Kauai, Hawaii October 2011

Today is our first full day in Kauai. We arrived yesterday afternoon about 2:45 pm. Our flight was about 1 1/2 hours late because our first plane had mechanical difficulties and they had to get us a new plane before leaving LA. When we arrived in Kauai, Brittany had been waiting in the baggage claim area for about three hours for us because she arrived earlier and had to claim her bags and then couldn't get back into the gate areas. It was so good to see her after six months. We claimed our baggage and then made our way to the budget rental shuttle bus to go get our rental car. We got a red jeep with a black top. It's very pretty we are going to have lots of fun exploring the island in it. We barely got all our luggage in it to get to the hotel. Our first mission was to find a place to eat as we were all starving. We stopped at the Paradise Cafe and had some seafood and Britt had a grilled fish sandwich. Then we were off to find the Hanalei Colony Resort. The scenery turned more tropical the farther we drove and we had to wait for oncoming traffic to pass on many one lane bridges. It reminded me of the road to Hana on Maui. We found our condominium and our location did not disappoint us at all. We are on the second story with a premium ocean view. Nothing but a couple thousand miles of ocean in front of us. No air conditioning in our room which was a concern to me but there is a powerful breeze blowing through constantly. We slept very well last night with the sounds of the crashing waves. Actually they were very loud!

Today we got up about 9:00 and I cooked sausage eggs and toast for breakfast. We had gone to the grocer last night to get some food for the week. It was very nice having breakfast with the beautiful ocean view and fresh Ginger flowers on our table. Our spot is not luxurious but as my nephew Patrick described it it's location, location, location! We decided to go for a walk down our beach we walked for a little over an hour down the beach and made our way to tunnels and kea beach and the beautiful cliffs of the Napali coast. The sand was course and rough and the water was a gorgeous blue. The beaches had signs warning against swimming due to the high waves. There were some snorkelers in the calmer spots. We discovered that we should have turned back when we were halfway tired instead of pretty tired because the walk back was much more difficult. When we made it back we fixed a sandwich and fruit lunch and sat on our balcony to soak up the beautiful view. This is where I still sit typing this blog. The strong breeze is turning rather cool.