Koa Kea Hotel & Resort Poipu

Hi all, today we are in Kauai. As usual we did not go on a tour but we took a shuttle to the whale village shops and then took another to the shopping center. Once we got there and got our diet coke we were in a much better frame of mind. We got 4 Hawiian Starbuck's cards for the grandkids for part of their Christmas presents. Tomorrow morning we are going to go again and have a Starbuck's with our drink in it!<br><br>As you can ...

... save it for a special occassion, but it is very memorable. On our tour we saw the NaPali coast, which is on the side of Kauai with no roads - it is only visible by boat tours &amp; helicopter. It is unbeliveable! We also so the Jurassic Park waterfall shown in the movie!<br><br>The rest of the day was spent lounging by the pool and swimming at the beach at our villa. It was off to Maui the next morning!<br>

... and it did indeed keep his coke cold.<br><br>We ended at the condo and had a swim at the fabulous pool and then headed to Nawiliwili bay where the the Marriott hotel is for dinner. Mariefrance and I stayed there on our first visit and loved the setting. The hotel is wonderful. We had a 40 minute wait for the oceanside restaurant Dukes but filled the time by sitting on the edge of the ocean It was a beautiful evening while we watched the almost full ...

... but the large outside cactus garden was not bad. Life Lesson #10: It's not so wise to decorate a cactus garden with blow up Christmas figures; · The Pinball Hall of Fame (another good "Tim Tip"). It was excellent entertainment for the entire family, and it spawned yet another educational debate entitled, "Did that vintage pinball machine have faulty wiring, or was it really an experiment designed to see how many times Michael would be willing to ...

... turned us around. But not before we were treated to a show by the flying fish and a huge pod of spinner dolphins who surrounded the boat, frolicking in the bow wake and generally having a grand ol' time. Captain Andy gave us a full refund since we didn't get the proper tour, so all-in-all it was a pleasant morning. We'd intended to do a helicopter tour that afternoon (also cancelled ...

... to the hospital, where I'm pretty sure I was the only patient and the nurse taught me that "shi shi" meant to pee... so that's nice. She followed me into the bathroom, too. That's Hawaii for you... oh, so helpful :) I assured her I could shi shi on my own.<br><br>About 2 hours later I was walking out of the hospital on a cloud of ...

... we only had two more miles left. We got back to our car and changed into some clothes we had left in the car. We picked up a couple girls from Vermont that we met at the 8 mile camp that needed a ride. They've been on vacation for over a month starting in Maui and ending in Kauai. They are doing one of those low budget trips where they camp and hitch-hike for most of the trip. I sort of wish I had done a trip or two like that ...

... Cape Cod style home based on his childhood memories of New England . The house came to be known as "Mana Hale" - House of the Spirit.   The interior was lined with beautiful native "koa" hardwood.   Remarkably, the ranch grew to become the largest cattle ranch in the U.S. under single ownership, with the largest Hereford herd in the world on 500,000 acres of land.   For his son John ll, he built a "koa" house nearby Mana Hale and called it "Kapauikaihi" meaning ...

... and a little restaurant. One evening there was a wedding at we sat under the stars listening to the band playing and the waves lapping on the shore, even saw a shooting star. Paradise. We also hired a car and drove to the north shore to see Hanalei bay, some caves, more beaches and a Hawaiian dance night which was excellent. I took off the next day to the Canyon, and Gabrielle chilled out at the beach. All in all a fantastic few days.

... I was hoping that they would play the Apocalypse Now music (I think Flight of the Valkryies but played some boring lovers music and some Hawaiian music. He flew us threw the Waimea Canyon which was amazing. He went inside the canyons where we had thousand foot cliffs surrounding us. It was a little nerve-racking when he would get really close to them. I seemed like the blades were only a few feet away from hitting the rock walls. From there, we ...