About Us
Kauai Eden Tours provides customized private and small group tours to visitors, photographers, sightseers and lovers of earth's beauty!
Kauai Eden Tours will guide you to the most spectacular places on Kauai where you can experience, photograph and enjoy over 16 or more spectacular places and culture of Kauai. These incredibly beautiful places will become some of your all time favorites on Kauai, and you will likely find yourself there for a lot of your trip, and in your mind's eye when you are back home. Tours are customized to your needs, wants and interests. From sightseeing tours with no walking to wonderful hiking..!
We can't wait to you show you Kauai at her finest.
-Karen Tilley
-Jay Dorrance
Kauai Eden Tours is a small private tour guide service on Kauai that specializes in personalized, caring attention to the needs and interests of their clients.
Karen is a Sierra Club Outings Leader, with a strong interest in music, singing, nature photography, ocean safety awareness, hiking, drumming, natural and herbal medicine.
Jay has a strong interest in music, lyric writing, Jazz, hiking, natural beauty, nature photography, sightseeing, beach-combing for Sunrise shells, shells, drift wood, and glass floats, and ocean safety awareness.
Jay is a Jazz buff with an incredible knowledge of Jazz and other music. He has many web based projects.
He is a great gardener, fruit tree tender, and homesteader on our tropical homestead.
He has written for several newspaper chains and periodicals as well as lectured on jazz for the University of Michigan. Jay has great trail knowledge and has lived on Kauai for 11 years. An avid glass float "treasure" hunter, he has found many wonderful treasures from the sea.
Jay's late father, William H. Dorrance is an author of several Hawaiian history books.
His father was a rocket scientist ( I'm not joking!) and held several patents in the aerospace field.
Below is some of Karen's music efforts and more...
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Neat oh! That's my father's famous outdoor, floating, sun/rain
Hat, "the Tilley Hat" seen on a Kauai Eden day Trip!
My father is world traveler and clothier, Alex Tilley of the Tilley Hat and Tilley Endurables.
Call me if you like to find out where to get a Tilley Hat on Kauai.
Got a Tilley something? On Tour, I will autograph your Tilley hat and give YOU a penny to do it!
That's me (tall) with my dad, Alex Tilley in the Abacos, Bahamas in 1971 or so, with a
young boy. "The one room schoolhouse I attended was right on the shoreline (!). I remember walking
on the a'a lava looking for the small crabs living in the shells. What an incredible adventure to experience the tropic tropics and the Bahamas. If you are traveling with children to Kauai, you can count on us showing you many exceptional, and safe child-friendly places.
My dad, Alex Tilley, and me in Tikal, Guatemala in 1975 or so. "I can still remember the screaming calls of the howler monkeys in the forest. We had an exhilarating ( ok, terrifying) plane ride in a very small OLD plane to get to Tikal. The next morning, we drove through the deep forest to arrive at the Tikal site very early.
It was still dark when we arrived at the Holy Place of Tikal. When the sun rose, I got to climb the large pyramid. Wow! I would love to return to Guatemala one day, for a part of my heart is there. My father and my son ( age 23) both have a very strong affiliation for the Spanish Language. I only speak Spanish a very little, despite my University class in it.
Me, my dad and Alison, my younger sister, up front.
Karen's Musical and Theatrical work
It was directed by Ronda Rice.
That's me, Karen Tilley, above during the Goddess Chant Kauai Musical Experience.
It took me three months to memorize the spoken word script and three solo singing parts.
The performance was great fun, was a sell-out both nights, and a documentary film of the
making of, and the Performance itself, is being produced.
The Documentary will be available for sale through GoddessChant.com ( Shawna Carol's LadySlipper CD Goddess Chant is a must-have for all you music lovers)
If you are in a choir anywhere you may wish to put on the Spiritually Uplifting Musical in your town! ( see GoddessChant.com website for details)
The musical ritual has been described as an "extremely High, uplifting musical experience".
'Wow" has been the word to describe the audience's experience.
Some photos from the Goddess Chant Kauai May 2010 production
This experience has helped the participants birth our new selves... Blessed be.
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Cherry Cherry - The Neil Diamond Tribute Band rocks!
I got on stage and sang the part of Barbara Streisand's duet of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" on stage with Cherry Cherry.
Above photo: February, 2010 photo is me and the super Steve Kelly ( lead singer of Cherry Cherry) who invited me up to sing Barbara Streisand's duet of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers. The band is coming back to Kauai in 2013 and Steve has asked me to join him singing the duet with him again. Next time, I hope we will have a chance to rehearse together at least once.
Below is the poster I made for the Cherry Cherry Band for 2010.
Why? Because I love Neil Diamond's voice and music and because Music is Love, Music is Life.
November 2011 for the Hawaii Children's Theatre: 8 or so shows on a big Kauai stage.
I auditioned for, and got to role of CandyMan and sang the signature song " CandyMan"... "Who can take a rainbow..." It was a lot of work and time committment with all those 20 plus rehearsals. But it certainly was a good experience working with such a professional team of theatrical stage people, (lights, sound, ready, sets... and so much more) and lots of young children actors. It was quite an experience to be one of the 40 actors in a big theatrical performance with multiple shows.
That's me as the CandyMan or CandyMame.
Below was the 2 shows in 1 day Schedule.
If you are on Tour with me, Karen, I may pack my ukulele for improvisational songs. That photo is me with my beach guitar. The ukulele is much more easier to pack. Aloha!