She Who Swims With Turtles

I just picked up my underwater photos from Walgreens and am pleasantly surprised that a few of them turned out. Photos from my last turtle encounter turned out blurry due to my panic in avoiding being eaten. This year's swim was much more peaceful and the photos I have show the true, graceful beauty of these creatures.

Sun and Sand in Kauai

Aloha!

Today I awoke with the realization that in less than 48 hours we will begin our travels back to real life. Kauai has been wonderful - gorgeous weather, beautiful scenery, and soft sandy beaches... until you hit the water. We have a few battle wounds to show from snorkeling, but nothing more than burns and scrapes. The injuries were definately worth the experience. We have seen a ton of fish right off the beach and I was fortunate to swim with a couple sea turtles yesterday! I had a quick flashback to our trip to the big island in 2005 when one bit me, but these proved to be friendly.

Besides snorkeling, we have visited Wailua Falls, Opaekaa Falls, Spouting Horn (blowhole), and the Kilauea Lighthouse. At the lighthouse we spotted a monk seal on a nearby island and were visited by a couple nenes when we left. Today we are headed out for bannana macademia pancakes followed by some time at the beach and shopping. We've made reservations for a luau tomorrow that looks awesome! You can see a video preview of it here.

The boys have been enjoying the resort. We are just a short walk across the property to the beach. The beach there is too dangerous for swimming, but the boys are happy to just play in the surf and sand. Each morning we are awoke by crowing roosters (not one of my favorite highlights) and ducks waiting on the patio for breakfast. An especially friendly cat has found us and we've adopted him as our vacation. Grandpa Woody was thrilled. In fact, the cat got his name from Grandpa Woody... the first night we were here the cat snuck inside when Woody opened the back door. Stephen and I were out getting groceries, but the boys informed us of the fiasco when we got back - "The cat snuck in and ran in the bedroom and Grandpa Woody was cursing! He was mad!!!" For this, the cat was named "Sneak."

We leave Kauai early Wednessday morning (afternoon for most of you) and will be spending the day in Oahu before the 8 hour plane ride back home. Below are a few photos for now. I'll have an album to post later.

Why did the Nene cross the road?