Kauai - Part 2

Much of the island is uninhabited and impossible to get to by car so the best way to really see the whole island is by helicopter. We were a little hesitant about booking this excursion because we were worried that Bradley would flip out when it was time to get on, but once again he showed what an amazing traveler he is! He did just fine, aside from the fact that we paid a lot of money for this and he fell asleep for a few minutes during the tour....

 Excitedly waiting for our turn

 Hard to get photos without the rotor, skids or glare from the window

 Jurassic Falls...from the movie!

 Many different climates on the island, from desert to areas that get over 450 inches of rain each year

 Nepali Coast

Highly recommend this! Wasn't scary at all...I actually felt safer than on an airplane

 Kauai Plantation Railway. We obviously couldn't pass up the opportunity for a train ride

I think Kauai is Hawaiian for chicken. They are everywhere!

 Donkey

 The train stopped so we could feed pigs, goats and more chickens of course

 In the afternoon, we rented some bikes to do more sightseeing on the East coast near our condo. Bradley was very excited to have his own ride.

I swear Tim joined us, he's just not in any of these pictures

 Lydgate Beach Park. Highly recommend. The rock wall makes for a calm swimming and snorkeling spot

 Outside of the rock wall, this is how rough the water was!

 It's not all rainbows and unicorns here. The daily meltdown over nothing.

Kauai - Part 1

After 5 fantastic days in Maui, we packed up and flew over to Kauai where Adam booked us another awesome beachfront condo. We didn't have an ocean view from our balcony with this one--instead there was an amazing pool area. Water slides, hot tubs, even a lazy river! Bradley couldn't get enough.

Relaxing after our long 1 hour flight to the island

 So many chickens running around. At least this one sorta used the crosswalk.

 Chasing birds at our resort

 The beach by the resort. The ocean in this part of Kauai is pretty rough so we didn't swim here

 My run the next morning was on a path right along the ocean, which gave me a stunning sunrise

 I also spotted a seal just chilling on the beach as I ran past

 We did a driving tour of the North Shore of the island, starting with Queen's Bath which is a cool natural pool protected by rocks from the rough surrounding sea. It's not always safe to visit but we came at a good time and weren't really at risk of being swept away

 And there were many sea turtles swimming around!

Hiking around the area

Bradley did a great job with the hiking...climbing over rocks, stepping over and under trees

 Our next stop was Ha'ena State Park. We were hoping to go to a different beach but everywhere has limited parking and we weren't there early enough. No worries though, as this beach was also beautiful. The sand was surprisingly deep and squishy which made it very hard to walk through

We continued driving, taking some shots of the lush greenery along the way

 Next up was the Kilauea Lighthouse. I took many pictures of the view but didn't actually get a picture of the lighthouse itself so this one is from Google:

The rest of these photos are from Adam and I

 Ducks

 Back at the hotel, we had a lot of fun in the pool. Bradley's swimming lessons have really been paying off

Just another day in paradise