Kayaking the Wailea

Yesterday we hired a guide to take us up the Wailea River by kayak. Mia was too little to participate so Dan stayed with her at the resort. After kayaking down the river, we hiked about a mile and a half through the jungle to Secret Falls. We ate lunch, took pictures and (ofcourse) we swam under the waterfall. Some in our group chose not to do so. Being the adventure seekers that they are, my kids were all in the water before the food came out of our packs. It was tempting to stay dry and well-coifed but that would have been terribly dissapointing to my adventure seeking children. We all swam in the ice cold water and even went under the 100-something foot waterfall.

Tristan and Jolie did well kayaking. Gavin had the envious job of sitting between me and Tristan (down the river) and between me and Jolie (up the river). He felt a little left out not having an oar so he used a stick to help paddle part of the way. He did amazingly well on the hike. Much of the hike was along a river bed so there were a lot of rocks and tree roots to negotiate. It was also steep in some spots. Gavin's amazing climbing skills proved to be an asset for once. John, our native Kauaiian guide, was awesome. He was barefoot the whole way!

On the ride home we had a discussion about the kayaking portion of our trip. Tristan had a hard time understanding that all things are not a race and a competition. He was frustrated with me (down the river) and Lisa (up the river) for not aiding him in winning what he perceived to be a race. I don't know that he came around to our way of thinking (Tristan is an intense person. I don't know that he'll ever see things that way) but at least he understood why we were slowing down to take pictures, letting others by, etc.

The kids all say the kayaking / hiking trip has been their favorite part of Kauai so far. We'll see if that holds true.

Sidenote: I'm having some "issues" with my camera after getting it a little, um, wet, on the kayaking trip. Dan is trying to fix the problem. Hopefully there will be photos to come soon. No, I didn't drop it in the river. I just dipped a little bit of the lens in while helping Gavin cross a stream. I think I should be rewarded for being a good mother. Why haven't they invented waterproof electronics, anyway?