Part 1: Sunday

On Sunday, Bekki and I left Anahole and did some last minute gift shopping in Kapa'a (where The Olympic Cafe is)....

and drove to meet Jakki and crew at the cabins that were rented up in Keoke'e State Park, for the winter solstice.

The drive up into the Waimea Canyon is beautiful... the first turn is by the beach, and then the rest of the drive is straight UP and very windy, with twists and turns and back-and-forth..... like driving in the mountains in North Carolina... The further up we got, the chillier it was... and the less it seemed like Hawaii... It is the most beautiful drive...


When we got to the cabin, Bek was so hungry, I thought she might take out one of the roosters (with the car) and eat it, right there!


We finally made it to the cabin, and Jakki, Nancy, Adam and David were playing dominos... So we played a game with them... Jakki and Nancy had decorated the cabin, with Christmas lights and brought so much stuff up there to make it home-y...


After our game, we all piled in the car to drive up to see the sunset....





It was AMAZING... you could see the mountains, the canyon and the ocean.


At that point it got dark, and started to get a LOT colder.... Jakki laughed when we first arrived in Hawaii and I was carrying my winter coat.... but, to my surprise, I used it! It was really cold.

Bekki took a nap while the rest of us went to check out a party at another cabin, where friends of theirs were.... Everyone was really nice, and there were a lot of artists there.... it was fun to talk to everyone, and see where they were from, and what brought them to Kauai...

There was a couple there who grew their own lilekoi (passion fruit) and had different types with them... Nancy and I tried three different kinds... one was normal... one was "limey" (like normal, but squeezed with lime) and the other, they called "sherbert" i thought was "coconutty".... then Nancy sang, "you put the lime in the coconut...." The lillekoi was delicious... but when you scooped it with a spoon....and if your didn't know what it was ... well, it looks like .... fish eggs or eyeballs... but it's delicious.

Then we went back to the cabin, to get Bek up and sing her happy birthday and have "dora the explorer" birthday cake.

We also tried to get the fire going for forever... but all of the wood was wet... so it took a long time...


I had a hard time believing I was still in Kauai... The stars were so amazing and beautiful... I don't think I've ever seen stars like that... Nancy and I saw the most amazing shooting star!