Hawaii Day 5

Today was a road trip day. We drove south and then east around the island to Waimea canyon. Our vantage point near the end of the road was at about 3500' above sea level which provided a pretty spectacular view of the canyon. The actual view was much better than any of the pictures that I took. We tried to go up to the actual end of the road at about 4000' but the extra altitude put us above the cloud layer so visibility was next to zero.

After spending time up in the clouds we headed back down to sea level. A bit of shopping and then we headed for our resort and enjoyed the pool and hot tub.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Day 4

Hawaiian Monk Seal lounging in the sun

Snorkel area at Poipu Beach

View up coast from Poipu Beach

One of the many local 'wild' chickens

Today we headed up the eastern coast a bit to spend some time at Poipu beach which B says is the best snorkeling beaches on the island. We dropped K off at one of the local resorts so she could pick up on their WiFi to prepare for an interview she was having this morning. As we were heading for the beach, B looked off to the side of the road and saw a group of 5 or 6 big sea turtles just off one of the smaller beaches. We stopped to watch them for a while but unfortunately did not get a great picture of the group of them. They were fun to watch though.

On to the beach, which was very nice and very spread out. Cecile headed out to the water to do a little snorkeling, B took little W out to one of the calmer more protected coves off the beach and I stayed under the shaded canopy up from the beach to watch our posessions...and do some reading. After B and W came back, I took a walk out to the beach and walked in the surf a bit. I did come across a roped off area where a Hawaiian Monk Seal was relaxing. Apparently there are less than 500 of these gentle creatures still alive in the wild.

After K came back from her interview and the rest of the gang wore themselves out in the water, we took a ride further up the coast to check out the local botanical gardens and see a rather interesting blow hole. The hole itself is less than a foot across but, under the right conditions, the water spurts up 15-20 feet in the air.

We came back to the resort where some took naps and some sat and read for a couple hours. Then it was time for the trek to the pool area. Another great day.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Day 3

Wailua Falls

Opaeka Falls

This was pretty much a kick-back day. We left mid-morning on a short road trip to a couple of the local waterfalls. One of them was the waterfall that was always shown on the TV show Fantasy Island. The falls were nice but the lush vegetation was even more impressive. Near the end of our road trip we stopped at the Coconut Mall and browsed in the various upscale shops there. Cecile says that we will be going back there again.

The afternoon found us again at the pool. After pruning up there for several hours we headed back to the room to settle in for the night. Mom & Dad went out to a well deserved dinner while Cecile & I stayed home to watch a movie with little W before putting him down to bed. He is such a cutie. More later.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Day 2

Little W playing in the resort wading pool

View of the Kiauea coast

Beautiful cove near the lighthouse

The lighthouse

The front of our resort

We started the day out by taking little W out for a walk to give Mom & Dad a little break. This started about 6:30am and those who know Cecile should be appropriately awed by now. We walked around and explored the grounds a bit and then headed across the street to the Starbucks and hung out for a while...little W loved his pieces of scone! The local variety shop next door to Starbucks opened early so we went browsing for a while there.

We returned after about an hour and a half and made plans for our day's road trip. We headed up the east coast of Kauai toward Princeville. Our first stop was at the Kilauae lighthouse. The lighthouse reminded me a bit of the lighthouse just north of Mendocino...it was built about the same time, around 1907. The lighthouse was nice but the grounds and coastline surrounding the lighthouse were absolutely beautiful. There were also quite a few birds with nesting grounds in the area.

We then headed a little further north to Princeville, which it seems is the ritzy area of the island. There were several beautiful resorts and lots of nice homes.

We continued on north and then west to literally the end of the road at Ke'e beach and the start of the Napoli coast of Kauai. The only way to continue on to the Napoli coast is on foot. We found a parking place and packed out our picnic lunch (and stuff) and headed for the beach. This place was fairly crowded but turned out to be a great place for Cecile to go snorkeling. Cecile said that this was the best place she had ever snorkeled. After spending a couple of hours at the beach, we started working our way back to our resort with plans to take advantage of the pool.

The pool area here is huge and gorgeous with hot tubs, wading pools for kids and three slides that wind their way down into the pool. I'll include pictures of that in the next blog. Later Mom and Dad left W in our care and they headed out for a dinner together. W was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately after they left so it was an easy night for us. More later.

Ain't life grand?!

Hawaii Days One & (early) Two

Mt. Wai'ale'ale - the wettest place on Earth

A view from our balcony

One of the local date palms

Another view from our balcony

We woke up at 3:00am so that we could make the 6am flight out of Fresno. Since we were very excited, the early time did not make much of a difference...not much. The flight was on time and we quickly completed our 29 minute flight to San Francisco. BR, KR and little W came in on a later flight from Portland and met us at the gate to wait for our 9am flight to Hawaii. We were really looking forward to spending the week with them.

Our flight to Hawaii was a direct flight to Lihue airport on the island of Kaua'i. The flight was almost six hours longs, which is a long time to be crammed into United Airlines 767 sardine can. Little W was one of the lucky ones as he slept for almost five hours of the flight. Our room was not ready when we arrived so we drove south a bit and stopped at one of the local hot spots,Dukes, for lunch. Theis is generally a very popular place but since it is off season here we got in and served very quickly. Nothing spectacular but after the long flight, it tasted great. Being out of sorts from the lack of sleep and the long flight, we didn't do much for the rest of Day 1 except relax.

Our condo complex is a really nice, upscale place. We are on the 4th floor with a great view of Mt. Wi'ale'ale which is supposed to be the wettest place on Earth (500 to 600 inches of rain per year). The view also includes the local Safeway and shopping center but the price was right. Apparently the weekly price for the ocean view side was $1800 more. We like this place a lot.

I nodded off shortly after 8p (11p in Calif) and Cecile went out before she could finish watching the finale of one of her favorite shows.

Woke up before 5 and ended up watching the Little W show as he had a very restless night and was out in the living area shortly after I got up. It looks like Cecile and I are taking Will to the pool this morning so that KW and BW can relax, take a shower, etc. The plan is to go out exploring a bit today. More later.

Ain't life grand!