The best of Kauai and Matt

We took the one on the left.

Wow, we've done so much since I last wrote, be prepared for a long post...or maybe just lots of pictures. So, to backtrack a week, Donnie and I set out one of the coolest adventures we've had on this island.

Gorgeous day

Last Monday, we woke up at 5 am and drove across the island to a harbor town called Port Allen. We arrived around 7:30, and checked in for our five hour sailing trip. The name of the service taking us was Captain Andy's Sailing Adventures, and I would highly recommend them to anyone!! Donnie got a craigslist deal, so we got the trip for about half price and it was spectacular. We boarded a large catamaran with about 20 other people at 8am, and set off for our tour of the Na'Pali coast. It was a crystal clear day, no clouds and a calm sea, so the outgoing trip was smooth and relaxing. We stopped a few times to watch dolphins jump in the waves and see the sea turtles swimming smoothly through the ocean. Our crew was a trio of super friendly and funny locals, and they told us stories about growing up around there, the wildlife, and local folklore about that area. The backdrop of the mountains were unreal.

So Beautiful

Fighting seasickness

 I couldn't really capture with my camera how beautiful that area is, so I spent most of my time just taking it all in. About 2 hours into our adventure, it was time to stop at a nearby reef and snorkel. I was a little nervous about getting in the water, not really knowing what was down there, but we jumped in wholeheartedly. The water was crystal clear, the reef was alive with fish, turtles, sea cucumbers and urchins, and Donnie and I had a blast diving down to get a closer look. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes into snorkeling, I began to feel motion sick and nearly vomited in my snorkel. :( I was mostly worried about attracting a bunch of fish, so I swam back to the boat as fast as I could. Much to my dismay, the seasickness only got worse sitting on the boat, I couldn't stomach lunch and I spent most of the ride back trying to hold down the Sprite I was nursing. Stupid motion sickness. It didn't stop Donnie from having a blast! It was really choppy on the way back so we hung on for dear life and chatted with the other people on the boat. Overall, despite the nausea, I would say it was a fantastic day. We were back on dry land by 2pm, and since we were on that end of the island we decided to explore Poipu beach. Another gorgeous beach, but this one was split down the middle by a sandbar that led to a little mound of sand at the end. It was like a water park walking across it, but it was empty when we arrived and the view of the beach was beautiful. After a long day, we drove back across the island, caught up on bad reality tv and headed to bed.

Poipu!

So excited to see Brother!

We were back on the road Tuesday morning by 5:30am to pick up Matt from the airport. He was ready to make the most of his Hawaiian vacation, so we stopped by the grocery store, came home, had breakfast, then it was back out to the beach! We spent a few hours on Hanalei, then went for a swim before heading to bed early since we were all pretty tired.

Soccer watching at Kalypso

Wednesday started out slow, but we went for a run along the coast near Kapa'a. It was later in the day than I normally run, and was mostly in full sun, so I'm pretty sure it could only be considered a jog for me. But Matt and Donnie toughed it out the whole 6 mile trek. Then we cleaned up and headed back to Kalypso for some USA soccer. It was an ok game, but I was tired so I skipped out for a nap and came to pick the guys up a few hours later. Again, being tired led to an early bed time, which was good because Thursday was exhausting!

Nice lookin' hikers

That's me and Matt!

So the plan was to do a 12 mile hike on Thursday, but I wasn't quite sure I was feeling well enough to do all 12 miles. I was able to talk the boys down to just doing an 8 mile hike, and I even got my way and we hiked up to the falls. We got an early start, as learned from our last hike, and started up the trail around 8am. It was another crystal clear blue day, and the first two miles didn't seem hard at all. We arrived at the Hanakapa'ai beach pretty quickly, but we didn't stay long and continued on up the trail to the Hanakapa'ai Falls. The trail was not always easy to follow, and we had to cross the river four or five times, but when the falls were finally were in view, we knew it was worth it. It was spectacular, and when we arrived at the bottom, there were only a few people there. We jumped in the icy, fresh water and swam up to the falls and around to the sunny side of the falls. There was a moment that I was floating at the base of the falls, looking up at it and I knew I would never forget this place. It was a rewarding and beautiful moment. We didn't stay long, it started to get crowded, so we fueled up on Cliff bars and water and headed back to the beach. The walk back was easier because I had given up trying to keep my shoes dry, and we were back on the beach in no time.

"Oh, Matt."

Hanakapa'ai beach and Matt

  Hanakapa'ai beach is a pristine white beach, but the waves are a little rough. We went for another swim, then explored some sea caves before taking on the last 2 miles of the hike. We finished around lunch time, and headed back into Hanalei for some lunch. The guys decided that we had not had enough adventure for the day, so we rented snorkel gear and headed to Anini beach. Given my previous experience with snorkeling, I was willing to try it again, but nervous about how I would feel. About 20 minutes of swimming around in the not so clear waters of Anini, and I was done. The guys continued to snorkel for another hour or two and made me nervous about how far out they were going. I was pretty mad when they returned, but mostly glad they had made it back safely. Again, exhausted from the day, and a little bit sun spent, we headed back home to get some rest.

Thankfully, Donnie and Matt went golfing on Friday, so I spent the day lounging around the condo, and visiting them when they came to the hole closest to our place. Matt made a solo trip down to Hanalei and Donnie and I laid low when they were done. It was a nice break for me, but the next morning we were up early again!

Poipu beach

Matt's the surfer in the middle.

On Saturday, Matt and I piled into the car around 6:30am to head back down to Poipu beach to surf. I was going to take lessons again, and Matt was going to rent a board and try to surf on his own, but he ended up doing the lesson with me also. It was great fun! Our instructor was a quintessential surfer dude named Josh and he had a dry sense of humor, but a serious knack for teaching people to surf. I was nervous I was going to struggle again, but my muscle memory took over and Matt and I took turns riding waves with the help of Josh. After 2 hours, and countless successful rides, I decided to take a break on the beach and take pics of Matt surfing on his own. He's a bonafide surfer! He paddled into the waves and rode them to shore. :) It was fun to watch! After a quick stop at Poipu to get some sun and relax, we headed back to the North Shore. It was a long drive, we got stuck in parade traffic, and Saturday traffic, so we made a pit stop for some tacos. They were al-pastor tacos, the kind we used to get in Puerto Escondido, but somehow, nobody makes them quite as good as they are in Mexico. The food was good, but I really do miss those street tacos in P.E. We got home in the mid-afternoon, cleaned up and headed to the one hour of happiness at Roy's Tavern down the street. It was delicious, but short-lived, so we headed back down to Hanalei to while away Matt's last hours. We settled into a spot at Tahiti-Nui (as featured in the Descendents) and enjoyed each other's company. Too soon it was time to drive back across the island to the airport.

Rockin' our Kauai gear

It was super fun having Matt here, he has an energy that motivated us to do more in this week than we've done in the past 20 days, and I'm going to miss him. I wish he knew how incredibly loved he really is, he's such a caring, and empathetic person. I really respect him. I wish we had more time to just relax, and I hope he knows how proud I am of him. He's accomplished a lot at a young age, and he might not give himself credit for it, but I do. ;) Love you, Matty.

So now here we are. Less than a week left here in the islands and a week and a half left before we leave for China. At the risk of sounding jaded and spoiled, I really just want to go home. I knew it would be hard to be away from Paul this long, and having Matt here was definitely a good distraction, but now I just feel like I'm waiting for the week to go by to get back to my little man. I'm going to try my best to stay in the moment and enjoy these last few days here, but I can't help looking forward. It's weird to be wanting the summer to end, but at the same time savoring all of the downtime. To me, next week won't come soon enough.

Bonus video!! Dolphins!