Palm Lake Vacation

So, I was looking for a family reunion vacation rental for Jason’s family when I happened to find this little gem – Palm Lake Retreat.  Our dream home!  Jason and I would both absolutely love to live on a waterski lake – especially a private one.  So, when we found this place only 30 minutes from our house, we were so excited.  Our dream home - available for rent!  We immediately rallied the Davis family and booked a trip only two months following, in August, with high hopes.  It definitely met our expectations and more!

This 5 bedroom home is on a private lake with our own water ski course (we won’t be doing that again – see why here).   The retreat has a pool with waterslide and diving board, hot tub, fire pit, volleyball court, one mile paved course around the lake for running, a two story lake cabana, a race track for bikes and two play houses for the kids. 

We spent our days swimming, exploring, running, soaking up the sun, shooting our sling shot, riding scooters, playing games, napping, playing on the boat and eating some tasty food.  We had an absolute blast and I think this will be an annual Davis family vacation – next year’s vacation is already booked.

 

 

 

 

Dawson improved so much at wakeboarding.  He learned how to wakeboard a couple weeks before our trip.  By the end of the vacation, he was so comfortable, you would never know he just learned.  He could stay up for 20 minutes at a time, make the tight turns with ease, cross the wake on both sides and even started jumping and getting a couple feet of air!

 

Taya is so fun on the easy ski.  She loves to dance.  Dawson wanted to try slalom skiing, so we got him some new skis.  He was able to just barely get up, but he couldn’t stay up.  Maybe next year…

 

Everyone loved the kayaks, paddleboats and go cart track.  We raced around on our bikes and scooters.

 

 

We compared this vacation to house boating – but it is SO much safer for the kids.  They had a blast and we never worried about their safety.  Some stray cats set up camp while we were there and they were instant entertainment for the kids.  Taya cried when we had to leave them.

 

 

Making smores – yum!

 

Look at that – Perfect glass to ski on 100% of the time.  Love it!

 

 

Through Dawson's eyes

Our Kauai vacation through Dawson's eyes:


My vacation was sandy. (he loved playing in the sand, but HATED being sandy)
I ate froot loops. (yes, for breakfast every day)
I saw my cousin Madison. (true)
I played with my gameboy (and spiderman video game - a LOT)
The best part was the beach.

The funny thing is he would complain about going to the beach because he would get too sandy - but then loved every minute of it while we were there. Funny kid.

The picture is our hotel with him smiling looking out the window with big clouds, rain and sun (since all of that did happen while we were there).

Aloha…Until Next Time

We had a fabulous trip and a unique experience celebrating Christmas in Kauai.  I am so grateful that all of my family could join us.  The thing I love most about having a timeshare is that we are already planning our next trip back…

 

The hike of a lifetime

The Kalalau Trail – it’s rugged, narrow, muddy, rocky and certainly strenuous.  But, more than anything – it’s drop dead gorgeous and well worth the effort spent to hike it.  This was a highlight of our trip and we loved every minute of it.  We hiked a total of 8 miles – 2 miles along the NaPali coastline to Hanakapi’ai Beach and then two miles inland to Hanakapi’ai Falls – roundtrip.  We had a great time along the way.  We were in a hurry to get back to make sure we had time to take some family pictures, so we kept our pace up pretty fast.  As we past one hiker, he said “have a nice run”.  We hiked the entire thing in 6 hours including stops.  That’s pretty great for this hike.

Let’s get this party started!  Will hadn’t hiked much and was a bit skeptical at his point.

 

Hiking through the LUSH jungle in the mud and up the rocks – fun!

The first of many gorgeous views of the NaPali coast.  Breathtaking.

By now, Will had turned into Indiana Jones and had become a hiking convert.

A tropical haven

Doesn’t it look like I was photo shopped into this picture?  Jeff took this gorgeous and perfect picture. And yes, I was actually there – not edited in :)

Look at this crazy trail.

Time to cross the river to get to the beach…start boulder hopping and hope you don’t fall in! 

We made it to the beach!  No swimming at this beach – too dangerous.  Time for a little snack.

Time to hit the road again

The hike to the waterfalls goes through a bamboo forest – too cool!

Jason on top of the world.

We can see the waterfall…almost there.

Time to change into water shoes and get ready to get wet.

More river crossings…in water shoes now…much easier!

This part was too funny.  My dad was leading the way and here is where he lead us on the “trail”.  We were knee deep in water climbing boulders and Jason comes cruising along to the side of us on land.  I guess my dad had led us astray – but we had a fun time doing it anyway!   Every time we chose the harder router someone would yell “Parkour” – a joke from the TV show “The Office” where the goal is to get from point A to point B as creatively as possible.  It became quite the joke and we had a fun time yelling “Parkour” and getting a good laugh every time the hike got sketchy.

Getting closer…

We made it!!!  Stunning!  Jeff got an awesome picture with his tripod.  Hiking with a tripod…now that’s hardcore photography.

Time to jump in for a swim – but it’s COLD!!!!  Brrrrrrrr……

But, you have to get in anyway…because you can’t miss getting a picture swimming under a waterfall :)

           Jeff’s tripod coming in handy again to get a group shot of us.    

The views of Ke’e beach on the hike back.

We made it without any major injuries!  Lisa won the record for most falls…Dad had one bad fall while crossing a river and landed straight on his back (slippery tivas)…Jeff had a rock slash his leg and a few good bumps on the heard from trees (Heads Up Jeff!)…other than that – just some sore bodies the next day.

Jeff hiked the entire trail with this huge backpack containing 30 lbs. of camera equipment and his tripod.  He must be in shape though – because he kept up his pace with no problem.

Check out those shoes – Muddy!  We used our old shoes and mine were falling apart anyway – so they went straight in the trash as did Joe and Lisa’s.  A few people got a good laugh out of that.

Hitching a ride back to the car, muddy and shoeless…but Happy!