April 28 - 30th

Now that we're back home... Traci wanted to open her birthday present in the continuation of her self-declared "birthday week" and then some.


In her lap sits her favorite birthday cake... Baskin Robin's Praline's and Cream. Sorry, I didn't get you the big one (like we need all those calories right?).

I took Traci's advice and got her a gift certificate for some much needed pampering, a Spa Gift Certificate. In my research I found that there are quite a few day spas around town... in the end, I settled with The Pointe Day Spa. There are a couple locations for Traci to choose from. I look forward to her using it and telling me about it!

She liked it!

Kylie with her dual-pony hair-do.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 19)

More sandcastle building...

That is our cabana with the shade up. Sadly it was time for our trip to come to an end. Aloha, a hui hou (Farewell, until we meet again). And we will be back... and some of you even know why!

Even Kylie was sad to leave. She was just starting to have fun.

Here she climbed up onthe tray table and was trying to push the buttons on the ceiling. For those of you that hate kids kicking your seat, etc. rest assured that there wasn't anyone in the row in front of us for the inter-island flight (LIH - HON). The flight home went well too. We were able to get a block of 3 seats to ourselves, and were even able to move towards the front of Economy (on a 757). Kylie slept the whole flight home. Traci and I should've been sleeping too, but instead we watched "Freedom Writers" with Hilary Swank. This is an excellent film, and a bit of a tear jerker all based on the real people.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 18)

A little birdy came to say hello near our balcony.

For the first time ever, we rented a Cabana on the beach. I forget how much it was... something like $35 or so for the day. In one sense, a total rip-off. In another sense, it's a cozy lounge for you to retreat back to... and having Kylie and all our day-stuff (since we had already checked out our room), it was very nice.

Here's our bronze little baby chillin' with momma.

This cute little girl, Lisa, who was being neglected by her parents (Their from the UK, though she was born in Germany)... came by to ask if Kylie could play. It probably wasn't so obvious to her that Kylie was too little to play. But Traci, being the big heart that she is told her to come back in a bit when I got back. So Lisa wanted to go slide down the water slide at the nearby pool. She asked her dad if she could go with us. He didn't seem to have much problem with that, which by American standards is way crazy. Good thing we're not a couple of psycho's... right? Well, we went and played by the pool for an hour or so. Then later Traci, Kylie and Lisa made a sandcastle. One thing I'll say is that Lisa is a very sweet and cute little girl... it'd be hard for anyone to say "no" to her.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 17)

You can see that we weren't alone, but we met some nice people. Patrick from Orange County California. As well as a Japanese/American couple from the Bay area.

See, she's having fun.

We had to get out of the water, and get packed up in a hurry...

It's not so obvious in this photo with the rainbow, but as you all know it takes rain to make a rainbow. There was some serious rain heading our way fast. Good thing I was paying attention, otherwise we would've got soaked on the beach! We got our stuff packed up in the car just in time and headed back to sunny Poipu.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 16)

We went out to eat at Pizzetta Pizza in old Koloa town. When we had dinner at Tomkats Grill a few nights prior, the smell of the Pizza place just smelled great! The pizza was good. The service? Not too great.

Instead of making the drive all the way to Princeville, we opted to just head back to Lydgate Beach Park. Plus Traci was now fighting off a cold or something. For as few of miles as it is to get to Princeville, it's a long drive.

Kylie looks concerned, but she had a good time, even better than the first time we brought her here. This time we brought her to the shallow area and swam around with her. Traci and I took turns snorkeling again.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 15)

Here are a few Kylie faces... it was so nice to get our Kylie back after being sick for a several days.

We made another trip to Poipu Beach Park to do some snorkeling... the downside of not having grandparent's for baby sitters... you have to take turns snorkeling.

Kylie tasting some washed up coral.

This picture reminds me of the Roadrunnner... "beep beep".

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 14)

After dropping Donna and Jack off at the airport (they were off to Maui for a another week of vacation), Traci and I headed to Lydgate Beach park, which we heard was a great family beach park. It was during this part of our trip that we decided we weren't ready to come home yet. So we started figuring out how we could pro-long our departure and stay a few more days. We decided on 3 more days. 2 was too little and 4 was too much. I spent much of my afternoon on the phone, trying to figure out how much this was going to cost us. We ended up getting a room at the Sheraton Kauai Resort in Poipu... a very nice location indeed (the lowest rate I was able to get was $200/night for a Garden View)! There's more to this story later.

The nice thing about Lydgate is the man-made lagoons. They have a couple protective reefs that keep these pools calm, and prime for snorkeling (though I think Poipu Beach Park is better in terms of fish diversity).

As part of our extended stay, we opted to down-size our rental car to save a few $$, and had to coordinate a rental car swap. Many of the rental car agencies were booked up. Lucky for us, we were able to get a car via Avis.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 13)

Here we are about to set out on our hike to Waipou Falls. Kylie looks ready.

On this trip, I learned that Traci's Dad, Jack, is afraid of heights. Still pretty adventurous for someone who doesn't like heights. He kept his distance from the edge.

Later that evening we had dinner at Tomkat's Grill in old Koloa town.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 12)

There are definitely some spectacular views in this "Grand Canyon of the Pacific".

On this trip, we had the supreme fortune of being able to see the view of the Kalalau Valley lookout.

It is indeed a spectacular view... it's too bad that our Na Pali tour didn't take us far enough to look up the valley.

Here's Grandpa Craig with Kylie.

April 16 - 26th Kauai (Set 11)

There's our happy baby with her Polar bear that goes "Roarrr!" Prior to our trip, she started mimicking some of the differnt sounds. The polar bear, a duck, etc.

Here's Kylie being cute and cuddly again.

Here we are prior to having our date-night. We decided to go to Roy's for dinner... The food was good.

Here we are at one of the Waimea canyon lookouts. On this Sunday, we decided to go for a Canyon Hike.