Kauai Day 6-the Final Installment

On our last full day in Kauai both Phil and I woke up in funky moods. There is always a weirdness on the last day of a vacation, especially a much anticipated vacation. After our quiet times, we decided to go on a walk. We headed out into the humidity and heat going north, away from the ocean, and then looped around Poipu, coming in along Poipu Beach towards the condo.

The weather was crazy again-there were high surf warnings discouraging inexperienced swimmers and children from going in the water. This of course brought out the crazy boogie boarders. We sat down on some rocks near a little inlet beach not far from the condo. We watched the boarders get smashed around by the waves, which was pretty entertaining. As we were watching, we noticed the silhouette of a sea turtle in the waves just beyond the boogie boarders.

This was very exciting! Every night when I had spoken to Caitey, she asked me if I had seen whales, dolphins, or sea turtles. I explained that it was the wrong time of the year for whales, but that I was hoping to see dolphins or sea turtles. The night before our walk, I sat out on our lanai for 2 1/2 hours hoping and praying that God would bring some dolphins my way, but hadn’t seen any.

We watched the dolphin ride the waves for a few more minutes, and then continued our walk. As we were going, we noticed there were more sea turtles, and they almost seemed to be following us along the coast. They stopped at another little inlet, only this one was much closer to the road and was rocky (so there were no boarders). We realized there were three turtles. At that moment, I realized that God answered my prayer to see some sea life. Very exciting! Phil mentioned that sometimes God answers our prayers in unexpected ways, like sending these turtles instead of the dolphins I was hoping for.

I agreed that God answered my prayer in an unexpected way, and mentally said to myself, “But I’m still hoping for those dolphins!” Right at that moment, I looked out on the ocean past the turtles and saw some dolphins jumping in and out of the waves! It was so evident to me at that moment that God was sending me turtles AND dolphins! He was so kind to meet me at that moment and share His creation with me just so I could share what I had seen with Caitey.

Later that night we went down to the beach for a final swim in the ocean. We were sitting with our chairs turned to the west to watch the sunset. There was a rainstorm coming in from the east behind us. I turned back to look at the storm and there was a lovely rainbow arcing up over the palm trees and ocean. The sun was setting and turning the sky lovely shades of orange and pink. I glanced down at the water on our left, and there in the waves was another turtle! Right next to us on the beach. We ran down to the water a few feet away…and we were right next to that turtle. The Lord sent us another turtle for good measure-of all the space on that beach that turtle was right in front of us.

Although our last day in Kauai started out kind of funky, it ended up being my favorite day on the island.