t h e c a r l s : Day 1

Saturday evening we arrived on the island of Kauai, and it was instantly breathtaking. It looks like something out of a movie, and a lot of times it is-b/c they do film a lot of movies here. We went and got our rental car and Jordan surprised me and upgraded us to a convertable 2009 Ford Mustan!! Pretty cool huh? I've never driven in a convertable before-so I was very excited. And this island has perfect weather for it! We were pretty excited about our upgrade=)

Our first official day in Kauai, although we got here Saturday evening was Sunday. We both woke up very early and of course, and then kind of 'planned' a little bit of what we wanted to do for the day. Then we went to a free breakfast orientation of the island. That was neat to hear about all the fun things to do while we're here. After that we decided to hit the beach!
Jordan talked me into trying to surf with him. I have never surfed before, nor have I ever really wanted to..I did not think I would be able to do it. He said that he was sure I would be able to and finally I gave in. This would be his third time surfing, so he showed me how to do it. Its pretty bad though when you had to get a board so big you can't even carry it yourself...lol. Jordan carried it for me=) We threw our surf boards into the back of our Mustang convertable and drove down to a popular surfing beach.
It was pretty fun once we got out there, and it was definetely the furthest I have ever been out to see from the beach...I usually just sit and lay out on the sand, so this was really out of my comfort zone. But Jordan stayed with me and helped me out. I only got up one time on my board though, and it was only for a few seconds, if that. Which is pretty typical. Surfing is a lot of fun, but it does take a lot out of you-all the paddling, waiting, sun, and water hitting you in the face when you fall off!
After we surfed for about 2 hours, we decided to call it quits and go eat some lunch. We ate at this resturaunt called Poipu Tropical Burgers! It was really really tasty! They had so many different kinds of burgers there-and of course they were tropical. Don't be surprised though that I ordered a 'regular cheeseburger'...but it was really good. It was kind of sweet, but super moist and very good!!
After that we went back to the room, finished making reservations for our week here (on tours and stuff like that) and then got ready for dinner. Dinner was kind of an ordeal..we drove all around trying to find somewhere to eat, without reservations, that was of course, seafood. We weren't having much luck where we were looking though. Finally, about 40minutes later we found this secluded resturaunt on this harbor called Duke's. Apparently Duke was a man that lived on the island of Kauai that did a lot to help the island and the culture, so they started this resturaunt after him. The place was VERY neat. It was down on the water and very open with tall ceilings and ponds inside. It was very romantic, and the food was SOOOO good. Seriously, I have never had coconut shrimp so tasty before. It melted in my mouth. The sauce on it was like nothing I have ever tasted before (and I get coconut shrimp a lot). I loved it! Jordan got this fish, I can't remember the name that was 'like' a red snapper, but it was something hawaiian. sorry I can't remember the name, but he said it was SUPER good as well. We were very pleased.
Then we drove back to our hotel and crashed. We were so tired from the time change and getting up at 6am-doing all the surfing and stuff that we fell asleep about 10pm! We felt lazy, but we were exhausted.
So that was our first day-very fun!!! Although-oops, one thing I forgot....well, we forgot, actually-to put sunscreen on our backs when we were surfing and we both got sunburned (mainly Jordan) on our backs!!! Mine is just a little red, but his is flaming. Which kind of stinks b/c its only the first day and he's already burned...bummer. Don't worry-we got some medicated cream for him and some 70+ sunscreen to put on it for the rest of the trip!

Pictures below are completely backwards, so this first one should be the last one..so sorry about that! HEre they are:

Gettin ready to go to dinner!

Dinner at Duke's-soo good best coconut shrimp ever=)

Maybe you can see-it was really open with tall ceilings and the balcony over there was on the beach, so you could hear and see the waves, very romantic=)