Kauai... More than Rain

Sorry to leave everyone hanging for so long. We had good intentions of posting about each day of our vacation, but somehow when we returned to normal life we got too busy to finish the posts. Our trip to Kauai was more than rain (like our other 2 posts suggest)! I made a video of the fun if you would rather watch it unfold then read the long post I'm about to write.

Mother nature didn't let us down. We had a few days of fabulous weather & so I'll update you as I sit here recovering from my tonsillectomy - yes, I did have my tonsils removed & yes it does live up to the expectations of the worst surgery an adult can go through. Luckily I have the worlds greatest husband to help me through the recovery process.

Now, back to happy thoughts of Kauai!! Day 3 rolled around and we were hoping that the rain would let up a little so we could do some of the activities we had planned and guess what... IT STOPPED RAINING!!!!! So we got to go on one of our tours! We were feeling adventurous and were excited to take a 6 hour tour to "Secret Falls". The trip consisted of kayaking, hiking, and swimming in the waterfall. Since it had rained so much the past few days the tour was a little more challenging/muddier/funner than we expected it to be. Plus we had an awesome tour guide that made this day so much fun!

King of the Kayaks

One of the overflow "waterfalls" that the flash flooding created

Secret Falls

 Our guide said the water was high and swift & he did not recommend playing in the waterfall, but Jeff took that on as a challenge and decided he wanted to go behind the waterfall. He said, "We didn't come all this way just to LOOK at the waterfall". So our guide gave him some much needed instruction and Jeff headed into the beast...

When we got back to our hotel room, we had to take advantage of the great weather and BBQed our marinated pineapple chicken. It was oh so delicious!!!

Caribbean Pineapple Chicken with mashed potatoes and a fresh mango
Doesn't get much better than that!

Day 4: Guess what..... NO RAIN TODAY EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!! Well there was a little sprinkle, but nothing like the sheets of rain that had come down before. So we got to go on another tour with CMJ Stables! We got to go Horseback Riding on the Beach - Wow, what a dream come true! It was amazing! We got to see some movie sites from Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Our horses took us to "Secret Beach" for a little picnic and then we spent some time soakin up rays at the secluded beach.

I wanted to ride this little cutie, but apparently I'm too big for her

So I got this beauty instead

This is when it started raining

SOAKED

We caught the rainbow

The Awesome Camera Man

Jeff got this great video of us horseback riding..... on the beach..... in Kauai..... in the rain!

When we said our goodbyes to our noble steeds, Dinero & Duncan, we headed to Waimea Canyon (The Grand Canyon of Kauai). It was so beautiful so I'll let the pictures do the talking...

We made it all the way to the top, but couldn't see anything...

Apparently it is usually covered in clouds so it is one of the wettest spots on Earth

We made it back down under the clouds just in time to catch the sunset

Then we went to the famous "Scotty's BBQ Pit" for authentic Hawaiian BBQ

Day 5: RAINED OUT AGAIN  :(

 "Road Closed" a too familiar sign we hoped we saw the last of, but NO. Mother Nature was not happy today. She released all of the fury she had held back the last 2 days. I'm not kidding when I say EVERY road out of Princeville was closed. There were people stuck in this city that didn't have a place to stay and there was only one grocery store in the city. Of course we needed food so...

we joined everyone else in the city and went to get food. It seriously felt like the world was ending. The store had the manager greet everyone (or try to turn everyone away) by stating they had limited food supply and said it would take 45 minutes to check out. Although it was a low-level emergency, I was impressed how orderly everyone was despite the chaos. It makes me realize that we need to be prepared because you never know when an emergency is going to happen.

So today we stayed inside, watched movies, and ate like royalty!

Frozen Burritos & Sushi

Followed by Fresh Pineapple & Ice Cream

Day 6: We did our research last night and discovered that when it rains on the island it's still always sunny on the West Shore. So we were going to test that theory. We just hoped the roads opened back up for us -- and guess what!? THE ROADS WERE OPEN!!!!! So we took our lovely Ford Fusion to the other side of the island only to find out that the last 5 miles of the trip are on a dirt road that is not taken care of. We needed that hummer I requested earlier, but we decided since it was a rental car and we are adventurous that we were going to attempt to get to the sunny side of the island. You guessed it, we took another video of this great adventure.

P.S. We think we should get paid advertising for all the mention we make of our "Ford Fusion". It really was a great car.... I'm not sure how awesome it was when we were done with it, but it worked great for us!

WE MADE IT & IT WAS WELL WORTH THE DRIVE!!!! With a picnic in hand, we were prepared to spend the whole day soakin up the sun!!

Day 7: It rained hard the last day on the Island. Luckily our plan for the day was to get everything packed up and find us some souvenirs. 

Goodbye Cute Hotel

Hello worlds best nut

 I think we bought the store out of Mauna Loa's Milk Chocolate Toffee Macadamia Nuts -- They are to-die-for! We bought so many that they couldn't fit in our luggage & so we had to eat a whole bag before our flight left, YumYum! We had a great trip with once in a life time opportunities & we loved every minute of it. Rain/Natural Disasters and all!