The Daily Life of The Stoddards: January 2009

Aloha from Poipu beach on the south shore of Kauai! We have now been staying here on the south side of the island for almost a week, and we couldn't be more happy with our experience! The weather has been phenomenal and the scenery breathtaking. In fact we have been enjoying our stay so much we decided to extend our vacation for an extra week! The resort we are staying at is a time share and just yesterday someone cancelled their reservation for next week so we got a steal of a deal to stay another week, we couldn't resist!

We have continued to do a lot of relaxing by the pool, snorkeling, shopping and sightseeing. Yesterday my dad, Katie and Ben took a tour of the whole island by helicopter...they had such an amazing experience! How fun! Mom and Dad and Katie and Ben are headed back to Portland on Saturday morning and Grandma and Grandpa are here to stay with us through next Thursday:) Tomorrow night Aaron and I are going to go on a dinner cruise with Katie and Ben along the Napali coast to whale watch and see some dolphins. Hope all is well back at home...Aloha!

Kaluea Point

The whole Family minus Katie and Ben at Kaluea Point.

Bronwyn and Aaron enjoying the view of the ocean.

Katie and Ben enjoying a tropical swim.

Katie and Aaron getting ready to go snorkeling.

Aaron all geared up.

Keslin and G-pa playing on the beach.

Bronwyn and MeMa enjoying the view.

Dad, Katie and Grandma.

A view of PoiPu beach from our balcony.

The Spouting Horn.

Bronwyn lounging by the pool.

Our vacation didn't exactly get off to a great start....when we showed up to the airport we discovered that our flight had a two hour delay, which means we waited at the airport for 4 hours before even getting on the plane. (Anyone who has little kids knows what a challenge that can be!) Anyhow...after our flight finally took off, we were airborn for about 40 minutes when the pilot announces over the intercom "I'm sorry folks, but we are having some mechanical difficulties with the aircraft and we cannot attempt to cross the pacific under these conditions, we are going to have to turn around and go back to Portland." Talk about scary!!! All of the passengers wern't too happy as you can imagine. Better yet, when we landed and deplaned the aircraft we were informed there wasn't another available flight until 1:15 a.m. the next morning. Our flight was suppose to leave at 8:55 on Jan 3rd. and we didn't make it to our destination until 5:30 in the morning on the 4th. To Pass the time we went home, took a nap, got some take out for dinner and headed back to the airport 13 hours later.....and finally here we are in beautiful Kauai Hawaii!

This is our first visit to Kauai, we have been to Maui and Oahu on previous vacations and I think this is the most beautiful island I have seen between the three of them. They call it "the garden island" which couldn't describe it more perfectly, it is so lush and green! We have already been here for one week, man how the time flies when you are on vacation! We have been staying in a little town called Princeville which is on the northern side of the island. We are headed off to Poipu beach on Saturday for the second week of our vacation which is on the Southern side of the island. We went to Poipu today to check out where we will be staying and I think I can truly say that I have never seen a more beautiful tropical setting. I can't wait to get there, the southern side of the island is usually a few degrees warmer and a lot less rainy. I will post pictures of Poipu after our arrival when I get the chance to take some pictures.

So far we have just done a lot of relaxing by the pool, playing on the beach, and eating lots of food! Next week we will hopefully get the chance to do some snorkeling, kayaking, and hiking during our visit to the south shore. Keep checking our blog for some more of our upcoming Hawaiian adventures!