Aloha Kauai!

Aloha!!  Greetings from the sunny/very rainy (is that possible?), windy garden island of Kauai, Hawaii.    As I write this, I can hear the wind howling outside.  It sounds more like we're in Idaho than Hawaii.
And we arrived last night to pouring rain that seemed to threaten flooding roads.  But we made it to our hotel, went out to eat, and bought a few groceries for Sunday then crashed for the night.  I was a little worried that we had picked the wrong time of the year to try a new island but really, this is the same time we go on a trip every year.  It just happens to be unusually wet this year (so they say).

Thankfully, we woke to a beautiful morning which made for a nice drive to church.

Church was great!  Loved the inspired messages of following the prophet, and becoming self reliant.  As I was looking around the room, we could tell that a great percentage of the people were visitors.  And sitting two rows in front of us I saw the familiar face of Elaine Dalton, who used to be the General Young Women's President of the church.  I got so excited!!  After sacrament I went up to her to shake her hand and thank her for her service and wonderful example.  She gave me a big hug and showed me her YW medallion still on her necklace and said, "I'm still in Young Women's.  I've decided I'm not released." Then she gave me a big smile.  You could always tell that she loved the girls.  If she hadn't been on vacation, I would have asked to sit down and have her answer all my questions. I also came really close to asking for a picture with her, but I controlled myself.

The picture above is deceiving because when we came out of church is was raining again.  We spent a lot of time indoors cause every time we tried to go for a walk towards the beach, it would start to rain.  so we decided to take the Jeep for a drive to see what we could see.  On the advise of our friends the Ruiz we took a dirt (mud) road to a local beach that isn't well known.

Below is what it looked like most of the way.  We thought our fillings would fall out of our teeth!  It was so bumpy at one point that we were swaying back and forth like a boat in a storm.    I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the image of the two of us rattling around inside the car.

After much jarring, we made it.

 We walked the beach then as we were heading for the car, it started to rain.

So Joseph quickly took my picture and we ran for shelter.

Back at the hotel, we stayed in our rooms, talking with the kids, until sunset.

Then we ventured out to capture the last of the day.

What a great way to start the week!! (no sarcasm intended)