Hawaii Vaca, Post 31 - Day 11 Part 2 - The Final Drive...

here we are on our last day... Ugh. Not a good feeling. 

We have come to grips with the fact that it's all over but the shouting and we are leaving soon.  I didn't want to live in Hawaii on the previous two islands but Kauai changed that and I want to live here, even if it means living in a tent somewhere illegally on federal lands...  no matter.

Anyway, it's our final day and we really have no plans.  We start the day by cleaning out the cottage and getting everything packed up into, hopefully, equally weighted suitcases for the trip home.

Once that was complete, we were free for whatever the day had to offer.

one of our first stops was in a town we had yet to visit.  There was some shopping in what was equivalent of our local strip malls.  This was a shot from a balcony outside of a public restroom.  Not bad!

After much driving, some beach time and other stuffs, the boys started complaining that their guts were empty (again...) and as such, we found a place to eat.  This is a shot from our table on the second floor or the joint.

Robby at the same restaurant demonstrating his love of a ranch-dipped wing.

Cool tree lined road which we were on for a long time!

We stopped at a pier where there was some strange activity going on.  Mom initially stayed in the car while Dear ol' Dad and the boys walked over to the waters edge to see what was happening.  Turns out that there was a family of sea turtles by the rocks, which was cool since we had not seen any sea turtles in our Hawaii time.

I ordered a flight of beer, and one of the beers was called Smokin' Blonde.  It was clever and there was discussion about it too.  Once Rob caught on to the joke, it cracked him up beyond the basic giggles.  This was our last Hawaiian meal at the Kauai Beer Company.  Good kibble!

I absolutely love looking out the airplane window and seeing the tops of clouds!  I wish I would have seen this prior to high school as it would have sparked a better interest in science.  It probably wouldn't have worked since I was beyond reproach at that point, but it's a nice thought.

A perfect shot that demonstrates how the Schmitz Mobile Chaos Unit vacations.   You return from vacation so that you can rest up!  There's no time for relaxation while you're on vaca!

And so ends our time in Hawaii!  We had a great time, drank over 50 great beers and the kids ate all of the chicken wings that were available!

Until next time...

Hawaii Vaca, Post 30 - Day 11 Part 1 - Kauai Coffee

So our last day begins with cleaning out the cottage, getting all of our luggage together (hopefully weighted somewhat evenly!), and loading the rental vehicle  with everything as we leave for the day knowing that we won't return but leave the islands for good.  :-(

We didn't really have  a plan for the day other than to just go around to some of the towns that we maybe haven't been in or just glossed over because we were on some other type of mission when we were there the first time.

One of the things on that list was something we passed by about 10,000 times in the previous few days: Kauai Coffee Plantation.

Not knowing what to expect, we decide to drop in for a visit.  It did not disappoint!

I saw this shirt on a hanger in the gift shop and was immediately drawn to it.  I tried it on, liked how it felt on me (ie, no TUGGING!) and was prepared to purchase it.  Then I glanced at the price tag...  $54!!!  Nope.  I took it off but have often thought about the shirt.  It has a thinning effect on my person, which is to say, the shirt has MAGICAL properties!

There's so many friggin' chickin's on Kauai, they have their own line of t-shirts.

Exhibit: B

Exhibit: C
I could go on and on, but I'll spare you...

Overlooking one of the many coffee fields.

Slightly different angle from the preceding picture.

This is off of the front of the deck/building looking in the direction of the road that brought us here.

Same spot after turning about 180 degrees.

We went to the are where you can taste the various blends of coffee.  They must've had somewhere betwixt 16 and 20 different coffee's to choose from and I would guess I tried over half of them.  So did the boys...

Different view from the deck where the free coffee was.

You can see how small the sample cups are as the varmints take down yet another sample.

Time for a hike thru the plantation grounds.  It's a beautiful day,  should you not have noticed by this point.

The actual beans on the plant.

Not enough coffee samples?  Beg momma for iced coffees!

Rob looking a little "sauced" from all of the coffee.  It wasn't too, terrible long after this picture was taken that he claimed he wasn't feeling too good...  If only there was a reason.

Coffee plants aren't very tall, it seems.  They're roughly as tall as a cute 10 year old Chinaman!!

Caleb had me take this pict as he was laughing hysterically at "The Butt Can".

Worker bee's.

The bean sorter.  There was some pretty cool info on the sign outside of this building but I'll be cursed if I can remember a word of it at this point.

Those purple flower laying on that pillow of clouds!!  Breathtaking!

Our time at Kauai Coffee was brief but wonderful.  It exceeded my expectations just with the free coffee samples, the rest was just a fantastic bonus!

LCC in the Homecoming Parade

Our church announced that we would have a float in the homecoming parade this year and anybody who was interested in walking with the float could.  All you had to do was show up.

Caleb was interested in being in the parade when he could have done it with Tae Kwon Do but they haven't marched since he's been a part of that, so he was ALL IN for walking with our church.

I got Caleb, along with buddies, Max and Jack, up to the parade and thru some creativeness, got them to our church peeps safely, which was not easy based on the crowds...

Our group getting ready to march!

Left to right: Jack, Max, Anna, and Caleb!

I apologize as I do not recognize the lad in the gray shirt in the middle, but it's the same four from above: Jack, Caleb, Max and Anna!

I do not know who took these photos but whoever did, thank you!!!  Our churches website:  Lutheran Church of the Cross.

And the Facebook group that I saved pictures from: Lutheran Church of the Cross.

Nearly 4000 Games In

Grandpa, or JB if you'd rather, in yet another round of pool betwixt the two of us.  Since we started keeping track of our games, we've played 3800+ games of pool on this table alone!  We started keeping track nearly 1 year after having the table, so it's likely closer to 4500+ games.  That's not to mention the hundreds of games we've played elsewhere.  And now that I think about it, I should be a LOT better than I am!!

The Three Muskateers!

These 3 guys crack me up!

They provided me one of the funniest hour-long car rides ever last Fall when I picked them up North of Story City at Riverside Lutheran Bible Camp for the Fall Recharge.

The three of them met up at Riverside again in June for the next round of torture on their camp counselors!

These pictures are from the kick-off of our church's (Lutheran Church of the Cross) Youth Night taken by somebody and uploaded to Facebook!

Not sure who the fourth lad is, but the four of them appear to be receiving instructions to a game that they're about to participate in.

Robby, Sam and Landon.

Robby and his good friend, Sam.  This makes me smile!!

All Dressed Up With Some Place To Go!

Ready for his first hunt!

Hawaii Vaca, Post 29 - Day 10 Part 3 - The Luau

It was fun looking back thru these pictures as it's been long enough that I had already forgotten about some of this stuff.  I wasn't really sure what to think of a Luau as I had no real point of reference, but it was interesting and fun.

That being said, I don't think that I would ever need to go to another one.

I think we were at Luau Kalamaku, which also includes Gaylords Plantation, Koloa Rum & the Kauai Plantation Railway in the same central grounds.  Those were our greeters but they weren't there when we got there a bit early.

What's funny about it is if you zoom in a bit, one gal is looking at her fingernails as is one of the fellas, and the rest of them just kind of appear to be spacing off.  Then, when people finally started coming in, it was like a switched was flipped and they were all smiles and happy little greeters.

If that mountain range looks familiar to you, it's because that was the range that was so prominently featured in our ATV tour!

Robert James stalking the grounds.

I no longer recall this gals name but she was the highlight of the night!!  She was our server for our Rum sampling session and it was apparent that she is in the perfect job for her personality!

Some locally made jewelry and wood carvings for sale.

That dude sitting on the ground is the wood carver.

LOL!!!  Not exactly sure what's going on here...

I was taken aback by how large this place is!  I took a good number of pictures just of the facility.

Look at that lovely little Chinese kid up there learning the dance!

Fire dancers.

The mobile chaos unit!

I am not a dancer.  I'm not good at it.  I look like a jiggily water balloon when I attempt to dance.  That being said, it's our final night in Hawaii and there was an opportunity to dance with my bride of 25 years on an island of paradise.  Who wouldn't take THAT opportunity!?

The Luau told a story but I'm not exactly sure what that story was any more.  

It was a fun night, but it was dark out by the time we left and started raining really friggin' hard shortly after that!  That road back to our cottage was a bit dicey in the heavy rain and they also had huge construction lights set up to work on the road during the overnights.  So we had construction delays too.

Time for bed when we got back!