Over the past couple of years, Diane and her sister had been heavily engaged in caregiving for her parents, but by 2010 both of them had passed on.  My wife, Diane, decided it would be great to have some time with her sister, Colleen, who is the caregiver for her husband, Mel.  We thought of Branson, MO first and that we could have a week of our condo exchanged in order to help Colleen have a diversion from here caregiving and the heavy responsibility that brings.  After some thought, however, Diane thought "Why not take Colleen to Hawaii, since she had always wanted to go there.  Her fear of flying would have to be overcome, but it was the perfect plan.

In the first week of May, 2011 we took time off from Diane's work and my school teaching and the three of us left for Kaua'i, the Garden Isle.  Diane had been there when she was in high school with her family, but Colleen and I had never been to Hawaii before.

We arranged to fly from Salt Lake City, Utah to Honolulu and then from Honolulu to Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii.  We stayed at Banyan Harbor, not far from Lihue Airport for the week.  During the time we were there, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, experienced rain as only Hawaii could provide, saw South Pacific performed by a local community theater, and enjoyed a Luau like nothing we had experienced before! 

During the days, we used our rental car to travel the Island, and enjoyed the scenery and other unique experiences--such as wild chickens everywhere, Waimea Canyon and falls, etc.  Two of the most exciting experiences were visiting Na Pali Coast by boat, and seeing literally thousands of waterfalls inside the crater of the island via helicopter.  The photographs that we took were very beautiful and I will be adding some of them and details regarding our week on Kaua'i, The Garden Isle.

TO BE CONTINUED.