Saturday, October 3, 2009

Kauai, week one

Grandma Lucille and Papa J headed home this morning. Translation: our babysitter is gone! We all had a great week while they were here. Molly has pretty much lived in the salt water lagoon and "swimming?" is usually the first word out of her mouth in the morning. She has been getting up at 6:00 am pretty much every day since we've been here. N and I have been taking turns on who gets up and does the morning walk while the other sleeps in. So her night time sleep has been averaging about 10 hours (usually 11 at home), but her nap time has been averaging in at about 4 hours (usually 3 at home) so it's still the same amount of overall sleep, just slightly shifted. N and I have also been taking turns with who gets to camp out in the room during nap time. OK, let's see if I can remember everything we've done since we arrived.

Friday - Molly, N, and I landed first. Lucille and Jim were scheduled to land about an hour after us. We figured that would be enough time for us to get our luggage, get the rental car, and pack it up. Well, our stuff FILLED the trunk so N decided to drive Molly and I to the hotel and then turn around and head back to the airport while I checked in. Once we got all of our stuff to the rooms we immediately headed down to the lagoon and got to swimming. The best part of the lagoon is that it's a VERY shallow entry and there are NO waves. Molly can wander in at her leisure or just sit down and shovel sand into her bucket. The sand is also crushed up shells which can be a little rough on the tootsies, but unlike fine sand you'd find on a beach it does NOT get in your eyes. Score one for the lagoon!

Saturday - We headed down to the breakfast buffet and decided to head up to the East Shore and check out the Lydgate Beach Park. We first headed to the Kamalani Playground and the Kamalani Kai Bridge. It was this huge wooden structure with two slides. Molly and I climbed up to the top and crossed over the bridge so she could go down the less intimidating slide (the other one was super twisty and enclosed and VERY dark). She LOVED it. We headed out the beach, but the surf was up and after a few moments the wind caused sand to get in Molly's eyes and since her hands were already covered in sand it got a little tricky. We decided to check out the 'Opaeka'a Falls next. There are a LOT of roosters on this island and Molly immediately started to chase after them as soon as we got out of the car. I really wish I could have taped her imitating their cock-a-doodle-doo... it was priceless!

Sunday - We headed west this time and kept an eye out for a good breakfast place. When we saw a full parking lot we decided to turn around and take a look. We ended up at the Kalaheo Cafe & Coffee Co. and it was delicious! The only downside was that Molly had an epic meltdown. It was impressive. I think even the Russian judge would have given her a 10. So, nap time happened early that day. That night we left Molly with Grandma and Papa J and headed to our absolute favorite restuarant, Roy's. I got the surf n' turf and N did their tasting menu. Soooooooooo good.

Monday - This was the day Molly woke up at 5:00 am. This also happened to be my morning. Ugh. We did a lovely walk around the premises. Meandered down towards the beach and saw the sun come up. Molly LOVES to pick up all the plumeria flowers on the ground and hand them to me. If she finds a better one she'll swap that out with whatever flower I'm holding making sure we both have one in each hand. It's super cute. We then went back up to the room and changed into our bathing suits and were in the pool before 7:00. Heh. Yeah, that's a first. After the breakfast buffet I could barely keep my eyes open so I went back to the room to shut down while everyone else went back down to the pool. By the time I woke up N had booked us for shore dives, boat dives, and ziplining. Score!

Tuesday - This was the day of the tsunami warning and our afternoon shore dives were canceled. Of course the warning was lifted shortly therafter, but we had already rescheduled. I stayed behind with Molly while N, Lucille, and Jim headed up to north shore to do a river kayak trip. They were all plenty tired by the time they got back to the hotel.

Wednesday - We ziplined. It was awesome! The place we went to was Kauai Backcountry Adventures and they were great. The land we were on used to be part of an old sugar plantation that shut down. When the land went up for auction Steve Case purchased the 22,000 acres. It was nice to see a new part of the island. N took pics and video. To be uploaded soon.

Thursday - Once again we left Molly behind with Grandma and Papa J (gotta love relatives) and headed out for two shore dives at Koloa Landing. The last time I dove was our Australia trip all the way back in 2005. The last time N dove was a year later when he did a boat trip down by the Channel Islands. I'm very happy we did two shore dives as our first dives back. It was nice to get back into the swing of things at a calm site with a smooth entry.

Friday - However, I MUCH prefer boat dives which is what we did next. The red flags have been out since we arrived so it was a little rough when we headed out. We were on a small boat with 8 divers total plus the captain. Our first dive spot was called Turtle Landing. We saw a few turtles and quite a few white tip reef sharks hanging out under some of the rocks in little caves. The second dive spot was called Sheraton Caverns and there were 4 different turtles hanging out on the surface to greet us. We actually saw more turtles at this location and that was fine with me. I hung out and took pics of all the cool turtles while the rest of the guys squeezed their way through some "tight" and "dark" tunnels. Not my cup o' tea. It was so great to be back in the (warm) water. We must not let it go so long before our next dive.

Saturday - Today we dropped off Grandma and Papa J at the airport. When we got back to the hotel I called the spa and booked a luxurious facial and massage. (Spa tip of the day - chamomile tea bags, cooled with ice water, are an excellent compress and will help hydrate dry skin) N is going to do another dive trip tomorrow and we plan to hike the Na Pali coast on Monday.

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