One door closes, another opens

FRIDAY....I parked at the complete opposite end of the airport...two terminals away from where we needed to be....but anyways.... Our plane was a little late (30mins) arriving in Kauai. This posed a slight problem as we had to set-up camp. We were supposed to arrive at 6pm with a 30 minute drive and stopping for food. We got McDonald's and set up camp around 8:30pm. There wasn't much to do so we went to bed early. During the evening...we realized that we had setup camp on the beach where little crab creatures lived......

SATURDAY..... I was up at 5:25am and we were off around 6:30am...We drove almost two hours to the other side of the island stopping at the glass sand beach and grabbing breakfast at a local GRINDS place. We checked in at 10am for our Zodiac raft adventure tour of the Na Pali coast. We all agree that this was by far the most fun and we really had a great trip. The Zodiac is a large raft with motors... it held 30 passengers ad two crew. We actually sat on the edge holding onto ropes and with one foot under a rope on the floor (Coast Guard Regulations). It was pretty scary at first, I really thought I might fly out.... but I soon relaxed and enjoyed it. We toured the entire Na-Pali coast past the missile range stopping at secluded beaches to look and other beautiful sights. We also went into some caves.... including one that the captain had to time just right or else we would have been crushed. He said that he is only able to tour that cave like 6 times a month because it has to be just right. During the tour we stopped and jumped into the ocean to snorkel (it was amazing) and had a nice snack on the way back to the harbor.

After that adventure we drove back. We stopped at Waimea Canyon... the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" it was really cool. We also saw some waterfalls. Once back at camp we took cold showers and headed to Princeville to have dinner. It was another early night for us.

SUNDAY......We slept in a bit (like 7ish). We packed up camp and decided to go have breakfast on the North Shore at Wake Up Cafe. It was a very nice little cafe. After that we went looking for "Queens Bath". "Queens Bath" is a spot in the lava where water pours in and forms a pool. We were able to hike down to the beach and traverse the lava rocks (seeing numerous sea turtles) to the Bath. We waited a bit and were able to have the entire Bath to ourselves.
It was amazing....... After we dried out we headed back to waste time prior to checking into our hotel room. That evening we went to an all you can drink/eat Luau within walking distance of our hotel. We got a great locals rate of $38. Again we were in bed pretty early.

MONDAY.....we were up at 4:30am to catch our flight home....

Over all the best experience here on the island. Kauai is a MUST see.... the REAL Hawaii...

I am off to Kauai tomorrow evening for a mini holiday (I think I have been reading too many books based in Britain). Kauai is 102 miles from Oahu, about 30 mins by plane. Alexis, Heidi and I are camping our first two nights on the "Garden Isle". Then Sunday night we will be staying in a hotel so we can have a nice shower and good nights sleep prior to work on Monday (yes, I am going right from the airport to the office).

I am happy to report that I am back to full strength and ready to go. I will post pictures of the "REAL" Hawaii early next week.

I have strep throat. The doctor called and we spoke for like two minutes. She gave me a prescription and doctors note which I had to go pick up. I am still miserable, its hard to sleep and I can't eat anything. I'm hungry....

Anyway, I don't go back to work until Monday and that still may be too soon.....

Who moves to Hawaii and gets sick as often as I do? No one..... I think I found the culprit...Alexis, she said she had a sore throat last week but it went away. I don't blame her, in fact I am happy she escaped the misery.

I was home sick today, barely able to swallow...it has been miserable. Once I woke up and saw white spots on my throat, I called my doctor. However I can't get into see anyone until tomorrow afternoon so instead, a triage doctor is calling me to evaluate me over the phone. I guess the doctor can prescribe medicine and give me a doctors note for missing work all over the phone. So we will see how that works....I'll let you know tomorrow.

So as of now.... it's not officially strep throat, but I am pretty sure......

What a week. I started my online course, seemed to be pretty easy until I read the assignment due on June 20th. I am supposed to read a 435 page book and answer 30+ questions... yuck! Alexis also started classes at HPU this week.. She is taking two classes in the evenings. I will be picking her up after class around 9pm for the next 10 weeks.

Today was our hiking day, but we didn't hike. We went to a state park, but couldn't find the trail and we were feeling uncomfortable as there were a lot of locals milling about. So we tried to find another park...once at the next hiking trail area we couldn't find parking (it was a residential area and sometimes parking is risky as locals don't want you there). So we kept driving around the island. We stopped for Shrimp on the North Shore and then at a small fruit stand for mango and pineapple. Followed by desert at the Dole plantation, pineapple ice cream for me and a chocolate banana for Alexis. Over all it was a good day. We are going to go for a long walk tomorrow to make up for missing the hike.

Well I have been to two movies in two days and eaten three frozen chocolate covered bananas in that time period also. First of all if anyone lives by a Safeway grocery store or heck can find chocolate covered bananas in the ice cream department, I suggest you invest. They are amazing, I'm even considering making my own. If anyone has a good recipe please let me know.

Yesterday I went and saw the Break-Up with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. It had some good laughs but it left me wanting more. I would recommend seeing it and supporting Jennifer Aniston because she is great. And tonight I went and saw the Sentinel at the $1 theater. Not bad, better than watching reruns of who knows what on TV at home.

Oh yeah, I also started my first ever online class today. It should be a wild bumpy ride......

Another day come and gone, luckily we escaped without a ticket. The Honolulu police department were out in full force on the H-1 today. I haven't seen that many motorcycle cops in my life. This is one of the hardest cities to find a used book in. I miss Half Price Books in Madison.... I can't wait until I'm home, I plan on buying a lot of books. Today we went on the Aiea Loop, a 4.5 mile hike in a forest. It was actually very beautiful. And capped the day of with a wonderful burger from Teddy's (one of the best burger joints on the island).