Kauai - July 9, 2011

After breakfast, we got packed up and drove over to Ke'e Beach, which is as far as you can go on the north end of the island.  The last time we were in Kauai, we spent a lot of time at this beach because it's calm and warm since there's a protective reef just offshore.  It seemed like a good spot to get the kids back into snorkeling since it had been two years since they'd had the chance to do it and our youngest had been too little the last time.  Mike and I knew the snorkeling was just okay there, but figured the kids wouldn't really care as long as they saw something.

The older two headed for the water right away and took off for some rocks to the side of the beach.  They immediately started exclaiming over the fish that were swimming around them and spent a long time looking around the rocks and swimming back and forth between them and the beach.  Our little one had been hesitant to swim at the beach in the past, but decided that this time it was a fine idea, so she was diving down to gather rocks and check out the little fish that were coming closer in to the beach.  Mike took the older kids out to check out the reef when they were ready to swim a bit farther, which they both thought was really cool.

After spending the morning swimming and playing in the sand, we dragged the kids out of the water and they tore into the snacks we brought like they'd never seen food.  While they were occupied, Mike and I got the gear packed up and we wrangled the kids and stuff up to the showers to rinse off the sand and salt, which turned out to be unnecessary since Mother Nature decided to do it for us.  We then went into Hanalei for lunch at Bubba's, followed by the kids' first experience with shave ice.  They now agree, by the way, that there's no going back to snow cones!

After lunch, we thought we'd go see a couple of other beaches and decide if we wanted to spend more time at one of them.  We ended up not staying at either one, since one was very rough (although our son was game to try boogie boarding anyway) and our youngest was asleep at the other.  We did stop by the Kilauea Lighthouse, but it was closed by the time we got there, so we only got to see it from a distance.

On our way back to the condo, we stopped at the grocery for some dinner and then enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the bluff behind the condo.  After a busy day, it was a lovely way to end.