Hello Friends & Familia. We just flew back from The Island a few http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifdays
ago and want to share with you all the best moments via our Flickr
Photo Album .

http://flickr.com/photos/brettlyda/collections/72157601301546583/

But first, for the story to be told completely, we have to take you
all the way back to Monday April 2nd on Wanni's Birthday when I asked
my baby what she'd like to do on this special day and she hollered...
"Casino!". So as part of her gift, I bought her $40 in chips to play
at the "little kids" poker table. Well, imagine my surprise when four
hours later, Wanni had amassed a stack of no less than $1200 in chips!
And I wasn't doing so bad either. I had turned my $40 into $200 and
just when I thought it couldn't get any better, on my last hand I get
four aces and beat somebody's full house and win $700 in a jackpot! So
what do you do when you've got an extra $2000 lying about?

August 26th. Wanni and I flew into Kauai at 9PM and literally camped
on the side of the road just a few feet from the ocean. I'll admit
that was a rocky night riddled with zero sleep and endless bug bites
but, by morning Paradise was a knockin' loud and clear. We skirted
down the one and only highway to Kapa'a and discovered quickly that
this was our favorite town for eats. We totally fell in love with
Small Town Coffeehouse

(http://web.mac.com/smalltownkauai/iWeb/Small%20Town%20Coffee/Welcome.html).

It was here that we also accidentally bumped into local resident Vern
who happens to be the honest-to-goodness twin brother of our hometown
pal Mitch which, for me, was a wonderful, positive sign of things to
come but also pretty surreal nonetheless.

That day, we camped on the beach with the bum locals until morning
and waited for a tan rugged Australian named Burt to boat up about 50
feet from shore. We were instructed in advance to pack all of our
belongings in plastic trash bags and, upon his arrival, swim out with
our gear onto his rinky-dink little fisherman's boat so that he could
motor us onward to the breathtakingly remote Napali Coast where there
are no roads or coffeehouses and only the heartbreaking, glorious,
virtually untouched, tropical landscape of heaven on Earth exists.
Reaching destination, we had to swim another 50 feet to shore. This
was pretty scary stuff as the riptide is very rough in these parts.
It's so tough, in fact, that there are signs posted on the beaches
strongly recommending that visitors NOT swim in the ocean at all.
This probably explains why Burt's near extinct profession is
thoroughly illegal, though often overlooked.

We camped rough and rugged for three nights and hiked about 20 miles
during our stay on the Napali Coast. If you know me, you know I'm no
exercise guru, but when every single friggin' twist and turn of the
landscape is as exciting and breathtaking as this, you can't help but
put one foot in front of the other, childlike and eager for what comes
next and never once being disappointed. In the beach cliffs, we
discovered a massive hidden sand floor sea-cave the size of a
football field. An equally large emerald green swimming pool of sea
water extended from its mouth, tongue-like, out into the sunlight and
sand, almost bridging itself to the ocean. Wanni and I swam into the
cave and spotted a shadowy figure resting on a sand bank. As we
approached, we realized it was an obese naked woman in her 50's (did
I mention the Napali Coast is loaded with naked women and men?) The
old lady was nice, however, and soon left leaving Wanni and I to
enjoy this undeniable slice of heaven all to ourselves. We camped
HARD in this area for four days. Early Saturday morning, Burt arrived
and we stuffed our trash bags and swam out to the boat for our return
to civilization. Hats off to Wanni for flawless planning such a
wonderful trip to the Napali Coast.

Our friend Jeff Mann is working on the new Ben Stiller/Jack Black
movie "Tropic Thunder" in Kauai. He, his wife Stacey, and daughter
Emery invited us to stay for a week with them at their beautiful
rental house near Princeville. While Jeff was super busy making Ben
Stiller & JB look awesome, Stacey & Emery were amazing hosts who
showed us around the island and hooked us up with some great old and
new friends (Rachel, Joel, Noah, Sean). Emery is just about the
sweetest little girl I've ever met. Stacey took us to the set of
Tropic Thunder and made sure that we got some "elbow time" with
Stiller and Jack and some great pix of the big napalm explosion
scene. Wanni was especially stoked cuz she got to surprize Jack and
another friend, producer Stewart Cornfeld. Stuart is about as big as
they come in The Biz but you wouldn't know it as he also happens to
be an exceptionally nice guy. With the Manns, it was great company, a
nice bed, outdoor showers in the jungle & french toast and bacon every
other day! We will never forget their kindness and hospitality. Thank
you Jeff, Stacey & Emery.

Along the highway, we visited the ruins of the famous Coco Palms
Hotel Resort in which all 46 acres were destroyed by hurricane back
in the early 1990's. It was here that Elvis Presley filmed all of
those beach flicks like "Blue Hawaii" and it was also where they
filmed the popular TV show "Fantasy Island". It was fenced off just
like any abandoned property might be, with "No Trespassing" signs
everywhere but, strangely enough, the parking lot was unlocked and,
adjacent to the lot, was a truck-size opening in the fence. We
couldn't resist. As it turns out, we bumped into the groundskeeper,
Dwayne, who has been with the hotel since the early 60's. He was such
a nice man and Wanni is such a charmer that it wasn't long before he
offered to give us an unrestricted VIP tour. What a beautiful mess.
We even visited Elvis' humble cottage which had long since been raped
of its charm. I'll let the photos speak on my behalf.

And so it just kept on flowing endlessly - secret summer beaches,
rainbow canyons, air-conditioned hotels, more giant caves, snorkeling
with exotic fishes, giant turtles, cracking coconuts, fresh mangos and
guava from the trees, picturesque log cabins, gourmet vegan food,
awesome ahi tuna & khalua pork regional dishes, and LOTS of ice
cream.

Enjoy!

Brett & Wanni

p.s. is your picture on my website? www.brettlyda.com has tons of new
pics and lots of new media. check it out! And if I don't have your
picture, send me one and I'll get it up asap!