Heike, Jim, and Lucas visited Kauai for New Years Eve. Joni, Rylan, and I flew over and joined them for a nice long weekend. They had a nice place in Hanalei (north shore) rented for the week and we just moved right on in with them, bring along all our leftovers from Christmas (Jim and Heike probably don't want any turkey for awhile now). The kids hit it off immediately and got along well throughout the weekend; it seems that as long as their ages are reasonably close in this phase of childhood any two boys will get along well. With all the vacation-time activities available they were not about to get bored either. It was a constant beach trip with some fireworks, cake, and playground thrown in. The adults also managed well as everyone seemed to have the same priority: surf. Joni called it our best surf trip ever because we didn't have to travel very far, the waves kept coming, she got to surf with Laird Hamilton, the kids were able to come along and have fun, and the weather was good. We surfed a number of spots including at least four spots in Hanalei Bay (Pinetrees, the point, the bowl, and the point on the left side), Anani Beach, and Kalihiwai Beach. Not being local I don't know the traditional names of the places we surfed, but they all had their good points. Surfing on Kauai's north shore is a lot different than Oahu's north shore though - Kauai seems to be dominated by long boards and SUPs while Oahu seems to be dominated by shorter boards.
Anyway, here are some photos from the trip. First is the Rylan and Lucas reunion on the beach when we arrived, instant joy. Rylan is standing in a hole, he isn't that much shorter than Lucas. This is Hanalei Beach right near the rental house.
The first night we were there was New Years Eve. Not a big deal in relatively sparsely populated Hanalei - we were asleep before midnight and were not jolted awake by people going crazy at midnight.
New Years Day is Jim's birthday, so the day started with cake for breakfast. The kids helped mix, bake, and decorate the cake the night before and enjoyed anything that had to do with the cake.
This is following a nice surf at Anini Beach, very near Hanalei. The kids enjoyed surfing in the sandy-bottom shallows here. The adults enjoyed the "A"-frame peaks off shore.
Here are Jim, Heike, and Lucas on the grounds of the St. Regis hotel that overlooks Hanalei Bay. Things were too expensive to hang around too long, but the view is nice.
The next day had huge surf so we looked around and settled in Kalihiwai. Great beach but not much in the surf department. There were a number of tow-in teams off shore but the swell wasn't wrapping in to the beach very well. The kids and everyone enjoyed the time at the beautiful beach though.
We did go out for dinner one night. Food was bad, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Here is the entire gang at the table.
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