It's raining, it's pouring...

David and I just got back from a quick trip to Kauai. We were gone for 6 days. We signed up for this trip almost 2 years ago. First let me give you some background information. We got an offer to go and stay at the Princeville Hotel at a really good rate. We get offers like that occasionally because we must be on some timeshare list entitled, "Suckers!" Actually, they must be aware by now that we never buy the timeshare but we are usually happy to go and stay in nice places and check them out. The problem with those offers is that you can never take anyone with you because the offer is usually only valid for whoever it is addressed to.

So this is typically how it goes in our house. - We get an offer in the mail. David opens it and says, "Hey do you want to go to ______ ?" I usually answer something like, "Well, that sounds nice but I don't see that we have much free time coming up and I'd rather go somewhere where we can invite people to go with us. So my answer is no." David says, "Okay. You're probably right." End of conversation. I don't think about it again and then, almost without fail, as I am looking up in our mail cupboard I find a certificate that says we are booked to go to _____ ! I question him and he says, "Oh yeah. It was just too good to pass up." Then I say, "Why do you even ask me if you are just going to go ahead and make the decision without me?" And then he says, "I don't really know ."

But I guess signing up and paying for a vacation two years before MQAC set out to ruin our lives was somewhat fortuitous in this instance. So we got to go to Kuaui! We have been to Kauai once before and just loved it. We had visited the Princeville Hotel when we were there before so we jumped at the chance to stay there (or at least David did!) This is what the Princeville looks like:










Well, our first bad news of the vacation is that they informed us about 4 months ago that the Princeville was going to be closed for renovations and that we were going to be staying at the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas, and we were assured that is was just as nice! We'll it was nice, but it was not in the same league as the Princeville Hotel. So that was our first disappointment of our trip but, hey, we're still in paradise, right? This is a picture of the buiding we stayed in.



This was the view from our hotel. You could see the ocean but it was up above it. Pretty, but not a beach you could play in. Our room was very nice, though. I just wasn't super impressed with the resort.



No problem. We are happy campers and any vacation is a good vacation! The picture above was taken the morning of the first day we were there (Wednesday). It was nice but the clouds rolled in and the wind was blowing a bit so we hung around our hotel that day and relaxed and hoped for better weather for our hikes and other activities that we had planned. We tried to sit by the pool but it kept getting cold and windy so we would wind up inside until the sun came out again and then we would go back out and try it again. Needless to say, we did not need sunscreen.

Well, the next day was a little worse (Thursday). It was cloudy and it kept drizzling. We still headed out and saw a few sights.

This is Wailua Falls and you can drive right to it. This waterfall was made famous in the opening scene of the tv show, "Fantasy Island." This is what the falls look like normally. (I did not take this picture.)



This is what they looked like when we saw them with lots more water flowing. And this was before the big rains hit! Here is a video for you so you can all enjoy Wailua Falls!



Good thing we got this picture when we did. You can't really see the wind blowing but it was. The weather wasn't too bad but it wasn't too good either.



For some reason, roosters and chickens just roam free everywhere on the island. It is rumored that before some big hurricane, they went and let all the roosters and chickens out of their cages and they have been roaming wild ever since. Some of the roosters are really pretty but they are noisy!



The next day (Friday) was looking good but quickly turned cloudy and drizzly again. We headed out to the Kilauea Lighthouse and walked around in the rain anyway. Can you see the lighthouse on the tip there? The weather wasn't too bad when I took this picture but by the time we reached the lighthouse it was raining and people were donning ponchos. Not us - we just got wet! Who brings a poncho to paradise?



So we headed back to our hotel to watch more DVD's and R&R as we waited for our good weather day to go hiking. I had already finished the book I brought on the first day because we decided to make that our hang out and wait for good weather day!

Then Saturday the real rains hit! This is a picture of the hotel before the rain...



And this is a picture during the rain. See the lake where the grass used to be?



Yes, not only was there torrential rains but there was a tornado warning in effect for about an hour when we were told to stay in our rooms. Then that was lifted but there were flood warnings and the bridges were washed out. So we were instructed to stay at the resort. Here is a video of the rain. It is hard to tell how much rain was falling but watch at the end when I pan down to the water coming from the rain gutter.



Little did we know, that we should have been running around the island trying to get everything done on our very first day when it was only partly cloudy and blowing. Who knew the weather would go from bad to worse? But don't worry - because as luck would have it - the sun came out on Sunday! Perfect. Not only is it the sabbath, but it is also the day we are flying home. At least the bridge opened back up so that we could go to church. We attended a branch in Hanalei and it was their primary program. There were about 12 kids in their primary and so they each had about 3 parts but it was really cute.


We had most of the day to kill because we weren't scheduled to fly out until 11:30 p.m. So we went to church, then checked out of our place and headed for the south side of the island where we had dinner reservations that evening.

We headed to Po'ipu where we at at The Beach House. It is a lovely restaurant that has amazing views of the ocean on both sides. This is the restaurant and we were sitting at a table in that far corner. It was very nice.



I took this picture of a guy paddling along on a surf board way out there at sunset.



Here is a picture of the lucky people who flew in on Saturday night and missed all the rain and got to enjoy a beautiful Sunday at Po'ipu Beach. Most of them seemed to have heard all about the rain they missed.

But it was still fun to spend some quality time together and just chill. Neither of us were complaining too loudly. Then we arrived at the airport about 9 because we had to turn in our rental car, only to find out that our flight had been delayed by 3 hours! We took off about 2:30 a.m. which caused us to miss our connection in Seattle so we had to take a later flight there but we finally got home to Pasco about 4 hours later than anticipated.

So, our little Kauai getaway was fraught with minor disasters. Oh well. Hopefully, we will get to go again and enjoy better Hawaiian weather another time. Maybe next time I will get my way and we will actually get to go with friends or family!