Dunn in the Sun

Because we acheived this:


We celebrated here:


We attended a time share presentation (thank goodness Eric has a good head on his shoulders and a rock hard denial capability) and got a wicked deal on a hotel in Hawaii. So we flew our little selves to Kauai and had the time of our lives!


We arrived on the island later at night, and by the time we left the airport it was pretty dark so I couldn't see the view from our balcony until the morning. When I woke up, I threw open our drapes and this is the view that greeted me:


The best decision we made about this trip was to rent a convertible. We drove this little 2010 Mustang all over that island. And apparently everyone else on vacation had the same idea, we weren't the only ones in a Mustang. Eric was pretty excited! He's always wanted to drive a new Mustang, especially a convertible...



We ate A LOT of good food...



And saw some beautiful sights!





We went to an killer Luau with lots of food, an open bar (I've never had so much free diet coke in my life!), and an AWESOME show with fire dancing! If you look around my neck, they gave me a flower lei, which I'll be honest, was the selling point of the whole event. I ate dessert after dessert, and probably ate more dessert than I did the actually meal. And believe it or not, we sat next to 4 Utahns on our table...



We took a helicopter tour of the island, which is the only way a person can see the center crater of the island - I believe its called "Wai'ale'ale." Apparently this crater sees the most rainfall in the whole world... We don't have any great pictures of the helicopter, but here are a couple pictures while in the air:



Here is the waterfall used Jurassic Park, which was filmed on the island:


Here is a pic of the Na Pali coast - the highways on the island end when they get to this coast line, so the only way to see it is by air or boat. Its not a very good picture (there was a glare in the window...), but look at the trees at the bottom of the picture. Those are trees, not bushes, and those ribbon-like rocks are actually mountains! It was breathtaking!


And this is a look at the crater "Wai'ale'ale"


We bought an excellent book about the secret sights of the island, and I think everybody else bought this book as well. But we came to a place called "Queen's Bath," which, during the summer, has lots of little lava rock pools that sometimes have little fish swimming in them. But, as we went in October, the winter was just beginning and we could only walk around on the high lava rocks. Here is the sign that greeted us at the beginning of the pools:


Next time we come, it will be in the summer so we can sit in these cool pools. And there WILL be a next time...



On the way to Poi'pu (Probably our favorite part of the island), there is this tree tunnel. I guess a sugar cane plantation owner planted these trees so that his workers could see something beautiful on the way to work...


And while I did as much shopping as possible (and I did quite a bit!), my good-natured husband did this:



Just a couple little extras, these were my favorite trees on the island, someday I'll find out what they are called...


And here is another picture that is one of my favorites. I love the shadowy mountains in the back:


From our book we learned about a local favorite call Kipu Falls, where there is a river that has a waterfall that lands in a pool that is about 20 feet deep. The locals have tied a rope swing and bolted a ladder into the wall. We both tried the rope swing, and I cliff dived about 15-20 feet over the waterfall! This picture is of the trail leading to Kipu Falls, we were wondering when the velociraptors were gonna come out and eat us...


And for your viewing pleasure, the result of a "thigh flop" X2. I'm not the most graceful cliff diver, and I guess I like to land on my left thigh when I dive and rope swing... I tried to upload some videos because you can actually hear the slap of my thigh on the water, but my computer wasn't working right...


So, here is the requested Hawaii update! On a more serious note, Eric's selection panel for Air Traffic Control happened last week, so we should know if he got a job for next year by Christmas. We changed our selected states to Texas and Cali. We are hoping so badly that he gets a job, but if not, we'll be happy to serve the Lord while in Utah! I'm really loving my job, and get such satisfaction in taking care of my patients! No baby yet, but, oh, how one is wanted!