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Yesterday we left for Lake Tahoe for our week long trip to the snow! We’ll be snowboarding at Heavenly (www.skiheavenly.com) and having a blast. Carleigh was simply amazing for the drive up! She was only fussy a couple of times when she was hungry and didn’t bother our guests.

We were toting up a lot of luggage, so we borrowed an F250 for the trip, which made the drive comfortable, safe, and although it was a 10 hour drive (including stops) it only seemed like a 4 hour drive! We had 4 adults, their equipment, Carleigh, her “stuff” as well as Tiffany’s family’s ski equipment in the truck. It totaled 5 big cases of luggage, the car seat, “pack and play”, 3 backpacks, 7 snowboards, and 1 pair of skis. All this, and 18 miles per gallon (not calculated… but we will on the return trip)!

Does Carleigh like the snow?

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Carleigh got her first plane ride, and all 3 of us went to our first NFL game! Tiffany and I have previously tailgated a Chargers game, but never attended a game. We bought tickets a couple weeks in advance, but at the same time, e-mailed somebody from Craigslist about another set of tickets. He had them listed for over $300 because they were 2nd row 50-yard line tickets, but we weren’t going to pay much. We offered him $150 if nobody took them. A few days before our flight left we heard from him and nobody else had made an offer so they were ours! We promptly sold our nosebleeds and made some of our money back!

The first flight was from San Diego to Dallas, and Carleigh slept almost the whole flight. After our brief stay-over in Dallas we flew into Miami which Carleigh also slept through! Her first flights went really well and at only 3 1/2 months!

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Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. We only went to get our underwater pictures developed (which didn’t turn out very well) and went boogie boarding at Anahola Bay. It was very nice and relaxing to do little today. We then went back to Scotty’s BBQ again because their food and view are both amazing. Prices aren’t too bad too! Here’s a couple of the very few pictures we took today.

Today was another great day in Paradise. We started off by driving to the other side of the island to get to Waimea Canyon. This is what they call the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. We have both been to the Grand Canyon before and neither of us thought this looked much like it. The Grand Canyon’s erosion patterns are very distinct creating cliffs resembling huge cracks, not valleys. After reading some Wikipedia on this, it is apparent why. Waimea’s canyons aren’t purely erosion, but also from collapse during fault movement. Don’t get me wrong, it is both beautiful and amazing, but not that similar to the Grand Canyon.

From here we went to the beach and ate lunch. We then passed through Ele’ele on our way back and stopped at the Kauai Coffee estate for the free tour. It was a short self-guided tour, but there was free coffee so I was pleased!

Our tour was followed by going to Spouting Horn/Whaler’s Cove beach where went snorkeling. It was better snorkeling here than anywhere we had previously gone including Kona on our Honeymoon. We had the underwater camera, so those pics will come when we get back and get them developed.

We had thought about renting kayaks again, or taking a kayak tour today but decided against it as the kayak would simply be a means of transportation to places we could already get to without spending money! Yeah, we’re cheap! We started off by hiking up “sleeping giant” which is a fairly famous trail near Kapa’a. It was really hot since we started off a littler later than expected in the day. We didn’t quite make it to the top, but saw almost all of the views you would from the top in one form or another.

We decided to turn around because of the heat, and our other plans for hiking. We then went to an unnamed falls (may be called Upper Ho’opi’i Falls) as well as down to Ho’opi’i Falls about a mile away. These were both beautiful waterfalls along the Kapa’a stream and were worth the EASY hikes!

After that we went to Anahola Bay to play in the water (and get some of our sweat off)! Then we went ‘home’ and cleaned up since we had our Luau tonight. This luau was a THOUSAND times better than the one we went to in Maui on our Honeymoon. We went to the “Smith’s Luau” which we both highly recommend. This luau was on beautiful grounds where you can walk around. Then they had the “Imu” ceremony where they actually get the pig out of the imu (underground oven) for dinner. There was a live band playing typical hawaiian music during dinner, and a show afterward at the theater. The show was another typical Luau scenario where it was a ‘history lesson’ of Luau, and the influence of many Asian cultures on Hawai’i. It was interesting, entertaining, well planned, and well rehearsed with only a couple small hiccups. With all the expensive things to do on the islands for minimal entertainment value, this one is exactly what we were looking for! Did I mention it had an open bar?