Aloha - Day 6 continued....

As promised, here are some of the photos from Day 6 - St. Patty's Day.

On this day, we drove West down the road to the END OF THE ROAD. (If you've ever seen the movie Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Nick Nolte AND Jack Black - Kay's buddy from Bubbas - see Aloha - Day 2) Phillip is watching the Director's Cut with Commentary right now, it was filmed on Kauai.

This is where the "caves" are. There are two wet caves - one right on the side of the road and one that your have to trek up to. Not a hike by any means, but a little pathway up a wet, rocky, rooty grade.

This sign says it all. Don't linger under the cliffs! Rocks can and will fall on you!
This cliff was SO high!
This is the payoff at the end of the path - at the base of the enormous wall of rock - the wet cave. There was a pool of water in there - it's just so dark, it doesn't photograph well.
DON'T LINGER UNDER THE CLIFFS!!! Here's some perspective!

These trees, to the left of the cave, were SO cool! They look like something we'd be asked to sculpt for a theme park or something.
This is what the side of the road looks like. Can you believe the foliage?
This is just a picture of a random horizontal tree branch. Looks like a giant centipede or some such crawly. Amazing how things grow in layer after layer here. Although, this is a close-up, it has not been enlarged to show detail. The branch is about 5-6" in diameter, so the detail was good.
This is a little pool and stream the road crosses. Pretty. I bet it would be fun to take a dip in....
Guess the locals don't feel the same way! (we DID NOT see a pig - OR smell one!) NICE!!!
Lot's of colorful flora on Kauai. This one caught my eye just for it's simplicity!

Chickens on Kauai even have their own emergency heliport!!! LOL!!!
This guy wins "BEST OF SHOW"! His photo will grace the wall in my kitchen, as a reminder of the Kauai chickens! (you'd think we'd visited Chicken-ville, Hawaii)
Here is the "DRY" cave.
This is just inside the cave. Water was dripping from the ceiling in various places. The deeper we walked into the cave, the drier it got.

These hieroglyphics (sp?) were on the back walls deep in the cave. Not sure if they were AUTHENTIC or not, but it was cool, no matter.
The cave was VERY, VERY dark way in the back, but the light shining in was UNREAL and the topography was surreal.
Just outside the cave, I saw this heart. Sweet!
There, look between the red and white car on the right, is Phillip looking up at something....WHAT COULD IT BE? WAY UP THERE???




How on earth did she get all the way UP there??? I've seen chickens fly over a fence, but really fly? NEVER.

The ocean at our cottage today was very pretty. The waves definately calmed down since the first day.

We decided we wanted to snorkel here.

"K" wore green snorkel gear in honor of St. Patty's Day.
She snorkelled her hiney off! She saw the turtles, the rainbow fish, the turquoise coral, AND she didn't even get stung by ANY jelly fish like she and her family did on her last snorkel trip in Mexico last year!
Phillip couldn't help taking this shot! It's always funny watching someone try to get out of the surf in fins. You have "sea legs" to boot. Standing up the first time feels really funny and you're really off balance. Plus, the sand is going places you don't want it to go!
BUT, she kept smiling the WHOLE TIME!

That concludes tonight's blog.

To be continued......

Ahh...Home At Last!

Hi all. We're home! Got home last night (this morning, at 1 a.m.). Felt SO good to lay in our own bed. Ahh, life's little luxuries! We were beat!

Our flight yesterday was scheduled to leave at 1 p.m. Hawaii time. Check out was at 10 a.m.

I was just out of the shower around 8:30 a.m. and got a phone call from the owner of the cottage that went something like this: (forgive me if it isn't verbatum, my mind wasn't 100% focused on the words - you'll understand why)

" Hi, this is so-and-so, owner of the cottages. There has been an earthquake in the South Pacific, near Fiji. There is a Tsunami warning for the islands. You need to get in your car and go to the bridge near Hanalei. Take Power House Road and go up to high ground as far as you can get. Please alert any one else in the cottages you can. Stay in the mountains!" "Get to the airport ASAP and try to get an earlier flight off the island. Hurry, there may be a lot of other people trying to get earlier flights."

Well, to say the least, we were in a little bit of a fog, packed up quickly, and left to the airport. I had all kinds of visions going on in my head - memories of the Maui earthquake in 2006, visions of the Tsunami that hit Indonesia...Then my cel phone rang. It was Ty, our son, telling me he had gotten a call on the voice mail at the shop telling us to evacuate, etc... Now, he was worried.

Once we were about a half hour away from the airport, we came to our senses and realized that Fiji was SOUTH of us from the OTHER side of the island. We were on the NORTH side. AND NO ONE ELSE on the island that we saw was in any sort of panic. Hmmmm....

Needless to say, our vacation was OVER! But, a warning like that lets you know you're alive!!! We just wanted to be home.

We got on the plane and at for least the first half was VERY turbulent. Please, let us get home safely, already! We've had enough excitement for one day!

Glad to be home - even with the cooler weather. And having to wears jeans, long sleeves, and SOCKS! HOME SWEET HOME.

Aloha - Day 7

I am so bummed!!!

Not just because it is our last night on the island but also because I can't log onto the Internet using my laptop. It won't pick up the wireless signal. Actually, it was sketchy last night as well, but I was so tired, I just let it go. So, now, I can't blog the last two days of adventures and photos. I don't think I can or know how to post photos from my phone. It gets clear 3G service, yet the wireless signal is no where to be found! Go figure. Just know, though, when I get home, it's SO on!!! I have a ton to share!!!

Tomorrow is our travel day - ugh! So, I can't blog til Saturday... Until then, thanks for sharing our much needed vacation with us. We had fun. Hope you did too!

Edit: I must be tired, we travel on Thursday, not Friday - guess it feels like the end of a week, so tomorrow MUST be Friday! Duh!!! I'll be able to blog on Friday, not Saturday!!!

See you on Friday.

Still can't log on using the stupid wireless. It makes no sense! Technology! Gotta love it!

Aloha - Day 6

Hi everyone.

Today we were up from sun-up to way past-sun down and this was the first night we did any driving after dark. It was a LONG, LONG, ADVENTURE FILLED DAY! I took tons of pictures, but won't be posting them tonight! Sorry!

We drove up to the end of the road on the North Shore and explored a bunch of areas.


We saw this 'ol guy, and I just had to take a picture. Just look at how big his "stump" has become to compensate for his missing foot. Pirate Rooster....


Then, we drove down to Hanalei to get MY FREE 2nd scoop of ice cream at Lapperts Ice Cream, just for wearing green today! Oh what GREAT ice cream! Two scoops in a waffle cone. Heaven!

Then we drove ALL THE WAY AROUND to the WEST shore and up the mountain to Waimea Canyon Lookout.


I found these two coral hearts today.


"K" was with us the whole day, I promise. She was wearing quite the "green" get-up.
(you'll see)

but, I literally cannot keep my eyes open...I'm bushed, beat, pooped, tuckered, exhausted, sleepy....You get the picture, so I'm off to take a hot soak with a cup of hot chocolate and then hitting the hay!

Mahalo for understanding......

oh, but before I go, one last thing:
"Why did the chicken cross the road?"


"To make tourists in cars slow down and take their picture for their blog!"

Or, if you prefer, "To get to the other side".

Lame? Of course!!! Happy St. Patty's Day!