We started Friday with breakfast out. One of the nice things about staying in the condo is that we’ve had food at our fingertips when we’re
“home”, so we don’t need to eat out every meal. Good for saving money of course, but also good that we can eat at 6:30 am (our kids did not totally adjust to the 6 hour time change, but did get a little better as our vacation went on). We went to Kalaheo and had pancakes, egg sandwiches, pastries, and Hayden even had a smoothie. I got a souvenir mug as well. We also did a few mad libs while we were there, which has been a huge source of mealtime entertainment on this trip!
After breakfast we went on a little adventure to what we were calling the secret beach. You have to drive down a completely torn up dirt road to get there, and I think we were just calling it that due to inaccessibility – maybe other people actually do call it that, but I think the proper name is Mahaulepu Beach. We had an SUV on the trip, so we had a higher clearance than some cars but we still bottomed out a couple of times, even while only going 5 mph. When we got there we were impressed with the smaller cars we saw parked who had made it – we’d passed a couple on our drive who weren’t sure if they should turn around.
The beach was beautiful, and when we arrived we had it all to ourselves. The kids decided the first order of business was to dig, and Hayden dug so far he couldn’t 
reach to the bottom anymore so he recruited Daddy to take over. We took a little walk after a while and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I had a friend from high school doing a Hawaiian cruise to all the islands while we were there, and he was on Kauai the day we were at this beach. When we first got there we noticed some people going by on horseback, and we were paying so much attention to the horses and the two accompanying dogs that we didn’t pay any attention to the people riding. I was so bummed when I saw a message from him a few minutes later saying his family had ridden by and saw our family but he didn’t want to shout. So close but so far away! Another thing to mention that we saw o
n this beach was a couple with a dog that said “adopt me” on its vest. The Kauai humane society allows you to take a dog out for the day on your vacation. We loved this idea and considered doing it, but never found the right “dog-friendly” day.
As lunch approached we decided to take a little hike. Layla was wearing her towel as though it was an Elsa or Anna cape from Frozen. 🙂 For lunch we went to Sueoka’s Snack Shop in Old Koloa. Food was good and cheap!
In the evening we went to the Smith Family Garden for a luau! We all enjoyed that. The grounds are beautiful, and they have you arrive early so you can take a tram 
through the grounds for a guided tour, then you can walk around for a while. We got some great pics of the kids, and they liked running around and climbing on various rocks that were around. Dinner was a buffet with the roasted pig, poi, and all that stuff. The food was ok – being vegetarian I wasn’t too excited about the pig but they had stuff for me to eat and none of us went hungry. At the end of dinner they 
invited some people up to learn the hula, Layla being one of them! She was so darn cute up there. And then came the luau itself, which was really well done. I was surprised the kids stayed awake the whole time as it was getting late and had been a long day, but they were engrossed the whole time! They did both crash as soon as we got in the car, though. 🙂
Hayden and Layla's Place 