Cruise to Alaska on the NCL Pearl - June 2008

The beginning of my summer vacation tale begins with a fantastic journey to Alaska via cruise ship.  After planning this vacation with Terri for over a year, I can’t believe it’s finally here.  Our ship is the Norwegian Pearl and our itinerary has us going roundtrip out of Seattle, Washington.  

On June 7^th, just two days after school is over for the summer, we head out for Seattle.  Adam, Terri and Wayland arrive in the early afternoon, but Kris and I arrive don’t arrive until around midnight.

On June 8^th, we arrive at the Pearl around 10am and board the ship.  (Before getting onboard, I go on a search for my Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper.  I’m addicted.  I found online, before arriving in Seattle, the nearest grocery store to the dock, and the five of us trek the 1/3 mile journey to the store.  On the way we are stopped by bum after bum asking for money.  We’re obviously traveling together, but some ask each and every one of us.  Needless to say, I did not get a great impression of Seattle.)  The ship departs at 5pm.  

Wayland and Terri's door sign

Our door sign

We have mini-suites with balconies.  The rooms are fantastic.  I’ve never had a more spacious room on a cruise ship…I must say they were worth the money.  The beds were super comfy.  We even wound up trying to find out what mattress it was so we could buy one for the house, but it was a specially made NCL brand.  It was also really nice to have a cabin with a tub in the bathroom.  After unpacking, there was nothing to do but explore the ship, and, of course, eat.

 

I’m going to throw in here that I’d normally describe the day-to-day cruise activities I participated in, but there really isn’t a need.  The best part of this cruise was the ports of call.  We wound up with perfect weather, beautiful temperatures, and fantastic excursions.  I’ll describe them in detail.  

All I’ll say about the cruise was that, aside from the room, the itinerary, and the spa (which you pay extra for), I’m far more impressed with Carnival and Royal Caribbean.  (Carnival is my favorite, but Royal Caribbean had the best food.)  NCL had okay, but completely unspectacular, food and entertainment on the ship.  My favorite food on the boat was the pretzel bread…and I’m not joking.  We also found “freestyle cruising” to be a hassle, as you had to wake up early to get down to the desk to reserve somewhere to eat for that evening.  It wasn’t convenient in the least.

 

On June 10^th, the Pearl arrives in Juneau, AK where we had booked an excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier.  The bus picks us up at the dock and transports us about 10 miles to the glacier.  A canoe awaits us and we paddle out to a point about a mile from the glacier.  Safety concerns do not allow the canoe to get closer, since a major calving (ice break-off from the glacier) could cause a wall of water to swamp the canoe.  

The weather is windy and cold, but what else do you expect whenever you’re feet from a glacier?  We enjoyed hot apple cider and crackers while overlooking the glacier and Nugget Falls.  There were numerous icebergs in the lake, and Adam and I had fun boogying next to the waterfall.  (And I mean right next to the waterfall.  It was spectacular, and oh so powerful.)

 

June 11^th has us stop in Skagway, Alaska.  Almost everyone split up this day.  Kris and Wayland climb up the mountainside to Upper Dewey Lake, while Terri and Adam shop Skagway.

I decided to take a wonderful scenic drive and horseback ride into the Canadian Yukon.  The highlight of this excursion was supposed to be the horseback ride, but it wasn’t.  The 6 hour excursion (which wound up being 7 hours thanks to a wonderful van driver who let us stop for photo opportunities whenever we wanted), was filled with breathtaking beauty.  The views were like Colorado on steroids.  

Whenever and wherever you looked, you saw another majestic mountain or glacier…I saw the world’s smallest desert (Carcross) and the top of the treelines.  

Whenever we were riding on the horses, we trotted to the top of a rather large and steep hill and walked right into a postcard at Emerald Lake.  

I don’t know that I’ve ever spent as much time awestruck and dumbfounded in my life as I was in the Yukon.  Visit the Klondike Highway if you ever get a chance…go to Skagway, a wonderfully picturesque town with wooden walkways, great souvenir shopping, and a nostalgic feel, and head to the Yukon stopping at Emerald Lake.  It’s so worth it.

 

The next day was a cruise into Glacier Bay National Park.  The ship visited the Margerie, Reid, Lamlugh, Grand Pacific, and John Hopkins Glaciers.  Each glacier was approached to within a mile for viewing.  The cruise ship slowed and gradually rotated to allow maximum viewing pleasure.  I spent the day in the spa in a one person hot tub with the best view…heavenly.

On June 13^th, we docked early at Ketchikan, and were greeted by bald eagles at the dock.  Kris, Wayland, and I took an excursion to the Tongass Rainforest to do ziplining.  (My idea.)  

The zipline excursion starts in the trees high on the mountain, and descends via 7 separate zipline runs and 3 rope bridges.  At times the ziplines run 135’ above the forest floor and up to 850’ in length.  I never did quite get the hang of breaking, as I was having too much fun to slow down, but the trees had padding wrapped around them, and I was always able to kick my way into stopping.  We returned to the city to find Adam and Terri still shopping.

June 14^th was a day at sea (Terri and I went and got discount massages in the morning and they were fabulous) with an evening in Victoria, B.C., Canada.  

We took a cab into town and walked around awhile.  We were unable to find interesting shopping opportunities or activities to do, although we were entertained by many a street performer…namely a violinist dressed as Darth Vader.  He was playing a mean tune.  

We did get a Dr. Pepper from a 7-11 in Canada before going back to the cruise ship.  That was neat.

 

On June 15^th, the ship was docked by the time we awoke.  We joined a Seattle City Bus Tour that kept Wayland, Kris, Adam, and Terri amused by seeing the significant sites of Seattle, and then ultimately deposited us at the airport.  I slept on the bus tour.  It was boring.  Every time I woke up in the 3.5 hour tour, the tour guide was talking about yet another beautiful tree you can find in Seattle.  Our tour was supposed to stop at the Space Needle, but it just drove by it.  All I know about Seattle is that it is foggy, chilly, has great trees, and it has lots of beggars.  Needless to say, I shant return to Seattle.

We were home for a few days, where I slightly prepared for my Tech Apps certification test, Kris went to work, we played with the cats, and I researched information about our trip to Chicago.  I love planning trips…this summer has been right up my alley.

Colorado, Oklahoma, New York - July 2007

The Chinese call it the year of the pig, but, for me, it’s been the year of the apple.

Kris and I finished our first year of teaching well, with my winning Teacher of the Year and the Freedom Award and Kris making massive improvements to several key processes within Winfree.  But, having had an exhausting year, we were ready for a good summer of travel.

After a few days off, Kris and I drove up to Denver to visit my sister and her family from June 10 - June 21, 2007. 

While we were there, Jimmy flew up as well. 

We had a lot of fun celebrating Jenny's birthday, going to the park, pool, sprinklers, and to the Colorado Renaissance Fair.  As much as it pained me to leave, we headed back home on the 21st. 

We then had a few days alone before Adam came to stay with us, and Terri joined us on the 4th of July.  After a trip to Oklahoma to visit the WinStar, we all headed down south to Houston to spend a few days in Pasadena with Wayland, Terri, and Adam, then drove back home to give me time to pack for my New York trip with Valerie Albright on July 12 – July 16, 2007.

Thursday, July 12, 2007
We flew from DFW to Newark airport with a connection in Atlanta.  Our first flight left at 5:45 am, and, if you know me, you know that I didn’t sleep any the night before.  I was quite tired by the time we arrived at EWR, but we took the Airtrain to NY Penn Station and pulled our luggage the four or so blocks to the hotel anyway.  (This wouldn’t be such a hard feat if you didn’t have swarms of people running into you and going the opposite direction.  I felt, quite often, that for every two steps I went forward, I went one back due to the pressure exerted on my luggage.)  We checked-in to the Wingate Inn Manhattan Midtown, a really nice hotel with a nice sized room and super comfy bed.  They offered a free hot continental breakfast every morning.  I was quite happy with the hotel.  Then we rest and unpack before Danny comes and picks us up from the hotel to drive us to Astoria to see the entire family.  (Now I’m ready and raring to go.  Miraculously, I don’t feel any of my previous exhaustion.  That hits me on our trip home.)

We make it to Astoria to have dinner with Aunt Alice, Uncle Nick, Danny, Nicky, Caroline, and Juliette.  They delighted us with fantastic pasta, ravioli, pasta salad, potato salad, BBQ, etc.  My aunt even went out before we got to NY and bought my favorite soda.  Then, after a remarkably tasty dinner, Danny gave us a remarkable driving tour around the city. 

We got to see Times Square, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and more all sparkling and dazzling at night.  It was phenomenal.  Walls and walls of light and concrete spanning distances beyond imaginable.

Friday, July 13, 2007
I’m a tripaholic.  I love traveling and planning to travel.  I almost live for exploring new places, taking pictures of new places, testing the boundaries of what’s completely familiar to me…well, as long as I still have a semblance of control over the situation.  That being said, I went a little plan happy over this New York trip.  So much to see, so little time and all.

After eating breakfast, we walked to Planet Hollywood to pick up our New York 3-day passes (highly recommended for those wanting to do a lot of activities).  We walked in Times Square and over to Rockefeller Center where we stopped at La Maison du Chocolat for Iced Chocolates and a platter of amazing chocolates.  We then took our first subway to the Museum of Natural History.  After touring the museum, we walked across Central Park to the Guggenheim, which wound up being my favorite museum.  We walked east to Ray Bari’s pizza parlor where Val and I both had a slice of cheese pizza and I had a lemon Italian ice.  We then walked to my mother’s old high school, St. Jean the Baptiste, and to her old church, which was very pretty in a churchy way.  Then southwest to the MET before hitting a subway back toward our hotel. 

A few showers later, we headed toward the Empire State Building to meet up with Danny, his cousin, Joey, and Joey’s girl, Chrissy.  The five of us got on the NY Skyride…really cool…and then went to the top of the Empire State Building.  This was definitely worth doing…we were up there on a beautiful night with great company and a spectacular view.  Afterwards, we went to Scotty’s where I had an amazing meal…roast chicken stuffed with swiss cheese and broccoli. 

Saturday, July 14, 2007
We got a later start today and had a slight revision in plans.  We hit a few stores in the morning and then took the subway to Rockefeller Center to go to the NBC Experience Store and do the NBC Tour.  The tour was incredibly neat.  We got to see where Conan and SNL are filmed, how makeup is used, and I even got to pretend to be a newscaster while reading a teleprompter.  I’m glad I wasn’t the weatherman…that guy embarrassed himself a bit.  We later ate at Planet Hollywood ($20 off thanks to the NY Pass), visited the Hard Rock Café and a few other shops, and took the subway back near our hotel.

After cleaning up, Val and I took the subway to our chosen off-broadway show, My First Time.  It was so phenomenally funny, and we had front row center seats that couldn’t have been beaten.  It was super enjoyable.  After the show we walked to a subway station that took us over the E. 60th and 3rd where we met up with Dan, ate some pizza at Patsy’s, and had AMAZING Frrrozen Hot Chocolates and desserts at Serendipity 3 (from the movie).  Then Dan gave us a few hour long tour of the city.
 

We drove to the WTC site and walked around, drove uptown, downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy, Wall Street, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and to the South Street Seaport (where we walked around).  He gave us such an amazing tour of the city.  I don’t think you could pay hundreds of dollars and get the caliber of tour that we got.  We didn’t get back to the hotel until 3am.

Sunday, July 15, 2007
We woke up and took the subway to Times Square to grab a hot dog and take the M42 bus to Pier 42.  We were able to grab our tickets onto the “Beast” to see the Statue of Liberty. 

(The Beast is a speedboat run by the Circle Line.)  There was no line and no wait, which was amazing, and the boat ride was fantastic fun.  I strongly recommend this ride as the way to go see the Statue of Liberty.  After our 30 minute boat ride, we rode back to Times Square to get a subway to Little Italy. 

We walked Canal Street, bought some Coach in the back room, ate at a great little restaurant called Vincent’s (I had the stuffed shells and Val had ziti), and we decided to get the heck out of Chinatown.  It smelled really badly.  We headed back to the hotel, stopping in a few shops along the way, and I got into the shower.  When I got out, Val was sleeping, so I went to a little shop near the hotel and bought a really cute top.  I was later picked up at the hotel by my Uncle Nick to go see Dan and Nick play ice hockey.  (Val was plum tuckered out, so she opted out in favor of R&R at the hotel.)  Aunt Alice, Danny, Nicky, and I went to the ice hockey game, and I got a few great hours watching the guys and seeing my Aunt.  After the game (which the guys won 5 to 2), we drove back to drop off my aunt and cousin Nicky and Danny drove me back to the hotel.  Val had already packed all of her stuff, so she was nice enough to help me pack mine.

Monday, July 16, 2007
Val and I hit a few shops right near the hotel, and we picked up black & whites for our respective loved ones back home before Danny came to pick us up at the hotel.  The streets were bustling, so I must add here an astounding observation…I don’t see how anyone can drive safely in New York…let alone in a garbage truck.  Geez, it’s amazing.  Uncle Nick had picked everyone heroes up at this great deli near my aunt’s house, and the lot of us – Aunt Alice, Dan, Nick, Caroline, Juliette, Val, and I – ate a fantastic lunch before getting to
see “Sugarless” (one of D&N’s garbage trucks) and a tour of Caroline and Nicky’s house.  After a few hours of talking, Danny and my aunt drove us to Newark so we could catch our flight.

All in all, my trip was fantastic, and I can’t wait to go back.

And this is why I call this the year of the apple…from teaching to visiting the big apple…back to teaching again.  It’s a theme.

Camping in Lewisville, TX - April 2005

(Trip write-up by Kris)

Kristy and I took Adam camping on Lake Lewisville in April 2005.  We enjoyed burgers with roasted potatoes.  Afterwards, we sat around the fire singing oldies while I strummed the guitar.

Weddingmoon in Hawaii - March 2004

Day 0 - Monday, March 1st
We departed DFW and arrived in Honolulu. We departed Honolulu and arrived at Lihue, Kaua'i. We got our rental car from Thrifty, a purple Dodge Stratus. We picked up some sandwich stuff and beverages at the local Wal-Mart then headed, through the pouring rain, to our rental cottage, fearing we were lost the entire drive.  In short, we arrived.

Day 1 - Tuesday, March 2nd
We met our wedding planner at the Pono market, a tiny shop in Kapaa, where we obtained our marriage license. (While there we met two 90 year old people who were also getting their license. They were a sweet old couple and invited us to their upcoming nuptials.) Due to the rain that Kaua'i had been experiencing, our wedding location was changed to Hanalei Bay, as the wedding planner feared the bridges leading to our original location would be closed. She also mentioned that Hanalei Bay had a pavilion where we could be married in case it started raining again.

We wanted to go find a private location on Hanalei Bay for our wedding, so we decided to drive there and look around. Much to my dismay, the skies were dark gray, the water choppy, and the pavilion that had been mentioned by the wedding planner resembled the back of a prison cell. The only nice thing about the beach would have been the free witnesses...as the pavilion was a hangout for local beach bums. Kris saw my disappointment and decided we'd check out neighboring beaches to see if we could find a better one. We went to the Princeville Resort, where Hideaway Beach was located, and to Anini Beach, where we decided to hold the ceremony. We called the wedding planner to let her know of the change in our plans, and went back to Hanalei to grab a bite at Bubba's Burgers, before heading back to our lodging to get ready.

*A little side note here...many of the Kaua'i beaches allow camping. Anini is one such beach. Luckily for us, the beach is closed for camping on Tuesdays due to cleaning and general maintenance, and so it lacked crowds.

We met with the wedding planner, who acted as our witness, her husband, our photographer, and our minister, a Hawaiian spiritual leader, at 5:00pm. A few pictures were taken before the ceremony began so the photographer could familiarize himself with our digital camera. The ceremony began with the minister speaking of the sanctity of marriage and giving us a native Hawaiian wedding blessing. Kris and I said our own vows (and, while he'd probably kill me for saying so, I swear you would think these were vows from some incredibly romantic movie...they were that fantastic), exchanged rings, exchanged leis, and were pronounced married. Oddly enough, it didn't really hit me that we were (getting) married until the minister said to Kris "You may now kiss your wife".

I stood there through the entire ceremony, saying vows, etc... but until then, it was like I was watching the ceremony, not participating in it. Just one of those funny little things. While taking pictures afterward, we got a few congratulations by people walking by...one lady even stopped and asked to take our picture. (I'd like to think we were the highlight of her vacation.)

For those of you who might care about these things, I followed the traditional something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue:

Old - Terri made my bouquet and used part of her veil to make a ribbon on the handle.
New - My wedding dress and pearl-lined flip-flops
Borrowed - Linda was nice enough to let me borrow her pearl earrings
Blue - My bouquet had some blue ribbon on it, and I had my toenails painted blue.

Before we had left, Wayland had told Kris that we were to go out for a nice wedding dinner. We decided on Zelo's, a restaurant in Hanalei's Chiang Young Village. Complimentary garlic bread was shared, and Kris and I found our dinners to be wonderful. We splurged and got a fantastic dessert called a Mud Pie.

The biggest mistake of our trip, however, had to be walking around the Hanalei shopping center after dinner. We were the unfortunate victims of Stanley that evening, a salesman of horrible proportions. He just wouldn't stop talking. (Stanley was one of those guys who set you up with an hour-and-a-half time-share lecture so you can get 2-for-1 deal coupons to local amusements/attractions.) Thankfully, my bladder was on my side for once and required that I seek out a bathroom. The one in the local shopping center was closed for the evening, so I actually had to go across the street to find one. When I got back from the restroom, Kris was still there. He couldn't have been actually interested in what the guy was saying, could he? (This is why Terri's advice should always be followed...say you are leaving tomorrow...always say you're leaving tomorrow.)  We were finally able to break away and head to our Riverview Retreat.


Day 2 - Wednesday, March 3rd
We had decided to take Wednesday easy. We were planning on doing a boat ride/snorkeling on Thursday and kayaking on Friday, and we didn't want to exhaust ourselves, so we found some local sites to explore. One such spot was the Maniniholo dry cave across from Ha'ena beach park. You are driving along the road, which is bordered by ocean on one end and green tropical mountains on the other, and right in the middle of a massive mountain is a huge hole, the Kaua'i dry cave. Naturally, we also checked out the beach. Moving further west near Lumaha'i beach the Waikanaloa wet cave was found. Before reaching this destination, you had to pass through a stream. (The Hawaiians were apparently too lazy to build another bridge for this one, which, while small, could cause major problems during heavy rain.)

The furthest point west capable of being reached by road is Ke'e beach, where we spent much of Wednesday. Walking the length of the beach, until reaching residences, we made many a discovery. From beautiful coral that was washed up to a Monk Seal sleeping on the sand, an endangered animal I might add, Ke'e was quite nice to explore. We also saw one of the most interesting couples I've ever seen in my life. It sure was funny to see a full-grown man with his hair up in a pony-tail scurry up a tree to chop down coconuts. His barefoot wife/girlfriend was on the jagged rocks below barefoot holding an infant. Crazy stuff.

We later went shopping at the shopping area in Hanalei (no Stanley, phew) and bought Shaved Ice to enjoy. We also, with a bit of trouble, finally located a post office in which to mail the postcards we had written out. Kris made an executive decision to just have dinner at our suite. We dined on leftovers from the evening before and relaxed in our private hot tub.


Day 3 - Thursday, March 4th
We had planned a boat ride on the Na Pali Explorer for Thursday, and, being it was on the opposite side of the island, we had to wake up and leave pretty early to get there in time. We would soon find out that our boat for the day was the Na Pali Explorer II which boasts "superior comfort on the largest boat of its type in the US. - a 48', 35 passenger Explorer class adventure craft featuring smooth ride quality and the lowest seasickness rate on the island." I was pretty worried about the weather, as we awoke to someone dark skies on our side of the island, but we called into the boat company and all things were a go. When we got to the Na Pali Explorer headquarters, there were pastries and banana bread waiting for us, as well as some morning beverages. After checking in, we were all instructed on how to get to the boat dock to begin our trip.

The boat ride started decent enough, with our captain, Rob, giving a bit of Kaua'i history and a view of a decent sized sea turtle. Nerve-racking, however, was the knowledge that as we were heading out, many other boats were heading back to shore. Pretty close to the beginning on the trip began our 45 minutes of snorkeling. They anchored the boat near a sugar cane factory, and explained a bit about snorkeling...making sure to remind everyone that we were in the ocean, and there are things that bite in the ocean. While we were all sitting there waiting for snorkel gear to be passed out and listening to Captain Rob's spiel, I experienced my first touch of queasiness. Luckily, pretty soon we were able to jump off the boat and begin snorkeling.

While visibility wasn't perfect, we were able to see quite a few pretty fish. The yellow and black Angelfish were the easiest to spot. We were near a small bed of coral that had many neat discoveries, if you were patient. Our snorkel time was over before we knew it, and we were all washing off with the hose at the back of our boat. (They called it a freshwater shower.) Huddling beneath towels, we all faced the chill of the wind as our boat began heading toward the Na Pali Coast. It wasn't long before there were ooohs and ahhhs heard throughout our boat. We had found an area filled with Spinner Dolphins. I love marine life, and dolphins are truly my favorite animals. It was so amazing to see them in their natural habitat. Here they were, in an enormous family group, swimming around in pairs, threes, and even in sixes. A few would show off and jump in the air. When they got pretty comfortable with our being there, one jumped into the air and showed off his spin. It was amazing. We also got to see a Humpback breech.

The captain made an executive decision as we went toward the Na Pali coast to turn around. Due to the weather, he felt as though going forward would be dangerous. He offered us free t-shirts as a consolation. The waves were quite rough at this point and Kris got pretty drenched. I got my fair share of water in the face too. We headed back to the dolphin location for lunch. After they broke out the food, I was forced to go to the back of the boat. Smelling the food was just a little too harsh on my weak stomach. Kris was concerned for me and kept coming back to check on me in my nauseous state. He told me that whenever I passed by, people looked nervous. It made me chuckle. In the end, I held onto my innards.

After we docked, about an hour and a half prior to schedule, Kris and I walked around and looked at a few of the shops in the town. We also stopped for Shaved Ice at Jo Jo's. After enjoying our snowcones, we headed toward the Na Pali HQ where we received our free shirts. One of the guys that had been a helper on the boat asked me if I was feeling better and if I'd like lunch, since I couldn't eat on the boat. I declined his offer (as I had had Kris grab a sandwich for me for that exact reason). We changed from our swimsuits into our new shirts and some shorts and headed for the road that lead to the Waimea Canyon.

The Waimea Canyon road was quite a curvy road. Kris seemed certain that as we ventured up the mountain we wouldn't see any of the roosters/chickens that have populated the island.

*Side note here. There is an overabundance of chickens on Kaua'i. Kris kept pointing out each rooster we saw on our trip. He also made a point to take pictures of them. Each time he'd see another one he'd yell out "Rooster" as though he'd never seen one in his life. What puzzles me is with so many chickens running around, why isn't chicken cheaper?

Driving back down the canyon made me sick to my stomach again.

On the way home we decided to stop in Lihue to eat and shop at Hilo Hattie's. Almost every brochure we got in Hawaii mentioned Hilo Hattie's, so I felt it necessary to stop in. Good thing too, as I found a t-shirt there that I liked and Kris was able to buy himself a ukulele. We asked the cashier for a dinner recommendation, and, with her recommendation, went to JJ's Steak & Seafood for dinner. They have an upstairs formal steak and seafood menu and downstairs casual dining. We decided to eat downstairs since I couldn't find anything I would eat on the upstairs menu. I ordered a chicken teriyaki sandwich and fries. Kris said the waitress made a face when I ordered it. Kris ordered the coconut shrimp. The waitress said, "good choice." When our meals came out, I had a plate full of food. Kris got six pieces of shrimp. I was really hungry, and my meal tasted really good. Poor Kris wasn't too fond of the shrimp, and it didn't come close to filling him up. Luckily for him, I got full and was able to share the rest of my meal with him. He later commented that my meal, the one that the waitress seemed to disapprove of, was better than his. We decided to head back for some R&R. We'd had a busy and tiring day.

Day 4 - Friday, March 5th
While we were on the Na Pali Explorer, one of the guides suggested snorkeling at Lydgate Park. We decided to forgo the kayaking we had planned and go snorkeling instead. We headed for Lydgate Park, and, while sunscreening up, saw a couple that had been on the boat with us the day before. Kris and I had left our snorkel set down in Houston from when Terri and I went on the cruise, and so Kris had bought another set from Wal-Mart before we left. Unfortunately, the set was a piece of junk, so, after trying for quite some time to make my mask work, I gave up. Instead I headed for the car and amused myself by taking pictures of Kris snorkeling. Regardless of whether you were able to snorkel or just walk around in the water, Lydgate's visibility was fantastic. You could see clear to the bottom of the ocean from where I was walking, and I got to see schools of huge fish, a few pretty yellow fish, and a bottom sucker. After Kris was finished snorkeling, we went to the restroom/shower to rinse off and change.

We noticed that we still had over an hour to kill before Kris's All-you-can-eat Shrimp and Steak for $11.99 began (from 3-6pm), so we headed over to the Coconut Marketplace, the biggest shopping center on Kaua'i. For the entire trip in Hawaii I had been eyeing the black pearl jewelry they have. These pearls are quite pretty, and, due to Linda's loan, I have become quite partial to pearls. Unfortunately, the black pearl is also very expensive and generally only set in gold, not white gold. While walking around the Coconut Marketplace in Kapaa, Kris convinced me to stop at pretty much each shop/booth and see what their selection was like. I rarely have an interest in jewelry, so I thought I should take advantage of my interest and have a life-long souvenir of our Kaua'i vacation. The final stop we made, I found a gorgeous set of pearl earrings in a lavender color. They are set in 14k white gold and were quite reasonably priced, so I got them. It was off to the Wailua Family Restaurant for Kris.

After eating, we decided we would head toward Ke'e beach and see the sun set. When we got there the parking lot didn't seem as crowded as it had the time we'd gone before, but the beach was more crowded. We walked down the beach to find a good spot to watch the sunset and passed a wedding on our way. Kris and I plopped down in the shade at the beach to wait, and Kris took a bit of a nap.

He woke up and decided to go exploring in the woods. While he was gone, I watched a windsurfer struggle with his equipment. It was quite amusing. Kris came back full of bug bites. They hurt/itched so much he tried to bury his feet in the sand thinking it would help. He failed, but the sunset was gorgeous. While waiting I drew funny things in the sand. Kris drew his infamous Queetar character. Kris also found a sea urchin which he brought up the beach to show me. He put it in the sand, and it was really neat to watch him move. After a few pictures and a mini-movie, Kris set him free. After the sun set, we decided to go back to Riverview to clean up. We thought since we'd had a late lunch, we would just go eat dessert somewhere nice.

Bamboo Bamboo was the restaurant chosen for dessert. They had been nice enough to let me use their bathroom the night of the wedding, and I thought it looked like a nice place. We got this really neat padded corner booth and glanced at the menu. Kris was actually sort of hungry by then, so he proposed the idea of splitting an appetizer and dessert. After perusing the menu, we thought we'd get a brick-oven pizza instead of an appetizer. With the fresh bread that came complimentary and the huge pizza, we wound up not getting dessert, but it was quite delicious anyway. We spent our last night at the Riverview Retreat relaxing in the Jacuzzi.

Day 5 - Saturday, March 6th
Our final day on the beautiful island of Kaua'i came too fast. We showered and packed and were out of the Riverview Retreat by eleven, at the request of Ray. I had eaten our leftover pizza for breakfast; Kris finished off the last of our bread and had PB&J sandwiches.

Our destination was Poipu to see the Eucalyptus Tree Tunnel and Spouting Horn. We also stopped by the Poipu Shopping Village where we bought a card for Wayland, a baseball cap for my mother, and had intended on grabbing a burger. We didn't get the burger. Being we had time, Kris and I headed to Wailua Falls. Not only did we see the falls, but I got to pet a baby Hawaiian pig, pre-luau.

We returned our faithful Stratus and awaited our departure. We arrived back in DFW on Sunday at 5 am.

Two weeks later, Terri and Wayland graciously threw a wedding reception for us.  It was a big bbq reception complete with cake.  They are so amazing.  I'm a lucky lady to have them for in-laws.