A Kid on Kauai

AT FIRST, I WAS SCARED to get out of the big canoe. I kept asking Daddy, “Is it deep? Is something going to bite me?” I didn’t know. I’m only in second grade. But Daddy held my hand and helped me put on fins and goggles. And then I breathed some breath through a snorkel. When I got in the ocean and looked down, I couldn’t believe it. There was a giant sea turtle. And this turtle must have been very popular. Because all the fish were hanging around him. I popped my head out of the water and said, “Daddy, this is just like a dream.” My name is Chandler. My daddy took me and Mama to the island of Kauai. It’s one of the islands of Hawaii. I went to Maui once before, but that’s a different island. Kauai is where the movie Lilo and Stitch was made. I wanted to find Lilo and Stitch, but they stayed pretty hidden. But that's okay. I had a lot of fun. Here's my story about it.

To fly to Kauai, you have to fly to another island of Hawaii first, called Oahu. There's a lot of islands that are Hawaii, so don't get confused. After we landed the airplane in Kauai, we rented a car and drove to the hotel. Daddy and Mama kept talking about the greenness all around. I just wanted to go to the pool.

We went to a hotel called Sheraton Kauai Resort. It's in Poipu. Not pupu. That's a platter of appetizers. We stayed in the Orchid Suite. It must be where they keep flowers, because there were flowers all around the room. But what I liked was the plate of snickerdoodle cookies that was waiting for me. It's like they must have known a kid was coming to stay in this room. There was a very long balcony in the room, right over the ocean. I was standing on the balcony when I learned there was once a hurricane named Iniki that blew the whole hotel down. Luckily, everything looks pretty calm right now. So I went straight to the pool. My bathing suit has an American flag on it. It's a two-piece.

We ate dinner at a restaurant called Shells. It's kinda cool. There are three restaurants all next to each other. Shells serves seafood, and there's an Italian place and a Japanese place with sushi. The waiter says you can sit anywhere and order from any restaurant. I've never heard of such a thing, and neither have my parents, who have eaten in many more places than me.

The next day all of us went to the city of Koloa. My dad said this is a city that's oldfashioned, like where Lilo and Stitch might live. We looked at a soap factory. And at a fish market, Mom and Dad bought crusted ahi and edamame. They made so much fuss about how good it was. What ever. I bought an old-fashioned bracelet.

ON THE WAY TO STAYING in a new hotel on the island, we made some stops in the car. We took a boat ride on the Fern Grotto in Wailua. Hawaiian people took us on the boat, and they sang while we went along. At the end we got to the grotto, and it was like a little cave. People get married here. My dad laughed when one of the guides said a lot of Hawaiians go to Las Vegas to get married "because the odds are good there, ya?" I don't get it.

We also stopped in a town called Kapaa. You have to pronounce all the A's in this town name. My dad seemed very happy to stop and eat in this place. Some of his French fries fell on the ground. Then, a waitress slipped near our table. She was okay. But then everyone saw the French fries and thought the waitress dropped them. I thought this was the funniest thing ever. We left without telling everybody they were really our fries.

I was still laughing about the French fries when we got to the Princeville Resort. This place is kinda fancy--but I guess they still like having kids. I went right down to the pool. In a different bathing suit. This one is a one-piece. I could swim in the pool all day. Mama and Daddy seemed okay just sitting on stools in the pool, next to a bar that sells grownup drinks.

The fancy restaurant here is called the Hanalei Café. We had dinner, and we watched the sunset. It was like God was painting the sky with gold and orange. Some of the clouds were purple. We had lunch here the next day. This time it rained, and when it stopped there was a double rainbow. This seems to me like a pretty colorful place.

This Princeville Resort is where we did the snorkeling I already talked about. When we were out in the canoe, the guide pointed out to us the mountain of Hanalei. This is where some old guys named Peter and Mary and Paul wrote about a magic dragon or something. I guess that's cool.

Mama was really excited about our room at the Princeville Resort. We could walk around the whole place in a circle. The bathroom connected to a long closet that had a door that went out to the living room. And that room went around the other way to a bedroom with a whole lot of pillows.

Oh, I almost forgot. One of the best things on this trip was the friends I met. I played with a girl my age at the Sheraton Kauai in Poipu. And I swam with two sisters at the Princeville Resort. Those girls were staying in Kauai for a month. They're lucky. But I'm lucky, too.

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