Poipu beach... Round 1

Poipu beach is known for being voted as the world's most beautiful beach in the world quite often. I don't know how to get on this voting panel but am working on it.

Poipu is in the south and we are way up in the north, so it's about 1.5 hours away and after the long haul to get here in first place, not the most appealing part of the trip. However, Leila and Ethan have been great passengers so it has been much easier.

We kind of guessed our way there and stopped at the first parking lot we saw. Our friends were hungry and there was a place named Brennecke's right in front of us. We would later confirm that this wasn't Poipu,  but we were one spot over. It didn't matter to the kids since it had a playground,  shave ice and a calm beach to play in. This is where both Leila and Ethan started enjoying ocean swimming and doing so relatively unassisted.

So even though we drove 1.5 hours to the wrong beach, it was still an awesome spot and ultimately,  the kind of beach we were looking for. Years from now, I'll tell my kids that I handpicked the location to suit their needs. As the great George Costanza once said, "it's not a lie if you believe it to be true."

At the end of the drive, what better way to burn off some energy than with some sprints up and down the lanai...

Time Change

Since we hadn't really planned out our food situation for the first night, we had nothing for breakfast. Given the time change, breakfast was at 4 am, before civilization arose and stores were open. We found some fresh popsicles in the freezer and this would keep the kids happy for a little bit. Another parenting victory!

The house we rented was really nice and overlooked a deceivingly quick moving river. Leila and I decided to brave the mighty waterway which felt very soothing, aside from constantly slipping from one rock to the next and smashing our feet. (Note: almost every day so far Ethan has woken up and yelled "IT'S RAINING!!"  because of the sound of the river. In fact, he reminds me of news reporter Ollie from Family Guy)

The beauty of this island is that you can always chase the sun. If it rains in the north, you head south. If it rains in the south, you head east. So far it has rained a bit every morning over our house, but as soon as we start driving there is sun and sand everywhere.

There's also a bit of wind, which renders our umbrellas pretty useless from time to time. However, when this is our biggest problem, things aren't that bad.

20 Hours to Paradise

This is how we looked at the start of the day's journey. I don't think we looked the same by the time we reached Kauai, though.

Leila and Ethan had some fun at the airport,  enjoying luggage rides and sharing chocolate milks, while Mandy and I devoured some 9 am burgers.

The flights were both long, but uneventful and the kids were great, making it much easier.

As expected,  Ethan went bananas with all of the planes, trucks and luggage carts that he thought were trains.

We arrived to our house with no food, two disoriented kids and all the nearby stores closed. We did the right thing and checked the fridge for beer. When none was found,  we decided to call it a night. Our lack of food wiuld be a problem for another day.