Upriver and more ...

[image will come soon ... this computer doesn't have a flash card reader.]

Well, Monday was fantastic. Val and I started off the day with an early-morning kayaking adventure on the Wailea River. We paddled a sea kayak two miles upriver with a group of about 10 people, then put in to shore, hiked another mile and lunched at a secret waterfall and pool. Well, it wasn't exactly secret, as there's probably 10 kayaking companies on the island that hit the spot, but there were only a handful of people when we got up there.

The kayaking was really great. I mean, I got a bit frustrated trying to steer from the back of the kayak when I'm paddling one way and Val's paddling the other, but the river was really mellow and it's hard to get frustrated when you're in Hawaii and everything is so magnificent. Once we started the hike we passed under groves of wild mango trees, catching whiffs of rotten fruit on the ground. Every time a breeze came through the forest, a few mangoes would plop to the ground ... tune in to the Discovery Channel special next Monday, "When Fruits Attack!"

After kayaking we met up with Ricky, and he led us on a tour of the island, including where he grew up, where he went to high school and some of his favorite beaches. We had dinner at a burger stand and shaved ice for dessert (like a Sno-Cone but much tastier ... Val and I got shaved ice with Macadamia Nut ice cream underneath.) We saw the pricey hotels in Princeville, on the North Shore of Kauai, where rooms start at $800 a night. We snorkeled on the reef directly below the hotel, then hit the last beach on the North Shore accessible by road, and butchered a pineapple as we watched the sunset.

Kauai doesn't have the rugged beauty of Molokai, but it's rightly called the garden island. The views here have been amazing, and every day I conjure up a new excuse why I might move here someday.