Kalalau Kayak Trip

Here is the story of a boy and a girl who did an adventure they've been dying to try since they day they moved to Kauai.

It is not a picture book. Why? The camera they brought broke. The camera the other couple brought also broke. It was discovered 5 minutes after getting in the water, but 15 minutes too late to do anything about it.

Instead, you will have to imagine enormous sea caves, sparkling waterfalls, sheer cliffs, occasional rough seas and just as often, seas as calm as a lake (but bright blue and beautiful). You are also free to imagine dolphins, whales, and mermaids, but none of those were present during our trip.

Ryan and Karen came to visit (!), rounding out the last of the Edwards clan to make it out here. They were excellent and helpful guests, playing with our kids and helping out--but more on that later. Halfway through their vacation, they watched Zachary and Kate so we could do this trip.

This gig had a lot to live up to--we've already hiked in (2 years ago) and loved it, and we haven't done anything really adventurous since Kate was born. We went with our friends Chad and Mary, who both went solo in their kayaks, while we pushed along in our double. Chad has been on the coast quite a few times, so he was our official guide.

The first day was gorgeous. The ocean was calm enough that we were able to go into sea cave after sea cave. After we got over our irritation of having no camera, it was actually kind of nice to not worry about picture-taking and just breathe it all in. We could not believe the deep blue of the water and the green of the coastline.

Besides getting completely wasted with seasickness, the kayaking was really easy and we got into Kalalau in about 2 hours. We spent the afternoon on the beach, setting up camp (trying out hammocks for the first time), and hiking into the valley's famous waterfall. You can actually slide down the waterfall into the water, but it is not as cool as it sounds (especially when you are are a wimp about the rocks and only go from the halfway point). We ate plenty of guavas, fresh oranges, and passion fruit--yummy. We saw at least a dozen nudists, and may have joined them for a round of skinny dipping that night. We'll let you decide. We were wanna-be hippies for the weekend, and loved it.

The next morning, we swam over to our favorite beach on the island--Ho'opu. You can't dock a kayak there and you can't reach it by foot so it is arguably the most remote beach on the island. Fabulous. We had it mostly to ourselves, plus a topless woman wearing a child's floatie. It also has a waterfall you can swim in, but not quite so quaint because the water almost takes your head off when you dare to try it.

Lunchtime came, and we were all pretty nervous. We'd seen kayak after kayak get flipped heading out of Kalalau. The swell was up and the conditions were more than a little choppy. Shore-breakers were coming in hard every few minutes, and we knew we couldn't hack it if we got caught up in one of those. We made a game-plan, and retrospectively, it wasn't the best "Plan A" ever thought up by 4 naive kayakers. The boys pushed Mary out first, and she seemed to be out safely. Next, they pushed me--alone at the front of the kayak--and went to push Chad in. Brady planned to swim right out after Chad got in safely. The plan went wrong when Mary was taken by a current and smashed hard into shore. The boys went running down the coast to help her. In the meantime, the current took me for a fast ride along the 1 mile beach, and there was no keeping myself in place. Because I was in front, I was in no position to steer. I also just could not fight that current. The boys got Mary back out, and then Brady got Chad in. By the time Chad was out the water, he didn't realize that Brady was swimming behind him, and he left to make sure we were okay. Brady started getting nervous because he was in open water with no life jacket or flippers, and clearly this current was powerful. He was pretty sure there was no way he could get himself back to shore. He yelled out to Chad, who had to work hard to get back to him. Chad towed Brady to me, and everything was okay minus the fact that the boys were pretty anxious about the ordeal and exhausted from the effort of towing/swimming (and in Brady's case, very nearly losing his swim trunks).

For the record, we did have a "Plan B" and even after all that, Brady still didn't put his life jacket on. I was the only one dorking out with my jacket the entire trip. When Brady first related this story to people, I felt like he was exaggerating the danger of the situation. I will state now that I have been corrected and told horror story after horror story about ocean currents (and the difficulty of finding swimmers in the open ocean), and I now realize that we were lucky nothing else went wrong.

The best part of the day came when we were facing huge swells. Brady yelled "RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT" and we paddled our hearts out. It was slightly nerve-wrecking, pretty intense, and overall just awesome. I'm glad we didn't flip. We couldn't go into the famous "Eye of God" sea cave (see my post from a couple weeks ago showing kayakers entering this cave) because the swells were too high. It was wild, though. We turned a corner to head into Polihale, and the seas were calm. The rest of the journey was easy and beautiful. We even ran into a buddy of Chad's who was manning a zodiac, and he threw us some ice cold drinks. We made it into Polihale without crashing, which was impressive considering the big shore-breakers there, too.

People keep asking me which I prefer: kayaking or hiking. There are obviously benefits to both, but I will have to go with hiking. It's more hard-core, gritty, and exhausting. I loved it when we hiked into Kalalau so tired we could hardly walk any more. We weren't really tired at any point of this adventure (except the boys after towing/swimming). I would say hiking is at least 3 times harder than kayaking. However, if you only have 2 days, kayaking is the way to go.

Also for the record: everyone says that Dramamine doesn't work if you take it when you are already sick. I was pretty darn seasick on day 2, and took another pill about an hour into our journey. Within about 30 min, I was good! (That could be another reason I prefer the hiking...)

Who wants to go with us for round 2? Our only requirements are you have to wear a life jacket, and your camera has to work.

Family Photos

A couple weeks ago, we celebrated the disappearance of my braces by finally getting some family pics taken. I was a little bummed because I screwed up the best one (see head tilt below--the wind was good and blowing!), but what can you do? We might try and do some head switching if we can get the extra pictures from the photographer, swap in a happier look from Kate for the one below, and use that one for parents.

Losing It

Three weeks ago, I called up Brady and told him that I was going to lose it if we didn't paint our awful walls. The very next day, we started the project, and the last pieces of artwork went onto our beautiful walls just yesterday. While I am not a fan of improving our landlord's house for free and losing 3 weekends, I do think it was worth it. Brady was gracious and took on the "honey do list" without complaint. Watching him paint reminded me of our Colony days.
I also lost my braces. Here's the last pic of me with them. Without the braces, I also lost some of my youthful look. I now look like I'm almost 30 rather than 19.
You might think Kate is losing her hair, but she's never grown any so no. She's plunged down to the 40 percentile, so she's lost a little on the growth charts. She is the happiest baby I've ever known and totally content to watch Zachary during the day. She's also very patient with him as he dresses her up. Lately, his favorite thing is to put the lid of a contact case on her nose and tell me she is a clown.


I know that she looks more like Brady, but don't you see some of me in this pic?
Zachary lost his life jacket the day he started swim lessons! He can now swim across the pool (by that I mean mostly doggie paddle, but face down). This is him with his teacher.

One week into swim lessons, we were at the pool practicing his new skills. He slipped on the pool's siding and came down on his chin. It bled a bit, but it stopped and he was anxious to get back to swimming. I checked on the wound, and thought maybe it was deep enough to be worried. I called Brady, who left work and then promptly took him to urgent care. It turned out he needed glue and butterfly bandages. He was a brave kiddo and rewarded with his first ice cream from McD's.
One of Kate's first times in the water.

Since the painting, we've lost time to get out as a family. Instead, we've taken a few separate adventures. We each get an hour to go do whatever we want. Yeah, I know. We sound like one of those couples that ends up vacationing separately in another year, but it has worked out the past couple weeks and helped scratch an itch. We've also still taken the kids to the pool for their entertainment, so we're not that selfish. Here's a couple pics from Brady's biking to Horseshoe Beach. We want to take Karen and Ryan there sometime in the next two weeks (they arrive today!).

Sky High

Happy 10 years to us! Our friend Chase (see pilot above) does helicopter tours of the island, and offered us a great deal. We've been told by many people that this is the best thing they've ever done, so while I was skeptical that it would be that awesome, we were looking forward to it. We strapped into the door-less ride and took off. At first we seemed close to the ground, but right before hitting Waimea Canyon, Chase told us to look down. Suddenly, it was like the ground was taken out from under us as we swooped over the canyon.
It was fun to have Chase point out hike after hike that we've done.
The NaPali is never a disappointment.
Here's the famous arch that Harrison Ford flew through in a helicopter. We were bummed that Chase wouldn't fly through, too.

The waterfall at the 6 mile mark on the Kalalau Trail (this is where I got 150 mosquito bites several years ago).

See the kayakers below? They are paddling into the sea caves. We are doing that in ONE WEEK!!!



The reason I wanted to do a helicopter tour is to see the waterfalls coming down Mt. Waialeale. When the weather is not cooperative (about 50% of the time--it is the wettest spot on earth, after all), they won't take you into the crater. We woke up Sat morning and it was rainy, windy, and cold, so we were completely afraid we wouldn't get to see this. Chase told us at the beginning of the flight that the crater was wide open and we'd definitely get to go in, so we breathed easier and enjoyed the ride. Here we are, coming into the crater:
Nothing disappointing about it! There were hundreds of waterfalls.

My favorite spot of the trip:
We also got to see the "Jurassic Park" waterfall. The land surrounding this fall is owned by the Robinsons, so you can only stop here if you are on a tour with them. Maybe someday...

I made an anniversary book for Brady, full of pics over the past 10 years. In one of the picture books I pulled photos from, I had captioned that our 1st anniversary steaks were "delicious." Brady and I crack up over that, because seriously, that was the worst meal EVER and we will always eat out for anniversaries from now until death-do-us-part. That little experience taught me that it is comical and unnecessary to sugar-coat your memories.

So, with that in mind... Brady loved the tour. He loved it, loved it, loved it. I'm not sure where he ranks it in terms of island highlights and must-dos. I liked it. I do not appreciate immediate payoffs nearly as much as when I have to work and sweat for them. I LOVE hiking miles and miles for one view. I've also always had a grudge against helicopters--having them spin overhead after you HAVE hiked miles and miles and you are finally alone on a breathtaking vista is..ugh. I couldn't help thinking about that each time we saw trails. Even though I didn't get off the helicopter thinking, "WOW, that was the best thing ever," I did enjoy it. I'm glad we had the opportunity and now the pictures. This island is gorgeous.

Quick story: Our friend Julie was watching Zachary and Kate for us. About 20 minutes after we dropped them off, she left a message on my phone saying, "Zac fell on legos and I can't get it to stop bleeding. I think we are taking him to the ER." Twenty minutes later, she called and said she got the bleeding to stop. My phone was in the car, so we didn't miss the trip or have a chance to worry. Zac still has a bit of a fat lip, but he was fine. Say what I may about no-effort thrills, but going on a helicopter ride is a hundred times better than spending all afternoon at the ER!