Here is the rest of it. I will try to post the picture link so you can look at the pictures that are supposed to go along with the script.
I PM'd Anthony so maybe he knows what happened.
I will see if I can get the Monk Seal video attached again too. What a bummer!
5-23-08
This was the day of our sail/snorkel/sunset boat trip in the afternoon. However, we had to go down to Tunnels for early snorkeling. What a gorgeous day! Took more pictures.
We had to drive about 2 hours to the South end of Kauai to a port to leave on our charter.
We used Kauai Sea Tours and went on a 5-½ hour cruise up the West and to the North of Kauai and saw whole Napali coast. Words cannot describe the beauty and the pictures can’t capture just how breathtaking it is. It started out foggy, but ended up clearing when we hit the best part. The peaks go up 4,000 feet. Our captain was great as she described the history and facts of this coast. The snorkeling was OK. There weren’t a lot of fish and the reef was deep.
When we started to cruise again we saw a flying fish! It was so awesome.
Along the coast we saw a monk seal and a baby, some turtles and some goats. We saw people hiking along the coast and camping and that gave us a better perspective of just how big the mountains are here. We passed a very large cruise ship. We passed by caves and waterfalls. Fabulous!
On the way home we had rain and a rainbow. The sunset was OK.
What a wonderful day and a great way to end this vacation.
5-24-08
Departure day. We got up early and had one last walk down Tunnels beach. We snapped a few pictures. I had grown really fond of this place, but I didn’t cry and I wasn’t as sad as I am when I leave STJ. I missed my kids.
Went back and packed up. Why is it so hard to fit everything on the way home? I was worried that the suitcase would be over 50# so I gave Jim a few things to put in his.
We still had time after packing so Jim says, lets go back down to the beach and take another last walk. OK!
We stopped by the Hanalei pier again to see if it was clearer today and it was so we took a few pictures.
Do you know that the song “Puff the magic dragon” written by Peter, Paul and Mary was inspired by these mountains in Hanalei? They may have been smoking something and saw a dragon in the mountains. LOL
Then on to the airport in Lihue. My bag weighed EXACTLY 50 pounds! Then to Honolulu and then on to Chicago. A toddler cried 7 of the 8 hours on the plane. The long plane ride was OK, but the jet lag was hard to take. We lost one night of sleep.
What a great vacation! I still like STJ better, though.
I couldn’t help but compare it to STJ.
Snorkeling: STJ wins! STJ has more coral and in most cases more fish, just different types. The water is warmer in STJ.
Diving: Since I have only dived in STJ and at Tunnels beach, I guess I really can’t compare. They were both good for different reasons. STJ had more coral and fish and Tunnels on Kauai was cool because of the tunnels and caves and the mountainous scenery.
Food: Food isn’t my biggest priority on vacation. The luau had good food, but I would say that STJ wins this too. There seems to be more seafood on the menu in STJ and that is what I like.
Shopping: I am not much of a shopper, but I think STJ wins here too. I am sure that there are great stores in Kauai, we just didn’t seek them out.
Hiking: Kauai has beautiful scenery on the hikes so I guess it wins. But you had better be in good shape.
Scenery on land: Kauai wins due to the larger mountains and the Napali Coast
Friendliness: STJ, hands down.
Beaches: STJ wins for the water and sand for sure. I love white powdery sand. There are a lot of rocks and grainy course sand in Kauai and it is hard to walk down the beach like I said before.
Flight: Duh, STJ 5 hours, Hawaii 8 hours. Although it wasn’t bad, they did not lose our luggage and everything was on time.
So STJ wins and I feel that I have to back to STJ and if I don’t make it back to Kauai it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Of course I would go back if I could if there is time and finances for it. But it won’t be a yearly trip.
I recommend it though to anyone who can go there and I would say go in the summer and stay on the North shore. You also must take a boat tour of the Napali coast. I hear the helicopter rides are really great too, but we did not do that.
Here is the link to more pictures if you have the time. Almost 200 pictures but I started with 900, so I did pretty well!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/s ... 252468638/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sea-nile/2531823183/
