Kauai 2019 by Sea

The big draw in Kauai is of course, the beach. First stop after we dropped off our suitcases was Shipwreck Beach.

 We followed that up with several trips to the calm waters of Poipu Beach. The giant green sea turtle was still hanging out at the beach but the kids weren't really interested.

Zach liked to make a "chair" in the sand, kind of like the turtle

We found a fairly sunny day on the north shore and made a trip to Hanalei Bay, which I think is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  On this day it was a little cloudy, so we couldn't see all of the surrounding mountains, but I still think it is beautiful.

 Of course one of the reasons it is so lovely and green is that it rains all the time.  We had a cloud burst while we were there. Calvin and I waited it out under the beach umbrella, but Butch's gang took refuge under a boogie board.
Here they are just minutes before the rain started.

Austin loved to snorkel and there aren't too many pictures of him without his snorkel gear.

Lucy loved sand castles, this one at Hanalei was wiped out by a big wave.

She learned her lesson and this one at Shipwreck Beach was further away from the waves.

But the waves at Shipwreck were really big that day and this one got washed away just minutes after the picture.
This wave was really big. Those are Butch's feet going in, Austin is in the middle of the wave and Zach followed seconds later.

On the way home from Hanalei, Emily helped us find a hidden gem, Kalihiwai Beach.

We had another quick down pour on this beach.  It rolled in and out in about 5 minutes. Just long enough to get everything wet.

On the way back from Waimea Canyon we stopped at Salt Pond beach, another new beach to me, that had a nice protected swimming area with covered picnic pavillions. Lucy worked on her snorkeling there.

The big highlight of the trip was a 5 hour boat trip along the Napali coast. Thanks to Dramamine no one in the family got sea sick even though the swell was pretty big that day.

We got to see bottlenose dolphins and spinner dolphins playing in the wake of the boat.

This looks like a totally fake picture, but it was one of the spinner dolphins

We stopped for a short snorkel, the sea life wasn't very impressive where we stopped,but everyone snorkeled anyway.

And then there was a little jumping off the boat. Zach and Austin had some great jumps, but their pictures were blurry. I did manage to get Calvin in focus.

It was another beautiful day and we saw some spectacular scenery.

You can see why there isn't a road to this part of the island

Just a great week in paradise.