Kauai Day 4

After spending the night in our luxurious hotel, I awoke refreshed and rested.  Darren woke up early for his conference-and I slept in while Paul roamed the hotel and pools.  It was wonderful.   And Paul was happy as could be acting like a little adult, being able to walk around on his own. I had been so exhausted, so I was thrilled to sleep in.. Paul and I got ready and headed into Old Koloa Town for some shopping.  Paul was my buddy for half the day.  We went to tourist shops, art shops and got 2 snow cones.  All before noon.    

Darren had classes till about noon. Then we headed off to snorkel.  The first place we went was Lawa'i Beach.  The snorkeling was good- but not amazing.  And there was a current that made me  nervous.  Everywhere in Hawaii I heard about the dangerous currents and riptides. You hear from everyone and read about all the visitors that drown.  It definitely made me a little nervous and more cautious than usual.  Especially being pregnant.   I didn't want to take any chances. So as soon as we felt that water taking us to the side we headed in for shore.  Even still it took us a ways down the beach and we had to get out on some rocks.  Getting out of water with flippers onto rocks at 7 months pregnant is not easy! I let the tide carry me up and then lay on my belly while the tide went back out.  Then I would grab my flippers and book it onto shore before the next wave. I am sure I looked really silly every time I got out.  Like a walrus trying to get onto shore or something.  I always felt so heavy on land after being in the water.

We stopped at a food truck for  a delicious late lunch before heading up to Polihale State Park. We had decided before hand we would go "cheap" for lunches and eat out at food trucks.  Little did I know a lunch would be $14 each.  That's $42 for a "cheap" lunch for the 3 of us.  At least the food, atmosphere, and company was amazing.   Those food trucks had the best shrimp and fish tacos I have ever had!

I'm not really a car person.  I don't know or care about cars.  As long as it's reliable and gets me where I want to go.  I hate it when people use cars as status symbols.  Anyways, if I were to get a fun car, this would be it.  Well, a  Jeep of some sort.  I love Jeeps.  I think they are so fun.  Since I knew we would be driving down a dirt road to this beach I used it as an excuse to get a Jeep for our rental car. It was so fun! It reminded me of being 18 driving my dads Jeep Cherokee to Nutty Putty on a date with Darren.  It made me feel like a teenager again. We even drove on the sand- which afterwords I heard was a bad idea because people get stuck all the time.  Good thing we didn't get stuck! Darren had a great time taking pictures of me with my Jeep.

This beach is right on the edge of the Na Pali coast.  In some of the pictures you can see the gorgeous mountains in the background. We hung out till sunset- and watched the sun turn green. Have you ever seen that? In Naples I learned that if conditions are just right there will be a green flash second before the sun sets.  Of all the sunsets I've watched on the ocean in Florida, I only saw it happen once.  It was amazing! We watched for it this time, and instead of a flash, the sun actually looked green for about 2 seconds before it set. It was so cool! First time I've seen that!

The end to a great day.  Darren drove home and it was so fun driving the jeep over the dirt road.  We had the windows down and the music playing and life was good.

When we got back to the hotel Paul found some amphibians.  Have I told you how he was looking for lizards pretty much the entire time we were there?  It's like he was obsessed with them! He was thrilled to find these frogs.  I think he found like 8 of them or something. He also found these cool land snails! Good thing they were alive- or I would have stolen those beautiful shells.

That night Darren and I went out for a late night appetizer and dessert at a restaurant that is raved about.  It's actually at the hotel we were staying at.  The atmosphere is a amazing- as it is right on the water. Not the ocean- It's a man made Koi pond.  But beautiful non the less.

The creme brulee I got was actually the worst I've ever had.  I didn't even eat it- I took it back to Paul who also didn't eat it.  At like $14 I had expected something delicious. What a disappointment! We had a good time though, our appetizers were... interesting.    I was glad we had eaten dinner before hand and just went for a snack and dessert.  At least my date was REALLY handsome! Oh, and I wore my flower lei that I was excited about.  You have to have a great time if your wearing a flower necklace, sitting in a beautiful restaurant in Kauai with the man that you love!