Today was a just as jam-packed as yesterday (we really front-loaded some of our major excursions for the first few days, before we downshift to a slightly looser agenda, beginning tomorrow).
Despite our busy days and late evenings, we’ve been waking up naturally around 5:45 a.m., thanks to the time difference. And that’s been a really wonderful thing for us, as it gives us the chance to rise with the sun and enjoy so many things before the day has truly begun. It’s been fantastic, considering we’ve never exactly been an uber-early rising familia—especially on vacay.
We’ve now learned the routine of staking out our poolside positions in the early hours, before breakfast. So we got a prime spot today, woohoo. An excellent start.
But before we took advantage of swim time, we went on a little beach romp and tiny hike up this oceanside cliff nearby the resort. Not a shabby way to spend your hours before it’s even 9 a.m.
Then it was swim, swim, swim time, followed by our awesomesauce tubing adventure (more on that in a bit).
After allllll that, we capped our day with the best positioning, EVER, for our dinner out on the resort’s terrace restaurant, followed by some family frolicking (on yet another terrace, that overlooked a luau happening on property this evening).
Don’t think it could get any better for Day 2.
And now…photo explosion!
Okay…so, the macaws that live in the ginormous atrium lobby are one of the kiddos’ favorite resort diversions. And it turns out, some of them rotate by day! My crazies were so excited to read about the new additions this morning. :)
My boy wanted to have a little atrium selfie photo shoot, and who am I to deny that gloriousness??? Vote for your fave. ;)
Okay…a quick debrief on our excursion of the afternoon: mountain tubing!
Sugarcane used to be THE business/export on/from the island, but when the last of the plantations shut down about 20-ish years ago, some of the old canals of this particular plantation were turned into a tubing site. Think: lazy river, involving some tunnels.
The process involved a really fun open-air drive about 30-40 minutes up into the mountains—including a photo op stop nearby the highest peak on the island that also holds the distinction of the rainiest location on the planet. Yep, peeps. On the planet.
It’s not uncommon for this mountain to receive 50 inches of rain in one day, and averages 500 inches a year. During one recent record year, it received one thousand inches of rain. Insane.
Apparently, Kauai is known for its many microclimates and we’ve been spending our time in the drier south for the most part, although our catamaran excursion yesterday took us all the way around the western tip of the island and north along the Napali coast. Tomorrow, we’ll head to yet another area.
Anywho.
The tubing.
The drive up was bumpy-fun and gorgeous, and then we spent an hour floating down the canals. It was really fun to experience the kiddos’ burgeoning independence, as there’s no real way to stick together as a family when you’re floating along like bumper cars…er, floats.
Seeing them navigate the process—including the dark tunnels requiring head lamps—was super fun and they had a blast. It was their collective, official “best part of their day,” when we debriefed at dinnertime.
Here they are, all geared up (and in long sleeves for the colder water):
Obviously, without a waterproof camera or case (epic fail on my part, though it was lovely to just sit back and enjoy the experience), I got no pics. The excursion company takes a few along the way, but we only purchased this one which caught us all. I’ll zoom in for some blurry, close-up shots. Also, we were only holding hands for the pic, and because we’d finished the true canals.
Post-canals, we rode back to a little watering hole area for some snacks before finishing the drive back to our starting point. And leave it to my kiddos to be entertained by a stray little island kitten, who makes its home (with his Mama) nearby.
Best terrace dining spot we could hope for. :)
One of my fave pics of the day:
Side note: as predicted, we’re rocking a decent number of outfit changes per day, and, as usual, we’re pretty colored coordinated, ha. I think we’ve gotten the most comments on it during the past 48 hours than we ever have. Hysterical.
Crashing for the night before another grateful day mañana.
Happy Saturday, peeps!
Over and out (and mahalo).
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