So, here I sit, the morning of day 9 of this awesome trip and I have not posted a single page, picture, or video (ok, one video). This has been one of the most active vacations I have ever taken. To quote Elizabeth, 'This isn't a vacation, it is a trip.' So far she has been 100% correct, this has been a trip. I tell people that I don't 'vacation' well, that seems to be true for all of the Flatts. We have seen and done lots and lots of stuff so far.

I think what I would like to do is give a brief summary and then work my way backwards to day one. So, here we go...

Things I have learned so far while on my trip to Hawaii: We have done and seen many wonderful things in the first week. We have traveled to a total of 3 islands. We have seen volcanoes and all types of sea creatures. We have been on the water, in the water, and under the water. Ryan and I have discovered real Kona coffee. We have eaten many different foods. And, I have determined that I receive way too many emails. I am talking about a deluge of emails, an obscene number of emails, so many emails that I just want to turn the crap off and walk away, hundreds of nonsensical ramblings about this and that, stuff I have never wanted to know, on and on and on about junk. I will not call it spam because Spam is a magical potted meat that has infused it's way into the Hawaiian food culture. Spam is even on the menu at McDonalds! I digress, back to email. I am pretty sure all of my lifelong karmic debt has been delivered back to me as junk email, on this trip. Anythewho, that is a problem to be felt with upon my return. From here on out, no more rumination about the universe's grand plan to drown me in junk email, just the juicy bits from our trip.

Saturday June 3rd

I am not sure anyone could have created a more 'Hawaiian' day for me. We started the morning out, and most mornings, with me harassing the crap out of the kids to get a move on. For those of you who don't know me very well, I have an unhealthy obsession with being on-time to whatever I am doing. I think my kids are sick of hearing 'if you aren't 10 minutes early, you are late.' We were able to make it out the door and to our first appointment and managed to only be 2 minutes late (8 minutes early for those of you who prefer not to do math). This appointment was a family surfing lesson. The water was warm and the surf was fairly active considering the inexperience of the participants. After a brief shore lesson consisting of learning how to paddle and what to do as you approached the shore, we did some quick stretches and then plunged into the water. Since the surf was a little choppy, the instructors thought it would be best for us to split into 2 groups. The first group was Melissa, Gillian, and Ryan. Elizabeth, Audrey, and I watched from the shore while we awaited our turns. Since Ryan had already been surfing he was able to get up and going rather quickly. Melissa and Gillian appeared to have a ton of fun. I don't think either were able to get all the way up to standing, they both rode several waves in. As the minutes clicked away it became evident the 2nd group was not going to be able to get in the water. We had booked a 1 hour lesson starting at 9am. When the first group finally came in it was already 10:20. We still had to go back to the hotel, change, and refuel and refit before our next adventure. It was a little bit of a disappointment for Elizabeth, Audrey, and I but we were excited for the rest of the family and their surfing adventure.

The afternoon looked like it was going to be just as exciting as the morning. After a quick lunch we grabbed our gear and headed out to our next adventure. Our destination was The Reef Pirates on the other side of the island. Living in Kingston Springs and working in Nashville has conditioned me for lots of driving. This Island just isn't that big and even with rush hour, we made it on time. I know everyone was worried for my mental health, but it was all good. There we met Captain Dan, Captain Noah, and our dive guide / instructor Elise. We were scheduled for 2 dives for Elizabeth, Ryan, and I and snorkeling for Melissa, Gillian, and Audrey. Ryan had received scuba lessons for his 16th birthday so he and I are both certified divers, thanks to the fine folks at Neptune Diving and Ski in Nashville, TN (thanks Shane!). Elizabeth is in the process of getting her certification. She completed her classroom and confined water training in Nashville and is using this trip to complete her 4 open-water check dives. At the Reef Pirates shop, we were fitted for wetsuits, BCDs and all the other needed equipment for our adventure. We climbed on to the boat with Captain Noah and Elise and headed out to our first dive site. I tell you, this was exciting. It was so exciting that I completely forgot to grab my GoPro to document the kids first ocean dive experience. I plunged into the water and then thought 'well, crap, I forgot my GoPro.' On a side note another factoid about me, I am a bit of a tech junkie. Luckily I was able to shout up to the rest of the family and together they were able to get one of my cameras, attach it to the extension pole and hand it down to me. Now that I was fully 'kitted' I headed to the bottom to join the others. On the bottom, Ryan was working on becoming neutrally buoyant and Elizabeth and Elise were running through the first set of skills for her check dive. As a proud papa and with a grin in my heart, I pulled out the camera and pushed the record button. Nothing happened, so a mashed it again. Still, nothing happened so I started pushing the button over and over again, still nothing happened. Either this GoPro was dead, by the way GoPros are not as bulletproof as they would have to believe, or the unthinkable has happened and I forgot to put a battery in it. Guess what? I had forgotten to put a battery in it. Oh well, this experience will live a lifetime in my memory, you just don't get to see it. After the skills we done, we set off on a tour of the dive site. Visibility was amazing compared to the quarry Ryan and I did our check dives in. We saw all manner of fish and several sea turtles. One even brushed by Elizabeth and touched the side of her face. It was very cool. It was an amazing first dive. Upon returning to the boat we learned that Audrey and Gillian had seen an octopus. Success all around! Once, back on board and having moved our kits to the next tank, we were off to the 2nd dive site. The wind was high and the water was choppy on the surface, at the bottom we just had a gentle surge and some current to deal with. This time I remembered my GoPro and it even had a battery! Elizabeth worked on her skills at the very beginning of the dive and I got prepared to be the epic filmmaker. Ryan made bubbles and enjoyed the view. An interesting note is how differently each of us breathe. On the first dive Ryan was the first one to reach 700PSI, which is when we start our accent. I was at about 900PSI and Elizabeth had over 1/2 her tank left. Ryan says he is a professional breather and that is why he is so good at it. Even with that we had spent over thirty minutes on the bottom durning our first dive. Ryan's goal for dive 2 was to perform mental yoga and breathe easier. He did a good job since I was the party pooper on this dive and hit 700PSI first. I think Elizabeth was still at 1900PSI (out of 3000). She accredits her excellent breathing to her singing experience. We saw a ton of cool stuff at this dive site. It was more reef than the first one. We saw eels, box fish, a puffer fish, and Ryan spotted a scorpion fish that looked just like the coral. He kept pointing at it and I couldn't figure out why he wanted me to look at coral until I saw the eye, mouth and fin of the fish. After our accent and back on the boat, Captain Noah had fresh cut pineapple and cold water for us. I don't have any experience with other dive outfits in Hawaii, but I don't see any reason to stray away from the Reef Pirates. I don't think I could have asked for a better crew or experience. The great news is we get to do it all again Monday! Hopefully there will be significantly less wind and I can put the quad in the air.

*** Sorry about the delay, actually you all will not experience it, but I had to take about 30 minutes and clean up my email from the past two days.

Friday June 2nd

We woke up to a beautiful day on Kauai at the Westin in Princeville. We had several items on tap for the day. Two things that had definite times were tubing in the jungle and a flight back to Oahu. Since we slept though breakfast, the first goal was lunch. The consensus was to drive down the coast towards Lihue and find a place in Kapaa to eat. After a family discussion we stopped at the Kountry Kitchen. Audrey had been jonesing for chocolate chip pancakes and this place held the promise for and epic experience. She was a little disappointed after reading the menu and discovering the order only came with one cake. The manager assured her it would be enough and even challenged her to actually finish the whole thing. Needless to say, it was huge, Audrey took her time, paced herself and went to work. 13 minutes later, it was done. She had eaten the whole thing.

Sated, we headed down the road to discover waterfalls and scenery. On our way to Kauai Backcountry adventures we stopped at two spectacular waterfalls and soaked in the beauty of the rainforest and mountains. So, now onto tubing. The folks at Kauai Backcountry adventures loaded us up into 4wd vans and drove us deep into the rainforest. The planned activity was to get into a tube and shoot though a part of the irrigation system that was used for the sugar cane plantations. I knew that part of the trip was going to be underground in tunnels carved in the mountains. I didn't expect to be underground for 80% of the trip. It was a really awesome experience made even more awesome'r by the great guides that are obviously passionate about Kauai and are very enthusiastic about ensuring their guests have a great time. It was a very unique experience and the whole family had a great time. Oh, again for those of you who might not know me very well, I am a bit of an instigator and a tiny bit of a smarty pants. As the last one out of the water, I floated up to the stairs still in my tube and lifted my outstretched arms up to Chelsea and proclaimed I was ready to lifted up to dry land. I thought she was reaching down to give me a high five. But instead she firmly grasped my right hand and snatched me from the water. I have been rehabbing my right shoulder from a serious and persistent computer injury (ha ha, yeah I know...) and wasn't really expecting this. I have to say, after the initial searing pain subsided, my shoulder has felt better than it has in weeks. The moral of the story, be prepared to get what you ask for! After a very full day we headed to the airport for a short hop back to our home base.

Thursday June 1st

We arrived on Kauai, The Garden Island, early in the the morning and took the shuttle over to the Hertz counter to receive our rental car. After a very brief wait I was speaking with an agent and received the news we were being upgraded to the largest SUV in their fleet. It is a good thing I am accustomed to driving large vehicles since this was the Yukon XL and it was huge. The family loaded up and we headed out to find a blue pen and find one of the three FedEx drop boxes on the island. Actually our first stop was a wonderful tour of the Grove Plantation where we were greeted by the Governor of Hawaii. Ok, ok, he wasn't there there to specifically greet us, but he was on property for another event. Our fabulous tour guide took us on a journey from the late 1800s through the 1970s and life on the plantation. We met folks who actually worked on the plantation, for the family who ran it. Over the two hours we spent with the guide, we learned a lot about sugar cane, how it was grown, and the impact it made on the culture. It was very educational and fascinating. After the tour we had a quick lunch at the Plantation Coffee Company, and a brief stop at the FedEx drop box, we went out to find the Waimea Canyon. The Waimea Canyon is the Grand Canyon of Hawaii, and as you can see it is pretty spectacular.

Our original intention was to circumnavigate the island of Kauai. Who knew that wasn't possible by car? Alright, I am sure millions of people knew that, but I didn't. So the modified plan was to drive up the west coast to the canyon and then ping-pong back up the east coast to our pivot point in Princeville. The scenery on Kauai is breath taking and since these island are little, the drive was very pleasant. We got settled in at the Westin and drove down to the Dolphin restaurant in search of yummy treats. All in all, it was another great day in paradise.

Wednesday May 31st

This was our first 'down time' day. We slept in till midmorning, ordered room service, and then headed out looking for adventure. Melissa, my lovely navigatrix, pointed ole SPF-800 at the right coast and off we went. We were going to try and spend some time snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. Everything we read cautioned to arrive early and not to be disappointed when all of the parking was filled. Her thought was we had a good chance to find parking in the early afternoon, after the first wave headed out. Of course, as always, she was correct. We slid into a convenient parking space and headed out to the bay. After a brief 9-minute orientation video we were on the beach and ready to see what the sea had to offer. We went out in three groups of 2, each equipped with a GoPro so the other could see what we discovered. Audrey and I found a octopus. It was the very first one of these awesome creatures I have ever seen in the wild. I recorded several minutes of video. Unfortunately you can't see it. I know we are working backward in time, but I have mentioned GoPros aren't a bulletproof as they claim. Something was wrong with the settings so all that recorded was a completely blown out video and the associated audio. If you all want, I can post the audio of the octopus, but I will give you a spoiler, it sounds like bubbles. The State Park limits everyone to 2 1/2 hours at the park and we used every bit of it.

From here we headed out to Helena's Hawaiian Food. It was the authentic experience we were looking for. Elizabeth and I thoroughly enjoyed our meal of laulau, Luau chicken, and pipikaula style short ribs. The rest of the kids enjoyed their 2nd dinner from McDonalds. When we got back to home base, Aulani set off a fireworks display to celebrate our return. Is was a great conclusion to an awesome day.