous times with my girls. There were a couple great times that I didn't have my camera which is very sad. So my point is there could be even more pictures so count your lucky stars.




The girl on the left with he hip short hair is Heather, for those of you who don't know. She is a nursing student and so she doesn't have very much time for just galavanting around with me. I did see her a quite a few times and it was so fun. One of those times was when I didn't have my camera but wished I did.




This hike with Jill was another that I did not complete. This day it was because this was the best view we had all day and knew even if we got to the end this is what we'd see anyway. Plus we had places to go and people to see so we turned around.


This is a great timer shot. My arm was aparently still trying to pose.

Ok so Patrick is obviously taking this video of Jill and me but since I couldn't think of anywhere else to put this it's in this post.

We had breakfast a couple times just the four of us and had quite a long conversation about who would be who if this were Sex and the City. I'll let you guess who was who.

Hiking under Wailua falls. Well this is from the top, of course.

THIS is underneath.

The night I left was so sad, but energetic. We went to see one last sunset on the way to the airport which made me pretty late but oh well.

I love and miss those girls so much.

A day with Jill and turtles

Jill is another one of my very best friends (Yes I can have more than 1). She came to stay with us at our condo on the North Shore. We got to hang out by the pool and not even have to worry about being kicked out. This was abnormal for us who usually just sneak into the hotel pools. We ordered some lunch by the pool and really lounged in style.

Then we went to a great snorkeling spot that has never failed to have turtles abounding. Getting there is half the fun since you have to go through a cave and swim out the other end. This day there was a turtle sleeping right there in the cave.

Yes I actually took this picture. This turtle came so close I had to try to get out of his way.







I switched the camera to video quickly to get him via that media as well. Please note Patrick's little cameo. He was trying so hard to get in but I didn't even notice. I was just following the turtle.

This picture was taken just after I fell into the water. I was trying to cross a slippery spot that I had already told Patrick to go around and...I slipped. I had to dive away from the rocks so as not to hit them. It would have been funnier if Jill and Patrick hadn't thought I probably hurt myself.
We went to the Princeville Hotel to watch the sunset which was beautiful as always. Jill is so cute in this picture.

A day with Steff

Steffanie is one of my very best friends. I love her so much. One day in Kauai we got to spend pretty much the entire day with her. First we hiked to one of my favorite spots on the whole island. Its called the awa awapuhi trail and the end point is too amazing for words. There is a thin ridge with extreme drop offs on either side. You get vertigo walking out on it.








After the hike we drove down Mohihi (aka Camp 10) road until we got to the Waimea river. There were big boulders to lounge on as you can see Steffanie doing (Notice her cradling her tiny baby belly again). There were also a lot of rocks that we found with big pot holes formed from the water swirling in them.




We rented a jeep in Kauai and it was great fun to go places that a regular car shouldn’t go. We would have taken whatever car they had given us to all these off road places anyway if they hadn’t upgraded us to a jeep for free. So really it was in the rental company’s best interest to give us the jeep.

Then that night we went to Roy’s with Steff and her cute husband Cody. Chocolate soufflé is so good.

So that ended another incredible day in Kauai. Thanks Steff!

Our day in the Canyon

My friend Steffanie has a friend that lives in a little cabin in Waimea Canyon. We got to stay there for a couple nights in exchange for watering some of the many plants she has. It was really fun as I have never stayed in the canyon before.

There is a hike through the Alakai swamp that is mostly on boardwalks. Its a great hike in and of itself, but if you can get to the end and have the overlook NOT totally clouded in then you are rich indeed. This was the first time Patrick had seen it open where you can see all the way to Hanalei.

The clouds were rolling in and Patrick had a delusion of grandeur.

The boardwalk through the swamp is so cool. I took a little video.

Waimea Canyon is an amazing place for one because it has so many faces. This is the canyon only about 5 miles from where the swamp is.

That same day we hiked down one of the razor back ridges by kalalau valley. It was spectacular.

To top off our spectacular day we climbed a tower near the cabin to watch the sunset.

A couple random Kauai moments

I think I should make a collage of all the pictures of Patrick doing flips off of things. That would be pretty sweet. This one is off Kipu Falls.

Patrick impressed some of my old co-workers as well as one of my friends with his double back off the rope swing.


The monk seals in Kauai that are really cute. When they have their babies they stay on the same beach for 6 weeks or so. Normally when you see them on the beach it is very boring becuase they just lay there. But this baby we ran across was crazy!

The south swell made spouting horn much better than usual. Plus there were little outdoor shops there where I got some earrings!

We also went on one of the Outfitters tours to go kayaking and on the zipline.

Kauai Kauai

I've realized that I am not very good at choosing only a few pictures to post. I think they are all great. This is the second hike that we didn't finish. We only hiked in about 1 mile on the Kalalau trail so we could get to this overlook.
Patrick didn't do his hair like that, it's just super windy.

Then we went to famous Tunnels beach to snorkle, lounge on the beach and floaty (my favorite).


Patrick always finds fun tunnels and holes to swim through. We video each other swimming through and he is always better than I am at videoing. So, sorry Patrick, this is me going through the tunnel Patrick found. As I am going up my knees get stuck for a moment and it stops me short. You can see my hair continue up when I stop. Its very amusing.

Tunnels Hike - Kauai

Patrick and I didn't have a great record of making it to the end of the hike when we were in Kauai. The tunnels hike was the first of a few failures. This time it was my fault. As you may have guessed the tunnels hike includes tunnels, each a mile long. I forgot to bring the flashlights. I just never even thought about it. For a while in the straight tunnel we just walked toward the pin prick of light at the other side. Then we used the light from the screen on the camera. Then second tunnel is much more difficult than the first since there is higher water, no light (not even a pin prick) and scaffolding to climb through. We thought it imprudent to continue. So after getting rained on and lounging a bit we headed back. This time some people came up behind us and we got to use their light to guide us. It was much faster that way.



This is us in the tunnel on the way back. Our eyes are looking different directions because they were totally adjusted to the dark and we couldn't see where we were supposed to look.

Even parts of the hike that were not in lightless tunnels were a little hairy. We had to bend down to go through bushes for a lot of it.

The mud was crazy. Not all of it was this bad but it was truely the most mud I've ever had to deal with.

As an aside, this was only about 1 day after Patrick's 30th birthday and he had suddenly started acting older, needing to rest more and making old person sounds like grunts.