Kauai: Land of the Rain

We started our journey to Kauai yesterday at 5:30AM. We made breakfast, packed lunch, and headed to B's house. She so graciously took us to the airport at the crack of dawn - Thank You B! Luckily, we had enough time that we were not in a rush, because we picked the wrong security line at the airport. The guy that xrays your stuff was getting trained on how to spot terrorists so we spent about 45 minutes watching the stuff go back and forth on the belt as he was triple checking that no one was carrying on weapons of mass destruction. When he got to our stuff, he was horrified that we would bring all of our liquids in 3oz containers (like we were supposed to). He commanded the security guard, Big Buddha, to grab the guy wearing a turban (Jeff) and stop all of the terrorism we were going to do with our 3oz liquid bottles. Apparently you can only have a quart size of liquids even if they are all in 3oz bottles - I guess we didn't read the little print. So after getting rid of half of our liquids, we were on our way!

We had a connecting flight in Phoenix that was supposed to be 1 1/2 hours, but our plane leaving from SLC had minor mechanical problems and put us in Phoenix late. We ran across the Phoenix airport to our connecting flight that was at the other end of the airport (Phoenix is a big airport in case you didn't know)! When we got there, they were loading the plane so we made it just in time.

We were zone 5 loading so by the time we got on the plane, all of the overhead compartments were taken (am I the only one who thinks you should use the overhead compartment above YOUR seat for YOUR luggage??). Jeff went to find a place to put our stuff as I got into our seats. We passed the 7 hour flight by watching "Jack and Jill" and "In Time" (Now Jeff has a big crush on Justin Timberlake or as Jeff would say, JT). Jeff also read while I did this....

Sleeping with my "little friend" Jeff got me for Christmas - We named him Norman!

Jeff also enjoyed sitting next to a really cute, special needs kid on this flight. Stewart's parents were sitting across the isle and behind him. Jeff would help him with his seat belt, plugging in his head phones, and adjusting his air. Towards the end of the flight, Stewart's stomach was not feeling too hot & he started blowing chunks (tossing his cookies, ralphing, up chucking, or anything else that can be described as losing your lunch). Let's just say that all of the barf bags and several trash bags were used. If any of you know Jeff, then you know he does not like bodily fluids AT ALL!!!! But I was very proud of him because he stayed composed and was still very cordial to Stewart even though I knew Jeff would rather be anywhere but sitting next to the guy losing his lunch.

After 11 hours of traveling, we were so happy to finally land in Kauai!

When we left Utah, there was snow on the mountains...

The snow capped Rocky Mountains - Our view from the Plane

Then we landed in Arizona to see this desert with no snow or plants...

The Dry Death of Arizona - Our view from the Plane

Then we landed in Kauai to see this incredible view of luscious greenery...

Amazing Kauai - Our view from the Plane
JUST KIDDING - I found this picture on google! This is kind of what I was expecting though!

This was our actual view from the Plane - Almost as amazing!

We went to the car rental and were informed that due to flash floods, some roads and bridges were closed. Luckily, they were not any of the roads we needed to go on that day. I asked the rental guy if he had a hummer with an 8 inch lift just in case we needed to go on those roads and he said not to worry because the roads are only closed for a few hours after the rain stops so we got this lovely car instead.

We're loving the license plate

We were starving since the "lunch" we packed consisted of 1 PB&J sandwich, crackers, turkey jerkey, and fruit snacks. Jeff's friend, Tiffany, told us we HAD to go to Kalapaki Joe's for some delicious Seared Ahi Fish Tacos. We headed straight there!

Lovely View from our table (You can't tell in this picture, but the ocean is across the street)

Jeff got the Fish Tacos

I wasn't so daring and got the Chicken Tacos (They were both so delicious)

Then we went to get some Malasadas (they are so delicious - like a Hawaiian filled doughnut hole), but they closed at 10AM so we will have to do that another day. We hit up the local Safeway for our groceries. We signed up for a Safeway card to save $$ on all of our food. It was crazy because the price of pickles was $10 without the card, but $3 with the card. I'm glad Jeff did his research and knew that we had to get that card before buying our groceries. Our receipt said that we got "local's pricing" on our food and saved $24.00!!!!

Then it got dark and rainy so we headed to our hotel. There were parts of the drive where the windsheild wipers were on full blast, but the rain was coming down so hard that we could hardly see. By the time we got checked into our room, it was 12:00AM Utah time and Jeff was running on 4 hours of sleep. BUT we were in Kauai so we had to PARTY! I'm not sure when we finally went to bed, but we had a lot of fun for the few hours we were in Kauai last night.

This morning, Jeff woke up at 6:00AM to what sounded like somebody doing construction outside of our hotel room. He got up to see what they were doing and was amazed at what he saw: RAIN!!!! The "construction" sound was actually the huge amounts of rain trying to drain off our roof. The beautiful landscape outside of our lanai was now covered in a flash flood. See the movie below to understand what I'm talking about...

We were expecting rain, but nothing like this. When we went to Oahu about 2 years ago, it rained every day -- but it was only for a couple of minutes and then the sun would come right back out. Even though our plans to rent bikes & ride them along the beach were delayed to another day (hoping it doesn't rain like this every day we are here), we are still having lots of fun! All of this rain is going to make some beautiful waterfalls and is the reason why Kauai is extraordinarily green & called "The Garden Island".