Entries about kayak

Late last night Kate made two pineapple pies using fresh, Hawaii-grown pineapples. We stayed up for a while to help her.

This morning, we drove to Lihue to go to Kalapaki beach.

The kids played on the beach and Hilary, Kate, and Catherine supervised them.

Daniel and Ed went kayaking on the bay. It was beautiful, but the waves were actually pretty big when we paddled out to the opening of the Bay. It was a wonderful experience to be out kayaking on the ocean. Last time when we were here we saw a cruise ship coming in to port, but this time there was no such thing. We did see some planes coming to the airport, which Austin enjoyed watching.

Aubrey created a beautiful sand structure. We thought it was a castle, but she explained that it was a ship, a throne for a king, and a dungeon (where the king's disloyal men were being forced to eat leaves.)

We stopped at Big Monster Sushi Food Truck for lunch, and also got some shave ice (passion fruit and guava). After that we went back to the house to start getting it ready for the party tonight.

Austin claimed that he isn't a cat, but he jumped on the counter and was hiding from the vacuum while we cleaned...

Catherine got a massage/ manicure/ pedicure from Aubrey. It involved painting her legs with a paint brush and water, and matching crayons to her nails.

Daniel, Kate, and Aubrey went out to get plumerias. Daniel had already gotten one for Catherine, but we went out to get them for Kate, Hilary, and Aubrey, as well as ones to give to Katie and Mary when they came to the party. While out, we saw Sweetie Cat/ Pudge. A man walking a dog told us that in fact Sweetie Cat isn't especially sweet. He advised that we not pet her, and that she's "an attack cat." Dalton and Austin had already been instructed not to pet her, but we have seen other people petting her without trouble. It seems likely that the fact that he had a dog with him may have upset the cat before.

Catherine's parents Anthony and Katie, and Catherine's Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe, came over. We had a very nice evening. Daniel barbecued some linguica (or Portuguese sausage, as it's called in Hawaii) and we had chips, drinks, and the pineapple pie. Everyone had a great time and wonderful conversations. Also, Aubrey had made beautiful labels for all of the parts of the meal. This is Katie and Anthony and Mary and Joe's first full day in Hawaii, and so it was a nice way to start their trip and a nice midpoint to our trip.

Hilary and Darryl took their kids out to Salt Pond Beach, and the rest of us went to Kalapaki Beach, where Daniel’s mom, his grandma, and Catherine had lunch at Duke’s and Daniel and his dad went kayaking. It was a beautiful day and the bay was very clear and perfect. There were people riding an outrigger canoe, a lot of surfers and paddle boarders, and people swimming by the beach.

The Norwegian Cruise Lines Pride of America was pulling out of the harbor as we left. It was amazing to see such a large ship in the bay.

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Daniel and his dad joined the group for lunch at Dukes.

Us at Kalapaki Beach.

On our way back to the house we decided to do the Koloa Rum tasting. It was amazingly good. We learned that the Koloa Rum Company is actually still growing sugar cane to make their rum.

The rest of Daniel’s family went to the Smith Family Luau, while we had a date night at The Beach House in Poipu. Daniel got Catherine this beautiful multi-colored plumeria.

Our reservation was for 7:30, so we were able to watch the sunset from the lawn.

Some views as we waited for sunset.

Just as the sky was really turning pink we started to hear a lot of birds chirping and flying overhead. At first we didn’t think much of it. Then we noticed a lot of little green parakeets in the trees. Those were the birds coming in!

The beautiful sky at sunset!

The famous Monkeypod Mai Tai from the Beach House.

Our delicious meal, including a strawberry cream pie for dessert.

Another wonderful day in Kauai!

The jungle-like back yard of the house where we are staying.

Daniel found a pink plumeria tree and got Catherine one from that tree today. The flowers are beautiful but seem to wilt a little sooner than the white ones do.
Aubrey thought this statue looked like grandpa.

We went to Duke’s today because Hilary’s husband Darryl was coming to join us. Duke’s is at a beach relatively near the airport and so we were able to have a nice lunch and wait for his flight to come in.

Duke’s was good, and as our lunch was ending Hilary got the call that Darryl’s plane had landed so she headed to the airport to retrieve him while we all had dessert.

The famous hula pie from Duke’s.

Once Darryl arrived he came into the restaurant and the kids ran to greet him. They were pretty tired from all the sun and excitement of this vacation, and so they all went back to the house to rest for a bit.

We went to the beach with Daniel’s parents, and tried to rent kayaks and a cabana. Unfortunately we were not able to as the kayaks were all out and not scheduled to come back until the end of the day. We decided to drive down to the Russian Fort Elizabeth on the south side of the island.

A mother hen with several baby chicks at the Russian fort.

Some views of the fort, and us visiting. Daniel’s parents liked having the chance to see this piece of history which is so little-known in the world at large.

More views of the fort.

After the fort we stopped at the “Hawaiian Trading Post” and looked at some Ni’ihau shell leis. Ni’ihau is a private island near Kaua’i where visitors are not allowed and the entire population (really only about two hundred people) speak Hawaiian and live without much of modern technology. They make these leis out of unique shells and sell them in other places. We didn’t buy any, as prices started at $300 and went up to $25,000. It was a nice shop with a lot of different items.

Afterwards we had the third party, this one at Daniel’s Aunt Vickie’s house. It was Daniel’s cousin Jerry’s birthday, and Jerry is Vickie’s son. Thus the party was something of a birthday party for him. We had a great time at the party. The food was very good, including burgers cooked by Daniel’s cousin Robbie and his friend Shane. The unfortunate news from the party was that Daniel’s Uncle Tommy had a problem with his eye and needs surgery. He’ll have to go home tomorrow and miss his planned excursion to Maui after the rest of the family goes home. Unfortunately he will miss the rest of the trip but thankfully he will be okay.