Again, we decided today that we'd let the kids swim and we'd sun for a while and then do some sightseeing and shopping later in the day. The swimmers have made lots of progress with all their practice. Ryan is now okay with getting his hair and face kinda wet. It has taken him playing with the kids, Dave & Tom and forgetting all about the fact that his hair is wet to make him used to it. (You might recall in an earlier post that Ryan refused to get his hair wet, for fear it would "stain".) I guess there is a first for everything! He is still not begging to get wet, but doesn't fall apart at the littlest splash towards him either. Occasionally, Courtney will get overly abundant with her splashing. Courtney will insert the word accidentally, but we all know brothers & sisters do some things by accident and other things just to get under the other one's skin. The jury is still out on that one, but either way he got more used to it as time went on. Courtney is more and more comfortable with the deep end too. She is using her new face mask that protects her contacts better while swimming and using the noodle to swim down to the 7 foot more frequently. She and Jason are having fun racing and "fetching" things that Dave throws in the water for them to find at the surface.
After lunch and freshening up, we headed up north to Princeville. There is some beautiful scenery up that way and usually some pretty decent shopping. Dave was going to show Rhonda the lighthouse since the rest of us had seen it on previous trips, but by the time they got there it was just a few minutes until closing time. She got to see it from the distance, but not upclose with all the birds and facts that would come with the full tour. Kilauea Lighthouse began lighting the way for mariners in 1913. It served as a pivotal navigation aid for ships sailing on the Orient run. It is now a visitor's sight providing lots of beautiful scenery and historical significance.
On the drive up north, Ryan kept asking where the Sleeping Giant was since we had pointed it out earlier in the day. Sleeping Giant is a mountain scape that looks like a sleeping giant laying with his mouth open (snoring?). Finally Ryan spotted what we were talking about and then he said "I wouldn't call it the Sleeping Giant, I would call it man going to the dentist to say ahhhhh!" We had a good laugh at that imagination of his!
Shortly, we all met up at Princeville and looked through a few of the shops. Grandma & Grandpa are usually able to find a windsock at a particular store here, but this time they found they don't carry that kind anymore. We browsed a bit more, had some ice cream at Lappert's and decided to head back to Kapaa area where the Coconut Marketplace was. We had always spent lots of time at this mall in previous years as they had lots of really cool shops, water features, hula shows, etc. It seems that Kauai's tourism has been hit pretty hard by the struggling economy because this mall is not quite what it used to be. We still managed to find some cool shopping, but the atmosphere was not the same. Several shops had closed and the water feature has been turned off and is in disarray. We did find there will be a hula show Wednesday night though (tomorrow) and Ryan and Courtney have been wanting to see some hula dancers so we'll have to come back and check that out.
We met up in Dave & Rhonda's room to use up some leftover hamburger and shrimp for taco night. Tom ran across the street to Taco Bell and got some beans and a bunch of sauce packets. We joked all week that we'd have to eat at Taco Bell for lunch several times so that we could all grab sauce packets for our taco night. Most of us hadn't tried shrimp tacos before, but yummy, those are good! Courtney & Jason aren't really big shrimp eaters, so they stuck with the hamburger. It was a great way to use some leftovers and have a yummy dinner. Of course later after night swimming, there was a variety of ice creams to choose from. We also sat out on the beach and watched the moon. It is almost full now and it is pretty how it shines into the ocean.
The night was quiet and peaceful until Ryan decided he needed to see what we were doing and come talk nonstop about the moon and the clouds. Then he started putting on a show for us and taking our restaurant orders, and pretending he was a flight attendant with Hawaiian Airlines. Poor Rhonda was #18 the entire time we were gone I think for her restaurant order! Or his restaurant would be out of something until you threatened to take your business somewhere else and then all of the sudden he magically had your order ready. His imagination is quite vivid and I swear he thinks he is serving real food. There are sound effects, talking to the pretend kitchen staff and then every so often shooting one of those looks that says "get it or else" to said pretend kitchen staff. The boy knew what he wanted and how he wanted it served! The flight attendant routine was pretty comical too. "Ladies and men, aloha from Hawaiian Airlines. Please fasten your seatbelts and put your trays up. Mahalo and thank you for flying with us". Funny guy!
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