One Last Post

I was going through the photos tonight and reminiscing a lot about the trip. This trip was so special to me for many reasons: for one, it was the first time being there with Rob. Having him there with our family was wonderful. He added so much by being there. My family has never taken photos on our trips except with those disposable cameras (no, I'm NOT kidding!) and I was always the only one with a real camera, but I was never great at taking a lot of good photos either. So he added a photographer to the family, as well as a DJ (he kept playing that song "You put the lime in the coconut" along with some other island songs when he thought we could use some tunes) and he made great breakfasts and cocktails! But most of all, his humor and laid back attitude ~ just Rob being Rob ~ was such a great addition to our family.
Also, since this was my first trip back to Kauai in 8 years, it was my first time there with Abby Grace! She's been there twice before but both times I had work or school or both, so I couldn't make it. Having her there with us was incredibly special. She's at such a neat age, life is good and full of wonder. I loved getting to be a part of her world and have her be a part of mine on this trip. I will treasure the time we had there together forever.
Since my brother lives a couple of hours away, I rarely see him, but I miss him a lot. So it was great having him there, and also great that he and Rob got to know each other. I think they hit it off too well, because I barely saw Rob the whole trip! He was off taking adventures with my brother, but I'm glad they had fun.
My mind keeps returning to the family style luau that we went to and I can't seem to forget the family we met that did the luau. We kept running into them in Hanalei, because the north shore is such a small community. We ran into Caroline the next morning getting coffee at Java Kai's and then ran into her husband the morning after that when we were getting breakfast at the resort in Princeville. I'm sure it sounds crazy but I don't care because I'm just being honest about how I feel, but I felt like they were my people. Like my tribe. It felt like I'd known them forever, and thinking of them makes me want to cry, because I felt like we'd just met them, and then we left. It was like I was reunited with long lost friends, then separated. It's really hard to explain, but it's true. I have such a deep connection to that place and to the people there. When we all sang "Aloha Oe" that night at the luau, I felt like I was with my family (well I was) but I also felt like I was home in a way I've never felt before.
Now that I've gone on and on about it, maybe our Kauai blog is really done. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll write more about Kauai or Kauai memories here from time to time...because it makes me happy.
Aloha Mau Loa,
Jeneka

Tsunami Warnings, Pineapples & Our Flight Home

The last post we posted was of our last full day in Kauai. However, we've yet to report on the day we left, which definitely merits a few words.
We were woken up at 5:45am by someone affiliated with Kauai Vacation rentals, telling us that we had to vacate the beach house within 15 minutes. We were in a complete frenzy. We hadn't packed anything yet, so we were literally just grabbing everything we could as fast as we could, emptying dresser drawers, closets, and clearing nightstands, dresser-tops, and counters. It probably goes without saying that we didn't get time for a shower, in fact, we didn't even get time to brush our teeth.
Having been told that we had 15 minutes to vacate, we thought that the tsunami was coming in 15 minutes. The kitchen counter was still stocked with tropical fruit and my hands were full but I was capable of grabbing one last thing so I grabbed - what else? - a pineapple. I'm still a little puzzled by it, but what can I say for myself except that we all have our little quirks and idiosyncracies. Whenever someone asks you, "if your house was burning down, or about to flood, or whatever, and you only had time to grab one thing, what would it be?" Apparently, for me, it would be a pineapple!
But of course this was not an issue of life or death really. We had all packed all of our things, and all of my loved ones and I were walking out of the house together. We weren't having to save our house or all of the things that would be in our house if it were the house we lived in. Still a funny story though.
So after successfully exiting the beach house by 6 am we drove to Princeville, and then to Kilauea, to figure out our plans. There is a great little cafe in Kilauea that proved to be the perfect place to get some coffee and breakfast, get the latest news on the tsunami warnings, and use wi-fi to check on tsunami status, flights, etc. Most importantly of all, Kilauea is on high ground, so it was a safe spot, or as safe a as you could find in Kauai, had a tsunami made its way there.
We were supposed to fly out at 11:30 am and the tsunami was expected to hit at 11 am, which put us in a difficult quandary: stay safe on high ground and avoid catching our flight since we'd have to drive straight through the tsunami hazard zone to get there, or try to catch our flight, and also take our chances getting caught in the tsunami danger zone en route to the airport. Complicating matters further was the fact that we could not reach Hawaiian Airlines to get our flight's status, and we couldn't get any info online either.
We heard that the Hilo airport had closed, and then someone told us that the Honolulu airport had closed too, but as it turned out the Honolulu airport hadn't closed at all. Rob's brother German was finally able to reach Hawaiian Airlines for us and confirm that our flights were still on time. So we went for it, and they were literally blocking the roads off behind us. We got to the Lihue airport at about five minutes until 9 am and the roads closed at 9 am. Once we arrived at the airport, the lines were a mile long, because not only were the people who had flights to catch in line, but people were also swarming the airport trying to get off of the island. It was a scene. Although we'd gotten there two and a half hours early, we got through the line just in time to catch our flight to Honolulu. And miraculously, even though the tsunami was expected to hit half an hour before our flight, the island was not awash in waves when our plane took off. It was a good thing, because we had another hour and a half layover at the Honolulu airport before our big flight home to Sacramento. In the end, the tsunami appeared to have spared the Hawaiian Islands for the most part. Good thing, because other wise we might not be here to tell about it. Being there, and hearing the reports, you might have thought Armageddon was coming, so in the end I guess we were all lucky. I guess that about tells the story of our island adventure but stay tuned for various miscellaneous photos that didn't fit in with any of our blog posts and possibly a few more stories. Aloha!

Waking up to double rainbows!!!

 

  

  

  

 

As if Kauai hadn't been enchanting enough in every way imaginable already, the island decided to surprise us this morning with a double rainbow! It was breathtaking, and such a special gift for our last day here. We all made wishes on the rainbow, I hope everyone's wishes come true.

 

After the rainbow's magical appearance, we all went out to breakfast at the St. Regis in Princeville. It was a really nice breakfast with spectactular views. From breakfast, Rob and Josh went snorkeling in a spot just below where we ate breakfast, and I came home with the rest of my family so I could go rent a surfboard. I rented my surfboard and caught some waves. I'm not very good at surfing but I love to do it, and I stood up a few times and caught a few waves! It was always a dream of mine to surf in Hanalei. I was so ecstatic to finally get to do it.

 

 

The day actually didn't go by too fast, maybe that was another one of Kauai's gifts. We all got good beach time, swimming, surfing, boogie boarding, or whatever. Rob spent some time getting some shots of the Hanalei Pier. It's Hanalei's identifying landmark. I love these next two ones he took.

 

  

  

  

  

This evening we celebrated my mom and David's 25th wedding anniversary by opening up a bottle of champagne, and then watching them renew their vows on the beach in Hanalei. Abby was blowing bubbles, the sun was setting, and David drew a heart in the sand, so that all of us could stand inside it.
Everyone shared a blessing or a wish with them. It was a heartfelt celebration.

 

  

  

  

 

We had one last dinner here tonight, talking, laughing and reminiscing about our trip. Surely we'll be doing that for years to come. Being here has been such a delight. We all wish this trip could last forever, but I know we all feel grateful for every single wonderful moment we've had here. Aloha Kauai, you'll always be in our hearts.

In Search of Lumahai

So things didn't really go according to plan yesterday, but it turned out not to be such a bad thing. There were only two bummers about yesterday: the first was that despite a valiant effort to find Lumahai beach and look for sunrise shells, we never found it, and the second was that there were torrential downpours all day. This made it even more difficult to find our spot, not to mention that it kind of killed the idea of being on the beach at all.
However, after giving up on our search for Lumahai beach, we passed a field of wild horses, and they were so beautiful. We stopped to admire them, and some of them came to greet us. (Maybe they weren't so wild, but there were no stables or houses in sight.) Anyway, Abby loved it because she loves horses. She said if she could have one wish it would be to have a pony. I love horses too. It was a really sweet, unexpected experience getting to see the horses.
We came back and relaxed, most everything we might do involved no rain, so we just hung out at the house, then went to dinner at Tahiti Nui.
Tahiti Nui was fun, sadly the Happy Hawaiians no longer play there, but the band that was playing was pretty good. We all got a pizza, then had some drinks and listened to the band play. The locals here are priceless, more on that later. I will post more on the lamp lady incident next time, along with a few other stories.
Before the deluge, Rob, Josh and David did fit in a game of croquet in the front yard. It was funny to watch them play because they're all so competitive and hate to lose. They were having fun though. Rob and Josh even fit in a little boogie boarding session too. Good for them. They're not letting any grass grown under THEIR feet, that's for sure!

The Drive to Ha'ena

 

  

  

  

  

 

 

  

  

There wasn't much planned for the day yesterday, except maybe to rent some surfboards but they were all rented out, so we postponed surfing until today or tomorrow. Rob rented a boogie board instead and caught waves with my brother in the early afternoon, while the rest of us swam in the waves.
By mid-day we were up for a  little island exploration and Rob wanted to take some photos. So we went to Ha'ena, the same town where we went to the luau the other night. It is north of Hanalei by just a few miles but south of the Na Pali coast where the road ends. We got a drink at the bar there, then drove back towards Hanalei, where Rob got some killer photos.
After Ha'ena we drove to Kilauea because Rob wanted to see more the island. Kilauea is another sweet little town on the North Shore, and even smaller than Hanalei. He wanted to find a new hat because he lost his Encinitas hat the first day we were here. No luck finding a hat yet but we still have today and tomorrow to find him one.
As for today, the plan is to rent surfboards for a couple of hours, look for sunrise shells at Lumahai beach, relax, and do whatever else happens to come up.

Calm Waters & Full Bellies

Yesterday was my favorite day yet since we've been here. Rob made breakfast for everyone (a yummy scramble,) and then we took a long beach walk to the end of Hanalei Bay. We were so warm by the time we got to the end of the beach that we just jumped in, luckily we had our suits on. The waves are much bigger in front of the beach house where we're staying, and there's even a rip tide, so we have to walk one way or the other a little ways to swim. But at the other end of Hanalei Bay, the water was so calm, we could swim, float on our backs, and play in the water to our heart's delight. We were also the only ones over there because everyone else wants to surf and swim closer to our place. So that was my favorite swimming spot so far. We came back to the house, made some rum and pinapple cocktails, and relaxed for awhile. Rob took off with my brother for a little while to go snorkeling, and I went to another farmer's market with my mom, sis and Abby. There was a musician there playing the ukelele for people at the Farmer's Market, he was a good singer and ukelele player, even if he was a bit of a wild and crazy guy. He had about 10 little dogs, most of whom were also wearing leis, and barking to accompany their papa as he played.
Then it was time for the luau. We went to a local family style luau north of here near Haena, it was a blast. We started out with pina coladas and mai tais, then ate dinner, the food was delicious. The musicians were excellent, there was an electric guitarist, an acoustic guitarist and a ukulele player, and they all sang beautifully as well. After dinner the hula show began, and the dancers were the main singer's daughters. At the end of the evening, we all joined hands and sang, "Aloha Oi." The last line of the song went, "Aloha Oi, Aloha Oi, until we meeeeeeet again." I'd never been to a luau like that, the feeling that came over me was such a sense of joy and gratitude, to be there sharing that moment with everyone. I had tears streaming down my face.
Before we left they had one last surprise for us in store though. The band dedicated a song to Abby, it was the Hokey Pokey, so she got to lead the whole group in a round or two of the hokey pokey.
I wish we had a photo, she was in her glory. What a special night, one to remember for sure.

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

Abby & Tia's Day Together

Wow, I am getting behind on our blog because we've been too busy having fun...so the day before yesterday  was the day that everyone else hiked Na Pali, and Abby, my mom and I went to Kilauea. While my mom was in the dentist's office, I took Abby around the corner to the Kilauea bakery to get her a treat. She got a cinnamon roll, and I got an iced coffee. There were lots of tropical birdies flying around and so she was feeding them some crumbs. She even found a lucky nickel! The we went into Island Soap and Candle Works and I bought her a Kauai Kiss lip gloss, this place had so many wonderful tropical soaps, candles and lotions.
My mom called and was done at the dentist, so we picked her up and took her home. She's doing much better now, and her situation has improved a lot. I took Abby into Hanalei for a trip to the post office and grocery store, and also got her a shaved ice. I love spoiling my niece, I don't get the chance to spoil her often enough!

So we ate our shaved ices, and took a nap. Right before she fell asleep she was telling me that she had a loose tooth and she might lose it while we are here in Kauai. Then  she asked me, "Tia, do you think that the tooth fairy will come all the way over to Kauai to give me a dollar if I lose my tooth?" I told her, "For you, I bet she would." Then she drifted off to sleep.