Claudette and I flew from Seattle back to San Francisco then on to Kauai. Never having been there I expected more desolation, but Kauai is more like Maui was 25 years ago. Kauai is unique from Maui in many ways, mostly due to more mountainous areas than Maui. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt on the south shore which turns out to be relatively flat. The first day out we took a crack at ziplining at Princeville on the north shore. This turned out to be pretty easy to do, you just have to have the guts to jump off a platform or two that are 10 to 35 feet off the ground. I concentrated so much on making a good landing on the far side, that I did not see much of what was under me.
The next day we joined Capt Andy for a Na Pali cruise, again this is mostly on the north shore. There is not much to compare the Na Pali mountains next to the sea anywhere in the world. The catamaran took the sea in stride tho it was pretty rough out there. I saw one woman get hit by a big wave while on the boat, and she was knocked completely off her feet. Lots of dolphins followed us for a while, tho they were too fast to get pictures for the most part.
My favorite tour tho was of the Kipu Ranch, where we did an ATV tour. The first leg of the 3 hour tour was of the toughest terrain and I soon went about 10 feet off the narrow pathway, so the tour guide switched me from the more motorcycle like Bombardier, to a relatively car like Yamaha ATV. Big difference in handling between the two, tho the thing I learned after a while is that ATVs can pretty much be ridden right over the top of large boulders and tree roots. The large and soft tires mold themselves around these items and there is at least 12 inches of clearance between the ground and the vehicle bottom. ATVs handle nothing like motorcycles.
The Grand Hyatt was a bit of disappointment when it came to volleyball. They had no court except at the pool, and we never saw anyone who wanted to play. The lagoon there was great, it had a fake kind of sand in many places and was the largest artificial lagoon I had ever seen.