Underwater Camera

Here is what we were walking on at Poipu Beach. So painful!

She sure is cute though!!

And him!!

Here are some pictures from Salt Pond.

These are from snorkeling at Salt Pond.

There were white fish with yellow tails.

Some blue fish.

This cute guy!

Pretty coral and sea urchins.


Black and white striped fish. (bottom left corner & middle)

And many more. And here's a cute selfie that Rockwell took in the swimming pool. :)

Kauai Day 8

We were originally supposed to check out of the Bali Hai Villas at 10:00 am on Wednesday. But when we got there to check in they told us that nobody was using our room for the two days following our stay, and if we wanted to stay for those two days for free, we could. We called the airline to ask about changing our flight, but since we bought Saver Tickets, they were non-changeable. We were bummed about that. It did at least give us one more day of using their pool and going to a beach though, instead of rushing out by 10:00. Our flight wasn't until 11:05 pm, so we got to have a whole day of playing and were still able to shower and get packed up before checking out and driving to the airport. We were grateful for that!
For my run that morning, I went back over to Queen's Bath to see if the gate was open, but it was still padlocked. I guess that means we'll have to go back to Kauai sometime, so we can see it. :)
I took the kids over to the main pool again and we had a great time swimming.

After lunch we went to JoJo's one last time. There is a curve in the road on the way to Hanalei that has the most beautiful view of the Bay. I wanted to get a picture, and luckily there wasn't anyone behind us so Paul slowed down and I snapped a picture out the car window. I love it.

Tessa and Damon were so stinking cute walking to JoJo's!


There were a few lizards running around that Rockwell loved watching. They were so colorful!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Hanalei Bay. The waves were bigger than the day before, but we were still able to play out on the sand bar. I wanted to lay on the beach for a bit, so Paul took the kids out to see if they could find the sand bar again. On their way out, there was a turtle swimming around right by them. Paul called out to me and so I grabbed the underwater camera and tried to run over there, but it was gone by the time I got out there. Luckily it came back about an hour later when we were all playing out there. Tessa and I followed it for a while and just watched it swim. It was awesome! We enjoyed our last day at the beach and had a great time together.



Right as we were starting to pack up our things to leave, we noticed the turtle out on our sandbar. Rockwell, Tessa and I went back out there to see it up close. That was a cool way to end our vacation!


After our showers and loading up the car, we drove out to Lihue and ate dinner at Pizza Hut again. We wanted to fill the kids up, since we had a long day of traveling ahead of us.

Our flight was delayed, and so we didn't leave until after midnight. The kids slept through the flight, and then we had about 6 hours at the Seattle airport before our flight to Salt Lake. That is a busy airport! We got some breakfast and lunch while we were there, and the kids worked on some homework.

It was hard to come home. We love love loved it in Kauai, and love love loved spending all that time together doing whatever we wanted whenever we wanted to. I'm so glad we did this vacation. We will remember it fondly forever.

Kauai Day 7

Tuesday morning I took the kids over to the ponds at the entrance of the Bali Hai Villas to feed the fish. One of the employees had bags of fish food for the kids, and was there to answer any questions they had about the fish. They thought that was a lot of fun.

The main pool was being worked on when we got to Bali Hai, but it opened up for the last couple days of our stay.

I took the kids to that pool after we fed the fish. It had another beach-like area, fountains, and two hot tubs. One was hotter than the other, and we all loved the not-as-hot tub. There were a few people reading on the chairs, but the kids had the pool to themselves.

Tessa's always good about posing for a picture for me.

Paul did a little more grocery shopping for us while we swam. While he was at the shops he went back to the General Store/Gas Station and got some poke. It's a very common sushi on Kauai, so he wanted to try it. He said it was good, but he wouldn't crave it.

The concierge told us about a few beaches when we checked in, and said Lumaha'i Beach was a good one for kids. But when we looked it up on you tube, everything was videos about how enormous and dangerous the waves are. It wasn't too far beyond Hanalei Bay, so we decided to check it out and if it wasn't great then we'd just go back to Hanalei. We also stopped at Queen's Bath on the way out for the afternoon. That was the last touristy spot that I really wanted to see. When we got there, the gate was padlocked and there were signs saying it was too dangerous to enter when the gate is locked. I was bummed, but hoped that in the morning the tide would be different and we could try again. We drove to Lumaha'i Beach and the kids and I stayed in the car while Paul checked it out. Even from the parking lot, which was a good distance from the beach, I couldn't believe how big the waves were crashing. I couldn't actually see any part of the beach, but I could just see huge waves rising up over the trees. Paul said it definitely was not a beach for swimming. So we went back to Hanalei Bay and had another fun day there.

There's a river flowing out of the ocean, and we saw people kayaking and paddle boarding on it. I walked up the river for a while to a place that looked like it rented kayaks. Turns out it was a private canoe club, but luckily the lady was really nice about me wandering through it. :) I had been hoping there would be a place to rent surfboards or paddle boards at one of the beaches, but there was not. You had to rent those in a town and then transport them to the beach yourself, which we didn't have room for. The river was really pretty though. :)

The waves were super low at Hanalei Bay this day. The water is shallow for so far, you can walk out forever and the water only gets up to about my waist. Paul and the kids found a sand bar way out in the middle of the water, where the waves would just lap around your ankles. 

It looked so weird to see them super far out in the middle of the ocean, just walking around in shallow water. We all hung out out there and made giant holes in the sand bar, dug for shells, and had a blast.

Kauai Day 6

Wyndham offers some classes and events for their guests. There was a jewelry-making class at a Wyndham resort a couple minutes up the road. Tessa and I went to that Monday morning. The teacher had bags and bags of beads, sea glass, shells, and pearls that we could choose from. We paid for a bracelet and earrings, but she said that Tessa could make whatever she wanted, so she made a necklace and earrings. It was fun to sort through everything and choose just what we wanted. Since I don't wear earrings, Tessa designed and made both pairs so she can wear them when she gets her ears pierced.

We all wanted one more day at Salt Pond Beach, so we drove back to the south side of the island after Tessa and I were finished with the jewelry. We stopped in at the Coconut Market on the way and rented some boogie boards. Those were a lot of fun.

I didn't really get a good picture of Rockwell on a board. He had fun floating on top of his life jacket too though.

After the kids had moved on to other things, Paul and I took the boards out and floated around on the waves for a while. It was so fun to get some time with just the two of us out in the ocean while the kids were having a blast together closer to shore. We stayed as long as we could, leaving when the sun was starting to set, so we could return the boogie boards on time. For the last little bit, Paul and I sat on the beach and just watched the kids playing. It was so relaxing to lay in the warm sand and look up at the palm trees swaying in the blue sky. It was another awesome day!!