More Pictures



Ohi'a lehua, the state tree of Hawaii, in shrub form at high elevation  

 Cliffs overlooking the ocean at final stop on the road up Waimea Canyon.  To the right we saw a whale surfacing.

Fog would just blow in and out in unpredictable puffs and gusts at this altitude in Waimea Canyon.

 Another foggy view of the Pacific on the North Shore.

 An amazing hedge of bougainvillea was about a quarter of a mile long!

The Tunnel of Trees on the way to the South Shore is eucalyptus planted by a cattle rancher at the turn of the 20th century.

 Walk to Visitors Center at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens.

 Click on this photo to see the amazing colors in the tree trunk.

May be able to identify this shrub after our visit to McBryde Gardens today.

There were several gorgeous Hawaiian quilts at the Visitors Center.  Brings back happy memories of my time quilting with the ladies at the Quaker Center in Honolulu, when I learned enough to make Hawaiian pineapple designs on pillows for our parents.

Finally pictures!

The week has gone too fast.  And as you have probably noticed, we opted to use our energy on getting out and doing stuff rather than creating blog posts.  We have both enjoyed the week tremendously.  I know it has been very tiring sometimes for John, but worth it.  Yesterday was our first really rainy day.  We got to the National Tropical Botanical Gardens visitor center just before the skies opened up, so we opted to skip that tour and try again today.  Came back to the museum in Lihue, which was quite interesting.  More about the week later, perhaps, but I wanted to put out a few pictures for you this morning.




With our welcome leis and my humidity-frizzed  hair

 

The solar installation mentioned earlier

Kilauea Point Lighthouse

Nesting red-footed boobies near the lighthouse, a prime birding area

Taro ponds in Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge

Our lunch spot at Hanalei Bay

Paddle boarding

Two happy waders on Haena Beach near end of the road on the North Shore

Dry cave at Haena (a hollow lava tube).  Legend says the menehune (mythical "little people" of Hawaiian folklore)hollowed out the tube.

View from inside the tube looking out.

The variations of markings on the wild chickens are amazing.

A red-crested cardinal and an unidentified bird.

A poinsettia, about 6 feet tall (also saw one about 10 feet)

Spouting horn near Poipu on the South Shore



A very attractive palm we've seen often, showing all stages from flower buds to ripe fruit.



The Scene in Lihue, Kauai

They welcomed us with real leis at the Wyndham Kauai Beach Villas - and a powerful sales pitch to attend the next morning's free welcome breakfast and a Wednesday sales promo at their newest and wonderfulest property on the North Shore.  We almost were won over, but thinking about it later, realized that that is just not how we want to spend our time.  They have pages and pages of planned, very expensive, tour and helicopter rides and boat rides and luaus, etc.(discounted a bit if we attend their promo) and that's just not our style.  We'll be largely self-guided and Fodor-guided and independent-minded.  Big surprise.

Our condo unit is great -a first floor corner unit, beautifully decorated and laid out, with the best equipped kitchen of any RCI unit we've visited.  The wild chickens are interesting, crowing at all hours, and come right up to the lanai door to see if it's open, as do the 3 or 4 wandering cats.  It's quite a walk to the beach, which is not wonderful right here, but there are nice pools and a jacuzzi available.  And the grounds have very attractive plantings and incredibly fragrant plumeria blooms.  The temperature is just so ..... perfect.....and it's an incredible treat to be missing some winter in Virginia. 

Yesterday we drove north and explored some side roads up into the highlands, seeing lots of the neighborhoods where folks live - some pretty junky and some very nice.  It's not the time of year for maximum tree and flower blooms, but still some gorgeous trees and shrubs.  There are very tasty papayas (my main Hawaiian fruit craving) and some trees heavily laden with some kind of orange fruit (maybe oranges?).  We will try to track them down at one of the farmers' markets this week. 

Food is expensive of course, as in the 70s - grocery stores about 2-3 times the prices at home.  One disappointment - the ones we've been in so far (Walmart, Safeway and a local chain) do not carry the true unprocessed poi that we grew to love in the 70s.  They carry a red poi that is very thick and does not become sour with age - which is the part we like.  So we need to research that further!

Drove past a large solar installation yesterday, which came on line recently and generates enough power for 300 homes, according to the internet.  There are plans for a lot more solar in the future.

I think 5 chickens conversing outside our unit just woke up John, so that's probably good!

Hawaii at last

Pat reporting this time.  We are now in a hotel in Waikiki.  Got here about 9:30 pm. after a fairly long but trouble-free day, leaving the hotel in Portland at 7:30 and spending 4 hours in San Francisco.  We're on the 12th floor in a corner room with a lanai, looking toward the area where we used to live.  With the doors open and the wind blowing through the room!  Can't pick out much at night, though, and may not be able to in the daylight either, as there are just lots more buildings everywhere!
Tomorrow morning we're off about 9 to the airport for our flight to Kauai.  We promise more inspiration and hopefully some pictures on the next post!

The Adventure Begins

A few minutes ago our captain told us that we are not going to Seattle after all. We are going to Portland. Seattle has planes that have been on the ground for hours and still can't get to the gates.

Yesterday there were reports of the most snow in decades in Seattle, but then that seemed to be stopping. The weather forecasts didn't sound that bad this morning, and it is the airline's decision on whether to go. We just have non-refundable tickets to Honolulu starting this morning, and we are on our way.

We have a 2:18 connection time in Seattle, which isn't going to happen.

I overheard the flight attendant telling someone that lots of other planes are being re-routed and we won't know ground conditions in Portland until we get there. We will refuel and go on to Seattle, in the same plane with the same crew, when Seattle reopens. Right now the airport is closed because of ice storms. She and some of the rest of the crew barely got to work yesterday morning, and the weather has all been snow and freezing rain since then.

I suggested we could just refuel and go on to Honolulu. She said that sounded OK but there might be some problems getting permission.

It has been quite a few years since I first realized that things like this present us with a choice. We can grumble and fret over the disrupted schedules and the uncertainty of how it will work out, and view it as a bad omen for the rest of the trip, and mainly just get upset by this demonstration of our powerlessness. Or we can say “Wow! An adventure. We will get to see more places and collect more stories to tell, all unfolding in real life with a drama and suspense and uncertainty that we usually have to pay to find in fiction.”

Well, in truth, years ago I just decided to treat it as an adventure rather than get upset over something I can't control. The wordier version is because I've got time and space to fill. Also, things are not as uncontrolled as they might appear. Snow storms happen in winter. Our schedule calls for us to arrive in Honolulu two days before we go to Kauai in order to allow this to happen.

(Later)

We are getting off, they are giving us vouchers for dinner and a hotel (La Quinta for us), and a flight to Seattle tomorrow morning.  When we got to the front of the line, they realized we wanted Honolulu rather than Seattle, and found a connection through San Francisco.  Then we got shifted to a different agent who, after 10 minutes, told us there were no connections to Honolulu through Seattle, they were all sold out.  I told her that was probably why the other agent had set us up to go through San Francisco.  Pat told me she thought I probably needed to sit down for awhile.  Yes, dear.  Sigh.  Well, I do have a good theory on how to deal with such things.

(Still Later)

We had supper and are in the hotel.  We'll get a good night's sleep and take another shot at it tomorrow.  It has been an interesting day, and we're half way there.  We had seats in the exit row, luxurious leg room.  (Extra charge, but worth it to me.)

Background

Pat and I lived in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1973 to 1976.  During that time we made a few short trips to other islands, just a couple of days in Kauai, the "Garden Island".  A few months ago we realized that we had a time-share condo week that needed to be used soon or we would lose it, and we ended up taking a week in Kauai.

So today we are finishing up preparations,(including starting this blog), tomorrow we drive to northern Virginia,  the next day we fly to Honolulu (including a change of planes in Seattle, which is forecast for 12 to 18 inches of snow by Thursday morning), and Sunday we fly to Lihue, Kauai.

Lihue is in the southeast corner of the island, about in the middle of the road that goes most of the way around the island, so we are within 30 miles of everything we can drive to.  To the north is green and very wet, and to the south and west is brown and very dry.  The mountain at the center of the island gets about 450 inches of rain per year so there are navigable rivers and a grand canyon with waterfalls that stream off the top edge and are blown  into mist by the trade winds before they reach the bottom.

There are also ancient stone structures that predate the arrival of the Polynesians, and require technologies beyond anything that existed there when the Europeans arrived.

Wow!!  I would say that I can hardly wait, except that I can, because I'm getting better at just taking life as it comes rather than fighting it, but that's a whole different subject.