Look out Hawaii......here we come!!

Aloha!

I'm certain that ALL our followers were wondering where we've been, as its been a couple weeks since our last post. Well, we were off to Hawaii with a few friends for 10 days in Paradise! We have been talking about Hawaii for some time now, always saying that "if we did it, we wanted to do it right", and boy, I think we succeeded! At a dinner party many months back, after likely too much wine, it was decided that we were going to book a monster house on the beach somewhere in Hawaii and go. After much looking, we found a "acceptable" house - a 9 bedroom house, on a cliff, overlooking the ocean/beach/lighthouse on the North shore of Kauai - a smaller, less commercialized island. The home had pretty much all we would ever need......a hot tub, pool, tennis court, huge kitchen, and enough room for everyone to be there without being in the way. Below is one pic of the house, standing towards the water, looking back.

Now getting here was another story, as we did the "Fort McMurray to Calgary to Vancouver to Lihue" milk run. Not exactly a picnic with kids, as the final leg from Vancouver to Lihue was almost 7 hours......or it was supposed to be 7 hours. We had been informed that due to headwinds, we would have to land in Maui for fuel, then proceed to Lihue. We finally arrived almost 3 hours late, scurried to get our rental cars, then drove across the island to Kilauea where our house was. Thankfully, Omar and Norma arrived a few hours earlier, so the first of many "booze runs" was completed, along with a few required groceries. After a litter better than a half hour drive, we arrived, in total darkness to our mansion.....hearing the sound of the ocean crashing below was amazing, but we had no idea what it would look like, as it was total darkness. Below is what we woke up to, from our porch........not bad at all!!!

It seems as the home was perched on a cliff, about 500 feet above the ocean. There were steps down to a very nice, sandy beach, but the walk was extremely difficult/steep....not exactly kid friendly, but I put Kate on my shoulders and we headed down.....and we were rewarded with this:

You can barely see our house in the top left of this picture.....but wow.....what a spot!!

By far, our favorite, and most visited beach was at Hanalei Pier - which offered pretty much all you could ask for. There were mountains in the background, amazing sand for the kids to play in, waves to surf on, and Pat's Taqueria - an awesome taco stand which we frequented!

Hanalei Pier - the spot to be!!

Lauren "sampling" the sand at Hanalei

Kate hard at work

Lauren LOVED the water - so much in fact,

that she would just charge into it, no matter

how big the wave, or how deep it was.

Kate and Daniel enjoying the sand

Getting ready to hit the water

Surfer Ben....one lesson and look at him go!!

Ben after the seagull attack.....wait......that's the

suntan lotion that his Dad wouldn't work in.....

Kate enjoying the view at Lydgate beach

Lauren and Abby hangin' on the beach

Mad Dog, Lauren, and I at Anini Beach

Looking out over the tarot fields

View from St Regis Hotel....5+ star place......5+ star view

Humpback whale while we were out fishing

The waterfall from Jurassic Park - the boys did a helicopter tour

of the island.....WOW!!!!

Birds of Paradise flower.....in our front yard

Flying a kite with two 2 year olds??? Not a chance!!

Banana tree.....in our yard

Lemon tree....by banana tree....in our yard

Princeville Prince....hosts PGA events, as well as

Omar, Heels, and Coz

Cheeseball smile....while enjoying a banana

Family Picture from the Back Yard

All in all, it was an absolutely amazing trip. The island is known as the Garden Island....or, as Omar put it, like Maui 20 years ago. While the major tourism takes place in the South, I think all families agreed that the North was the place to be....kind of away from it all, yet not too far if things were needed. We ended up staying for 10 days - and on the last day, found out that Will Smith (yes...actor Will Smith) had bought the house three doors down, so this spot truly has something to offer. The sound of the crashing waves never stopped......the spotting of humpback whales were almost become boring towards the end (you would see hundreds of them throughout the day right off our patio)....and the weather was 85 degF give or take a degree all the time. The home we rented was very, very nice....but it was the view/sounds that were the real prize here. The crashing of the ocean NEVER stopped......and walking out onto the deck to enjoy a beer and watch whales is something none of us may ever find again. Our helicopter tour showed us some new angles of the island......like the "rainiest place on earth" which is near the middle of the island and gets over 400 inches of rain a year. The fruit and vegetables......not much can be said other than WOW. Jeff H became famous for his nightly guacamole from scratch.....and just cutting an orange or pineapple or lime oozed juice. The boys were lucky enough to bring some of our catch home from the fishing trip - Omar "poached" one on the BBQ and Jeff H pan fried the other.....WOW is all that can be said about the taste/freshness of what we enjoyed. Of note, Omar "was" the leading fisherman until Ben shifted into gear and blew past with 11 or so fish caught in total. We were also lucky enough to celebrate "Mad Dog's" 10th birthday on the island.....a birthday that I'm sure she'll remember for many years to come. Many small roadside stands sold smoothies (or soobies, as Kate would call them) which we had to stop for every day. There was a bakery minutes from the house that had amazing pastries, coffee, and pizza, as well as an ice cream shop which, in Jeff H and Andrea's words "had the absolute best ice cream they have EVER tasted". Turns out the ice cream is made by an executive chef of Wolfgang Puck's......seems as though many people come to the island to visit, but are unable to leave. We heard many stories of people who had a stand somewhere that just "left it all" for this.....and have never regretted it for a minute. We stopped by a farmers market (by the advise of Mark G, who was there three weeks prior) to find a vendor selling wild boar and chicken...roasted by the roadside. It was beyond description how great this $10 meal was! We also golfed the Princeville Prince course.....which has hosted PGA events. Amazing would be an understatement. It would go from total mountain course to an on the ocean course to an into the jungle course in the matter of a few holes.....and very, very, very tough!

If I had to pick one bad part of Hawaii, it would be the cost of things. Some items were very cheap, but if something had to be flown in, you knew it by the price. But we all felt it was a very small price to pay to enjoy 10 days in paradise. If I had it my way, we'd be booking for 2011......same island....same house.....same amazing vacation.

That's all for now........Mahalo.