Polite Dissent

We spent the first night in Las Vegas (Henderson, Nevada, really) at the in-laws. Early the next morning, we headed for the airport, met up with the two other couple vacationing with us, and flew to Honolulu. We checked into the hotel, then hopped a bus down to Waikiki and enjoyed an afternoon of beach and sushi (and shopping, for the Polite-Wife). The next morning we traveled to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona Memorial. Due to time constraints, we were unable to tour the USS Missouri, but did get to climb through the USS Bowfin (a WWII submarine).

Back to the airport and on a hop to Kauai. We stayed in a very nice rental house in Poipu for the next week. The house was about two blocks from the beach and had a big yard with a pool and hot tub (and geckos). To be honest, most of our time in Kauai we were pretty lazy — lots of sun, sand and reading. The other couples spent an afternoon zip-lining down one of the island’s canyons. Since neither of us is particularly fond of heights, the Polite-Wife and I sat that afternoon out. The kayaking was fun — I’ve always liked canoeing and kayaking — and I wish we could have gone on a longer excursion. My favorite was our last afternoon where we inner-tubed down the irrigation canals of an old sugarcane plantation – including about a mile of tunnels hand-carved into the volcanic rock over a century ago. We had to wear hard-hats with lights, and the water was ice cold, but it was like a good amusement park water ride — only real and a lot more fun.

We returned to Las Vegas, spent another day and a half with the in-laws, and then returned to central Illinois last night.