This week I have been remembering this time last year. Probably because I was in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been so far. And I realized I never did a post on it, and I do not want to forget this trip so I figured now would be a good time to do that before my memory gets the best of me (luckily I had written down what we did on what day).
KAUAI
(I did not take this picture, I stole it from the Internet.)
Day 1:
We left SLC early in the morning and got to Kauai around around 1:00-2:00 (Kauai time which is 3 hours behind our time). We got our rental cars, and headed to Costco to get food, (each family was in charge of doing a dinner for one night) boogey boards, and whatever else they wanted. After that a group of us went to Kalapaki Joes for a bite to eat.
Then it was off to the condo in Princeville, which was about 1 hour away. As we were driving there the farther north we got the thicker the foliage got, and the greener it became. It was so AWESOME. When we got to the condo we unloaded and got situated into our rooms then a group went down to the beach where they met Crazy Dave also known as Big Wave Dave, and Surfer Dave. He informed them that he became a professional surfer after only going 10 times. Jeff got a little buzzed from smelling all the alcohol on him (jk), but we talked about him several times during the trip and everyone got a good laugh. That evening Jeff and I were in charge of dinner. I loved having our dinner over with the first night, and then we didn't have to worry about anything the rest of the trip.
Day 2:
I have to say this was my FAVORITE DAY of our whole trip! We took a Na Pali Coast zodiac raft tour. This was so much fun! We saw tons of dolphins, a few whales, and the Na Pali coast (which is one of the seven natural wonders of the world) was breathtaking. Not only was the scenery awesome, but the boat ride was an adventure in itself. We were cruising along jumping the waves, getting completely drenched, and seriously holding on for deer life. It was a rush, and I loved every second of it!
The Dolphins
If I ever do this again I might just "accidentally" fall out so I can swim with them. It is hard to explain how cool it was seeing hundreds of dolphins swimming around and doing there tricks and jumps. AMAZING. We saw a few whales, but it was really hard to get a good picture because your not sure where they are going to come up, and when they do by the time your camera clicks they are on there way down. Here is part of a whale.
The Na Pali coast & the boat ride
Here we are as we were loading up. Everyone is all dry and happy.
Here we are all wet,and most of us still happy. If you look close in the background you can see a rainbow. Earlier that was the brightest, clearest rainbow I had ever seen in my life. The colors of the rainbow were so sharp and distinct. It was BEAUTIFUL.
All the girls(except Justin's Jana) with Captain Chris. I think he thought we were one crazy group from Utah.
The ride was intense. The next day we all had sore legs and bums.
After our Na Pali Riders boat ride we spent the rest of the day at Poipu Beach (pronounced poy-poo, but infamously received the name of poo poo beach) This beach was great for boogey boarding and snorkeling. It was also great for having chickens all over, but hey you could see chickens everywhere you looked on this island.
Jeff said that while he was boogey boarding here, right next to him coming up in a wave was a big sea turtle.
Day 3:
This was another amazing day in paradise. A bunch of us did a helicopter tour of the island.
They weighed us and then assigned us where we were to sit in the helicopter. Jeff and I got the best seats, in the front! All I can say is that it was so INCREDIBLE.
Wiimea Canyon
Na Pali Coast Line
Tunnels Beach
This picture is not very good because of the glare, but this was my favorite part of the whole helicopter ride! We flew into this area and you are surrounded by all these mountains except the part you flew into it from. It was so AMAZING the helicopter just sat and hovered for a few minutes . You were surrounded by all these waterfalls. The pilot said this is the rainiest spot in the world.
This waterfall was made famous by showing up in the movie "Jurassic Park".
Group shot after the ride.
After the helicopter ride we went to Tunnels Beach. This beach was perfect for snorkeling. There was a reef right as you step into the water. I also love the view of the mountains on this beach.
I love snorkeling, even thought I look like a big dork, there is a whole new world under the water.
The view
When we first got there this reef was covered just a little bit in water. Around the time we left the water had gone down quite a bit.
The pathway from the road to the beach.
We left Tunnels Beach and was heading up to Ke'e Beach which is the last beach on the north side of the island. Then it becomes the Na Pali coast shore. I have to say that I think Ke'e was my favorite beach with Tunnels coming at a close second. On our way there we stopped at what is called the Blue Room. The Blue Room is down in this cave. It is so dark and at the bottom is a big watering hole. If you have goggles you can get in and swim to the back of the hole and if you look down in the water it is a crystal clear sky blue.
Going up to the cave.
Going down into the cave.
Getting in the water. I didn't get in, but it is one of my regrets that I didn't.
After the Blue Room experience we were on are way to Ke'e Beach just a little before sundown. This is supposedly one of the best places in the world to see the sunset if you can get it on a clear night without any clouds.
Ke'e Beach
The guys go out snorkeling on last time for the night.
This is my FAVORITE picture of our whole trip. This is my favorite beach with my favorite background, and I love the rain in the picture too. This is one of the many little rain showers we got caught in.
The sunset started out pretty good!
Then we lost it in the clouds.
Day 4:
This day we went to Kipu Falls, which is a watering hole that you can jump off a cliff into the water, and it also has a rope swing. This was FUN FUN FUN.
Jeff jumping
Me jumping
Jeff swinging
Me swinging
Leaving Kipu Falls.
After kipu falls we stopped at Bubba Burgers for a bite to eat.
Then we went to a beach that I cannot remember the name of it, but there was some local surfers there that were really fun to watch.
Another spontaneous little rain shower.
Day 5:
This was our Fishing day! This was the one thing Jeff was looking forward to so much. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the money for me to go too, but my other two sisters decided they were going to go since they were able to make a deal for the spouses. So I went and I had so much fun.
We trolled for big fish a few hours until we reached the spot that we were going to start actually start doing some fishing. And boy oh boy did we do some fishing!
I finally caught one! Everytime it was my turn I hooked one but it got away as I was rolling it in.
The fishing crew with dinner for the next couple of days. To bad I'm not a huge fan of yellow fish tuna and skipjack.
After fishing we met up with everyone else (who rented mopeds and went exploring while we were fishing) at Tunnels Beach and just relaxed for the rest of the day. My dad had rented some scuba equipment, and Jeff suited up and was heading down when the tank ran out of air. So unfortunatley for us fishermen/women we didn't get to scuba.
Day 6:
Now this is when the relaxing part of our vacation began. We had been going, going, going since day 1 and we were all exhausted. This day we started out with a little hike up the Na Pali coast trail. The trail head starts at Ke'e beach, and if you follow it all the way it goes to some beach on the Na Pali coast, but it takes all day just to get to the beach. Most people who do this take their packs and camp at the beach. Or there is a 4 or so mile hike to some waterfall. Or there is a short little hike to a look out point. Jeff & I optioned for the look out point because like I said we were exhasted from our vacation.
I don't know why , but Jeff was really into climbing trees on this hike.
I guess He had his eye on a suvenior.
Finally made it to the look out point. It took forever with Jeff's tree climbing and all.
When we got down from our hike we snorkled at Ke'e Beach for a while. Then we spent the rest of the day at Hanalei Bay. This is a great beach for surfing. They had lots a instructors teaching surf lessons and lots of beginner surfers trying to surf. Several years ago there was a young teenage girl who got her arm biten off by are shark. I don't think she had the shark encounter at Hanalei Bay, but that is where she grew up. While we were there at this beach this day there was a camera crew filming some really young girls surfing. From what we heard they were making a movie of this girl. so the young girls they were filming are suppose to be her as a young girl learning to surf. Kinda Cool huh.
Day 7:
This was Sunday so we went to church. There was a church in Hanalei, which was only about 10-15 minutes away. It was a small ward, but with all the visitors there was more people there than I expected. After church we wanted to get a few group photos.
After lunch we went to Queens Bath. Queens Bath is a place were the waves on the ocean hit into the rocks, and there is this one area that fills up and drains out. It is really hard to explain, but you can really see how much power the ocean really has. On you tube you can see people jumping into this. I counln't believe it when I saw them doing that. They were definatly risking there life.
Why we were here in Kauai the waves weren't too big, but certain times of the year they are huge, and here at queens bath you have to watch from quite a distance because the water is shooting up everywhere and coming in quite a ways on to the rocks.
After Queens Bath we went to see the Kilauea Lighthouse. We only went to the look out point because we didn't want to pay money to drive up to the lighthouse.
Later that night my dad had some minute to win it games planned for us. That was a lot of fun!
Day 8:
This day we had planned to rent some surf boards and go surfing at Hanalei Bay. This is the only day of our trip that we had really crumming weather. It is expected to get rained on in Hawaii, like we had experienced several times before was an occasional light shower, but today it rained all day long. We still went to Hanalei Bay to surf and some stayed and surfed and some drove down south hoping to find sunshine (down south was always quite a bit warmer and sunnier). Jeff really wanted to surf so we stayed. I didn't surf because I didn't want to go out in the rain, but that is another regret I have. I wish I would of done it. Since the next day we were leaving to come back home.
And here I am getting rained out. It kind of was a good thing there were a few of us on the beach or else everyones stuff would of got washed up. We would be sitting there and the water would come right up to us. Several times we thought we were a safe distance away and the water would keep creeping up and get us and all of our stuff wet.
After surfing we went to Ono Char which was this tiny red shack, but it had the best burgers.
Later that evening a few of us went out to dinner because they were trying to eat up that fish we had caught. One of my sister in-laws was wanting seafood, but not yellow fish tuna. We had to drive a ways to find somewhere we wanted to eat. (Kauai is not a tourust trap and really didn't have very many places to eat up where we were staying.) So we go into this restaurant all the seafood on the menu was yellow fish tuna and skipjack. It was pretty funny.
Day 9:
This was our last day in Kauai. We were going to fly home that evening. I wish I could of gone sufing this day, but since we were checked out of our condo there would really be now where to wash up, and salt water does not make your skin feel very good. So this day we wanted to stay out of the water. Each car kind of did their own thing this day.
Here is what we did:
First we went to a little flee market in kapaa and got a few suveniors. Then we drove down to Poipu to the Spouting Horn. The spouting horn is a hole in the rocks and water squirts up out of it.
We went to Poipu Beach for a little while. One of my brothers decided to boogey board one last time. Then we grabbed a bit to eat from this little street of shops. While in Kauai a few of my family members had got a Hawaian shaved ice several times and were raving about them. Hawaian shaved ice is not just a regular snow cone. They put ice cream in the bottom and everyone was saying how good it was. I figured this would be my last chance to try one since there was a little shaved ice shack right there were we ate. As we were trying to decide what flavor we wanted the lady who was working there was so nice and just keep talking to us about everything. She said before you decide what you want you've got to try this and she gave us a free Hawaian fried ice cream. UMMM, UMMM, UMMM, it was so good. She also let us try a small fruit ice cream yogurt. By this time I was not very hungry anymore at all, but since it was my last chance to try a shaved ice I got one anyway. By the time I got to the bottom where the good stuff was I was so full I could only have a few bites of it.
After my brother was done bogey boarding we headed to Lihue, this is where the airport is. We still had some time so we went to Wailua Falls.
As you can see in the picture Jeff is holding a cool bowl weaved with some leaves from there on the island. As we parked to go see Wailua Falls there was the mangliest looking guy and dog I have ever seen. The guy had probably about half his teeth missing was wearing a garbage bag as a rain jacket. He was making and selling these bowls right there off the side of the road. He had a whole long story about how he had resued this dog, and it had worms and all other sorts of diseases. He was raising money to buy medication for the dog. I didn't really believe his story, but we bought one anyway because we thought the bowl was really cool. As we were leaving we pulled out and drove up around a bend, and off the side of the road were some locals weaving those same bowls and hats made out of the same leaves. Jeff saw them and was like dang it, we should of bought from them. Theres had a little bit of a better shape and looked a little nicer. Jeff pulled over and got out and started talking to them. He told them he had already bought one, but he liked theres a lot better. Right as we were leaving the guy came down to Jeff and said if you like it here you can have it. The people there were so nice. I guess all you have to do is be nice to them and they will give you stuff for free.
Later that night we met up with most of the others and got a bite to eat at Kalapaki Joes before we headed to the airport to come back home.
There it is The Barlow Family Trip to Kauai in March of 2010. We were all sad to leave, but ready to get home to our kids. We still had a long flight home in the middle of the night. We had a couple hour lay over in California, and I wish I had a picture of us all sleeping around in the airport. We all looked like zoombies.
Thank you mom and dad for making this trip possible.
Playing on the rocks 
We had a such a great trip to St. George! I love it in St. George, and every time I go there I wished I lived there. We were lucky to come get some warm weather because it was snowy weather back at home. The only bad part was that it was still cold and snowy weather when we came back home. 
