Day 1, July 7, 2011

The Kumu have landed!  (Before continuing, you may choose to read the Vital Information page first.)  This was a travel day for all of us.  After a leisurely slumber before their 10:25 am flight, Deanne and Carol traveled NON-STOP, 1st CLASS (seats 1A and 1C), while being treated like royalty with mimosas, macadamia nuts, fresh flowers, mai-tais, movies (on personal digE-players), lunch and most importantly, leg-room!

Meanwhile, no, actually, before, Kim got up at 4:00 am to travel in COACH class to her FIRST STOP in San Francisco which included 1 Sprite Zero (but hey -- there were at least 4 ice cubes!).  After nearly TWO HOURS in San Francisco, she boarded the plane and began her LONG trek to her COACH seat, 39A (For those of you who are not quite getting the full effect of what this means, lets just say the pilot was halfway to Kauai before she left the runway.), where she was graciously served 2 Diet Cokes, receiving a napkin with each serving.  (And not to be ungrateful, the flight attendant did provide headphones free of charge, which are still sealed in their original packaging in her backpack, hoping for the day she might fly FIRST CLASS.)  Two hours into her flight, the Diet Cokes were beginning to require a visit to the ladies room.  But being that exiting seat 39A was nothing short of extricating ones-self from a tightly-sealed sardine can, she waited until four hours into the flight, when the gentleman in seat 39C finally stood up, to request the woman in seat 39B to please allow her to make a trip to the ladies room.  Whew!  Because there is justice in the world, Kim landed nearly 30 minutes early while Carol and Deanne arrived nine minutes late.  :)

To make a very long story much shorter, Kim got the rental car and decided to explore while waiting for the others to arrive.  She found her way out of Lihue to Wailua Falls.

Beautiful!  There had been a LOT of rain the two days prior and the river was bursting over the falls with quite a roar.










The 4-mile drive to the falls provided a spectacular view of some of the mountains here and so many shades of green that this area must have been the inspiration for the Crayola Factory Green Department.

It was a wonderful first excursion -- while Carol and Deanne were STILL airborne in seats 1A and 1C. Score another point for Kim.  :)

We finally came together, stocked up on goods from Costco and enjoyed the lovely 20-minute drive to Lawai Beach Resort.  The rest of the evening was spent settling in, unpacking, eating dinner on the lanai and Carol and Deanne relaxed from a long day of travel while Kim relaxed from a VERY long day of travel.

P.S.  Here are a couple shots of Kim's first views of Kauai.

So blue!

Very rugged beautiful coastline!