Baby Shower!

Yesterday I threw a baby shower for my dear friend Jackie and her little one, Madelyn Mae. Jackie and I were roomates our first, second and half of our third year at SPU (the only reason we only lasted half of the third year was because she got married and decided she'd rather live with her new husband over me....) Anyway, she and her husband Brant played a huge role in getting me to finally let Graham take me out (we had many double dates) and now look where we are! We were in each others' weddings and now here we are going through our first pregnancies together (I'm 11 weeks behind her). It was MY PLEASURE to honor her in this way and I look forward to meeting her daughter hopefully in just 3 weeks.


Jackie and her husband are moving to Portland next Saturday where they will deliver their baby and spend the summer closer to family before they make a cross-country move to New Jersey where Brant will attend Princeton Seminary in the Fall (they are scheduled to move 2 days after our baby is due so I'm hoping this little one comes a bit early so they can at least meet him/her!) The shower was a bit bittersweet for me, knowing that my long time roomie, who knows all my quirks, is moving away. :o( Both of us mothers-to-be ended up in tears as she was leaving (ha ha, I'm sure the pregnancy hormones contributed a small bit to our emotions) but we're looking forward to many visits this summer where we will head to Portland and they will come stay with us here in Kirkland.

I planned a "tea party" for Jackie but for whatever reason it didn't occur to me that the weather might actually be warm at the end of May so I quickly changed the beverage I served to ICED tea. The rest of the menu included:

-Fresh watermelon, pineapple and strawberries

-Lemon Apricot Scones with cream and raspberry jam

-Curried Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches

-Cream Cheese and Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

-Chocolate Chunk Cake with a Light Cream Cheese Frosting

The Spread:

I hosted the shower at my in-laws's due to lack of space at my place. It was SO nice of the Croziers to give up their home for the afternoon and let us party there. Plus, my mother-in-law has so many fun tea toys (the tiered sandwich tower is hers).

I was really thankful to have Graham there for the set up. He was an amazing help whipping the patio into shape--I couldn't have been ready on time without him!
What beautiful weather!

Jackie, I love you dearly and best wishes to you as you begin this next adventure! (I will miss you tremendously though....you know that.)

Some tidbits on pregnancy

I am currently 25 3/7 weeks pregnant! Most people look at me a little funny when I answer them this exactly when asked how far along I am. Except for people at work of course....this is the lingo we use in the NICU so I actually have to think really hard and count on my fingers to figure out how far along I am in months (I'm 6 months along for those of you who do not want to do the math).

Tidbits:

-I have been feeling GREAT! Really ever since week 15, nausea has not been a problem.

-I am able to go for 30-60 minute aerobic walks without a problem (although taking the stairs at work up two floors makes me catch my breath).

-This baby is really liking watermelon! Thankfully the island of Kauai recently added a Costco to their list of amenities and so we made a special trip while there just to buy the "personal"-sized melons, which yes, I finished PERSONALLY in 3 days (Graham doesn't like watermelon).

-I have started to have trouble sleeping at night. It is SO comfortable to be on my back but I know I'm not supposed to sleep that way so sometimes I wedge a small pillow under one side to tilt me just so that I'm not lying flat. I'm grateful for my nurse husband who is an expert at propping wedging me in with pillows (apparently he does it all the time at work!)

-I am definitely showing. And for some odd reason, I still am not expecting anyone to be able to tell that I'm pregnant....weird, I know because I totally have a belly. Someone asked me today in a store if I knew what I was having. "Having?" I thought...."What is she talking about???" Haha, at some point it will really settle in that the baby bump is quite prominent.

-WE HAVE A HIGH CHAIR! It's pretty much our first baby purchase. Although I know we won't be needing it for another 9 months or so, we went on a huge consignment store outing on Monday and were very unsuccessful until we came to the last store. We had to buy something and the high chair is a green Chicco and is in great shape. I went to Babies R Us yesterday and saw that it is a current model that is still being sold too so I guy we'll still be hip.

-I have been having lots of mixed emotions lately including excitement, anxiety, joy and feeling completely overwhelmed by all the tasks at hand.

-I realized last night that we won't be able to go to happy hour anymore after the baby is born as babies are not allowed in bars....duh.

-Baby Crozier also REALLY likes soft serve. I've been having cravings for Costco frozen yogurt almost daily (I've only indulged once so far) but I get to go again tomorrow so I'm super excited!

-We know what we will be naming our little one if it is a girl but only have the first name picked out if we have a son.

-I am incredibly relieved to have passed the 25 week mark. Even though I absolutely without a doubt DO NOT want this baby to come right now, I feel so much better than I did a couple weeks ago about the idea if it does decide to come early (I'm sorry, I just can't help thinking about it--I work with sick babies for a living so it is hard for me to remember that there actually are healthy full term babies born out there!) Anyway, I was super nervous in the 22-24 week range because I knew I'd be forced to make a decision regarding whether to resuscitate the baby if it were to try to make an entrance into the world and that is not a decision I would ever want to be faced with....phew.

-On a lighter note, the baby is moving a ton! Graham can now watch my tummy bounce as the baby kicks which is exciting for him.

-We've experienced a number of bouts of hiccups in the past couple weeks. It feels like I am having seizures in my stomach--it is so odd! But cute at them same time to think about what is going on in there....

-We are trying to decide which diaper route we are going to take--cloth vs disposable....

-We found a crib that we like although we have yet to purchase it.

-I'm LOVING red pepper flakes on everything. I want all my food to be SPICY!

-I'm currently reading "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense" by Ellyn Satter (all about how to go about feeding your child to foster a healthy relationship with food).

All in all, things are going quite well!

Day 8

On our final day in Hawaii, we went out to breakfast at a little diner. I had macadamia banana pancakes with coconut syrup and whipped cream and Graham had Portuguese shredded pork, fried eggs and hash browns. After indulging in a calorie-laden meal, we were ready to hike to Ho Opi'i Falls. Hiking in Kauai was really neat because there were so many new plants and unusual bird sounds-it felt like we were in the jungle!

The we made the short trek to the first falls which were anticlimactic but still pretty.

My best "Tarzan Swinging From Vine to Vine in the Jungle" impression
Then we came upon a REAL rope swing which worked a little better

The 2nd falls were also not what we expected (our guidebook made it sound like it would be glorious to swim in the sparkling pool below the falls but the slimy green sludge covering the rocks and the foaminess of the water discouraged us from getting in the water, despite the heat).

We had to check out of our condo by noon (even though our flight didn't leave until 10:30 PM!) but thankfully the condo stored our bags for us and let us enjoy their pool facilities. We spent the afternoon reading away (I read a book aloud to Graham on this trip, just like I did on our honeymoon) by the pool. Thankfully, the condo let us use a hospitality room to shower and freshen up before we left for dinner in Poipu. We went to this place called Casa Blanca which served Italian food. After picking our way through large bowls of pasta, we headed for the airport to return our beloved jeep and catch our flight out.

If you're still reading after all these long posts, I'll summarize by saying that we had a great trip! I was dreading coming home and having to go back to work and be away from Graham, even just for one shift-I'd gotten so used to being with him constantly for over a week, time that I'll definitely cherish. Although we are so excited to welcome this next addition into our family, we are thankful that we were able to take this trip together. Graham really spoiled me by treating me to fabulous meals out, sunshine and a little bit of luxury...thanks dear!

Day 7

I guess we didn't take a single picture on day 7! We awoke to yet another cloudy sky (hmmm....seems to be the theme the further north we are) and after feeling a little down about the weather, we decided to just hit the road and see if we could find any sun. Graham found a few boogie boards in one of the closets at the condo which we really wanted to try so we set out in hopes of finding a good boogie boarding beach. Sure enough, as we headed south, the sun was shining! We started at Kalapaki Beach in Lihue but the water was as calm as a lake (our guidebook said it was great for boogie boarding) so we only made it about 1/2 hour before Graham was ready to move on. Next we decided to try Po'ipu Beach again because we couldn't remember whether or not there were good waves. It too was pretty calm so we spent some more time snorkeling instead. Graham was still bound and determined to catch a wave or two so we left and headed back to the beach at our first hotel, the Sheraton. He tried for quite some time to ride a wave but unfortunately, because the beach is so steep and drops off very quickly, the waves weren't breaking until they hit the shore. It was pretty cute to watch him bobbing around out there! He did catch a couple 2-second rides before he gave up and joined me on the beach.

After hours in the sun (one of which was a suncreen-less hour--oops!), we indulged in a treat from Starbucks (we'd made it over a week without one!) and then headed back to our condo. We were looking a bit like lobsters and decided we were in the mood for take out and a movie. We picked up some yummy Asian food---coconut curry for Graham and Peanut Chicken Stirfry for me, grabbed some Coldstone (yes they have one there!) and came back for watch No Reservations, a food-related movie I love. What a great way to spend our last full day on Kauai!

Day 6

I hit the 24 week mark today!

Day 6 was Sunday and so after enjoying breakfast on our lovely patio, we decided to venture out in search of a nice Hawaiian church. We'd been listening to a Christian radio station in the jeep and heard an ad for a local church that we decided to try and locate. Graham got directions to the Kilauea area where it was supposed to be a we set out on our way. Unfortunately, the church the directions led us to was not what we were expecting. It was a Four Square Church and much smaller than what we were looking for. But because the service was about to start, we decided we'd just give it a shot since we didn't know how on earth we'd find the other one. The people there were very friendly (a little too friendly if you ask me! I had my first complete stranger come up and touch my belly--Graham said she definitely had her hands all over my belly before she even introduced herself....)

As for the church service itself, let's just say it gave us quite a few topics of conversation for the rest of the day....great memories though! Our plan had been to continue heading north up the coast to Hanalei and beyond for a picnic and snorkeling but unfortunately the clouds were looking quite dark. We barely got the top back on the jeep (sort of) before it began to pour. (I say sort of because we never did figure out quite how to put the top back on correctly after the first time we took it off. My side of the jeep kept leaking, sending raindrops down my sun visor and onto my lap). :o) We made the drive north through the rain just to see what the north beaches looked like and enjoyed our picnic in the shelter of the jeep.

We stopped along the way at the Kilauea Lighthouse for a quick picture

And also at some dry caves up near Hanalei (it's hard to see but I'm in a cave...)

I'd always heard that rain in Hawaii is brief and passes quickly. This certainly was not the case for us today! Apparently though the north shore gets quite a bit more rain than the rest of the island (hence its green, lush appearance). We decided to forget our snorkeling idea and instead headed back to our condo to figure out our second best option. We opted to go see Angels and Demons at a (the only one on the island?) movie theater in Lihue. Now, I won't go into any detail regarding my thoughts about this movie as I know it is rather controversial. I will just say that Graham and I had been wanting to see the movie since we both read the book while traveling in Italy last year--we liked it because it talked about all the different churches and streets in Rome--sites that we actually saw in person. Anyway, the movie was very well done considering the crews were not allowed into Vatican City to film--how they made it look so real is beyond me!

After dinner, Graham wanted to spoil me (yet again) and take me to the Tidepools restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Hotel and Resort in Poipu. Although it hurt our wallet a bit, the trip back to the south shore was well worth it! The restaurant basically consists of a bunch of Tahitian-style huts that are connected and set over a giant koi pond. It is lit by candles and tiki torches scattered throughout the huts. Each table sits by an open-air window where diners can lean over and watch and feed the koi. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our camera yet again so I can't share photos. But I will say that I had the MOST AMAZING fish of my life here. I ordered the Garlic Chile Glazed Opah topped with Coconut Crusted Blue Crab and Lobster, Macadamia Nut Rice and Guava Lime Sauce. I don't even know what Opah is, but if there is any way we can get our hands on some here, we will!! Graham ordered the Grilled Huli Huli Chicken Breast with Okinawa Sweet Potato Puree, Sweet and Sour Reduction and Pineapple Relish (he became quite obsessed with the local purple sweet potatoes during our time on the island). I think we both agreed that this was the best meal of our trip.

Day 5

On the morning of day 5, we attempted a "sunrise" hike along and above the beaches near our hotel. Unfortunately, we awoke too late for the actual sunrise, but enjoyed the early morning light on the water. We were a bit groggy and not completely in a hiking mood so we made the walk short and sweet, enjoying a grapefruit on the cliff at the halfway point. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe we should invest in a compass because we ended up on the wrong trail back, amongst some very thick brush. I got a little freaked out but the nice thing about hiking on an island is that if you can just make your way back to the ocean, you can more than likely also find your barrings.

We made a quick stop at Poipu Beach to document the above Monk Seal (it looks dead, but I'm pretty sure it was just sleeping) then we packed up our room to head to our next accommodations along the Coconut Coast (the east side). We stopped at Wailua Falls along the way and enjoyed a stand-up picnic. A rainbow appeared at the based of the waterfall which made for a beautiful photo op.

When we arrived at our condo, we discovered we'd been upgraded to an OCEAN FRONT 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom unit!!! I have no idea what we did to deserve this (Graham told me some sweet story about how he'd called ahead and told them that his wife was pregnant and that this was our last trip together before the baby etc....which I later found out wasn't true.) :o) Whatever the reason, we were thrilled! However, our room wasn't yet ready so we dropped off our bags at the front desk and headed for Lydgate State Beach Park. Apparently we didn't see a reason to capture this memory because we took no pictures but we enjoyed an afternoon of snorkeling and reading in the sand.

When our unit was ready, we headed up to check it out and this is what we saw-the living room:

The kitchen with Wolf appliances!

The "guest" bedroom

The "guest" bath

The Master suite

Looking towards the master bath

The view

Seriously, this was the most amazing place I have ever stayed! We felt completely spoiled and kept commenting about how we want to go back there with friends or family--it was quite the steal (we paid as much as we would have for a bed and breakfast!!!)

That night, we went to this super quirky, earthy outdoor place called Caffe Coco for dinner. The menu was a hodge podge of healthy wraps, fresh seafood and Greek and Indian dishes. Graham had Mahi Mahi with Tzatziki sauce, Coleslaw with peanut sauce and a sweet potato samosa with banana chutney. I had a penne pasta dish with pork and mushrooms in a gorgonzola cream sauce-yum! We sat on the patio which was lit with random strings of white lights and enjoyed a funny middle-aged live band, the Rusty Pelicans, who serenaded us with Hawaiian songs. The ambiance really was quite nice and the music made us giggle.

Day 4

On day 4, May 15th, we celebrated our 5 year dating anniversary! Wow, it is crazy for me to think that we have been together that long...Graham would argue that we've dated for even longer than that but my rebuttal to his claim is this: I don't think one can call it dating if the girl doesn't even know she is being dated. We have endless discussions around this topic and have yet to agree...

Anyway, we woke up early on Friday morning and heading for the west side of the island where we embarked on a catamaran tour up the Napali Coast (the north shore). Thankfully when we signed up for the boat trip, the lady asked if we had any medical conditions. Graham told her that I was about 24 weeks pregnant and she said it was a good thing we told her because only one boat company would take pregnant women and only up until 26 weeks...phew! Just made it! But then I got to thinking, "What on earth happens on these boat trips that make it unsafe for pregnant women?" Thankfully, I think it was just their own liability they were concerned about because the trip itself was pretty tame.

This trip up the Napali Coast was definitely one of the highlights of the trip! It was a gorgeous day and the water couldn't have been calmer or clearer (we could see the coral reefs below us as we sped along). Our crew told us that they only get 10 days like this a year so we felt quite please with ourselves to have picked such a good one.

Along the way, we encountered multiple schools of Spinner Dolphins. They swam along with our boat and we even saw a baby one following it's mom (it was the size of a football!)They are called Spinner Dolphins because they jump out of the water and do sideways rotations (like a corkscrew) for no apparent reason. Graham caught one in action:

Doesn't this look like Seaworld with the color of the water?!

The coast itself was made up of gorgeous green cliffs dropping down into the teal blue water. There were waterfalls along the cliffs and many beautiful beaches that can only be accessed via boat or a very tough hike.

I had a couple different people on the boat ask me when I was due and at first I totally confused and couldn't figure out what they were talking about. (I had been worrying that people would just think I was a fat lady in a swimsuit and so assumed people wouldn't know I was pregnant). But these comments confirmed that I must really have a true "baby bump" now (not a beer belly!)

The boat stopped part way along the coast for snorkeling. Although the water was super clear, the crew wouldn't let us leave the deep water because they didn't want us touching the coral reef so there weren't actually that many fish. We did get to swim with a couple of turtles though which was exciting!

That evening, we had dinner reservations at this really popular restaurant called the Beach House (locals make reservations months in advance for the sunset hour because it's a great place to watch the sun go down). We of course couldn't get in until close to 8 PM but still enjoyed a lovely meal right on the ocean. We had crab cakes, a green salad with red onions, watermelon, blue cheese and nuts (AMAZING) and macadamia crusted mahi mahi. We enjoyed our delicious dinner as we reminisced about our "first date" five years ago.

Day 3

On our 3rd day, we headed to the north shore of the island to the Westin to sit in on a "90 minute" timeshare presentation. I don't think we were actually required to go (to get our deal at the Sheraton) but we got an extra $100 cash for meals/activities if we did so we went ahead with it. We rehearsed what we would say when they started pushing the hard sales so we didn't end up buying a timeshare like we did the last time we went to one of these....(Long story but thankfully there is fine print when you sign the papers that allows you 7 days to get out of it without any consequences, which we did.) Anyway, I made sure to mention repeatedly that we are about to have a baby, that we'll be a single income family etc so that he'd know pretty clearly ahead of time that we weren't going to buy. Of course after about 2 hours of blah-de-blah-blah, he still called in his manager to give us the real hard sell and offer all sorts of incentives. When he was done, he told us that he'd leave the room and give us a minute to discuss. By that point we were tired of wasting our time indoors when we could be outside enjoying the sun so I cut him off and said "Actually, I think I can confidently say that we won't be needing any time to discuss because we're not going to be buying today." He made a sly comment like "Wow, you came in completely closed and you're leaving closed." I said "Yes, as we mentioned earlier, we're not sure we're going to even be able to afford our day-to-day bills let alone payments on a timeshare." And we left. Phew! My dad has taught me how to be firm with negotiations in certain situations (thanks Dad!) but I still always feel a little mean. I honestly don't think these guys would have let up if I didn't say what I did so Graham was glad that I jumped in.

We quickly left the presentation and headed to 'Anini Beach for some calm snorkeling, swimming and reading. We had heard that there was an amazing fish taco truck there so we enjoyed a delicious lunch of ono tacos.

On our way back to the hotel, we pulled off at Opaeka'a Falls where we saw this:

We made dinner reservations at this place for a late dinner. After getting all showered and dressed to go, I reminded Graham that it was Thursday night--the night that both Survivor and The Office are on. Now, we really aren't big tv people. We occasionally watching a couple of shows but would never stay home from an activity just because "our show" was on.....or at least so I thought. Graham got a little bit of a crazy spontaneous hair and made the last minute decision to cancel our dinner reservations and instead run out and grab a pizza and a salad to enjoy in our hotel room in front of the tv. Sigh. It was surprisingly delightful after a tiring day and was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me because it was just so random and it felt like we were dating again. :o)

Day 2

On day 2, we backtracked to the west side of the island again to see a couple sites we were too exhausted to see on our first day. We stopped at the Spouting Horn which was this cool blow hole in the rock sorta like a mini old faithful I guess (which I've never seen so can't verify). It was really quite spectacular but my photography skills did not allow me to capture one of it's bigger bursts of water.

Next we headed to the Kauai Coffee Company which I believe is the biggest coffee plantation in the US. Have you ever seen what coffee beans look like when they are live on the plant? It was neat to see how it all starts out before it becomes a hot cup of joe.

The plantation had tons of samples for us to try. We even purchased these delicious sugar covered doughnuts that we agreed was the best doughnut we'd ever had (and I don't even like them usually!) Graham was in heaven with his morning treat.These trees were scattered randomly throughout the island and they were definitely my favorite. They just look so fake....I thought they were cute.

The one downside to driving a jeep is that you can't really safely leave anything in the car. Thankfully, the glove box had a lock on it that we assumed was somewhat secure so that's where our camera lived a lot of the time while we were on the beaches snorkling and playing in the water. Hence the lack of pictures on the rest of day 2. We proceeded to explore Poipu Beach (the actual Poipu Beach was about 1 mile from our hotel) and had a great time snorkling. The water was SO CLEAR and you only had to go in a couple of feet and you could see dozens of colorful fish swarming near your ankles. This was by far my favorite snorkling beach--we even saw a monk seal (endangered species) and a sea turtle. I've always been a reluctant snorkler as I'd much rather NOT know what is under the water but I actually really enjoyed my experience at this beach. It probably helped that Graham stayed with me and held my hand and let me hide behind him if anything too big started swimming towards me....

We enjoyed a picnic lunch of leftovers from our odd Italian meal the night before and then headed to our hotel pool for a later afternoon dip. We decided to use part of our meal voucher gift at our hotel restaurant "Shells" that evening. We got the 3 course special to share which included amazing crab cakes, a beef tenderloin pasta with asparagus in a creamy sauce and a chocolate lava cake with homemade vanilla ice cream and strawberries. Graham also had a chi-chi (tropical coconut drink)--why they call it that, we'll never know!

Back on the Mainland

I'm a bit bleary-eyed as I write this post...We arrived home from Kauai this morning at about 8 AM after taking a red eye flight home last night. I can pretty much sum up the flight in 3 words: "Stupid Swine Flu." I mean seriously, since when have there ever been red eye flights where pillows and blankets are NOT available!!?? I guess since this stinkin' swine flu over-reaction (not that I have any opinions about the whole swine flu extravaganza or anything...) Anyway, I guess the hundreds of dollars we paid for our flight wasn't enough to fund washing the blankets and pillows between uses, hence their elimination from the flight. I also overheard that Alaska Air has stopped their recycling program until the swine flu "dies down." I'm not sure where that idea comes from.....anyway, all in all we really did have a fabulous trip (despite my ranting and ravings about the lack of sleeping supplies on the flight). I want to try and capture the vacation on this blog since I didn't keep a journal while we traveled so beware, there might be a few lengthy posts headed your way!

Our first 5 nights were at the Sheraton Hotel on Poipu Beach (the south shore of Kauai). We got this deal in the mail for 5 nights, a $100 food and activity voucher and a voucher for a rental car...it really was a great price all things considered but of course we didn't get a top notch room. It was across the street from the beach but it was only about a 5 min walk away. Our room was plenty comfy though with a fridge for breakfast and lunch foods. We had a nice garden view room which meant I enjoyed some morning sunshine and coffee on the patio as I watched the birds.

The beach in front of the hotel. The waves were medium-sized and broke pretty close to shore. Graham tried boogie boarding but the runs were super short because he'd hit the beach after a few feet. The sand was gorgeous, as was the color of the ocean! We really liked the south shore... Graham splurged on us and got us a convertible jeep--it's always been a dream of mine! We had to pay a few extra bucks a day but it was well worth it! I called it our "hummer jeep" because the thing was huge with 4 doors (they were supposed to give us a 2 door but it needed an oil change so we got the big one...) It was so fun to take the top down and ride around the island with the wind whipping through our hair! Silly us though...we forgot that an OPEN TOP meant SUNBURN CITY!! We got pretty burnt on our left arms/shoulders the first day we drove around in it. We learned our lesson after that.
DAY 1 (May 12th):

(We arrived late on the 11th so I'm considering the 12th our first true day). We decided to hit the road right away and explore the West Side of the island. For those of you who haven't been to Kauai, there is one main road that stretches most of the way around the island (a good chunk of the north shore--The Napali Coast--is a state park and so is only accessible via foot or boat, there isn't a road so you can't quite loop all the way around the island). Anyway, the west side has this big canyon called the Waimea Canyon that is actually quite colorful. The dirt is bright red (it stained our socks and shoes!) but then the canyon is also covered in lush green plants and pretty waterfalls (when it has rained recently). It took about 1 1/2 hours for us to drive to the top of the canyon. We stopped at many viewpoints along the way for pictures.

Once at the top, we did about a 3 mile round trip hike to a viewpoint. Unfortunately, the fog rolled in and so we weren't really able to see much once we reached the end of the trail (we were hiking along huge cliffs dropping down into the Napali Coast--maybe it's a good thing we couldn't really see the water below, otherwise I might have peed my pants and wished for a guardrail!) The hike was not the easy jaunt that the guidebook made it sound but I was pretty proud of myself for making the steep climb at 23 weeks pregnant!

We were a bit surprised to find some farm animals at the top of the canyon--what on earth were mother hens and their babies doing out in the middle of nowhere? Hearing roosters crow from the mountaintop is not what you'd expect! We later realized that chickens are absolutely EVERYWHERE all over Kauai. We saw so many baby chicks at every beach we went to. Apparently a bunch of chickens escaped during one of the hurricanes a while back and because Kauai has no predators (coyotes etc) to get rid of them, they've pretty much taken over the island. Quite comical....
After our hike, we head back down the long windy road to Hanapepe where we stopped at the Shrimp Station for lunch. Graham had their coconut shrimp and I had their spicy Thai shrimp--yummy!

That evening for dinner, we went to an Italian place, Casa di Amici. Our guidebook raved about the "sweeping ocean views" from the restaurant--I'm not sure what their definition of "sweeping ocean views" is but I thought that it usually meant you could SEE THE OCEAN...guess not. We wondered is maybe some new high rises had been built or something since the guidebook was published. We tried to order a few items to share but then the waiter sneakily asked if we'd both we trying the lobster bisque. I thought he was asking us that to determine how many spoons we'd need so I told him that "Yes, we'd probably both be tasting it." We were surprised when he brought us 2 bowls of soup, but figured he'd kindly split it for us. Nope, should have known...we paid $18 for our soup that evening. We should have complained but we took the wimpy way out and gave him a poor tip. Probably not the most kosher thing to do...but he was quite the trickster and we were not impressed. Although our first meal out was a bit of a disappointment, there were many more fabulous ones to come!

More later...gotta go wake Graham before he sleeps the day away and can't fall asleep tonight!