Jooooooooooan

That's how we roll.

Andi's unofficial theme of the trip. Un-freaking-believable, btw. If you ever get the chance to go to Kauai, TAKE IT. Gorgeous. Every way you look, there's another fabulous view. I downloaded the pictures off my camera last night, and they just don't do it justice. It kind of even seems pointless that I took any pictures at all.

So, the week in review. First off, we almost missed our flight out of San Diego. We had some time to kill, so we went to have a beer (yes, at 7:00 in the morning, "that's how we roll," but keep in mind who is on this trip). Sportscenter was on, and we got caught up in the top 10, then suddenly realized it was 7:58 and our flight was taking off at 8:13. Inflight entertainment was Music and Lyrics = not a good movie. Put me to sleep, and according to Andi had some of the worst acting known to man, even with a couple of Heinekens. We landed on the island around 1:30, got our luggage (Lihue airport has to be the quickest at getting your luggage off the plane and onto the carousel), got the rental car (Chevy Cobalt - score!), and ventured off to the Marriott for lunch at Duke's. After some exploring, we finally found it and had drinks and yummy food on the beach. Drove to the condo while gawking at the number of chickens (yes, chickens, they're everywhere) and Mustang convertibles (again, they're everywhere - popular rental car, apparently), with a stop at the grocery store for bread, milk, cereal, and most importantly, Diet Coke, Hawaiian beer, and mango Malibu. Once we got somewhat organized, we poured ourselves rum and diets and took off exploring the area and formulating a tentative plan for our week. Got back to the condo, finished the rum, watched Pirates (which only made complete logical sense since we were, in fact, drinking rum and "that's how we roll").

And the adventures begin. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we had no real adventures - we didn't get lost, we didn't almost fall off any cliffs, we didn't fall out of a boat, we didn't almost drown, and no one even really said anything clever. Except for this:

Joan (doing the People crossword): "Oohs and blank."
Andi (pauses, thinking): Chips? Pretzels?
Joan: No, oohs, not booze!

Andi insisted we rent bikes (bitter childhood memories, that one), which was hilarious, for multiple reasons. We ended up caught in a full-on rainstorm, complete with wind and rain coming at you sideways. We had to pull over in a random covered driveway because the rain had almost washed out my contacts and to wring out our clothes. And, we got mistaken for locals. For those of you that know Andi, this of course makes perfect sense because she's always so tan.

Hiked the Na Pali coast. That's right - the part of the island that you can only get to by hiking. We trekked up and over boulders on all fours, jumped across streams, and ended up at a beautiful waterfall. Our day consisted of 8 miles total, in just about 6 hours, with a total stopping time of maybe one hour total for water breaks, picture-taking breaks, and swimming-at-the-waterfall break. Crashed out by 8:00 p.m. Cause "that's how we roll on a Saturday night in Kauai."

Drove around the island. Well, as much as you could anyway - we drove from one end of the road to the other and saw everything in between. Somehow, we ended up at a firing range and the entrance to some high-security naval base trying to get to a particular beach. Saw the Waimea Canyon in the rain, so really we only saw part of the Waimea Canyon. Tried to tour a sugar plantation. Tried to stop at a brewery. Tried to find chickens actually crossing the road. Stopped at Coconut Grove, which turned out to be a shopping center, not an actual coconut grove. Did massive shopping at the ABC store.

Took a kayaking and snorkeling tour. Now, Andi had never kayaked, and I had only done it once, so we weren't sure how well that was going to go. Until the hilarious family of 11 showed up and ended up kayaking themselves into a tree before we were all even in the water. Close to the end of our little trip, one of them commented, in all seriousness, "You guys must be in a rowing club or something - you're like professional rowers!"

Luau. All-inclusive all-you-can-eat buffet and all-you-can-drink bar. Enough said. Even though we were way far back in the line, we scored front row seats across from the cutest couple ever from Calgary who had just gotten married on the beach. Andi and I got taken onto the stage by the cute little hula girls before the show to help "demonstrate" the hula, we watched the pig come out, ate massive amounts of food, drank more, watched some demonstrations of husking a coconut and local island fashion, ate massive amounts of dessert, then watched the show. Very cool. Toward the end of the show, they asked for volunteers to come on stage and hula with the professional dancers. A girl at the table next to us started going crazy immediately, jumping up and down and swinging her arms and begging to get picked, a lot like Donkey in Shrek. As we're staring and making fun of her, who gets picked but me. Great. Throw my camera at Andi, thank God that I've been sucking down mai tais for the last 2 hours, and somehow end up onstage without falling. Luckily, the other person they picked was some older guy from North Carolina who looked like he'd never danced a day in his life, so I can't be that bad, right? Well, I don't even know. I managed to not fall off the stage, that's all I can say. Fabulous night all the way around - great food, great drinks, and Andi even got her picture taken with the hot guys.

Such a great vacation. We didn't even get (very) sunburned. SPF 45 - that's how we roll.

posted by Jooooooooooan @ 2:12 PM