More pics of our goofy girl

(Above and below) Azalea found a new toy on her stroller... the sun shade/visor. She likes playing peek-a-boo with it now.

Running around the garden with her pretty dress on. Did we finally get the nuk out of her mouth?

A little more serious pose. I like this one.

She made grandma take her up and down these steps about 20 times this day.

Enjoying Puka Dogs

One of my co-chiefs is quite intrigued with the idea of a Puka-dog (that's you Hend!) so I decided to put a post here dedicated to the puka dogs. Puka is the Hawaiian word for "hole." There are small, round white shells with a hole in the center of them on the beaches here they call puka shells. These apparently gave them the idea to pierce a hot dog bun, rather than slice it length-wise, toast it from the inside and then put in the dog. They smother the dogs with you choice of various fruity Hawaiian relishes. They are very tasty, and we enjoyed some with the family one of our first days here. Azalea wasn't too into them, though. She just wanted to chase the awks.

outside the puka dog stand

Close-up of the menu, so you can see how to order a puka dog.

I didn't actually take a picture of the puka dogs, so here's the product of a google image search. A nice puka dog with coconut relish and lilikoi mustard, served with their fresh-squeezed lemonade (a very good combo).

scarfing them down... mmm!

More pics

We decided Wednesday afternoon to take the day and go up to the Waimea Canyon. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, and it rained once we got up into the canyon. Thursday was a nicer day, and we went to Baby Beach with Azalea. She finally she her fear of the ocean, and found out it was really a lot of fun to splash in the salt water.

Enjoying some of the famous shaved ice (with macademia nut ice cream) at Jo-Jo's in Waimea.

A short break in the rain (but not in the fog) to snap a picture at one of the Waimea Canyon lookouts.



Hanging out on the back porch on Thursday morning.

Running around the condo grounds.

A quick stop at the fish pond, then it's back to running.

Fun at baby beach.

The water was nice and warm, and Azalea showed no fear this time around.

Splashing around and making friends with the other kids.

Hanging out with dad on the beach.

Birds, Sand and Surf

Yesterday (Tuesday) was quite the fun day. We started off by looking at the "Awk, Awks" (birds) at the Hyatt. Azalea was a bit shy around the big parrots. She prefers the little birds around our condo I guess. Then the whole family spent the afternoon on 7-mile beach on the west end of Kauai. The waves were big and nasty.... good for boogie boarding, which Brian and I capitalized on. Perhaps we should have stayed out, since there was actually people surfing on these waves as well. Unfortunately Brain got hurt later in the afternoon, when a big wave crashed him into the ocean floor and separated his acromioclavicular joint. He had to go to the ER in Lihue, and is now stuck in a sling and popping percocet. He flies back to DC at the end of the week, and worst of all is on call next week for work, so we're hoping he heals up quickly.

Surfer girl.

Mommy and daddy working on a sand castle, while Azalea lounges in the chair and tells us what to do.

Brian riding the waves.

Good times on the beach.

Now this is a beach (above and below)! It is literally miles of sandy beach on the west end of the island.

Some pics from yesterday (Monday)

Monday was a nicer day, and we spent much of it by the pool and on the beach. Azalea is pretty timid, as she is not used to either place. We still had a lot of fun, though, and she's gradually warming up to the water and sand.

We couldn't get her into the water more than just her toes and fingers. She kept dipping her fingers into the water, though, and sucking the water off. She seemed to like the taste.

Chilling by the side of the pool.


Baby and daddy at Salt Ponds Park. The rock wall breaks the waves, and makes a nice calm/shallow lake for the kids to play in. She was still kind of scared, though, and didn't want to go in even though there were many other kids splashing around.

She sure likes her beach chair! She preferred to sit here, rather than play in the sand.

She wouldn't sit in the sand, but she would take a bucket full of sand and sprinkle it on her legs. Then she decided she would try to eat the sand too, and apparently liked it. We had to take the bucket away.

A little sand on her face and around the mouth as evidence.

Standing up on her chair and smiling/giggling.

You've gotta be kidding me mommy... don't you ever put the camera away?

Awww... that's cute.

Chickens, Gardens and Blowholes.

Yesterday (Sunday) wasn't as nice of a day... cloudy/drizzly/windy and lower 70's (it actually felt a little cold... not much of a Minnesotan, I guess). We decided in the afternoon to head down the street to the Spouting Horn park. Spouting Horn is the name given to the curious blowhole in the rocks... when the surf crashes up in the right way it will cause spray to shoot up 20 + feet from this hole along with a loud whooshing noise. It's a big touristy area. Vendors set up shop there every day to sell their wares. Plus, since a lot of tourists traffic through there, a lot of chickens hang out there as well. It's true, parts of Kauai actually have a bit of a chicken problem. We brought some chicken feed, and let Azalea watch them go nuts over the food. She had lots of fun. Across the street from the park is a botanical garden, with lots of pretty flowers, nice plants... and big spiders. Azalea had fun running around in there as well. It looks like it's going to be a nicer day today, so when Azalea wakes up I think we're heading to the beach!

Running and playing in the garden.

Grandma picked Azalea a flower from the garden. Shhh! Don't tell.
Here's Spouting Horn on a not-so-huge spout.

Hanging out with the tourists at Spouting Horn.

Baby chicks.


Feeding the chickens. Azalea thought that was pretty neat. I guess some other tourists did too, because they flocked over with their cameras.

Our Home Away From Home

Here's a few pictures of the place we're staying at... Prince Kuhio condominiums on the south end of Kauai (Poipu area).

The pool, which happens to be where I am sitting right now.

It has a nice grilling and picnic area.

The fish pond, which is probably Azalea's favorite part.

Our condo's living room, a nice breezy comfortable place.

All the comforts of home, with a complete/furnished kitchen.

A nice comfy bed, with view of Prince Kuhio park. The ocean is right across the road. It's amazing the savings you can get on rentals if they're only a few extra feet from the ocean.

The beach across the road (Lawai beach). It is not a very good swimming beach due to the abundance of rocks and the reef right here. The snorkling is fantastic, though, and there are plenty of nice swimming beaches close by.

A view out the other direction. This happens to be the bay most of the sea turtles hang out in. When we're lucky we sometimes see the humpback whales out further in the ocean (usually need to be on a boat to get good views of them, though).