Real Salt Lake

My friend Marie was in town last week and we hung out all day on Wednesday. The day started off with getting pictures of her little boy, Everett, and his cousin Marcus together at Kiddie Kandids. Marcus has so much energy!! Everett is such a doll. He is so happy all the time. And all he does is smile when he looks at his momma.

Marie bought me a berry bowl from Godiva Chocolates at the mall. I have never been there but she absolutely loves it. Well, it was sure delicious. In the evening, Maries brother had some extra tickets to go to the Real Salt Lake soccer game. I have never been to one of their games but I really enjoyed it. I will have to get some tickets and take Steve.

Kauai Day 7

Today was our last day on Kauai. We were really slow to get ready this morning. We decided not to get in the ocean today since we wouldn't be able to shower again until we got home. Besides the newspaper said that with the southern winds the waves may get as high as 8 feet and the riptides would be very strong. We went to Opaeka'a Falls to kill some time. They were very pretty and I was jealous of the homeowner who lives right behind them. The colors of the flowers there are so brilliant.

After the falls, we did a little shopping at the Coconut Market Place and drove up to where the cruise ships dock. More or less today was a boring day. Our flights went fine. We got home to Salt Lake City at 7:30am which is 3:30am Hawaii time.

Kauai Day 6

Today we thought we would do the hike up to Hanakapi'ai Beach. It's about 2 miles in and "strenuous" according to the book I have. Well, we got to the trailhead to find signs posted about bringing water. We totally forgot to bring water with us and we had even stopped at the store on the way. As we started to hike up the trail, I started to realize how out of shape I was and that it was hot. My poor heart was ticking like crazy probably in the 130's. Then I started to freak myself out about becoming dehydrated. I was already starting to get thirsty and when I get dehydrated, I get sick. So we turned around aways up the trail. When we got almost to the bottom Steve said "We probably hiked 3/4 of the way there", gee, if only he had said that before we turned around I might have kept going. Either way it was very beautiful and warm.

In addition to all the chickens that run wild, there are tons of cats that run wild. They are thin and in shape unlike poor Toast at home. I would love to catch one and take it home but they would probably kick Toasts ass! They won't let you pet them and they sure didn't chase the chickens either. Bizarre!

Kauai Day 5

We decided to hang out with Dusty and Lindsey today. They wanted to go to a bunch of different beaches and we wanted to get on the beach too. We went to McDonalds for breakfast which Becky and Scott happened to go to too. They decided to ditch their plan of the boat ride to the Fern Grotto and go hang out with all of us. We headed up to Ke'e Beach which is as far as you can drive on the North Shore. It took us about an hour to get there from Kapa'a. There was this crazy cave on the walk to the beach. It had posted that there was Leptospirosis in the water.

It was beautiful and the water was so clear. This was a great place to snorkel. The first time we went out to snorkel we saw so many bright colored fish. I forgot to take my underwater camera with me on this first time out. The second time I went out snorkeling the cool fish had disappeared. By the way, the sand was so hot that the second you walked on the stuff in the sun you had to run either to the water or the shade. The best thing about this beach was a sea lion that was resting on the beach!

Next we went to lunch in Hanalei at a place called Kalypso Island Bar & Grill. It had pretty good food and drinks. Becky and Scott decided to go check out tattoos down at Tsunami Tattoo while the rest of us went to Secret Beach. Dusty and Lindsey pulled over at the Hanalei Valley Overlook so they could follow us. We got out to check it out and I got my camera out of my bag which was in the trunk. Well....I locked the keys to the car in the trunk! I looked down at my hands and only saw the camera. I felt so dumb. Everyone took it in stride and we called Budget. They sent someone out to unlock the car. It took all of 45 minutes to get it done. We finally made it to Secret Beach. Becky's parents, sister and daughter joined us at the beach. Becky and Scott came up since they were done looking at tattoos. The waves were awesome at the beach. Much bigger than the first time we went there. The pics below are the path to and from the beach. It's quite the hike.

Kauai Day 4

Today we decided to check out the West Shore. On our way we saw a sign for Waimea Falls which was only 4 miles away. It was quite beautiful. They had a lot of signs posted to not climb the wall because it was dangerous and it had caused deaths.

All we wanted to do was find a cool beach and hang out. Well we didn't find one at all. Either there weren't any signs for the beach or if we did find it, it was yet another that was not for swimming due to the riptide. We went to a beach called Fort Elizabeth or Russian Fort Elizabeth. It has the opening of the Waimea River to the ocean. The sand is an olive green color. It was pretty but not for swimming.

Oh and by the way McDonalds here in Hawaii sells Peach-Mango Pies and Macadamia Nut Iced Coffee. I so wish they would sell those pies in Utah. And Walmart has everything a beach girl could need. I think we went to Walmart the most. We picked up some Lei's for the wedding.

P.S. Lanai = Balcony and Ohana = Family house or a mother in law type apartment

WEDDING

Tonight at 5:30pm on Lydgate Beach, my friend Becky and her fiance Scott got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and they both looked great.

We were the only people there that weren't part of the family.

Scotts family is very nice and fun to be around. His grandma Carol and his sister Carol were my favorites(below in purple and green dresses). They are both spunky and like to have fun.

Scott has a little sister, Reagan, who is almost the same age as Kayla (Becky's daughter). They had a lot of fun together.

Becky's stepmom Carol married them on the beach along with a Hawaiian minister. After the wedding, we went to have dinner at Caffe Coco down the road. They served a wonderful dinner and lots of wine. Becky's brother brought beer for the "cool" table aka ours. Of course they had toasts and cake. Scott's little sister Reagan gave a "toast" that she was happy he was married but sad that he was leaving her. It was so cute and innocent that she didn't understand.

After all the wedding celebrations, a bunch of went to the beach to look for Blue Algae. Becky's brother Dusty and his wife Lindsey had found some on Maui at night. We spent a couple hours looking for them. When I finally found the first TRUE blue algae, it popped out at me like it was a blue LED in the sand. It was pretty cool. We only found 2 on the whole beach. Maybe we will try again tonight.

Kauai Day 3

Today we were going to head up to the North Shore but didn't quite make it that far. We had a late start, getting on the road by 1pm. As we headed up the road we stopped for shave ice. It was so expensive and not that great. Maui definitely is winning in the competition. We took our shave ices up the road to a pull off. It's not a beach you swim at but it's beautiful. This is the lookout at Kealia Beach.And by the way there are chickens and roosters everywhere!

We kept driving up to the North Shore when I saw a sign for the Kilauea Lighthouse. I decided to check it out (Steve was asleep). As we turned down the road to the get to the lighthouse Steve woke up. We got to the end of a driveway where there is a lookout. It was full of birds and crashing waves. These pics are from the lookout. We drove further down the road to a parking lot. We had to walk the long path (as seen above) to get to the lighthouse. There are tons of birds on this island. It was really beautiful. The picture below, all the white spots on the side of the mountain are birds.

We saw this beach from the Lighthouse lookout and overheard an employee saying it was called Secret Beach. We could only see a few people on the beach for how large it is. So we decided to find it. It took us about 10 minute walk from the car to the beach and then another 10 minutes down to the South end of the beach. The waves were getting bigger. We were there for almost an hour then it started to rain on us. It rained pretty good. We took that as our opportunity to leave.