Kauai part 1

I finally made it to the island I've wanted to go to since I first started daydreaming about Hawaii — the island of Kauai. It's the farthest west and north of the main Hawaiian islands, and about 50 minutes flying time from Kona. A friend of ours Julie lives over there so we went for three days.



Immediately when we got off the plane in Lihue, we went on a kayaking tour on the Hule'ia river. We've kayaked a bunch on the Big Island, but that's in the ocean in blue, clear water. It was different kayaking on a flat, muddy, shallow river. Anyway, we paddled about two miles upstream, past dense mangroves along the shoreline and lush, jagged, small mountains in the background.



We pulled the kayaks onto the shore and hiked through the jungle for a mile to this swimming hole. The guide, like many of them here, had plenty of interesting info to share about the natural environment and Hawaiian history. We swung out over the water on the rope swing and dropped off, which was fun and refereshing in the cool water. This isn't one of us swinging, although Peggy shot some video of me taking a turn.



The tour guide had his spot where everyone was forced to have their picture taken. I was able to take my camera kayaking because of the red dry bag over my shoulder. The only problem with this photo is someone has their eyes closed. Open em!



So here is where day one ended, at our friend Julie's cool house in the Kilauea area. Kauai gets the most rain of the islands and is the oldest, so it's very lush, green and tropical — the quintessential Hawaii. And Kilauea is on the windward side of the island, where the most rain occurs. Just near Julie's house is where a dam burst during the winter and the raging water swept away eight people; you may have heard of that in the news. Anyway, this house was really cool, in a quiet, scenic rural area with fruit trees in the yard like banana and lime.

See you on day two...