A Country Girl's Guide to Life: Kauai

It's a cold and windy, snowy day here in northeastern Montana and I am wishing I was where I was last week at this time--Kauai, Hawaii. I wonder if people there have any idea what it's like to live where we are. We had a wonderful time on the beautiful island. Perfect temps, highs in the 80s, lows in the 70s. We did have quite a bit of wind and some rain showers. Our room was right on the water. There was a rocky shoreline and the waves would crash, and at times it was too loud for me to sleep, especially in the early morning when the wind seemed to come up. One morning I swore we were in a hurricane. There was a beach not far from our condo so we wandered there a few times. We explored the whole island, driving west as far as the road went one day and up Waimea Canyon--kind of like the Grand Canyon of Kauai. The next day we drove to the northern part of the island as far as the road went and explored some beaches up there. We found a little inexpensive golf course and golfed there twice. The first time we were paired up with a couple from British Columbia and the second time we golfed with an older Hawaiian gentleman. We enjoyed him a lot. He was very interested in where we lived and what we did and gave us some good information about the island. We spent a day on the east side at Kapa'a where a lot of surfers hang out. It was kind of a rainy day so we were in and out of shops and restaurants to stay dry. There was also a local craft fair so we bought some gifts there for friends at home. Our goal was some rest and relaxation for M so we were pretty lazy and unadventurous. He said he found a slower gear. I was a bit concerned about getting him geared up again once we got home!

We booked the whole trip on Expedia and were very happy that it all turned out just great. We loved the location of our condo and think we picked the right area of the island to stay. We were amazed everyday to walk outside in the morning and have it the same temperature outside as it was inside. We ate breakfast out on the patio every day--loved it!

The trip back is such a killer with flying all night and getting to Billings in the morning, made worse by the cold and snow on our return. Our pickup had a foot of ice and snow on it, and we just about froze trying to get it cleaned off. We had a couple of things to do in Billings and then headed home. We ran into icy roads and freezing fog on the way--UGH!

The boys took good care of things while we were gone. R stayed at our house to take care of the dogs and the cows. J and C even took some loads of cattle for neighbors even though that's not their favorite thing. It's taken a few days for M and I to get back into the swing of things at home, but we'll survive, and I'll be gone again in a couple of weeks so I think I can tough it out.