Spring Training

This trip to Key West was a Christmas gift to our family coordinated by Eric.  Eric and I had decided for Cameron's big Christmas gift we were going to buy tickets for him to go to a Cardinal's spring training game.  The rest of the trip I had no idea about until we opened the tickets and pictures of our house Christmas morning!  Anyway, this is the day Cameron has been looking forward to!

We drove from Key Largo to Jupiter, FL to the Roger Dean Stadium to watch the Cardinals!  Our seats were right up front so we were so close to the players.  Cameron (and Eric) were in heaven!

Everglades

Key West

Key West was a fun place to spend the day.  Upon arriving at the island, we stopped at the visitor's center and Cade found a checklist of the must-see things.  Soooo.... of course that gave us something to accomplish.

See the 7 mile bridge ✓

See a Key Deer ✓  These small deer were all over No Name Key!  These deer are only found on the keys.

Try Key Lime pie ✓

See the famous Key West sunset ✓

Have a drink in a coconut ✓

Visit the southern most point ✓

Take a picture with a chicken ✓  Chickens were all over Key West.  What is it with chickens and islands?  They were all over Kauai also.

We did a lot of walking taking in the sights and stopping at random shops.  This was not a favorite for our boys, but we had a great day.

5650 Air Miles in 24 Hours

Did we survive?  Well, when this is on the agenda, I think anyone can survive!

Our house was on this private beach on Key Largo.  

We were able to do some water sports right outside our house.  We had kayaks and snorkeling gear.  It was the boys' first snorkeling opportunity and they both enjoyed it.

Good-bye Kauai

We are heading back to Indiana to pick up our boys and fly to Florida.  Wow, will we survive the next 24 hours!

Tunnel's Beach

We spent the afternoon with our toes in the sand at Tunnel's Beach.  This location is famous for its snorkeling and scuba diving locations as well as the surfing. 

The Views Get Better?!

I wish I could say this was the best day, but sea sickness struck!  I hate being sea sick!  Despite all the precautions I tried, I still suffered.  However, Eric had the time of his life!  We took this dinner cruise out to see the Na Pali Coast which can only be seen by boat.  The seas were rough moving around the island and Eric rode out every wave up front.  

And the best part was the whales we were able to see!  This has been on my bucket list so I was sooo excited to be able to see these massive creatures!

Once we rounded the corner and the Na Pali coast came into view, the waters calmed and we were able to take in the sights.  The colors!  The waterfalls!

Moving North

Today we are heading to a new resort.  We are moving to the northern part of the island.

On our way we stop at Koloa Rum Company for a rum tasting.

The new place has quite the views too!  But then you probably can't have bad views around here!

Explore Kauai

Today was my favorite day of the whole trip!  Eric and I took this Mustang convertible out to explore the entire island.  We stopped at random places trying to embrace all that Kauai had to offer.

Waimea Canyon was gorgeous!  The colors are so vibrant that are hard to translate in photos.

It just never gets old looking out at the ocean and hearing the waves breaking on the coast.  Do you think we would feel the same if this was surrounding us every day?  I think so.

Salt Pond Park allowed us to get up close to a sleeping monk seal.  It was particularly funny to watch it wake up and roll over.

Our next stop was Spouting Horn.  Over the years, the crashing waves have eroded the lava rock leaving narrow openings in which the water rushes through resulting in very high surf spray.   It was a spectacular sight to see.

Here is a short clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNO9ewIYac0

Another of our favorite stops was at Kauai Coffee Plantation.  With thousands of acres of coffee trees, Kauai Coffee Company is the largest coffee grower in the US.  We especially enjoyed sampling their coffees.  Toasty Banana Nut Cream was my fave!

We returned to Salt Park Pond for the sunset and it sure did not disappoint us!