Aloha HAWAII Mahalo!

In the evening, after I had napped off and on for hours, we went to Hanapepe for the Friday Art Walk when all the galleries are open and food trucks abound.

(internet pix)

Handsome views and soaring sea birds.

April 16

Our morning visit out to the Lighthouse where I got to use my Senior Citizen Lifetime National Park Pass.

It sits out on the beautiful cliffs of Kilauea Point.

And when the season is right you can see a steady stream of whales.

Too Many TREES. What’s this one? I Don’t Know.

Opaekaa Falls, around the corner from the house.

And speaking of around the corner from the house, we had a delicious dinner at the Hukilau, yes, as in where we are going.

April 15

There was that first rain chain that was here, handmade in Thailand with wonderful shapes and intricate details. I lusted after that rain chain but it’s been gone for years. I just saw this one work and it’s quite good enough.

I mustn’t forget to measure the links so I can get one too.

First we had loco moco and a few other breakfast goodies in Waimea at ‘Gina’s at Yumi’s’ which I thought was darn good enough.

Then we went up up up to to look down down down onto Waimea Canyon.

Wow.

For you Chris.

It took a while for the energetic tour guide to clear that corner but in the end he did prevail and they got their shot.

More.

Driving to another lookout we can see onto the Napali coast and…

…one of its splendid coastal planes. There’s a word for what we’re seeing, not valley, not any word I can think of now but there is one out there.

A view of a few of tens of thousands of coffee trees.

On the way home we stopped off for the tour of the coffee plantation.

I wahi kope nau (pronounced e wah-he co-pay nah-u) means ‘Will you have some coffee?’. Yes thank you!

We had pizza for dinner and Caitlin made up our order. Rome, for you! Yes I’ve had my ear out for someone named Lilly too!

The couple that started this project on their own few acres have built it into something quite magnificent and given it all over to a non-profit corporation whose purpose it is to keep it going.

April 14

The major outing for the day was a three and a half hour tour through the Na Aina Kai Botanical Garden.

This is the entry to the office and gift shop. It’s a wonderful tour…

…mostly going around by cart.

It is very nice that there are never more than 8 people on the tour, we had six, and the pace is such that you are welcomed to ask questions. It was we four and a guy and his mom.

It’s very beautiful, not surprisingly.

One of the highlights is their small albatross breeding ground where, if the season is right, you get to see…AWWWWW…

…Baby Albatross!

They also have more than 200 acres (I’m not at all sure on the numbers here but let’s just say a lot) planted in teak and mahogany waiting to mature and support the gardens in perpetuity.

So we have albatross, hardwoods, botanical plantings, and sculptures around every turn.

Nenes.

There are a number of lakes both natural and man-made and water features to beat the band.

Do you think I have some tree pictures? Oh yes I do, for LATER.

April 13

Chris and Dave and Sharon for C&D’s first Lydgate walk…

…and it was as beautiful as ever.

The we went swimming! but I don’t have any pictures because I put my camera in the car. I do believe we’ll go again.

After a short afternoon rest we headed out again, with a stop at Spouting Horn. Tourists, all gathered for a look.

Here’s the view looking away from the water spout, and so nice.

Next we went to the Poipu Shopping Village. Here’s a Will Bullas piece, Cocktails at Six from one of the art shops. He’s done tons more, all totally fun.

They were having a hula show at the Shopping Village with only one dancer because the rest of them were still over on the big island not yet home from Merrie Monarch.

The guy was fantastic, he could play anywhere, and the dancer was lovely as could be.

Aloha!

Dinner at Keoki’s was another delight. What a great day.

April 12

Chris and Dave arrived late-ish last night and here they are with Sharon standing over the pond doing the morning fish-feed. Can you believe those screens are so clear. What a luxury, with not a mosquito to be found in the lanai or the house.

We were headed for the Lighthouse but it’s closed(!) on Sunday and Monday so we drove on to Hanalei to enjoy the view in Hanalei Bay and eat some lunch.

Kauai, the Garden Isle and the wettest among all the Hawaiian Islands.

Taro fields and the obligatory stop to view them and the obligatory picture because it is so cool. There’s a walk available down there and I hope we can do it again this year.

A Zebra Dove waiting patiently for his share of the meal. As my friend Marsha pointed out, last years’ birds were certainly more interesting for the reader than all these silly trees.

I’m going to not put any trees in here for a few days and then use only the ones I really know. Promise.

A Noni plant. They use the noni fruit for all sorts of medicinal purposes. I would not be able to recognize this plant without the fruit.

This tree identification project is going to be hard, really hard, because we want to be able to name them from the car or out the window of a restaurant but I see now that you have to get up closer than that.

Monkey Pods and Tamarinds have so much in common and even albizia can look alike.

April 10

This whole trail is too wonderful. We usually walk on the Lydgate section but today we drove past Kapaa and took a different section.

So…

…so great.

Later we went over to Smith’s, across the river from the house, to look at trees with signs.

Mountain Apple – so pretty.

The Rubber Tree was nicely distinct, and the Paperbark was nice.

Chinese Fan Palm, they’re common and come in all sizes.

Plenty of these guys around too.

Curt was on his way to China so Camas came over for dinner and it was lovely.

April 9

The Autograph Tree! We’ve got this one down now.

The other trees we can identify but maybe not from a speeding car: Plumeria of Course, Longleaf Ironwood and River-oak Ironwood, African Tulip and Poinciana when they are blooming, Albizia when it’s big, Norfolk Island pine although the Columnar Araucaria or Cook pine looks a lot like it, Coconut Palms and there are so many other palms that we haven’t distinguished yet.

After the a/c service tech finished his work we went straight out for lunch at Duke’s at the Marriott. It such an enjoyable place…

…and they have a woweee bay. We couldn’t figure out this tree!

Then we went on a store tour to fill in some items for the house: Macy’s, Longs, Safeway. Thank you Sharon for all the FOOD.

Followed by an early opening to the Merrie Monarch Festival of HULA!

We started watching today and it runs through Saturday. It’s great fun and you can watch it too online at http://www.k5thehometeam.com.

April 8

We hung around the house today waiting for an a/c service tech that didn’t show up. But no problem! We enjoyed the day entirely. How can you not?

Egret! taking a tour of the front lawn.

Camas and Curt had us up to their place for dinner. It was fairly dark when we got there so no pictures of their splendid three acres of ALOHA including awesome views of the mountains and the sea.

We had all the fabulous salmon you could eat, and I ate a lot of that salmon.

I had 3 seconds to run around. I need to figure out what’s wrong with that timer! And I wish I had a better picture of ME but hey, look at those DOGS, so I had to use it.

April 7

Today we visited the Kauai Museum in Lihue and it was so nice to see the very excellent refurbishments completed since our last visit.

At the museum I was ready to take a picture of her lovely flower hair clip and just as I pressed the shutter release she turned around. She was entirely delightful and turning her head back said ‘here, try it again!’.

I mentioned about our tree project. Oh so much more later.

Yesterday we had lunch at Brenneckes (where they were no longer carrying Longboard so I drank a Big Wave which was delicious) and today we had lunch at Ono Family Restaurant. Lunch is our big meal out. We also swung by Spouting Horn yesterday but I didn’t take a picture.

This is the view from the kitchen looking through the living room to the always cool Spirit House.

…SO MANY.

((The African tulip tree has flowers in the same flaming colors as the poinciana, but these fiery red flowers grow in circles around the tightly crowded buds at the tips of the branches, rather than in dense clusters all over the canopy of the tree as the poinciana does. You can most easily identify either of these by their leaves.

The poinciana has fernlike leaves and the African tulip has big shiny green leaves that grow to 2 feet long. Because of its size and its dense foliage, the African tulip provides deep shade where few other plants will grow and it isn’t used as much as the poinciana.))

…because there are…

(Clusia major, the autograph tree, copey, balsam apple, pitch-apple, and Scotch attorney)

This Year (ta DAH!) we’re going to work on trees. We can tell already it’s going to be much harder…

April 6

From the garden, waking up to warm greetings from Fiona (or…Hi’iaka, the Hawaiian goddess of water!).

First thing, Lydgate of course. So very beautiful, with a balmy breeze and just the right light. 7am is the perfect time to kick off a walk.

I have this exact picture at least once each year.

The chickens here, Splendid Red Jungle Fowl that they are, cross the road willy-nilly for no reason whatsoever except that they can.

Yup.

We went over to the Grand Hyatt to check it out because later in the month we are treating each other to a night of adventure there, something we’ve never done.

Last year was all about the birds. Our goal was to know the name of every bird we saw and by the end of the trip that was true, although there are surely plenty of birds we were not able to find.

This guy is the very very Common Myna. We can also identify the following with pictures in last year’s chapter: Splendid Red Jungle Fowl (THE bird of Kauai), Egret (Egret!), Nene (the Hawaii state bird), Red-Crested Cardinal (our Dude and Dudette), Pacific Golden Plover (runrunrun STOP runrunrun STOP), Zebra Dove, Spotted Dove, and Rock Dove, Black-Crowned Night-Heron, House Sparrow, Common Moorhen, various Swans that swim around hotel ponds, Chestnut Mannikin (a rare sight), Hawaiian Coot, “koloa maoli” (a native duck), Muscovy Duck (who knows where that guy came from). At the Kilauea Point lighthouse we can recognize Albatross, black footed, red footed, and brown Bobbies, Frigatebird (split tail), Shearwater (white underwings).

April 29

Some morning snaps from Sharon.

sp.

Mount Wai’ale’ale, 99.9% of the time shrouded in clouds. But we check every morning anyway.

A last lunch and we decided to have it at our favorite, Brick Oven Pizza, with leftovers for breakfast to make it double good. Pepperoni pizza, whole wheat thin crust, and the crust gets brushed with butter and garlic.

YUM!

Camas came over to schlep the boards so we could go for a paddle and it was wonderful. We went twice as far as last time and I rode through the skiers’ wakes standing up (last time I sat down…) so yay me.

A wonderful finale to a wonderful time in the Garden Isle – MAHALO Sharon!

sp.

April 28

Sunrise from the back window. Beeeutiful.

Having just finished a second reading of Hawaii and a third time through Unfamiliar Fishes I’ve got a ton of Hawaii stories buzzing around in my head. Thankfully, I did not interrupt the guide.

That building has a story and I forget what it is.

We had to get out early for our tour of historic Waimea, first landing of Captain Cook in 1778, sugar town and early port for whalers.

A charming woman with 80+ years of long, fine stories rich in all that is Aloha and life in Kauai was our guide. She didn’t take us around the town as I expected…but it was fun anyway and the town itself has an historic walking route with great signs for all the stops. Next time we’ll do that.

Hawaiians are nuts for genealogies and our guide was no exception. During the tour of her church’s graveyard we learned how she was related to all the families represented.

Our tasty lunch stop, Wrangler’s Steakhouse, with a small collection of Paniolo memorabilia Paniolo being the Hawaiian cowboys.

The Hawaiians got some cows from Captain George Vancouver in the early 19th century. King Kamehameha put a kapu on the cows so they multiplied like crazy.

“When “Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) visited California, then still a part of Mexico he was impressed with the skill of the Mexican vaqueros, and invited several to Hawai`i in 1832 to teach the Hawaiian people how to work cattle.

“Even today, traditional paniolo dress, as well as certain styles of Hawaiian formal attire, reflect the Spanish heritage of the vaquero. The traditional Hawaiian saddle, the noho lio, and many other tools of the cowboy’s trade have a distinctly Mexican/Spanish look and many Hawaiian ranching families still carry the names of the vaqueros who married Hawaiian women and made Hawai`i their home.”

At the pier once in use for whalers and sugar transport vessels now just something to look at for the tourists.

More from the pier. That’s the private island of Niihau there on the horizon.

Here’s some of the story from Ms Wiki: “Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niʻihau in 1864 from the Kingdom of Hawaii and private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinson family. … The people of Niʻihau are known for their gemlike lei pûpû (shell lei) craftsmanship, and speak Hawaiian as a primary language.

“The island is generally off-limits to all but relatives of the island’s owners, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials and invited guests, giving it the nickname “The Forbidden Isle.” Beginning in 1987, a limited number of supervised activity tours and hunting safaris have opened to tourists. The island is currently managed by Bruce and Keith Robinson.”

We took a swing by the Hanapepe Salt Ponds Beach. It is not particularly obvious how to get there and hence most popular with the locals. Hold on little girl!

Then we’re home for a nice quiet second-to-last night on the river.

April 27

Haven’t looked up these guys yet – they surely have long necks. We think they’re probably nene since we haven’t seen any other geese-line guys.

Copied from kaneiolouma.org:

“The Kāneiolouma Complex in Poʻipū, Kauaʻi, is considered sacred to the Kanaka Maoli culture, and is a historic landmark. Until recently, hidden by overgrowth, this site remained a complete mystery. Now the ancient village can be glimpsed from the road.

“The feeling of the power and mana of this sacred site is clearly felt by island visitors. In the near future, this new cultural center will be the opening of a new chapter for the Kanaka Maoli culture of Kauaʻi and the world.”

This scene is exactly next to the one above. Copied from thegardenisland.com:

“Four 16-foot kii, representing the four corners of Honua, the pillars in ancient Hawaiian astrology, were placed on Saturday at Ke Kahua O Kaneiolouma.

“The four kii — sometimes mistake for tiki — are the Hawaiian gods Kane, the god of the sky and creation; Ku, the god of war and male pursuits; Lono, the god of peace, rain, and fertility; and Kanaloa, the god of the ocean, who represent the next phase of Ke Kahua O Kaneiolouma restoration work.

“This is not about religion,” said Randy Wichman, historian for Hui Malama O Kaneiolouma, a group organized to care for and restore the historically significant site in Poipu. “This is about navigation, the stars, fishing, and even agriculture.”

I’m not sure how you separate gods from their religion, but of course this guy wants to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

We took a farewell walk at the Grand Hyatt…

…and a farewell lunch at the fabulous Beach House Restaurant. This was the view from our seats.

He was there too, and had plenty to show the ladies.

April 26

Wildlife in the garden, since I haven’t got a new bird in a while.

It had been raining a lot overnight, enough to raise the river many inches. In the bottom picture, usually the dock is flat. The dock on the top is next door, fitted out with a lawn chair for your sunning pleasure.

We took a late afternoon pop up to Camas and Curt’s place. I love their kitchen. These are the two that got married last year in June and Sharon and I changed our annual trip from spring to attend.

From this kitchen emerged a full-on Hawaiian luau dinner: chunky chips and nuts, poi (of course), laulau, fall-off-the-bone meaty baked ribs, lomi-lomi, pan fried purple sweet potato wedges that I must make at home, mashed potatoes like I make them, kimchi, green salad, haupia pie, lilikoi pie.

Koa, Curt, Camas, Steve, Sharon

BB Guns! A flurry of BB gunning brought down that can. Me too…it was fun.

April 25

We had another nice dinner party at the house today.

I didn’t take any pictures but I snagged this off Curt’s phone. It’s a professional picture of one of the outriggers that Curt built. This one is in Japan. He’s done a few others too. Very travel-brochure-aloha I think.

cc.

April 24

More Very Aloha.

I just finished reading Michener’s Hawaii and I want to share this story, The Meaning Of the Rainbow from hawaiianlife.com:

“The rainbow is the celestial path that the Hawaiian Gods use to come down to earth from the cloud islands. … The rainbow is also perceived as the pathway that the souls of the dead take to travel to the heavenly realms. …

“The rainbow is thus a symbol of transformation, and those who can freely travel between the upper world and the lower reaches live like gods among humans, enjoying earthly prosperity and abundance.

“Featured as a pathway between dimensions in Hawaiian mythology as it does in various cultures round the world, it also acts as a footstool for Malanaikuaheahea, the wife of the legendary transpacific voyager and astronomer whose name, Maliki’i is also the Hawaiian term for the Pleiades star cluster from which the first Hawaiians came to earth.”

I took the above picture from our seats in this lanai, my favorite Happy Hour, at the Oasis on the Beach restaurant and bar.

April 23

The newest, and a profoundly influential bird of Hawaii, the Great Silver Bird. In the middle at the top, there she flies on her regular migration through the sky, holding the economy together.

“Hey whatever…we’re in the SKY.”

At the end of Lydgate, the Hikinaakala Heiau.

Beyond the heiau, that’s the bridge and the river’s mouth that I can see from my bedroom window.

More. It’s a super photogenic spot.

In the afternoon we went to a tour at one of the local farmer’s markets. It was interesting and informative and fun too.