The plan was for a more-or-less chilled-out beach day, with the kids' big goal to go back to their favorite spot in Hanalei Bay. But first, I forced them to go on a flower observation nature walk with me and their grandmother:
Syd spent most of the walk in a sulk because within the first five minutes she'd seen a beautiful flower just out of reach, pulled the giant tree branch gently down to her so she could smell it, and the entire giant branch snapped off in her hand. Not only was our sweet steward of the environment absolutely horrified at herself, but some tourists hanging out on their nearby balcony also saw her and thought that it was hilarious.
Have you ever seen how pissed off a cat gets when you laugh at it? That's Syd.
To be fair, the incident was both horrifying AND hilarious. Mental note: some trees in Hawaii are awfully brittle!
Will had herself a bit of a misadventure, as well--
--and took it with good grace, except that when Syd cheered up enough to have a go on the hammock, herself, Will immediately shoved her off of it, too, because sisters.
Oh, well. There were at least three minutes there when she wasn't sulking in paradise...
Probably time, then, to go to the beach!
Will's grubbing around in the sand always, ALWAYS comes with a stubborn fight against physics:
Matt also battled with physics repeatedly while boogie boarding. As far as I can tell, the boogie board works best when it ends up tumbling you off in the surf:
After you've tumbled off from your triumphant ride and recovered yourself, you may briefly celebrate--
--but if you get too caught up in posing for your wife, you might forget that you're still in the surf and wave physics still apply:
We stayed at the beach until everyone was entirely tuckered out from sun and surf, and then OF COURSE went back to Wishing Well:
See that Mason jar in the background of the above photo? It's embossed with the Wishing Well logo and slogan, and it comes free with the iced coffee. The kids' grandmother got one the last time we'd gone to Wishing Well, and got one again this time. But as I waited for our shave ice order to be ready, I also noticed that there were two mostly-empty Mason jars sitting next to the trash can, another one abandoned on a nearby table, and a fourth one over by the decorative wishing well.
People probably hadn't wanted their souvenir Mason jars, don't you think, or just hadn't noticed the sign that said you could take them.
But, you know, they'd already been paid for. It would be a shame not to take them.
And honestly, the staff probably didn't even want to wash them and reuse them--why let you keep them, otherwise?
My mission was obvious.
First, I sauntered by the trash can and casually obtained one Mason jar. Next, Will meandered past in the other direction, coolly snagging another. Syd darted, more-or-less super suspiciously and obviously, over to the next table and got a third. And the kids' grandfather snagged the fourth one so smoothly that even I didn't see him do it. Seriously, I looked over at the fake wishing well and was all, "Oh, no! Someone already got that glass!", and he was all, "Um, yeah. It's right here."
And that's how I didn't have to buy any souvenirs on this vacation!
Much later that afternoon, after a long nap and a couple of episodes of Beach Hunters, which we'd never seen before but became immediately obsessed with, which is good because it was ALWAYS on, we trekked over to try a new beach, Kaweonui. To get to this one, you park in the few public parking spots at the Sea Lodge, and hike down an approximately kilometer-long trail. It was steep, with some boulder scrambling at the end, during which I continued my tradition of trashing my shoes on vacation.
Ah, well. I'm fairly confident that I've had that same pair of Keens for at least a decade. That's a decent return on a single pair of sandals.
Kaweonui Beach was pretty close to paradise, with only a couple of other people there, plenty of shade in a tidy little cove, and sheltered water in which to swim and snorkel while the sun got low.
Syd does this hilarious impersonation of Ariel coming to land, in which she drags herself painfully by her arms, tail flopping uselessly:
It takes her probably ten minutes to drag herself up the beach, in a manner that looks absolutely agonizing... and VERY un-Disney-like, lol:
Success!
And then Ariel turns herself about and hauls herself back to the sea:
We left just enough time to hike back up the trail before sunset, because it was dark and narrow and slippery in spots and we didn't want to get stuck. But then halfway up we came across a woman booking it on her way down, barefoot and drinking a beer, so we might have been being a little dramatic.
Whatever. I was hiking with only 1.5 sandals on my feet, so I'm allowed.
Kauai Day #3: Snorkeling, Swimming, and I am Not a Good Spy
