I stayed in Kauai for a week, and still did not to do everything I wanted to do.  I could have spent 2 weeks in Kauai.  I spent a few days up in Hanalei, which I think is the nicer part of the island.  There seems to be more hippies up there, as opposed to the south end near Pompei.  Hanalei, which is the north end, is wetter than the south end, and is home to the wettest spot on Earth — Mount Wai'ale'ale, averaging 485 inches of rain per year, which feeds the majestic waterfalls.  This has lead to its popular designation as "The Garden Isle."  The whole island is very laid back, and has a small town feel.  I stayed in 2 hostels in Kapaa, which is basically in the center of the island.  There is one road that goes 3/4 way around the island, and Kapaa is in the middle of that road.  After staying there 5 days, I felt like I knew everyone in town.  I went to eat breakfast at a local breakfast establishment in town, and ran into 3 different people that I knew from meeting them previously.  Kapaa reminds me of a small college town, with it's restaurants and other establishments.  The only internet access I could find on the island was at the internet cafe, but they charged $3 per 15 minutes, which is rather steep.  I ended buying a 3 month Hawaii library card for $10, which gave me internet access at all the libraries, on all the islands.  This is definitely a way to go if you want to keep in touch with emails.  

   I had a rental car on the island, and it was a luxury, not a necessity.  Hitch hiking is a common form of transportation, especially to and from Kapaa to Hanalei.  I normally would not even think about picking up hitch hiker's, but after a few days, found myself very comfortably giving people, mostly college kids on spring break, rides.  I picked up a couple college kids who were hiking the Napali Coast and took them to the airport.  They were from Seattle, and said they decided to go to school in Hawaii.  They only pay $900 per semester because Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington resident's can all attend each other's state school inexpensively.  

   The road around Kauai is one lane in each direction for most of the road, and Kapaa is starting to show signs of being a bottleneck for traffic.  It seemed around noon, going from Kapaa to the airport, it took me an hour to move about 10 miles because of the traffic.  There is a bypass nobody knows about, that goes around most of the traffic in Kapaa.  There was literally nobody on this bypass road, which saved me much time.  You can see it on most maps, just look for it when you are sitting in traffic.

   Even though this is considered paradise, in no way should you trust your belongings in your car to be safe, especially in secluded areas and beaches.  I was surprised to hear that Hawaii has the highest rate of crime in America, as far as break ins to cars.  If you can not afford to have it stolen, do not take it for granted that it will be in your car when you return from the beach.  Hawaii has small gangs of thieves who thrive on vacationer's, and their main target is rental cars on secluded beaches.   They won't steal your car, but will break the locks, and steal anything of any value, digital cameras, bags, etc... The best thing to do, is not leave anything valuable in your car, and leave the car unlocked.  This way, you won't have damage to your car being broken into.

   Kauai is slow paced, establishments close down early, and there isn't much trouble.  I'm sure I will return on day for a relaxing, worry free vacation.