I’m hoping for some pictures of fish with my new underwater camera!
April 2
ALOHA – Welcome to KAUAI, The Garden Isle!
On our very first morning Mount Waiʻaleʻale revealed herself in all her 5,200 feet glory. Last year we didn’t see her even once since she is one of the wettest places on earth and almost always capped by rain clouds.
OOw, lookie here, ‘our’ new car! ‘We’ have had that Honda since I first came to Kauai in 2006 and now 10 years on ‘we’ have a new vehicle with all the modern amenities.
Especially this car has a running board that comes down and up when you need it. It is the most awesome thing and Sharon will take a picture of me lovin’ on that running board. I told her I will never not notice, every time, how awesome it is to get into a truck with a running board.
Sharon’s son has a young child now and oh yes the décor is shall we say adjusted.
Reflections in the fish pond. I’ll get my feet cleaned soon by the fish in the pond as I’ve done each year since they arrived on the scene.
Hello chicks and mom who is handsome enough but…
((Rome and Lilly! Kauai is just full of wild chickens and this is the time for all the baby chicks too. What fun!))
Another view from the end of Lydgate Park looking onto the bridge I always admire from the house.
Rarely you can take boats from this, the Wailua River into the sea as you can today.
Our first lunch in Kauai at the Olympic Café and our always beverages – Sharon, the driver, enjoys an iced tea and I, the passenger, have a draft beer, usually Longboard or some other local offering.
April 3
Good morning! We have to go far out of our way to see the orb of the sun either rising or setting so the morning just gets brighter and the evening sky darkens. We’re used to it.
Ke Kahua o Kaneiolouma: “The Kâneiolouma Complex in Poʻipû, Kauaʻi, is an important part of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. Until recently this site remained a complete mystery. Now the ancient village is being brought back to life.”
Golden Shower Tree! They were shining like this for what felt like a mile on the road between Poipu and Koloa Town.
We don’t catch this every year so we’re basking in the glory. There are other kinds of Shower trees too that we look forward to seeing.
Wow, a new place for us! La Spezia in quaint little Koloa Town. It was lovely and I believe we’ll be back.
Kathy and Kenny hosted a most delightful soiree in the New House! There was a fire, years went by, and now here it is again, completely rebuilt and redecorated and ready for FUN!
That’s Ruby, me, and Sharon testing the camera for a run-around picture…
…and here it is, a picture that will need to be recreated because we can’t see the handsome faces of those boys in the back.
Kathy, Sharon, me, Pat, Ruby, Bob, Sharon, Kenny
Sharon-Kathy-Sharon, a Kathy sandwich. They love to have this picture made!
April 4
We traverse all these roads many a time during a month in Kauai.
No pictures today! We did shopping, walked a little, cooked food, and read.
If I can just not get distracted by other books as I have continually these last few years, I WILL finish Proust before I leave. I can hardly believe how bright that light at the end of the tunnel is becoming.
April 5
It poured rain today and the wind blew like crazy but we did get out mid-day for a trip to the Marriott.
It’s chick season and I can’t stop watching them they are just that cute.
Our upwards view enjoying yummy fish tacos at Duke’s.
Sharon reminded me tonight that I need to take some pictures of the food because everyone wants pictures of food. Ok, I hope I remember!
April 6
Looking back from the bridge, I’m walking over to Smith’s because we’re going to take a boat ride up to Fern Grotto.
They operate out of the Wailua River State Park across the river from the house.
A view of Sleeping Giant from the Wailua River. The inset I got off the internet taken from a different angle and it has our Giant’s forehead and chin marked.
It looks funky and touristic to the max, which it is, but it’s actually fun too and worth the $18.
They were delightful and cold poor things. It was about 73 and breezy and you didn’t hear a peep out of me.
Sharon, enjoying the ride.
I was so looking forward to saimin at the Smith’s restaurant but it was not to be since they are closed now for lunch. So I remembered The Noodle House in Kapapp. Let’s go there! But it was not to be since they are closed now for vacation.
Oh No. Which brought to mind the Ono Family Restaurant and they had saimin so we went there. But it was Island saimin, not Japanese saimin. So I’m still hoping to get a good one!
Red Bird of Paradise shrubs…I think…
“The botanical name for Red Bird of Paradise is Caesalpinia pulcherrima, it is a species in the FABACEAE Family, more commonly known as the pea, bean or legume family. Red Bird of Paradise is also the National flower of the Caribbean island of Barbados, which is why you may hear it called Pride of Barbados.”
April 7
It rained mostly all day. It happens here on the Garden Isle. We drove out to Hanalei for lunch and shopping with Idaho Sharon.
This is Wai’oli Hui’ia Church in Hanalei with a long missionary history beginning in 1834 although this particular building wasn’t finished until 1912.
April 8
It was a different color on the river this morning because the sun was sliding under the clouds to bright up Smith’s…
From the garden, Fiona (or…Hi’iaka, the Hawaiian goddess of water!) takes it all in. She is becoming overtaken by the vegetation but I’m sure the landscape guys will be revealing her again.
April 9
Standing just outside the front portico you can look up and see three different kinds of palm trees, and handsome they are.
Our first dude! The birds have been in seriously short supply this year except for the chickens who have all settled in nicely.
April 10
Camas turned us on to this new shave ice place that is the cat’s meow for sure. Different and amazing. They call it Tege Tege Shave Ice Japanese Style.
That’s the hand machine they use to make the fluffiest ice imaginable. You can choose one flavor among the ten or so choices – just one.
They grind some ice, add some flavor (fabulous, fresh, and not too sweet), grind more, more flavor, etc. for like a dozen times. It takes forever and hence…
…the lines are interminable. We got there 20 minutes early so were first in line and that was a good idea because it takes at least 5 minutes to make one and people further back in the line took much longer than 25 minutes to get their shave ice.
YUM! I got grapefruit. Would I get another flavor next time, just to try it out? Maybe, I don’t know!
Then we went on to the Kilauea Lighthouse that we knew was closed for repairing the tourist paths and cliff supports but we wanted to have a look anyway.
…and we still got to see plenty of soaring birds. We didn’t get to see the albatross breeding grounds but here’s an adult.
There’s a small shopping spot near the lighthouse that we like to visit. One of the stores is particularly lovely and here is their display of 1,000 Cranes.
We had lunch in Hanalei at a table on the patio looking down at the chickens waiting for kids to throw French fries.
Those chicks blend in perfectly.
…and for a very long time we enjoyed watching the nenes, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. The two males always kept the two females between them. If someone stepped out of the pattern they would quickly realign themselves.
Usually I take the picture from up there looking at the sea but this is the view from the lanai looking back.
I’ve fallen behind and now I don’t remember. Sigh!
This is one of the rain chains here ending in its little pond of rocks.
It looks like this and I can buy them online, and I will, in case it ever rains again where I live.
The play structure at Lydgate Park and part of one of the world’s great walks.
I told a story earlier about how I didn’t get my saimin so as I was whining about this to Camas she said you have to go to this place, it’s the best and it IS the best!
Hamura Saimin far off the beaten path in an industrial part of Lihui we find a lunch counter that serves almost nothing but deeelishious saimin.
April 13
On our way to Waimea Canyon we stopped off at the always entertaining Kauai Coffee Company for free coffee, absolutely fabulous cookies, and a self-guided stroll through the coffee making process.
I think the waterfall was particularly full although the rivers running through the canyon bottom seemed empty of water.
Just beginning…in the French tradition. The Park people might be taking them off though as whenever the locks grow to cover the fence they get very heavy and threaten the integrity of the structure.
The waterfall from a different angle, and take a look at the path along the top of the wall leading to the top of the waterfall.
Here it is closer. Those are people and they like to hang over the edge to get a nice selfie.
The walk from where I took these pictures to the top is a little over 2 miles making it 4+ mile round trip – really not impossible at all but it’s ‘moderately strenuous’ and if it’s raining or has been raining, as is so often the case, you’re going to be slogging through mud and slippery rocks.
Still, you can do it! Not me though.
The view into the Na Pali Coast. It was raining but we could see down to the sea anyway.
Then we had a really great overnight at the historic Waimea Plantation Cottages there on the dry west side. The aloha view from our back lanai.
We walked over to Wrangler’s in Waimea town for a nice cocktail and a little dinner…
April 14
Our front door at the Waimea Plantation Cottages, with a welcome carpet of plumeria.
I tried out my new snorkel mask with the corrective lenses that worked great But I did make a mistake. I talked to the people who make the lenses before ordering the mask online.
The guy asked if I was snorkeling or scuba diving. I said snorkel only so he said you only need a mask for distance. Scuba divers need to be able to see the instrumentation so if they normally wear bifocals they get a bifocal mask.
The mask works great for distance BUT…
sp.
…I can’t see the controls on my new underwater camera! That’s a picture underwater btw, just point and click and hope for the best. It was even hard to tell if the camera was on…so I’ll have to figure out something on that front.
A newly opened café in Hanapepe with a bakery attached that’s been around for a while. It was good.
And these pictures don’t do the place justice because we don’t see the wonderful work of the Flower Lady who has the place giving off the vibe of a Hawaiian/Balinese/Indian Oberoi paradise.
