Year 6 Day 5

The final day in paradise. We could not have asked for a better week here on the rainy island. Rain clouds rolled in last night and it rained like crazy. Us rain deprived Californians were out on the porch watching and listening. It was wonderful! It poured, the tin roof sounded amazing. Great to fall asleep to. The rain continued lightly this morning. We enjoyed breakfast and then made our way to the beach. Becca and Chris had an appointment for SUP (stand up paddle boarding). The beach was pretty much empty since it was raining. The instructor Yulia was amazing. She was very reassuring and kind. Becca and Chris got her all to themselves. Out on the water they went, Becca was a pro already. She only fell once when a wave came up behind her. Chris...well he fell a bit more. :-) They both had an amazing time. Granny and I watched from the beach in the rain.

The sun came out and the clouds cleared a bit. Why ruin a good thing? We just stayed on the beach the entire day. Sun, surf, smiles, sand. Who could ask for more on the last day here. We did a little talking about the next trip in August. Its time to go home, love our animals, make more money, and gear up for ALASKA in August.

Late addition...I just had a palmetto bug ON ME! It was ON ME. It crawled down my side and down my leg. Im fairly certain the neighbors think someone was just murdered and I am in the process of setting the house on fire now...

Aloha!

Year 6 Day 4

Oh the sunrise. It will be glowing orange and yellow and peering around the clouds and the mountains will light up golden colors and it will be the best sunrise we have ever seen.

Get up 4:30 am, pack lunches, rush out the door. Excitement is in the air, the mountains are calling. We are after all mountain people. The road is small, there is no cars in sight, its dark. 2500 feet, 3000 feet and climbing.Temperature dropping..Que the fog. Not just fog, fog that wants to eat you, fog that makes you feel like you are driving blind, fog that obscures EVERYTHING. Ok, fog, we don't care. We are going anyway. Drive and drive, drive at 10 miles an hour. One car passes, and then a couple more. They are all going down, out of the fog. Not us, we are determined. Arrival. Fog, fog everywhere. We drove the 18 miles to the end of the road up Waimea canyon to where you can see the Napali Coast. We spent 20 minutes in the car and then 10 out checking to see if the fog lifted. Come back to the car, feed the wild rooster, try and get him in the car because its cold and he looks like he wants to get warm, go back out. 9am...eat our lunch that we are supposed to be taking on a hike. The clouds broke for about 5 minutes.  9:15 give up that the fog will lift, find new trail to hike. Decide that a trail where an entire family of wild boar hunters are gathering is not the best trail. Finally find a good trail, convince Granny to go.

The hike was the best part of the entire day. We hiked about 5 or so miles. The path was slick, steep and very much like a rain forest. Wild mountain goats greeted us, but no wild boars. We were all sure we were going to be gored by a pig. No pigs even though I really wanted to see one. A waterfall called to us. Signs warned of cliff drop offs and flash floods, but onward we went. Becca, Chris and I went the whole way slipping and sliding. We got to the end of the line. A steep drop off stared me in the face. The clouds opened up, surrounded us, and it started pouring! So I'm supposed to climb down a slick cliff face with a stream running off it and try and see a waterfall through the fog. NOPE. Hike back to the car where granny was waiting. Even though we didn't see the falls, the hike was awesome. Well worth it.

Relaxing afternoon at the beach across from the house and a walk down the street to try and sneak a peak at the hoarder house. Dinner and bed to follow soon. Wonderful day spent outdoors.

Year 6 Day 3

The best made plans are sometimes spoiled and then the best things come from not having a plan. What a wonderful day. We slept past 4am which was a treat, we ate the best breakfast we have had yet, and our day just got better from there.

We took a small two lane road out to a waterfall overlook. From the overlook you could see about half of the waterfall. The travel guide had mentioned that it was possible to climb down the hill and see the waterfall from the bottom, but all that stared back at us was a large green fence and "do not enter" signs. Discouraged we walked down the fence line. A mostly toothless man who was making small trinkets out of palm fronds grinned widely at us and asked if we were planning to take the hike down. "We'd like to", I responded. He grinned even more and took us down the fence, showed us where to go around and how to use the rope system to get to the bottom. He said a Californian had fallen in near the bottom of the falls, got stuck under the powerful water, drown, and then his family sued Hawaii for not blocking the trail that takes you down there. The fences went up and the trail blocked. Damn Californians always ruining everything! He assured us that as long as we didn't fall in and drown we would be fine. Good tip! He said minute 1 was extremely steep, minute 2 was a slippery mess and minutes 3-10 were just fine. "10 minutes down, 15 back up." Hesitantly we followed his instructions (minus Granny), and made our way down. Ropes strung along the trees helped us down. Boy was the hike worth it! Amazing! We scraped our way back up and took off for the next stop.

All week we had been trying to see this botanical garden or that botanical garden. One was back down the too crowded road, and one wanted $50 a person to visit. I really wanted to try out my new camera lens. So we found one on the south shore in a resort area that was FREE. Now that's my style. You get what you pay for. It was pretty, and lots of beautiful orchids lined our path, nothing spectacular, but again, it was free.

Kauai Coffee was the  last stop before heading back home to clean up for the Luau tonight. Miles of coffee trees every way you look. We missed the flower bloom, but all the little bean or "cherries" were coming out. Mom and Chris got to sample about 20 different kinds of coffee. When they couldn't sit still any longer we headed out.

Cleaned up a bit into "nice" beachwear for our luau. What an awesome experience! I liked this way better than the helicopter. We got seats right in front of the stage. Dinner was served with a big ceremony bringing in the pig. We all tried Poi...it was gross. Becca went on stage and learned to hula and then she got to dance with one of the dancers (a super hot guy) during the show. Of course, would it have gone any other way? It was an amazing time for sure. Her favorite dancer "looked like auntie".

As I sit on the front porch typing this, two young men drove by on bicycles...one carrying a dead rooster presumably for dinner. Two nights ago we ordered "ribs" and I am fairly certain we got wild boar. Things here on the west side of Kauai are apparently still quite primitive.

Year 6 Day 2

Aloha! Sun and sand day! Sun everywhere and sand too. YIKES!

There is one road that goes 3/4 of the way around Kauai. We happen to be staying at the very end of it on the west side. It takes about 2 hours to get to the North shore since the road doesn't go all the way around. A beautiful drive near the water and past taro fields took us to Kee Beach. We saw the parking lot and about 10 million people. Our plan was to hike 2 miles down to the beach where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, but there wasn't even a place to park. A different, but equally beautiful beach, accepted us in instead. Many hours spent swimming and playing in the sand here today along with a visit to a large underground cave  We hoped to visit another location called Queens Bath where the lava rock is carved out creating a large bath tub...but alas it was located in a ritzy area with a tiny parking lot...no spots left. The wealthy north shore was not our favorite spot. Extremely crowded and hard to get around.

What to do when you are hot, full of sand, and nothing you planned is working out? Get shaved ice! We got ourselves reorganized and decided to go see the lighthouse. Sometimes things work out for a reason. As we were talking to one of the volunteers about the birds, a humpback whale, her baby and the adult escort all surfaced. The came up multiple times and treated us all. It was very cool. So glad we made the change in plans.

Keeping with the relaxing day we grabbed some Mexican food and then sat on a beach and watched the surfers take on the waves. Apparently if you are a surfer you have to be tan, buff and you must run everywhere with your surf board.

Our quote of the week came to us from Mom today. "Tazers don't go BOOM". Just in case anyone needs clarification.

Tomorrow we hope to stick to our plans and stay more away from the crowds. For today we cozy into our little house on the west side with the chickens and feral cats, next to the cemetery, and in front of an old desolated sugar mill. It feels like home.

Aloha!

 

Year 6 Day 1

GREETINGS everyone! Its that time again. We are back at it. This year will be a bit different than usual. We will do Hawaii in April and then we will do Alaska in August.

So lets start with Hawaii. We arrived yesterday afternoon, not much to blog about as the majority of the day was spent in an airplane. Becca was extremely nervous about flying over the ocean. All our other trips so far have been over land so she was sure we were going down. I told her that if we went down in the ocean at least we could use the slides. We didnt have to use the slides or float in the boats and wait for rescue. It was a bit sketchy flying into Kauai, the plane was sideways and the wind was crazy. But we made it.

We drove to the west side of the island through fields of green and bushes that grew 10 or more feet tall. Flowers growing everywhere that would be house plants at home. The west side is the "dry side". Trees growing in the grasses that made everything look like Africa. We were sure we were going to see some giraffe's or lions, but none showed. Arriving on our street we found a little pink house waiting for us. Granted its not in the best neighborhood and its across the street from the cemetery, but its awful islandy inside and across the street from the ocean. Beautiful sounds coming through the front door and a nice breeze each night.

Today we started early and headed off for a helicopter tour of the island. We had an awesome "guide" that got us all pumped up and ready for the trip. He was a comedian and was quite taken with Mom and Chris. There is not much else in my life that I have seen that was as beautiful as this island from the sky. The Napali coast is amazing. The mountains rise up so sharply and glow green. The water falls from any crevices and cascades into the valley. An amazing trip. Its just too bad that our pilot had to make a 1000' drop over the top of the mountain for fun. My stomach did not agree. I got to meet the "Aloha" bag multiple times. Still beautiful, but not my thing to ride in helicopters apparently.

The rest of the day was spent on the ocean enjoying sandy beaches and the sound of the waves. A big change from our typical day on these trips. Poipu Beach allowed for some swimming and some relaxing while Glass Beach showed us some big waves and lava rock beaches. The spouting horn was like Old Faithful but on a much quicker turnaround. The legend is that the ocean monster (a lizard) lives in the water and the hissing sound before the waves travel up the lava tubes and then into the sky is her warning. A very neat sight.

Chickens rule this island. There are more here than Key West. Luckily right now they all have babies! So fun. We've made friends with several feral cats. There are no predators here and no snakes. It makes for a lot of chickens.

Food has not been great yet. SO frustrating and hard to find good food on these trips. We went grocery shopping since we have a house, but tried dinner down the road. The pork ribs looked pretty good, but upon ordering Mom discovered that they were from feral pigs...we are pretty sure. The meat smelled like the wild. Neither of us could eat them. We brought them home and left them out for the feral cat that lives in the cemetery, we call her kitten.

Tomorrow we head out for some hiking. Better rest up! Aloha!