Kauai

Winter break happened to be coincidentally the same week for both Lauren and Lars, so we took advantage of the week long break by taking a trip to Kauai. I was able to find a direct flight from Oakland, so no island hopping was necessary. Kauai is one of the islands none of us have yet visited, so it was an ideal vacation spot. It was short but great trip. Lauren hadn't been to Hawaii since she was 9 months old, and when she went as a baby, she really disliked the ocean and the sand and the beach.

This time though was a completely different matter. We couldn't get her off the beach, and she laughed and had fun and played in the waves every chance she could get. We were lucky in that our hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott at Coconut Beach was right on the beach, and also had its own pool, but Lauren avoided the pool for the most part as it was too cold, and she had much more fun in the ocean.

While we were in Kauai we also spent some time visiting Wailua Falls, famous because it's used in the opening sequence of Fantasy Island, Kapaa old town and Koloa old town, both of which are quaint historic old towns that still have much of their original flavor. We also drove up to the north end of the island to Kilauea Lighthouse.

With Kauai being such a small island it didn't take long to get to all those places and back to get Lauren more time at the beach. She also enjoyed all the local shopping and picked up some Hawaiian dresses and the one thing she wanted most of all from Hawaii, a ukelele.

After getting back from Hawaii, it meant back to the grind for me, as this past week was the RSA conference in San Francisco, where I had to give a number of presentations, and next week is my company's sales kick-off meeting, so I've got no lack of things to keep me occupied.