Tomorrow Is Another Day...

So Cultured I Should Be in a Petrie Dish

Current count of Washington days remaining?  Forty-three.  And nine of those will be spent house hunting in South Carolina.  So, I've been a bit busy to say the least.  I've been working regularly.  We've been working to keep the house presentable on a regular basis should any prospective renters want to check it out.  And of course we've been doing all of those fun Washington things that we won't be able to do in a month and a half. 

Over the course of two weeks I went with friends to see Pink Martini in Tacoma, with my opera pal to see La Traviata at the Seattle Opera, and then on a double date to see A Streetcar Named Desire at the Theatre on the Square in Tacoma.  Pink Martini put on an incredible show and reminded me of a band that would have played at The Tropicana with Ricky Ricardo.  La Traviata was absolutely gorgeous and deliciously tragic, and Streetcar was thoroughly depressing but surprisingly well performed for a community theater presentation.

Aside from that we've just been continuously freaking out about the move.  We leave on Monday to spend a little over a week getting to know the Charleston area.  We're going armed with an army of worksheets, an extensive spreadsheet of houses we've been tracking, a preapproval letter, and the knowledge that the government is completely unsympathetic to our flight. 

When we bemoan the state of our mortgage situation, helpful folks tend to remind us of the house-buying program for mlitary members who are being made to move during the current housing crisis.  Bummer for us, we bought our house two months too early to qualify for that program.  Then when the internet made me aware of the fact that the home-buyers tax credit has been extended through 2010 and is now available to current home owners, I actually got my hopes up for a moment before finding the fine print specifiying that eligibility is restricted to people who have owned their homes for more than five years.  We're hovering right around three.  You know, it's not that I expect the government to bail me out, and I fully appreciate the fact that there are people who are in far worse situations than I, but it's still a little disheartening every time you realize that some people are eligible for handouts and you aren't.  But still, I'm a firm believer is smaller government anyway, so whatever, I DON'T WANT YOUR NONEXISTANT MONOPOLY MONEY ANYWAY, AMERICA!!

So, that's pretty much that.  I'm excited about Halloween this weekend and the chance to spend a whole day thinking about something OTHER than the jumble of debt to income ratio, neighborhood crime statistics, and the vast difference a 5.0% interest rate can make on your mortgage payment as opposed to 5.25%...  Sigh.  In the words of Alice, it would be so nice if something made sense for a change.

This Wasn't Supposed to Be a Shopping Post

It's a good thing I don't blog for my health...  The thing about having become so sporadic about my blog posting is that so many events build up between the times I take to write here that by the time I make an effort to sit down and type something out, it just seems too overwhelming and I don't know where to start.  Then, before I know what's happened, I'm simultaneously watching television, playing Shanghai Dynasty on Facebook, and perusing realtor.com.  And nary a blog is posted.  So, what say you we alleviate some of this boring wordy wordness with some PICTURES!  As Alice says, "What is the use of a book without pictures?"  Particularly if it's a picture book.

That rather neatly segues me into my first topic, which is Halloween.  I'm going to be mighty sad if I move to Charleston and don't manage to find a group of friends who will get dressed up and get a little crazy with me every October 31st.  However, for now I'll be enjoying my last Halloween with this group of friends dressed as Alice in Wonderland.  And how perfect is this Alice dress?
 

Now, the trick is convincing Colby to dress up as The Mad Hatter.  Come on, how cute would we be??  After purchasing this dress, I promised myself that I just needed one more thing to complete my fall/winter wardrobe before cutting myself off completely from shopping once more.  That thing?  The perfect brown boots.  Now, do I already have a fabulous pair of brown boots?  Well... yes.  But these brown boots are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!  Here's a visual.  Old brown boots:

(Fact that this is a terrible picture acknowledged, but it's the best I could do on short notice)

New brown boots:

They have it all.  Gorgeous color.  Feminine heel.  Interesting details.  And most importantly... comfort.  In my search for these elusive perfect boots, I entered the hallowed halls of Neiman Marcus.  Let me tell you, if you ever want to feel poor, inadequate, and slightly ashamed of your outfit, treat yourself to 15 minutes in Neiman Marcus.  Despite my temporary bout of insecurity, I did feel a little as though I had died and gone to fashion heaven.  I was literally surrounded by labels... Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenburg, Manolo, Michael Kors, Catherine Malandrino... it was thrilling.  And heartbreaking.  I tried on this adorable Nanette Lepore dress and these gorgeous Louboutins, and I'm not kidding when I tell you that I teared up ever so slightly when I had a seriously think about our checking account.

And I've never been accused of having excessively high levels of self-confidence, but for reals y'all, that dress looks SO much cuter on me than it does on the model.  Anyway, the Neiman Marcus effect came into play with the boot purchase in that after having the strength of will to say no to $1500 worth of merchandise at Neiman's, dropping $250 measly bucks at that rat-hole Nordstrom suddenly seemed like a pittance.  I suddenly have a whole new sympathy for shopping addicts.

Um, and seriously, this blog post was supposed to be about so much more than shopping, and yet, that's what it has turned into.  I cannot be held responsible.  I'm sitting here looking at those heavenly purple shoes and my brain has completely turned to mush...  This must be how men feel when women with extraordinary breasts are within view.

Oh, Charleston? So Glad You Asked!

Somehow, the only possible explanation being some kind of rift in the space-time continuum, it is now October.  This is exciting for a few reasons but a little terrifying as well due to the fact that this means we now have just a few days over two months left in Washington.  Based on the alarming speed at which the past two months have flown by, I'm a bit overwhelmed by all there is that's left to do.

What this means is that if you're alone with me for any reason, or unwise enough to strike up a conversation with me in a fit of boredom, you will likely be subjected to an hours long litany of the ways that I am simultaneously excited, nervous, sad, thrilled and horrified by the prospect of moving to South Carolina.  I'm not even exaggerating.  I'm pretty sure I talked my parents' ears off about this subject for a minimum of two hours on Friday and then spent an entire baby shower on Saturday trying to staunch the inevitable flow of verbal diarrhea whenever anyone so much as glanced in my direction.

All that's left to do is document my current emotional state here.  Let us imagine that you've wandered over with one of my delicious lavender-lemon sugar cookies to pay me a compliment on the delicate balance of flavors, and then politely commented that I must be getting awfully excited about moving.

Well, I say to you with a smile, I certainly am excited.  Of course, I'm sad to leave my friends behind, but I'm very much looking forward to moving back to the South, and we're lucky enough to already have a few friends living there, so hopefully I won't have to spend as many months feeling like a social pariah as I did when I moved to Washington.  And of course, we'll be closer to family and I'm very much looking forward to being back in SEC country.

You nod, with a still slightly interested smile, and ask whether we're planning on buying?

I tilt my head ever so charmingly and give a self-deprecating smile.  We are indeed, but it's turning out to be a much more stressful situation than I had imagined.  You see, when we bought our house here, we were wide-eyed and full of hope, certain of our wise financial decision and proud of our ability to purchase our dream house.  Then, of course, months later the market came crashing down around our ears and we've spent the past two and a half years wincing at each property value assessment that arrives, biting our nails nervously as houses in our neighborhood sit on the market for months and then sell at a fraction of their purchase price, and more and more frequently "For Rent" signs are in yards instead of "For Sale".  Don't even talk to me about Zillow.

We've made the difficult, but at this point only feasible, decision to keep our house in Washington and rent it out, which makes getting a second mortgage quite challenging.  We're much more realistic now about the pitfalls of home-ownership, so while we're happy to be moving to an area with a slightly lower cost of living, the romantic associations we once had with house-hunting are more than a little tarnished after our acquaintance with the harsh realities of the real estate market.

At this point your eyes have glazed over, your cookie is digested and you're searching for a way to extricate yourself from the conversation, correctly judging the fact that I've really only just gotten started on my monologue.

Fortunately, I say, smiling through the tears, we have a friend whose father is a property manager, so he'll take care of finding our renters and doing the "landlord" business, and we are fairly certain with a rental contract and the probably use of a VA loan, we more than likely won't be homeless in Charleston.  We could rent there of course, but we prefer owning--even after our experience owning in Washington, believe it or not.  We know a lot more now about how to pick a house that we love, but that also has better potential for resale value, and have educated ourselves a bit more about the risks that we are taking.

We're hoping to have a rental agreement and preapproval letter in hand by the end of this month and will be visiting Charleston the first week in November to house hunt, armed with spreadsheets, checklists, lists of questions, and inexplicably, a St. Joseph medallion despite the fact that one of us is a lapsed Methodist and the other a lapsed Catholic.  I figure, in these trying times, one simply cannot be too superstitious... or religious... whatever.

Your head suddenly jerks upright and your face is suffused with a joyful glow as you suddenly realize that this conversation isn't real, you're simply reading a blog, and you know exactly where the exit button is.

Fallness

I don't think that Washington is aware of the fact that it is now Fall.  Shhhh.  Let's just keep that fact between you and me.  I remember once upon a time in a land of endless summer, wishing desperately for just one day below 70 degrees so that I could wear my sweaters, jackets and boots at least a couple of times over the course of the year.  Oh, how the tables have turned!  I'm sure by next year I'll be back to praying for a couple of cold snaps around September.  But for now, I am perfectly happy with our sunny 80 degree Washington days

Would you like to know what else I am happy with?  All of those other lovely Fall events.  School is back in session which means I am making money.  With that money, I can once more afford new sweaters!  With those sweaters, I can go to exciting Fall festivals, like Oktoberfest in a tiny, Bavarian-themed Oregon town.  At that Oktoberfest I can drink overpriced wine and learn to polka!

Yes folks, I have learned to polka and I nearly died trying.  You try hopping from foot to foot at a frantic pace as a German gent in leiderhosen flings you around a dance floor.  You will probably die trying too.  But at least it would be a pretty enjoyable way to go.  Seriously, how did the polka go out of fashion, let's bring it back!  And the Charleston too while we're at it--I think it would be rather precious to dance the Charleston in Charleston, don't you?

Oh, and also, Fall television?  I welcome you back with open arms.  There are so many shows that I am L-O-V-I-N-G right now.  I'll have to do a run down once I get my schedule fully set.  I'm still on a trial period with some of the newer shows, but let's just say that Glee and Community have nothing to worry about.

This is kind of all over the place, isn't it?  I'll be honest, I'm blogging because I can't think of a concluding paragraph for a paper that I have to turn in tonight.  And next I'll probably watch Glee, then sometime around 11:30 pm, I'll bang out 75-100 words in random order and call it a day.  Hey, at least it wasn't another Hawaii post, right?

Yes, Another Hawaii Post

I was hoping that I would be able to wrap up Hawaii in one more post, but what can I say, we just did too much.  I thought about skimming through the rest of our trip, but while I generally keep a trip journal for every day of our big vacations, this time I forgot.  All I have to remember our trip is the pictures and what I write here, so I feel strongly that I need to do this right.  So. when we last left that tropic isle, I was having tiny fits of nervousness as we walked home from dinner in anticipation of the next morning's adventure.

You see, when we met up with our friends in Kauai, they told us all about a lovely kayak tour they did up the Wailua River to a beautiful waterfall where they were able to swim and frolic and eat a picnic lunch together.  I could see the light in Colby's eye as they talked about their excursion into nature, but I knew that he would never ask me if that's something I would be interested in trying because of all the times I'd looked askance at kayakers and pondered the many varieties of death one could encounter in that manner.  So, being the loving wife that I am, I proposed that we try to book a kayaking tour in Oahu.  Surely they have rivers and waterfalls there!

Well, they do.  But the kayak tour that we booked just happened to be in the ocean.  Yes, I willingly agreed--nay SUGGESTED--that we go ocean kayaking when I was still working up to putting my face in the water and relinquishing my floaties.  Needless to say, I was a bundle of snappish nerves that morning, and I tried to mostly just keep my mouth shut for fear that the harpy inside of me would come flying out at the least provocation as we signed a waiver and stowed our worldly goods in a tiny, damp locker.

Much to my surprise, I was able to get into the kayak without tipping it over, and even more surprising, when the waves weren't bouncing us high into the air and dashing me with gallons of saltwater, the experience was verging on enjoyable.  We went from Kailua Beach out to Flat Island, a tiny island and sea bird sanctuary, where we swam for a while and took a little walk around the volcanic terrain.  Feeling a little more confident about my skills after our trip out to the island, the trip back in was much more enjoyable and my snappish comments to Colby much fewer and farther between as I was no long convinced with every paddle dip that we were about to go overboard.  It was about 30 minutes out to the island and a little less on the way back as we weren't going against the waves, and I think I can say with a degree of sincerity that I would do it again.  Though I think the river kayaking would be a bit less stressful.

And as though that level of excitement could possibly be topped, we went to get pizza at a tiny restaurant next to the kayaking company and lo, what to our wondering eyes should appear?  Jorge Garcia, of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes on Lost fame, walking right by our table as he went to pick up a large pizza.  Alas, there is no photographic evidence of this moment in time as we were camera- and phone-less, but it was still pretty amazing and surreal.

 

We spent the afternoon driving around Lanikai, a ritzy neighborhood near Kailua searching for more Lost cast members to no avail, swinging by Moloki'i Island (also known as Chinaman's Hat for... obvious reasons), and visiting Byodo-in-Temple which was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese workers arriving in Hawaii and is more famously known as Sun's father's house on Lost (Are we noticing a theme here??  It was really totally unplanned!).  It was a beautiful temple and we had a great time walking around the grounds, taking in the dramatic surroundings, and feeding the fish and swans.  That evening we hiked up to the Makapu'u Lighthouse where we were granted an incredible view of Oahu's coastline and the islands of Manana and Kaohikaipu.

And after a day like that, we treated ourselves to some treats from the Cookie Corner conveniently located next to our hotel, and collapsed on the balcony where we enjoyed our saturated fats and a gorgeous sunset before kicking off our last two days in paradise.

Oh Frabjous Day, Callooh Callay

Look at me, being all positive despite adversity.  Rise above and all that.

Obviously, lots of fantastic things have happened lately.  Hawaii was smashingly fun, and I'd definitely do that again.  Then over the Labor Day weekend, we had some college friends come in town for the LSU v UW game.  We had a great time showing them the sights of Seattle and Tacoma, eating ourselves half to death, and of course watching the Tigers beat up on some Huskies. 

It was actually kind of hilarious--I think we managed to frighten and overwhelm a large number of Seattleites as 10,000+ LSU fans crashed into their city and turned it upside down.  I couldn't help but laugh as we walked through Pike Place Market on Friday and heard the mellifluous tones of Southern accents on every corner, LSU flags and stickers flying proudly from cars on the street, and I don't think I've ever heard any zydeco in Seattle until this past weekend.  The natives seemed a bit bemused by the influx, and we were asked on more than one occasion if we were here for some kind of conference organized by the university.

Um, yes.  It's a conference on a large grassy field upon which we take turns throwing a strangely shaped ball and ultimately defeat you.  It's lots of fun.

But there have been some other less thrilling events that have taken place over the past few weeks/days.  First, our offense is decent, but our defense is deplorable.  Then, I found out that the amazing opportunity I had at work to move to a closer site had fallen through when not enough kids were signed up for the before and after program at the school.  And my old site had already filled my vacated position.  And being that I'm moving in a little over three months, it wouldn't really make sense for me to start at a new site anyway.  So, I was offered a position subbing, which is better than nothing, but not the income we were hoping to be able to save for moving costs.

Still, things were looking up when I got a call to sub at a site both yesterday and today--I started to think maybe I actually will be able to get some hours!  So, I got all dressed to go, grabbed my name tag and a granola bar, went to start my car and... nothing.  Nothing but a click, click, click... whine...  Sigh.  So, I called my boss and apologized profusely about the fact that there was no way I could get to work in the next 20 minutes and instead of making money, we're going to be shelling out money to have God knows what on my car fixed.  And I'm stuck at home.  Not that I necessarily wanted to go anywhere mind you, but I don't like feeling stuck.

And on top of all that, I'm having the worst time getting my car signed over to Colby's name so that we can legally register it in Louisiana and not have to worry about changing it every time we move.  I thought I'd taken care of everything I needed to and was ready to go to court to argue my case, and then, I suppose unsurprisingly, the form that we paid a notary twenty bucks to fill out was filled out wrong.

So, there's that.  But to console myself I've taken to scouring realtor.com and reading Charleston message boards and dreaming of a life in the South where nothing ever goes wrong, money grows on trees, and the streets are paved in gold.  Maybe I could be a notary... twenty dollars for 10 minutes of work and a fancy stamp?  Not bad.

Growing Up Optional

It's a Friday night that I sit here, waiting for my husband to get home from a work trip and pondering the strangeness of life.

For one thing, I have a husband.  I've been married for almost two years, and I still can't really quite wrap my mind around that particular development.  And not only do I have a husband, but I'm married to the boy I had a silly crush on when I was seventeen.  If I could go back in time, find myself in the quad where I would frequently "run into" him accidentally on purpose, I would love to deliver that bit of news to seventeen-year-old Angela and see the look on her face.

Another weird thing?  I own a house.  My name is on a title for a HOUSE.  I mean, only grownups own houses right?  So what does that make me?  I certainly don't feel like a grownup.  I don't feel any different than that seventeen-year-old Angela--and if we're being really honest here, ten-year-old Angela.

One of my favorite family stories revolves around my grandmother on my dad's side.  In her 80s, as she was slipping away from us into the haze of dementia and I suddenly realized that there was no way that deep, nut-brown hair color was real as her last dye job faded away and she didn't bother with a touch up, in a moment of rare clarity she said, "You know, sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder how a sixteen year old girl got trapped inside this old lady's body."

In just a few short months, I'll be turning 27.  I have a husband.  I own a house.  People my age and younger are having babies.  On purpose.  And, in most cases, no one seems to think they're making an unwise decision.  Sometimes I pick up a shirt, or a dress, or a headband that I really love, but I put it back down because really it's too young for me.

I wish I could pinpoint the exact time in which I made the transition from girl to woman.  Maybe then it would feel more real that all of this is really my life.  But maybe that leaves the portal open.

Maybe you never do have to grow up.  Not in a Peter Pan way--yes, there are responsibilities that must be accepted and certain social mores that should generally be followed--but sometimes maybe it's okay to wear a headband with a bow or to put off laundry for one more day in favor of a play-date with your friends.

Because isn't that the part of being a grownup that you always dreamed of when you were a kid?  Making your own rules and eating ice cream for dinner?  Growing up is a weird and strange evolution, and I know that the next sixty years will fly by in what seems like minutes and then I'll be the one sitting in front of a mirror, staring into the wrinkled face of a stranger.

But I think as long as you always know that there's that sixteen year old inside of you, you'll always be okay.  You'll always still be you.

"You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old."
~George Burns

Oahu: The Island of a Bajillion People and Three Interstates

 

So, here's the thing, I'm just going to say it and accept the backlash that this controversial statement will likely create.  I just didn't like Oahu.  I could write paragraph after paragraph listing all of my reasons, but really they can all be summed up thusly:
1) Tiny island, LOTS of people.
2) Big city conventionality.

If you want to get a parking spot at the beach, you have to be there by 8 am, or walk miles from the closest available spot.  It may look like it will only take 10 or 15 minutes to get to Waikiki from the airport, but it will, in fact, take an hour.  And all of this in a place that has become nothing but a bite-sized, beach-side version of Times Square.  Were we miserable while we were there?  Well, sometimes we were, but overall, no.  Were we ready to go home when the seventeenth rolled around?  Yes.

But our hotel room was nice.

And our view was TOO DIE FOR.

 

But first!  We had to finish our Kauai "to do list".  No, I didn't make an itinerary, but come on, you didn't think I would go on vacation with at least SOME sort of goals in mind!  The morning before we caught our flight we woke up to the torrential downpour of Tropical Depression Felicia.  Lucky for us, she apparently had gotten wind of our schedule and was kind enough to clear up for our visit to the Kauai Coffee Company (tried the coffee--still hate it) and the Hyatt at Poipu for lunch (new goal--STAY THERE SOMEDAY).  The waves were still enormous, but the sun was shining, and we were crying on the inside as we headed off to the airport to do battle with the car rental agency.  It was, however, with a joyful heart that we waved goodbye to our crappy PT Cruiser, and soon we were back in the air, on the way to our next island.

We were greeted by a lovely rainbow over the mountains as we drove to Waikiki, but opted to stay in for the night as Felicia's rain had followed us.  We dined on delicious Wolfgang Puck Express Pizzas as we watched the mysteries of magic revealed on tv.  The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to Pearl Harbor to visit the Arizona Memorial.  It was an intensely powerful experience, and I found myself not in the minority as a few tears made an appearance as I looked down into the oil-slicked water.  It wasn't the most uplifting moment of our trip, but I think a reminder about the true cost of freedom is important every now and then.

For lunch, we decided to check out Hickham AFB, where a few of our friends will be moving in the next few months, and then went back to the hotel to get ready for the Hale Koa luau that evening.  Now, I can't speak for other luaus, but I can tell you this, if you're looking for good food, hot men climbing coconut trees, women shaking what the good Lord gave them, and a delicious pina colada, then the Hale Koa luau is the place for you.  We were even treated to an adult contemporary hit of the late 80s as the MC sang his world famous chart topper, Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You.  (You have to watch that video--horses, beaches, sunsets, pink sundresses--you will NOT regret it.)  (I may or may not have downloaded that the minute I got back home.)  (I did.)  He's a high school teacher now.

The next morning we totally rejected the schedule we'd decided on the night before and slept until after ten.  Which meant that we began hiking Diamond Head around noon.  Bad Idea Pants.  Which leads me to a recurring observation we had about Hawaiian hiking levels--they say "easy", I say "It's not easy if you can't hike it with a pina colada in hand and not break a sweat."  They say "potato", I say "bullshit".  Fortunately, it was a fairly impressive sight once we heaved our broken bodies up the final step, and even more fortunately there was a moderately shady spot for me to sit.  Triple fortunate, and a damn good marketing strategy, there was a shave ice stand at the bottom of the crater.

We rewarded ourselves with a long afternoon at the beach across the street from our hotel, and that night had the great fortune of meeting up with a longtime "internet friend", Mandy, and her husband.  We met at the Outrigger Waikiki for dinner at the Hula Grill, then wedged ourselves into Duke's for an after-dinner drink.  It was so much fun to meet someone that I've felt so close to over the years without ever having actually met and have her turn out to be just as awesome in person as she is online.  I could have happily sucked down another couple of daiquiris, but we were all clearly wiped out by 9:30 and my stomach was already tying itself up in knots at the thought of our next morning's adventure...

Kauai Did We Have to Leave??

And then there was no internet.  We stayed in a great hotel on Oahu for the last five days of our trip, and they provided everything we could ever need, including internet for the low, low price of $9.95 per day.  Eye roll.  I know all 2 of you have been anxiously awaiting my next Hawaii update, so my deepest apologies for making you wait this long.  Let's finish up in Kauai today, shall we?

On the 9th we made our transition from our B&B in Princeville to one on the south shore, so we wanted to finish up all of the "things to do" on the north shore before heading down.  We started off with a hike to Queen Emma's Bath, an amazing naturally created pool in a lava rock formation right in the ocean.  Because 1) I am a chickenshit and 2) There were a lot of people jumping and splashing around in the pool, I opted not to actually get in the pool, but we had fun watching other people jump in. We finished up the north shore with a visit to Lumahai Beach where the "Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" scene from South Pacific was filmed, and lastly Kilauea Lighthouse, a combination lighthouse and bird sanctuary--two for the price of one!

Our B&B in Lawai was... beyond words.  It was the most beautiful B&B I've ever stayed in with an absolutely spectacular view, and I'm already dreaming of going back again in our hopefully not too distant future.  I don't know if I want to share it with the world, but it's pretty popular already, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to tell you that it was the Kauai Banyan Inn.  Just don't try to book the Ulu suite for the same time as us!  We discovered a couple of days before we left for our trip that a couple of our friends from college were going to be in Kauai while we were there, so that night we got together for a delicious dinner at Brennecke's on Poipu.

The next morning, we headed out to Waimea Canyon--the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  Since I've never seen the ACTUAL Grand Canyon, I can't make a comparison, but Waimea was pretty dang impressive.  We drove to a few of the overlooks, then got down to the business of beach-going. 

We made our way to Poipu and I camped out on the beach with my book while Colby tried his hand at body-boarding.  He had fun for a little while, but eventually the waves began to overpower pretty much everyone out there as they grew in size.  It was one of the few effects of Tropical Depression Felicia that we felt, and it was actually pretty cool to see the 10-12 foot high waves and the locals body-boarding and surfing.  That night we opted to stay in and enjoy a quiet night on our private porch overlooking the old sugar mill and the ocean.

On the 11th, we went for breakfast at Eggberts in Ka'apa, then met up with our friends again and went to Wailua and Opa'eka Falls.  I was still in search of what I call a good "floating beach".  All of the beaches we'd been to so far were gorgeous, but they were covered in coral making them good for snorkeling, or pretty wavy making them great for surfing or body-boarding, but all I wanted to do was get in the ocean and float!  We FINALLY found the perfect floating beach in Salt Pond Beach and I just got on my noodle and floated to my heart's content all afternoon.

After we had our fill of floating, we packed up our mountain of beach gear and caravanned over to the Barking Sands military base where we walked the gorgeous beach and then offroaded a bit to Poli Hale State Park.  We watched the sunset at the state park and it really was the perfect combination of sandy beach, crashing waves, and dramatic cliffs at the start of the Na Pali Coast.  Unfortunately, on our way back to our B&B, our radiator busted on us, so the four of us ended up doing some late night "redneck camping" on our beach chairs and mats on the side of Kaumaulii Highway, waiting for the tow truck to rescue us.

It was certainly an interesting way to spend our last night in Kauai, but it's definitely one of those vacation moments I will always remember.  The next day Felicia finally hit the island and we were off to Oahu where we experienced a completely different side to Hawaii.

Just Another Day for Me in Paradise

Kauai, in a word, is paradise. It's the most beautiful and the closest to untouched place that I've ever been, and as much as I’m sure Oahu will be a blast, I’m kind of heartbroken to be leaving this tiny little island in the Pacific.

We arrived on August 6th, and having decided to split our trip between the North and South shores, we headed up to Princeville to the Princeville Bed & Breakfast for the first half of our stay.  The B&B was a beautiful home on a golf course, and we really got to feel as though we were part of a family as we got to know our fellow boarders and the sweet couple running the place over breakfast chats.

We began our time in Kauai with fish tacos, a bottle of wine, and a twilight dip in Hanalei bay before crashing into a deep sleep in preparation for hiking the Kalalau trail along the Na Pali coast. The hike begins at Ke’e beach in Haena State Park and winds along the Na Pali cliffs for 11 miles, ending at Kalalau Beach, but we opted to just do the first 2 miles out to Hanakapi’ai Beach and then back to Ke’e to sun ourselves (me) and snorkel (Colby) for the rest of the day.

The hike was definitely strenuous at times, and we were glad that we had stashed as much water in our backpack as we did, but we were rewarded with the most glorious views of the coastline and the ocean, and Hanakapi’ai Beach was definitely worth the trek. If we ever make it back here—which I very much hope we do—it is possible that I could be talked into the 11 mile hike with a sleepover at Kalalau before hiking back.  I’m sure it’s a test of one’s mettle, but if the views we had over the first two miles were any indication, it would absolutely be worth it.

Saturday we got up with the chickens (literally, the amount of wild chickens roaming this island is absolutely astounding—and they particularly like to make their presence known in the wee hours of the morning), and drove down to Port Allen on the southern coast for our catamaran trip along the Na Pali. I was a little worried about seasickness, but I’m proud to say that I made a pretty decent little sailor (though a sailor who was sure to keep a firm grip on the railings at all times).

Once again, our views of the Na Pali were magnificent, and we stopped to sail for a little while before those who wanted to got out to snorkel and the rest of us (me and a French girl) chose to sit on the boat and hang our feet in the water. Though I didn’t snorkel (I'm still... working up to that...), I saw plenty of fish swimming around near the surface, and on our way out to the snorkel spot we saw a few sea turtles tumbling along and scores of adorable spinner dolphins earning their name. After lunch, we motored on back to Port Allen, and decided we were very glad we had woken up early to do the morning tour as the sea hadvgotten substantially choppier in the early afternoon hours.

That afternoon, we packed up our beach gear and headed out to Tunnels beach, which apparently has a reef so large it can be seen from space. I floated around a bit on a boogie board while Colby went in pursuit of undersea creatures, we went for a beach walk which led us to a sleepy Monk Seal taking a nap on the shore, and then we sat on the beach reading until we were met with a gorgeous beach sunset. All of that beauty and we were only 2 ½ days into our trip, as we would find out, Kauai just kept getting better and better…