Hope you had a lovely Valentines Day :) Wolfie didn’t buy me the roses but he was good enough to pose with them! I’ve missed out on taking many snow pics since I’ve been at work during the storms, but I won’t forget all this snow anytime soon!

I had all these good intentions- like so many other things of updating more often and… now it’s February?!? Ah! Have been very busy at work and call but here are the only pictures I’ve taken of late. :)

A very furry Wolfie who has been depressed being home alone so much. :(

A treat I had gotten from hawaii – a chocolate covered shortbread cookie, caramel and a macadamia nut! The strangest thing though – I have other stuff from Hawaii I can’t find… and normally I ponder it for a few days and I recall where it is but still have no idea!!

My last boards studying book – I took step 3 of the boards in late January. This is the last one of the general boards (the ones that any doc takes regardless of what their specialty is) the rest will be more specific to obgyn.

Hopefully I’ll have a break in the storm sometime soon and can have another little burst of posting. Otherwise wish me happy times at work :)

A pretty thing in the midst of the dreary winter.

Last day on the island! How fast had the time flown but had a lot of fun doing so many things. :)

Did some AM snorkeling – had hoped to see some turtles on the final day of snorkeling but no such luck. :( Got some ahi poke for lunch and it was pretty disgusting how the mosquitoes were attracted to it. Gross.

Next was visiting the Allerton gardens – expensive but very highly rated in things to do. Figured I would like the photo ops do bit the bullet and went. :)

Native plant garden

A bee munching on some starfruit

Little stream to the garden

Tranquil Buddha

They had these huge beautiful trees, apparently they were in Jurassic park. They reminded me of ents in Lord of the Rings!

They had a small fruit orchard which was planted as a victory garden back in the day

Beautiful yellow flower

Spikey, thorny

Small little light green leaves

Flower at the end of a spikey plant.

Then for the last meal we went to a place that had this beautiful orchid garden with these plants with stems full of orchid blossoms!

It also had a small garden of succulent plants.

A water lily

Pretty pink

Then time for a drink (cucumber mojito) and dinner…

and too soon it was time to get back on the plane and go home. One nice thing about the Sheraton was they had hospitality rooms where you could have the room for 30 min – quickly shower and clean up before you left if your flight was later in the day.

It was a great trip filled with doing a lot of the stuff I love to do and a wonderful, wonderful break from being at the hospital and being a lowly intern! :)

Stopped at some scenic sites along the way, like this one the Wimea river. If I had more money and time I would have done a little kayaking thing too but it was just too much with all the rest of the things planned. I also was a little nervous about bringing the camera when I wasn’t so sure about how it was going to stay dry.

We stopped at a Hindu monastery, I thought it would be an interesting place to see since I’ve never been to a Hindu monastery before. However we were not dressed appropriately – you shouldn’t be wearing shorts so we drove to it but decided to respectfully not go in. Did some hiking instead by sleeping giant. The trail itself was not very photogenic and the views were the same each time except you would just get higher and higher. However, once you finally got the top after climbing up 1000ft it was great. :)

Pretty flower

The rest of the day was spent snorkeling – we went to a less touristy destination and the water was much deeper. It was cool to float above, just gazing at the many fishes below.

Another beautiful sunset

The next day drove back up to the North Shore for another hike. The waves are rough and tumble up on the north shore at this time of year, but the beach is still very pretty!

Saw a wet and dry cave.

Began the hike

Hiked two miles to reach a stormy, rocky beach. (and then walked back)

It had a pretty stream leading into the ocean

The trail

Beautiful coastline

Walked along the beach after the hike to cool down

Another monk seal napping

Sunset from the start of Wimea canyon – if you click on the picture you can see Niihau which has a very interesting history.

This day was a little more relaxing, got snorkeling gear and did a little bit of snorkeling in the morning. Lots of fish right at shore and always fun to see all the colors and varieties of fish! There was also a monk seal taking a nap at the beach. They are endangered so you can’t get too close.

There’s this famous shrimp truck that has very good shrimp – I don’t like shrimp, but it smelled so good and reportedly was excellent!

Did the more touristy stuff, visited a coffee company, Kauai kookie kompany, and Kauai chocolate company

Did some more snorkeling at the Sheraton beach – the snorkeling wasn’t great but the water was so nice and warm. :)

Had a fantastic dinner but the whole vibe at the place was a little off. It was like when you know something’s off is going on but can’t figure out what exactly it is.


Ahi poke (raw tuna) with cucumber, avacado, etc, panko breaded calamari, grilled fish with risotto, and mango cheesecake. :)

The next day started with ziplining. I don’t exactly why I decided to do this but it was in the guidebook so figured I should give it a good try. Basically you get in this harness thing and are clipped onto a steel wire and off you go!

You can see the wire and then the landing post in the trees. They always have you clipped to the tree, the bridge, the zip line so it’s actually safer than it feels like.

All clipped to the tree

Zipping away – it was really fun and a great rush. :)

There were also these bridges too and I’m not sure I really liked that part. I kind of just wish they’d pull me along because I took a long time because I’m scared!! I would have liked more zip lines less bridges!

Here’s me zipping along, imagine a weeeeeeee!

Overall though I would recommend it and I had a fun time, especially once I did the first zip and discovered what fun it is!!!

Tree tunnel on the way to Kaloa

Random stop at a beach

Sprouting horn

Had a puka dog for lunch. I’m not sure how these things came about, but they are a piece of bread with a hole for a hot dog or a veggie dog. You add in a lemon garlic sauce along with a fruit relish – I tried both the starfruit and pineapple. I love hot dogs and it was very good although gives quite a bit of reflux! I think it might sound gross but try it before you denounce it! :)

Then came the nice touristy boat ride. I had read that this was a wonderful way to see the NaPali coastline – and was excited since by the helicopter it looked amazing. Unfortunately the surf was too rough so would be heading south instead. I get seasick pretty easily as I discovered in the Galapagos, so in the end better for me. I had some meds before the ride, and then some during but managed to feel good for most of the ride. :) We also saw some whales but I had the wrong type of lens – no close up lens – so they are mainly just whale dots in the pictures.

Pretty views of the island along the way. It did remind me of lost and I expected to see a four toed statue along the way!!

A whale a whale!!!

Can you spot the whale dots?

I think I posted this one before but a beautiful sunset to end the day :)

Day 2 started with a helicopter ride! Much of Kauai is inaccessible so I read that it was the best island to take a helicopter ride on. I’ve never been on a helicopter before and as I mentioned I am not a fan of heights – but figured I would just deal with it. :) We did a doors off because it is better for taking pictures and oh just the whole thing wasn’t quite terrifying enough as is. ;)

The takeoff was kind of odd. You just lifted up – and you were up in the air! Strange feeling.

I took lots of pictures however I just don’t think they do the experience justice. It was just too fantastical for words and amazing!








Really amazing!

After that drove up to the north coast with making little stops along the way.

Taro fields

Ice cream – coconut pineapple, very good! :)

Visited the St Regis Princeville, a super posh resort.

Sunset came soon enough, grabbed some plate food and headed to the local dock area to enjoy sunset and watch surfers.

I’m sorry I haven’t posted this earlier. I take the final step of the general boards on Thurs (there are always more exams though) and since they cover all areas of medicine I have been busy relearning all that other stuff outside of obgyn that I had long forgotten! The boards always covered weird subjects too so it’s always fun to vaguely recall the terms but don’t quite know the answer!

Anyways, to begin – left for Kauai very early in the morning. Getting up even earlier than I normally do was always a pleasure but it was exciting knowing at the end of the day I’d be in Hawaii! Two flights to get out there, nothing very eventful besides feeling like the flights would never end.

Finally arrived in Kauai and it was great to be in warm weather. Waited for bags, rental car, etc. Got upgraded to a Jeep wrangler instead of whatever economy car they normally have. It was fine, I didn’t drive it that much. It had less room in it that you’d think and it was tall so I had a harder time hoisting myself into it. They should have had a little launching pad for me to jump into it. ;)

Went to a very local Japanese place for dinner. I had chicken katsu and it was yummy. The rice was good, moist unlike the dry stuff they make out here on the east coast. :)

Drove over the the hotel – we stayed the Sheraton. It was a very nice little resort like compound although I didn’t take many pictures there. In hindsight it probably didn’t matter where we were since we didn’t spend much time at all at the hotel nor even at the hotel beach but always nice to be at a nice fancy looking place. :)

The next day was the venture out the Wimea canyon. The soil is very red and it makes for a spectacular sight. The drive through the canyon area was fun with lots of turns, scary views, and just so much beauty.

Cute little ladybug

There were some trails in the area so decided to do a little bit of hiking. The first trail was a little detour off the main one we were on that had a nice view and a end of trail sign at the end.

Then back on the other trail – I forget the name of it and I don’t have the guidebook with me but it was supposedly to a waterfall. It had trained overnight and the trail was pretty slippery and very hilly – got pretty muddy with that red dirt that I’m sure won’t come out of the shorts I was wearing!

After up and down, up and down, up up, down, up up up etc., you came to a cleared off little hill – more than a hill really but wasn’t a mountain either. The view was superb and we had seen it from the lookouts along the way up so it was cool to be where we had seen people hiking earlier.

Then to get to the waterfall you had to climb down the otherside of this hill. I’m not the best with heights and was a little frightened.

The one side a had a wee sized waterfall.

The other side a had a much larger waterfall and crazy view – it was just the waterfall, then a rock landing to sit relax… and then drop. We stopped at the rock landing to rest but I couldn’t look out because it was scary!!

I’m only at the top sitting because that’s the way you had to leave – had to backtrack the way you came. So I said wait with the camera and sat at the top of the waterfall.

Then a yummy treat after all that adventuring- shave ice. :)

Saw some cute doggies in the back of a truck

Beautiful sunset to end the day!

I’m back from an amazing Kauai trip :) It was great – the weather was perfect and warm, lots of fun things to do, and yummy foods. Need to get all organized with pictures and the such. :)