Spent the day doing laundry, balancing the checkbook, updating blog entries and other assorted stuff that I had to catch up on after vacation. I also uploaded a set of pictures from the Na Pali coast. I’m pulling the other photos off the camera now, so maybe I’ll get a few more up tonight too.

Friday we spent the day touring the Na Pali coast on the Na Pali Explorer I. This has got to be the most fun and best way to see the Na Pali coast. You have to be prepared to take a severe pounding though. I had dolphins swimming right next to me - so close that you could reach out and touch them. We saw bottle nose dolphins, spinner dolphins, turtles, and even a monk seal. The small zodiac raft was great too because we actually went ashore on a small isolated beach where about village of about 150 Hawaiians used to live. The only way in or out of the village during the winter, when the sea is too rough to navigate, was several hundered feet up a rope ladder and through the Alakai swamp.

The trip was absolutely incredible and well worth the beating that our bodies took from the ride. If you do it, just keep in mind that I’m writing this from the plane 2 days later and my whole body still aches.

Update: I’ve just put up a photo gallery from the trip.

Today we got up and spent the morning at Lydgate park swimming with the little kids in the pool-like protected swimming area. Tons of beautiful fish in the swimming area - even a sea turtle - although neither one of us saw it.

The highlight of today was the tubing down old cane field irrigation ditches. Now, this may not sound like fun, but let me tell you that it is. Ditch really isn’t the right term at all. These are canals cut by hand from the solid rock of the island. Not only that, but you float through 5 separate tunnels that were all dug by hand (no dynamite) from the solid rock. I doubt many people feel claustrophobic in the tunnels because they are pretty big and you go through them pretty quick. The longest is about 7/10 of a mile if I remember correctly. The guides were superb and we learned a lot about how the sugar cane fields worked and how much water it took to grow the cane. This one plantation used more water per day than the city of Chicago. Some of the views of the countryside and mountains you’ll get on this tour you wont be able to see elsewhere because most of the inland land on Kauai is all privately owned. In case you’re interested, the tubing tours are run by Kaua’i Backcountry Adventures.

Yesterday we got up early and met everybody at the north end Kealia Beach for some body surfing. The ocean was pretty calm and the north end of the beach is somewhat protected by some rocks so there’s good body surfing there. As long as the beach isn’t full of surfers anyway. Some of the waves had to be 12 feet high, but even so they were relatively gentle, pushing you forward rather than down. And they were slow moving, so you could catch them while swimming.

We had lunch at the condo and then went down to the Po’ipu area and drove around. Did the happy hour thing at Brennecke’s again then off to the Hyatt’s spa for massages. We got there a little early so we each had a chance to use the sauna’s etc for a while. When we left we got a complimentary card to come back and use the spa facilities so we may do that on Saturday if nothing else comes up.

Had dinner in the downstairs bar at Duke’s Canoe Club at the Marriot. This one has a much better atmosphere than the one in Waikiki.

The north shore of Kauai is absolutely stunning. The natural beauty of the mountains is outstanding and the beaches are superb. We went to Tunnels Beach this morning and as we were walking out to the beach we saw Shane and Alyssa, so we parked ourselves with them and Lisa, Steve, and Karen for a good part of the day.

Monica went snorkling with Shane and Alyssa while I just layed in the shade with my iPod and took nap. About 1pm we left the group and went into Hanalei for lunch. Monica got a Hawaiian combination platter that was most excellent. Kailua pork with rice and cabbage and a side of raw tuna. Delicious!

After lunch we hooked up with the Kane clan at Anene beach for the rest of the afternoon. Anene has a nice protective reef that makes that beach excellent for swimming. It gets deeper very very gradually, so it’s like an absolutely huge swimming pool. I even took the camera out into the water to take some pictures.

I played frisbee with Jake and Mindy and then taught Monica how to throw a frisbee. It was a nice day. Now we’re back at the condo getting ready to go out to dinner with Chris and Mindy. I think Barrett and his family are coming too.