It’s a good vacation when you know what time the hot dog stand opens and the gelato place closes

We made the reservations back in January when we were snowed in for a few days. And then when March closed out with a record 10.66” rainfall at Woodhaven, we were grateful we had decided to take our annual “Let’s Find the Sun Trip” in April instead of May or June as in prior years. I’m sad to report we have now completed our trip and I am currently on our couch watching today’s contribution to April’s 2.73” rain total and counting. Big sigh.

It ended up being a fantastic trip. The first two days were a bit shaky, though, hinting at flashbacks of our last trip to Kauai six years ago. We had been to The Garden Island before so we knew how stunning both the scenery and the weather could be. However, that trip back in March 2006 birthed our now tightly held travel philosophy that you either get a great trip or a great story. Our 2006 story included endless days of rain, power outages, downed telephone lines, sandbags, landslides, and an epic photo of a guy kayaking through a flooded golf course. We never made use of our swim suits or sunscreen, and we wore our packed-for-snorkeling water shoes to dinner instead. The trip was capped perfectly when we arrived home and went straight from the airport to our dentist so Rob could have an emergency root canal. Our 2012 story is much better, which is to say much less dramatic.

A tourist making the best of a flooded golf course ~ Kauai, 2006

I will admit I was rather pouty the first two days of our trip last week. I tried really hard to be optimistic and upbeat and find the silver linings in all the dark clouds that persisted over Poipu. But inwardly, I was depressed and fearful that we would have yet another Great Vacation Story. It didn’t help that the locals were still talking about our last trip, known to them as “The 40 Days of Rain.” And it didn’t help that the forecast on Weather Underground changed hourly and for the worse. By the end of our trip, I deemed weather forecasts for Kauai to be useless and simply a playground for masochists.

Blessedly, though, by the third day, the sun made a lengthy appearance.

We found the sun!!  ~ Kauai, 2012

Throughout the rest of the trip, we wore shorts and sunglasses and shoes without socks. We made a huge dent in our sunscreen stash, and I gloriously had an evening ritual of rinsing salt and sand out of my new swimsuits. I ate most of a pineapple by myself as well as two containers of the best pineapple salsa ever. I gorged on four Puka Dogs, three gelatos, a banana-pineapple smoothie, and several drinks involving little paper umbrellas. We began each morning with a coastline walk, we watched distant whales and proximate sea turtles, and we stopped to smell the plumeria. We minimized our time online, we didn’t watch any television, and we listened exclusively to Hawaiian music. We yelled, “CHICKEN!” at most sightings of the very pervasive free-range fowls populating the island, noting that as a group they are much more attractive than they were six years ago. Maybe it was the sunshine.

We also spent some time working on me getting over my unfounded fear of water. Some readers may remember the huge leap forward I took about year ago when I successfully snorkeled in the Sea of Cortez. I was on a guided tour but the tour guides seemed more interested in preparing our post-snorkel celebration cocktails than playing lifeguard. Despite some panicked hyperventilating and noticeably less time spent in the water than other tourists, I nonetheless claimed victory and surprised myself by additionally enjoying the boat ride back to port. I wanted to keep the momentum, so this trip I am very proud to say that not only did I snorkel all by myself while Rob watched from the beach, I also thoroughly enjoyed a 5-hour catamaran ride along the Na Pali coast (ooh, the cliffs and the dolphins!) and…AND…I boogie boarded! For the first time ever! And I had a blast!

Yes, I agree. Boogie boarding does not sound very back friendly. And indeed it is not. Which is why I stopped long before I wanted to. But let me tell you, the residual pain was absolutely worth the liberation of being in the water, staring at a wave, and sizing it up not in fear of how fast I should escape it but instead how fun a ride it might be. Yes, I was the only person out there wearing goggles. And yes, I think I made the 11-year-old also learning for the first time feel a whole lot braver. And yes, I learned I can house an impressive quantity of sand without even knowing it. But, WOW – what a thrill!! I think it was the first time in my life I actually played in the ocean and enjoyed it. It is true: you are never too old to learn and try new things.

Oh, and by the way, Puka Dog opens at 10am and Papalani closes at 9:30pm.

Aloha!