Kauai August 16-30, 2001

--writing with Apple laptop--

--Becky writes unless noted by Marilou--

--Marilou takes most of the photos--

We first came to the Hawaiian Islands in July of 2000. We visited the four major islands and fell in love with Kauai. That visit we purchased timeshare property in Poipu (po-e-poo), on the south side. I've not any surviving travelogs from that time.

The following are from 2001, our next trip to Kauai.

We were to go back to Kauai another time after this before we began to think about buying a house there.

Sunday, August 19, 2001

Howdy All,

We're on Kauai again! Well, somebody has to go there to see if it's still beautiful. And it is. We arrived Thursday 16th with inclement weather. The plants are lush in the rain. Our timeshare is a 2 bedroom condo on the south side of the island. We have a oceanfront view from 2 sides of the unit. The water is about 60 yards away.

Friday was a beautiful sunny day. We slept sort of late and then went to Wally World to get some things (yes there is a Walmart here). Then we picked John up at the airport. He's staying with us for 10 days.

Saturday was rainy, though the rain here is not so intrusive as one might think. It's very scattered and seems to be so much a part of the experience. After all, on the big mountain, Waialeale (wa-a-li-a-li), in the center of the island is the wettest place on earth, getting an average of 44 FEET of rain annually. The lowlands do not receive near as much rain as the highlands, thank goodness.

Today, Sunday, started off rainy and now the clouds are beginning to break up a bit more. Marilou has gone out for a walk, John still sleeps and I am, as you can see, at the keyboard.

Pictures soon.

Love to all,

Becky

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Wednesday, August 22, 2001

Howdy All,

The rain slowed down Sunday and the weather has been beautiful ever since. I heard that there was a big storm off the Japan coast that was causing all the rain during the past weekend. Now things have returned to the normal pattern of mostly sun with the occasional shower.

There are always small puffy clouds floating around and some get caught by the mountains and produce rain. Our guide today said the island is actually having a draught at this time. Though the big mountain is most always covered with clouds.

So, the rest of Sunday, after my last email, was spent doing not much ... just relaxing and driving around some sightseeing and eating.

Monday, as the weather began to clear, we went snorkeling at Koloa Landing. Most of the fish were still in deeper waters because of the storm that had stirred up the ocean for the past few days. Had a good swim anyway.

Tuesday we went out on a boat trip that took us along the Na Pali coast in the north west. By boat or by foot are the only ways to get to these shores. It is just too rugged for roads. Last year, Marilou and I had gone out on this trip, though it was a different kind of boat. This time we went on a small raft type with a hard bottom that burns vegetable oil ... less impact on the ecology. The trip started at dawn. Yes, we had to get up EARLY!!! The weather was perfect. The seas were fairly calm. Traveled about 35 miles up the coast and then back with several stops to go into water caves, view important historical sites, snorkel with some great fishes, and lunch.

We were back by noon and so worn out that we went right back to bed. We loved the trip and still are very sore from holding on to the boat as it raced over the water.

Tuesday, after napping we went to one of the better luaus on the island at Kileahana Plantation. The pig was roasted in a ground pit oven and we got to see them bring it out after it had been cooking all day. Excellent food, good hula dancing, and music.

This morning, Wednesday, we went on an ATV excursion on a private working ranch that once belonged to the Princess of the King of these parts. Again the weather was perfect, not too hot with some clouds to provide some shade. Always there is a breeze here. Most of the pictures included in this email are from this excursion. All over this island are sites where movie bits have been filmed. Today we saw where many recent movies were shot, like "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Mighty Joe Young", "Outbreak", and "Lost World". Tonight we are grilling T-bones at "home". A shower just blew up and should be done in a few minutes. Tomorrow there is absolutely nothing planned as of now. Aaah.

Love to all,

Becky

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Tuesday, August 28, 2001

Howdy All,

The T-bones that John grilled out for us last Wednesday were great. Marilou made ginger cole slaw and baked potatoes. There are cattle being raised on the island so the price of beef isn't a whole lot more that on the mainland.

On Thursday (the day we had nothing planned, right?) we drove up the Canyon Road. On the west side of the island is the rather large Waimea Canyon. Mark Twain dubbed it the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It is very impressive and does give a taste of what the Grand Canyon in AZ is like. That side of the island is very dry in general, though up at higher altitude on the mountain where the canyon is craved there is more rain and so is fairly green.

One of the days along in this time period we went to Poipu Beach where there is a Monk Seal and pup again this year. The same mother seal had a pup there last year. Marilou & I saw her then, too. This is a fairly odd occurrence and the Nature Reserve folks have that part of the beach roped of so no one can disturb them. This year we saw the mom and pup swimming near the shore. Very sweet.

Friday the three of us went exploring some of the more secluded beaches of Poipu Point. These are found by driving some unpaved roads that once belonged to the sugar cane plantation in this area. Extremely beautiful ... more than words or pictures can say. You will see photos. A real treat was the very large sinkhole that had been billed as an old cinder cone of a volcano in one of our guide books. When we found it, after walking a wonderful trail along a stream inland from the beach, we had to crawl through a small opening in a tall rocky bank to get into the center area. Inside we were surprised to find an archeological team digging for artifacts. They told us the place is actually a sinkhole in limestone, the only one on any of the Hawaiian Islands, not a volcano cone. In the remote past, after it sank, it filled with water and more or less was used as a dump for the Hawaiians who lived here after that time. In the now dry sink hole, the archeologists have already found the remains of 15 kinds of birds that were unknown before this dig. Plus painted gourds and other things the people used in bygone times. There are a couple of guava trees growing in the center of the sink and they gave some of the ripe fruit to us. I don't think they get many visitors. We certainly didn't expect to find all that when we went out that morning.

Friday evening we went to Hanapepe (ha-na-pay-pay) on the southwest side to an art show. Actually it's a section in the old part of town that has a bunch of galleries on one street and they all were staying open late that night. Saw some nice work and some so so stuff. Though of course, beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. --grin--

Saturday we headed up to the east side to find some waterfalls. And that we did. There are many many falls on this island. Most have to be seen from the air ... they are so remote, can't drive to them, can hardly walk to them. There are some that are near roads, the first we saw was 'Opaeka'a Falls, a triple falls, and the second was Wailua Falls, which has a double spillway and actually a third small one in the middle. This is the falls that was featured at the beginning of the Fantasy Island TV show.

Saturday night we had reservations at Gaylord's Restaurant. This is one of THE BEST restaurants on the island, at least from our experience so far, and we loved our dinner so much that night that we went back the next morning for their Sunday Brunch. John made us! ;-)

And John loves this island so much and wants to go other places in the world, too, that on Sunday he bought timeshare here at The Embassy Vacation Resort. We own here, too, and it's a trading type timeshare. It's part of what we use to get ourselves to other parts of the world.

Sunday afternoon, while John took a nap, Marilou and I went snorkeling at Lawa'i Beach, a little beach nearby that we had gone to last year. The fishes are incredible there. The Hawaiian Islands don't have a lot of coral, due to the rough surf and warm waters, I've read, and yet there are some formations. We saw a blue growth on the lava rocks under water that I believe is a type of coral at Lawa'i Beach.

Sunday night, John's last night here, we all went to The Beachhouse Restaurant, right next to Lawa'i Beach and had another great dinner and saw a gorgeous sunset across the bay with palm trees silhouetted above the low mountains near the shore. Quite fitting for John's last night.

On Monday morning we took John to the airport and now he's gone home. We certainly enjoyed his company while he was here. It took him 7 days to get into relax mode. Poor guy. That left only 3 days to really enjoy Kauai.

That morning when we went out to take John to the airport the big mountain that usually is covered with clouds was clear! This is something that I've been wishing would happen and it's very rare. Well, it happened and I didn't have my camera with me!!! Rats! At least I got to see it.

Monday evening Marilou & I drove up to the north side and saw a new bird as we explored a little road along Hanalei River, the Black Crested Night Heron. We also saw Puff the Magic Dragon, the one from the song way back when. It's a land formation on the west side of Hanalei Bay and really looks like a dragon sleeping.

Okay, Marilou says I've written enough.

Love to All,

Becky

More pictures

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