Who Rests on Vacation?

Well, here it is the beginning of our fourth day here and we're already finding a need to have a "takin' it easy" day.

Saturday, before the big shindig the folks had here in their carport, we headed out to see some sights. Being the tour guide I opted to start in Kilauea at the lighthouse and head north from there.

Having already been to the lighthouse area a few times myself it wasn't as amazing as it was to Rick. He totally loved it, and rightly so, it's a pretty interesting spot, a must-do for anyone visiting the island. Well worth the admission.

A new feature at the lighthouse that I've never seen before were the baby "Wedge-tailed Shearwaters" (Puffinus pacificus - serious!), that, of course is a timing thing, I've never been here in September before. These birds actually nest in burrows about 2 feet into the side of a hill. They're large birds with a 38”- 41” wingspan, so the babies that we caught snoozing in the opening of the burrows were gray fluff balls of about 6 - 8".

From Kilauea we headed toward Hanalei Valley, another of my favorite spots on Kauai.  There's this one road that goes out beside a canal and next to the taro fields that I particularly like, because, besides the interesting taro patches, it's a wildlife preserve so there are numerous types of birds to watch. We drove out past the taro so I could show Rick something I'd seen a few years back.  There's this garage right on the road that obviously belongs to a hunter, there are numerous jawbones hanging above.  I had him drive up next to it so he could see what they were and he guessed right - they're wild boar jawbones with tusks intact!

(BTW - be sure to click on these pictures to see them bigger, I kept them small intentionally to cram them all in)

We got into Hanalei town and grabbed some subway sandwiches after opting not to buy the $10 tacos from Tropical Taco and found a shaded picnic table to eat at.  It was in front of a small group of shops that were nicely landscaped and decorated so we strolled through that.  At one point Rick spotted a "gecko" on a leaf that was posing for a camera but he didn't have his so I was forced to take them.  Mom said it was a chameleon.  I looked it up and they were both wrong - it's an anole.

We continued driving past all the beaches and turned around when we hit the end of the road at Ke'e.  But we saw a road that looked interesting on the way in that was called Powerhouse Rd by the locals apparently, there was a hand made sign with that name on it.  We drove up to the end of that as well and saw the powerhouse.  It wasn't impressive at all but the gate at the end of the road sure was.  I wonder what they do back there to necessitate so much barbed wire...

After all that we got home and the folks were readying the house for the get-together.  There were about 50 attendees and they had such a good time playing their ukuleles and guitars that we had to start dropping hints that it was time to leave around 9.  I was zoning out around 8, I don't know what wore us out so much, we're guessing it was the heat.

I had a full day planned for yesterday so we got out fairly early.  We started out just hopping across the highway to see what sights the other end of Hokualele had to offer.  Then we headed toward Opaekaa Falls.  I was not impressed with them this time, they were a little puny.  We visited the Hawaiian village that was across the street from the falls and down by the river - again, not impressive.  That was not the best use of $10.  

Next we headed up Kuamoo Road to see the park at the end of the road and dig up some yellow ginger for mom.  I attempted to get some on a previous trip but ended up getting something else instead.  I got her a solid 4 feet of ginger root this time.  I found out about a neat hike up there that I might go visit later.  We discovered a nice grove of Rainbow Bark Eucalyptus and another one with white trunks just over the stream at the end of the pavement.

As we neared Lihue Rick mentioned that he was getting hungry and said we needed more beer so I suggested we hit Walmart for the beer and I could grab some cheap eats in the McD's thats inside.  We decided to head for our next destination and eat there - Ahukini Pier.

It was a nice day to wander, cooler than it has been.  We enjoyed the pier and adjacent rock outcropping and moved on toward the other lighthouse on Kauai, one I've seen from Nawiliwili many times.  I wanted to find it, it looks like an Atlantic style, different from the one at Kilauea.  That was easier said than done.  After going to the wrong spot, a little mini-lighthouse with fishermen lounging below, asking directions from them and driving around and around we finally found a parking spot that was close enough to walk to it.  But it was a good half a mile and it was HOT!  And when we were almost there I heard car wheels - you can drive to the stupid thing!  So we got a bunch of neat shots and determined to find that stupid road!  

Our last stop before heading home was Wailua Falls.  They were much prettier than Opaekaa.  And we found a pretty ranch on the way where there were cows with cattle egret sitting on their backs.  Rick got better shots of that than I did, he had the right lens.

Today we're taking it easy.  We're only going to remove a sliding glass door and water heater, then go to some beach to splash and roast.