Saturday, January 3, 2009

Ahhh... Kauai!

Ok, brag time: I'm writing this blog post from poolside at the Hilton Kauai Beach Resort. Really, It's true! :-D

I've been here for about a week and I'm going home today. Here's a picture of the beautiful Waimea Canyon we drove up to the other day:Waimea Canyon
Yesterday we went horseback riding and hiking to a waterfall on the north shore. It's the rainy side of the island, and wow was it raining cats and dogs. Torrential rain. We had a blast, though! Here's the waterfall we went to:Kauai waterfallHere's the poor, sweet, patient horses who waited so dutifully for us in the pouring rain and squishy mud while we hiked down to the waterfall:Hawaii horsesHere's my mom and dad crossing the stream at the top of the big waterfall. The water was raging, as you can see. We had to hold onto that wire (we were also clipped to the wire with mountain climbing hooks), and wade through the torrent to the other side. The wetness didn't bother us since we were already soaked to the bone from the rain. My dad is in the yellow rainjacket. He actually has a prosthetic leg and is missing most of the fingers on one of his hands, yet he still managed to get across this stream. After we crossed here, we had to rock climb up a very wet, slippery rock wall. He did that, too. Amazing guy:Crossing above the waterfall, KauaiWe've had a great time. Back to the beadmaking when I get home, which is something to look forward to, as well!
:-) Aloha!

5 comments:

SueBeads said...

Karolen - how wonderful! I'm glad you had such a great time! Cheers to you!
Sue

rosebud101 said...

I am so jealous! What a great time for you, so I'm happy for you. I wonder how this experience will influence your bead making. Will we see silver beads that are influenced by the sunsets you've seen? I can hardly wait!

angelinabeadalina said...

Wow, what a wonderful trip! Thanks for sharing the adventure via some great pictures!

P.S. Your dad sounds like quite an awesome person :)

Patty said...

Karolen, I'm very envious. My mom arrives on Maui tonight - wave to her! ;-) Glad you're having some fun in the sun.

Karolen said...

Thanks for your comments everyone!
I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to go to Kauai. Patty, I hope your mom can stay on Maui for more than a week, because it takes about that long just to unwind from the long plane flight and start relaxing into the 'Aloha' feeling of Hawaii.

I'm back in Sedona today and feeling quite disoriented!

I wonder how this trip will affect my beadmaking, too.

Four years ago I took a trip to Honolulu, and I was inspired by the incredible color of the water on Waikiki beach. I'm still trying to capture that color in my beads, without much success.

Maybe my beads will start having more bright colors - I doubt it! - but I may find inspiration from the amazing sea life I saw in the tide pools.