Kauai intallment #2: The North Shore

So, is the music on here detering you from commenting? Is it like really distracting? I just thought I'd try it out for a while. I went old school this week with a little GnR. Love me some Axle.
It certainly is feeling like fall around here. Wasn't I just talking about it being 100* degrees, like two weeks ago? It's still warm I guess, but you can feel the crispness in the air. I like it, but it seems to early to be like this. It sure is making me want some pot roast or chicken soup. Why is that?
Kauai intallment #2: The North Shore
So, we finally get to the condo around 6, I think. And we are all so exhausted. It takes a good 45 minutes from the airport to get to the condo. Kauai really only has one main road. It goes from one end of the island to the other. The highest the speed limit ever gets is maybe 55. Maybe. So, it takes kind of a while to get anywhere. But that's ok, your in Hawaii bra, chill out! We stayed on the north shore of the island in Princeville. The north end of the island is the wetest. It rains quite a bit, but it is SO SO beautiful! Princeville gets 85 inches of rain a year. That's a lot. In fact, looming right behind Princeville, is the wettest spot on Earth. I forget what the mountain is called, but it gets 485 inches of rain a year. There's basically a constant cloud hovering up there. But if you ever go to Kauai, do not let the rain steer you away from the north side. It really doesn't rain that mouch and it only lasts a few minutes and then the sun is back out. Anyways, in my opionion, the north shore is THE most beautiful part of the entire island. When I mentioned staying in Princeville to a few people, they told me that was the snobby part of island. I sure didn't get that, so don't listen if someone tells you that. Our condo was right near a beautiful golf course and we had a nice ocean view. There were also tons of birds and chickens everywhere. Chickens run wild all over Kauai. They're even on the beach and at the airport! Here is a tour of some of the north shore beaches we went to. (and some of the prettiest the island has to offer)
Anini Beach:
This beach is long and beautiful and you can really see the turquoise water. It's very shallow here and we learned the reef is dead. I have no idea why. But because of that the snorkeling is not that good. No live reef=no fish. Lots of kite surfers and wind surfers at this beach.
Ke'ke's Beach:
This is where the road ends. The Napali Coast is just around the corner. There is no road to Napali as the island is so jungle like and rugged it is just impossible. The only way to access Napali is by foot (a 10 mile hike), by boat, or by helecoptor. Ke'Ke beach is where several scenes of South Pacific where filmed. It is a beautiful beach with a little inlet that is perfect for swimming. Then just beyond that is the reef where we saw tons of beautiful fish. Just like Finding Nemo.
Hideaways Beach:
They call it that for a reason. You'd never know it was there if you didn't know. We just happened to have this book that tells you all the scoop about everything! You have to hike down to it. You'd never even know the path was there. You go right inbetween to chain link fences and then down a cliff. It was super slippery because it had just rained and I fell on my bum. It was totally worth it though. Beautiful soft sand, torquoise water, practically deserted and good snorkeling.
Tunnels Beach:
This beach was freaking awesome! It is so beautiful, just look at it! This is where we had the most awesome-est snorkeling. We even swam with sea turtles! Tons and tons of beautiful fish, deep reef caves. Just freaking awesome. The only bad thing...mosquitos...or noseeums..or whatever, but dang if I didn't get eaten to hell all over the back of my legs. Do not set up camp under the trees, or bring bug spray if you do.
Ok, again, to avoid completely boring you, I'm going to stop here for now. Next stop: The other side of the island :)

Kauai installment #1...

So to avoid completely boring you about one subject and because I feel like maybe I have other things to talk about, I figured I'd give you the Kauai run down in sections. And then I'll move on to other stuff if I feel the need.
Kauai installment #1: Getting there:
Our plane was supposed to leave at 8:30 am from San Francisco International Airport. Since SF is close, but not that close to our house, we decided to stay the night near the airport Friday night to avoid having to get up in the middle of the night. Also, the hotel would keep our car for the entire week and shuttle us to and from the airport...all for $150 bucks. Cool deal, huh? Anyways so we get up at 5:30am, get on the shuttle at 6:30 and get over to the airport. We check in and find out that our plane will be delayed by one hour. The plane got in late the night before and required a crew rest. POOP. Oh well, right? Right. Just for to put this in your head for now: we have a connecting flight in Honolulu to Kauai.
The flight over went amazingly well. It's a 5 hour flight from SF to Honolulu. Megan was asleep before we even took off and stayed asleep for maybe 45 minutes or so. Jake was of course really good. I knew I didn't have to worry about him. The only problem we ran into was once lunch was served, Megan was in a playful mood and I just could not eat. I was making a mess and there was just too much junk and so I decided not to eat. Finally, after my sandwich was completely smashed flat, Megan decided to take a nap. She slept for the remainder of the flight. Thank goodness!
We landed in Honolulu at 11:30. Our flight to Kauai was at 12:05. When we got off the plane we were instructed to go to the inter-island terminal via the Wiki-Wiki Bus. Just step off the curb onto the bus, it will take you to the terminal, when you get there, just look at the monitor to find out what gate your flight is at. OK. So we go out to the curb....there is probably 500 hundred of us standing out there. I'm not kidding you, there were about 5 Wiki-Wiki busses that just passed us all by and did not pick any of us up. So obviously we missed our flight. Grrrr. We get to the inter-island terminal, expecting there to be someone from Hawaiian airlines to tell us where to go, or tell us to hurry they're waiting for us or.... something. Nothing. We ask someone and they say "oh Kauai flights leave out of gate 60" We go down to gate 60, there's no one there. There's a sign saying the desk is closed and go back to the Maui desk. Well there's about 100 people standing at the Maui desk. A Hawaiian airlines person comes by and asks if we have our boarding passes. "Yes we do, but...." and then she cuts us off and says "then just go to the gate". What gate? there is no gate # on our pass! AND we've already missed our flight! We wait in line some more and discover there is about 20 of us who missed our flight due to the late plane and the stupid Wiki-Wiki bus. A while later another HA emloyee comes by and says "I don't know why you missed the flight, because everyone else made it on". Basically, they were blaming us. They put us all on stand by for another flight...we waited some more. Then all of a sudden someone comes and collects all 20 of us and says they're putting us on the next Aloha Air flight. So we walk all the way down to the other end of the terminal and wait some more. (Are you tired of reading this yet? That's how I felt too...only 10 times worse!) Wait it gets better! So we finally get on the plane. We start taxi-ing out to the runway and then the capitan comes on..."Sorry folks we're gonna have to go back to the gate....there's a Blue Angles air show and the FAA has shut down the airspace above the airport for an hour". FREAKING HECK! So we all de-plane and wait another hour. It's now 3:30 Hawaii time, 6:30 California time (and remember how I didn't eat lunch on the plane?) Long and short of it is...(ok maybe the long) we finally get to Kauai at 4:45. We were supposed to be there at 12:30. We were so tired and exhausted. We finally got to our condo around 6:00 Hawaii time. LONG, LONG day! Amazingly, the kids were SO good through all of this. Such troopers they are. Jake even made a friend which helped a ton. The 2 boys played while we waited to get back on the plane. And as soon as we got in the rental car they were both out like a light!
To be continued......
I PROMISE the rest of the week WAY makes up for this. It was such a crazy day though, I just had to get the memory down

Feeling a teensy bit overwhelmed with stuff right now. I feel like I really need to tell you all about Kauai and not just show pictures. It really was an awesome trip...but see everyone is hungry, and someone has a stinky diaper, and there are two circle journals sitting on my table that need to be done, and I just got 300 pictures developed at Costco, and I just commited myself to a family project that I need to get done before Christmas. AND I still need to go get cought up on everyone's blogs. Oh yeah, and I need to do a layout for Unpubbed. And why am I still sitting here? It stinks! P-U!
I'll be back.

Home again, home again

jigity jig.
We had a blast! SOOOO much fun. Here is a slide show. More later!

*Aloha*

I'm sure this will be my last post before heading out Friday night. Just wanted it rub it in a teensy bit. tee hee!! We are so excited! Jake is really excited to go on a plane. He thinks it's going to come land at our house and let us get on and take us to "da beach". Crazy hectic around here figuring out what to do with 2 dogs, one cat, 5 gupies, and one lizzard named Fatty. I need a vacation to get ready for vacation. And then I'll need another vacation to recover from vacation. I think this is why they give Europeans the whole summer off. Pete told me I look pretty today. *glowing* He told me he can really see how much weight I've lost, especially in my face. Awww, he's so sweet. Then 20 minutes later "uh so, like when we get back from Hawaii, are you gonna like completely fore go what you've been working on? uhh you know, like with your weight?" Men. :p No, by the way, I don't plan to fore go it....but I do plan to eat what ever I want while on vacation. And you just can't help that the holidays are around the corner. Or, "Eat-Fest 2007". I don't plan on endulging quite as much in the eat fest as I did last year. We'll see.
Well, I had a bunch more to talk about, but alas, someone is crying and I've already been asked once to go help fold clothes. uhhhh. Well might not be here for a while. Have a great week...or 2.
Aloha!!

Pools, paper, movies and moose

September....is it the end of summer already? Can't be. It just can't be. It's just now getting hot around here! We've had a really mild summer for the Central Valley. It's been over 100 for about a week now though. Though it will stay warm through October, this is probably the last heat wave we'll have. Summer is definitely my favorite season, but I do also look forward to fall....The food in pots, warm baked goods, that slight crispness in the air. Love all of it. I'll even take the first rain. But after that, I can't wait for flip flops and tank tops again. September for some reason also seems like a time for new beginnings. I think it must be the kid in me that remembers the new year starts in September, not January. I feel the desperate need to organize and reorganize. I've got a list going already....organize pantry and pots and pan cupboard, clean out the junk drawer and cupboard below...go through Jake's clothes and bag up the ones for donation. Stuff like that. I've had 3 days to get started on this...do you think I've done a single thing? Nope. But hey! I've made the list...the list is better than nothing, right? Right. I will get it done though, it all needs to get done.
Pete is still gone in Idaho/Wyoming (he's right on the border of both states). He's been hunting for moose. (what the heck am I supposed to do with moose?!) He called Friday night and he'd found one to pounce on the next morning. So Sunday he calls and he got it. So you'd think he'd be on his way home, right? Well, no. He's got two other guys there he's got to guide. uhggg. He'll be home by Wednesday or Thursday. And then one more week until we go to Hawaii!!! Woo hooo!
Does anyone know of any good movies to rent? Whenever Pete is gone I take the kids to the video store to pick out a couple to watch and of course I get me one or two too. I was walking around there though and nothing really looked good. Do you have any recommendations? Seriously, I probably haven't seen 1/2 of the movies that have come out in the last year. And I'm sick of watching Air Buddies. I mean they're cute pups and all...but good lord if I see it one more time I might go nuts! I did rent Bridge to Tarabithia...and if you haven't seen it yet, it's a really great story. I remember reading the book as a kid and the movie is just great. Totally reminds me of being a kid...missing having that unstoppable imagination. Where did those days go, huh?
That's all we've really been doing this weekend. Hanging out at the pool and watching movies...Jake has learned if he plays in his room, Megan won't bug him. So I've had a few quiet afternoons with him upstairs playing by himself. It's kind of cool! Saturday we met my friend Kathleen and her son and went over to Berkeley to the Paper Source. Kind of a wasted trip. I mean, it's a cool store I guess....I guess if you have lots of money. Cuz it's pretty darn expensive. It's more geared towards stationary and card making but they had some BEAUTIFUL hand made papers that were hard to resist. Except for the price. uggg! Some of them were 12 dollars a piece! 12 dollars! They are pretty big...maybe 14x18 but still. The 2 I got were 8 dollars a piece. I still can't believe I bought two pieces of paper for 16 bucks. Crazy.
Well, I'm getting bugged for Air Buddies again.....help me!