With the trees right on the beach, there was plenty of shade.
The water was almost too calm. There were practically no waves. I like the bobbing of the waves.
In the afternoon we went in the swimming pool and the kids played tag and had races in our "backyard."
They ran around until they dropped.
Tomorrow will be our last day here with our flight in the evening.
Today we drove the North Shore. We stopped at the Kilauea Lighthouse.
The kids got Jr. Ranger books and had activities they had to do throughout their visit to earn a prize.
The activities included bird watching, identifying plants at the lighthouse from pictures in their book, etc. The kids enjoyed doing this while exploring and learning about the lighthouse.
After visiting the lighthouse, we continued driving the North Shore. We stopped and explored some caves. The below picture was taken outside the caves, looking up along the cliff to the sky.
Here is the opening to the cave.
Here we are inside the cave looking back at the opening. It got pretty dark towards the back of the cave and the kids thought there might be some dinosaurs hiding in the dark corners.
In the afternoon, we went on the Fern Grotto Wailua River Cruise.
We cruised a couple miles up the river and got out to see the fern grotto. There were tons of pretty flowers and plants.
This is the fern grotto. It is a cave with ferns growing down the cliff. This was a sacred place for ancient Kauai people.
Walking back to the boat...
This is our boat waiting for us...
After the cruise, we walked to the luau. There were tons of peacocks and other birds everywhere.
Another peacock...
Digging the pig out of the ground for dinner....
Here is a video of Connor and Ryan learning to hula. Be sure to view the video at http://daneya.blogspot.com/ since it won't show up if you are reading this in an email.
Before the train ride, Ed did the rum tasting at Koloa Rum Co that is on the plantation. The rum is made in Kauai with the locally grown sugar cane and Kauai mountain water.
Most of the sugar cane that was once grown on the plantation has been replaced with orchards of fruit. They are experimenting with many different tropical produce to see what grows best in the Kauai climate.
One stop on the train tour was to see the wild boars.
We were given bread to feed the pigs. The pigs really liked the bread.
This is Oreo. He liked the bread too. He had a really slobbery tongue.
Here is a picture of part of the orchard seen from the train.
We also visited the Kauai Coffee Plantation before heading back to swim in the pool some more.
The chicken is Hawaii's state bird and they are everywhere. There are lots of baby chicks right now too.
Ryan really enjoyed Waimea Canyon. He kept asking to stop at the different lookout spots, so we stopped at three different spots for lookout.
After we saw the canyon we looked around the town of Waimea, did some shopping, stopped at Shrimp Station for lunch (they have great coconut shrimp!) and JoJo's for shave ice. Below is a picture of Ryan eating his shave ice.
Then we stopped at Salt Ponds Beach. This beach is partially protected by a reef to make the water calmer for the kids to play in. The kids really enjoyed an area that was shallow and right against the reef where they could wait for waves to come over the rocks. Below is a picture of Connor one of the first times the wave came over the rock. He was a bit surprised by the waterfall.
But, then the kids would wait for the waves to come down on them.
I climbed up on the rocks to take a picture with the kids.
Then, a wave came....
Ryan and I ended up being pushed off the rock by the wave, but Connor managed to stay up there.
Here Connor and Ryan are waiting for a wave to come.
After the wave...
The kids also enjoyed making sand castles and watching them get washed away by the waves.
The kids got a bag full of eggs that contained candy, stickers, erasers, or silly bands. The chocolate was very melted after sitting in the sun for just the short time it took the kids to collect it.
We managed to get a family picture after the Easter egg hunt.
In the afternoon we drove to Poipu Beach and stopped to do some shopping along the way. Only about half of the stores were open since it was Easter. Poipu Beach is a nice, calm beach so it is safer for the kids. 
The beach is also shallow pretty far out. I went pretty far out, but was always able to tough the bottom.
It was nice and relaxing.
There were a couple seals that were sunbathing on the sand. This one is sleeping. We also saw a huge sea turtle that swam right along the people.
Can you tell from this picture that we told the kids it was time to go.... they were having too much fun to leave.
But, after we got back to the hotel and had dinner, it was back to the pool with the boogie boards to play with our neighbors. In the room next to us, there is a family that also has two boys around Connor and Ryan's age. They are even from San Luis Obispo and went to Cal Poly the same time we were there!