Kauai- Day 2-3

After our ziplining adventures, we went to check out "secret beach" and the "secret lava pools". This beach was one of Eric's favorites, the sand was so soft! There was a little pool of water to swim in that had the occasional wave hit, adding in the salty ocean water. Kinda hard to explain. Then, off to the left, there were some more lava pools, which were fun to hike on, not nearly as cool as Queen's Bath, but still neat and we were the only ones on them, so the seclusion was nice.


I know that I made it look like Eric shimmied up the tree to get this coconut, but really, that was as far as he got up there and the coconut that we drank the milk from was just found on the beach. Coconut milk is yummy though!

The next morning was Friday morning and we had booked a kayak for the Wailua river. So we started at the mouth of the river and kayaked 4 miles? with gorgeous scenery, passing an ancient Hawaiian village, up to a little beach where we left our vessel and continued our trek on foot. We hiked for about an hour up to "secret falls" with the most amazing views of lush foliage and waterfalls along the way. Some of these pictures were taken with a disposable water camera, since we were afraid of getting ours wet, so I'll need to scan those photos in once I have a place to live and have unpacked our boxes. Anyway, the hike was pretty easy, relatively flat and ends at a big waterfall with a swimming hole underneath. Eric and I (he finally convinced me to go in) swam in the pool and stood under the waterfall. The water was coming down so hard that you had to turn with your back to it to get close, it made it nearly impossible to breathe. And when you're directly under the water, you can only stand it for so long because it kinda hurts. This was probably my favorite thing that we did. LOVED it.
Can you find the ancient Hawaiian village?
The Wailua River and it's gorgeous surroundings
The picturesque "secret falls". My favorite place.
This is the outside of a vine "curtain" that we found on our hike. So cool.

We kayaked a little further up to a swimming hole with a rope swing. Eric was the only one brave enough to go off of it. He said it was a lot of fun, but I had maxed out my adventure spirit for the day. Now I wish that I had done it, but I guess there's always next time???

That night after dinner, we went to Smith's luau's entertainment. We'd heard that the dinner was not worth the hefty price tag, so we skipped it and just went to the show. And the show was definitely worth it! The hula dances were awesome but it was the fire eater that stole the show. Seriously, so cool!



Oh yeah, we were determined to experience shave ice this day and the first place that we tried to go to was closed so we went to this other place, which was inside a restaurant and when we walked in, we were the only tourists, clearly a "locals only" place and we were getting jeers and super dirty looks. This was the only time that I was concerned about our safety, the shave ice was closed too and we left as fast as possible. So finally, we found a third place which was actually open and even friendly, and I wish I could remember the name of it, because it had the best shave ice that we found on the island. I got the Hawaiian sunset which was passion fruit, pineapple and mango, on icecream. And oh man, it was good. Seriously, I debated whether to try and find an authentic Hawaiian shave ice machine when we got home.

Kauai- Day Two

This was a day that we were very excited for! Ziplining! It was my compromise to Eric wanting to go on a helicopter ride because this was as far as I was going to get off of the ground besides the flight to the island.

I have to say that I was a little nervous in the beginning and screamed the entire first zip but after I realized that it was way more fun than it was scary, and we really enjoyed ourselves. The views were gorgeous, the pictures do not do them justice. After going on all lines but one, we went and swam at a waterhole under a waterfall and had lunch before hitting up the last line. The last zipline was really high and really long and was actually a double line, so Eric and I raced to the finish. I'm sure he would like me to mention that he won. It was a fun day and a neat experience. I'm so glad we went.

Kauai- Day One

We flew in on a Wednesday after two draining days of moving out of our apartment. We were definitely ready for a vacation! We landed in Lihue after a 5 1/2 hour flight from Los Angeles, Eric went to pick up our rental car while I got our bag from the baggage claim. It was hot and humid, so much more than So. California. Anyway, so I'm waiting and waiting and then finally a cherry red Mustang convertible, with it's top down, stopped in front of me. I was so surprised! I'd, of course, told Eric to get the cheapest car possible. But this is definitely the way to see the island. Seriously, so awesome, cannot express how fun it was to have that car.

After a stop at the island Wal-mart, we headed up to Princeville where we were spending the first four nights of our vacation. The drive was breathtaking. The island got more and more beautiful the further north we drove. It is so lush and the mountains are so scenic with waterfalls flowing in the distance.
We dropped our stuff off at our rental cottage called Paniolo, which means Cowboy, and headed off to see some sights right next to our cottage. The first thing we visited was Anini Beach. The Pacific Ocean is so warm in Hawaii! Nothing like our experience in So Cal, it was just like bath water. Eric swam around for a little bit and even did some snorkeling but then we decided to move on to something a little more exotic.




The next spot we hit up was Queen's Bath, which ended up being one of our very favorite places. It's a lot of lava rock at the edge of the ocean. There are pools of water interspersed between the rock that hold tropical fish and sea turtles! The water was so clear, it was like swimming in a fish tank. It kind of creeped me out seeing all the fish around me, but it was still so cool! And there were about 10 sea turtles hanging out in the rough surf, so awesome to see them getting tossed around. We stayed here to watch our first Hawaiian sunset, which was gorgeous. We REALLY enjoyed our time here.






This picture shows my freaked out face about the thought of getting into the water with the fish. Wish we would have taken some photos of the fish, they were really neat, very colorful.

Kauai and Island Park

So the last month has been spent enjoying our time off from school. Eric and I went to Kauai the week after graduation... and we absolutely loved it. Seriously, I wish I could live there. Then we drove up to Utah to pick up our kids and headed to Island Park, ID to spend a couple weeks at my in-law's cabin. The weather couldn't be any more opposite. Kauai was so hot and sunny and here, it's snowed, hailed and rained... a lot. But there have been some breaks in the weather where we were able to make a couple of fantastic trips into Yellowstone and another to Bear World. It's been fun but I am antsy to get to Washington to spend time with my family. We'll head there next week and be there for about 6 weeks. Right now I'm writing this post in the library, on very slow internet, and I don't know if it'll get any better in WA, but I'll try to start posting again and get caught up on our adventures.

Also, at the beginning of this month my baby boy had his first birthday! Wow, that was a crazy and fast year.

USC Dental School Graduation

Eric's graduation was last Friday and it was the best day of our lives... right after our marriage and the births of our children. Still, a pretty stinkin' spectacular day. My mom, Eric's parents and sister's family were able to join us for the celebration.
So proud of my little dentist! We're still in shock that we're done with school. Our anniversary is tomorrow and we've been in school for all eight years. Crazy. Guess what we're doing to celebrate tomorrow, packing!

A Momentous Day

Today Eric found out that he passed his WREBs exam from last weekend. And he cemented his last crown this morning. If all goes well this afternoon, all he'll have left to do is sign out of school. Which takes a while to get all the signatures he needs, but this is actually happening!!! Honestly, today is the first day that I've allowed myself to get excited about the fact that he's graduating a week from tomorrow. ONE WEEK FROM TOMORROW! Woohoo! Such elation! I'm so proud of my hubby, he has worked really hard. Now we both need a break... it has been a stressful 4 years and now I'm married to a doctor. :)