2008 Kauai

2008---7th trip to Kauai, Just the two of us: East pathway; Keiki Hula; Moir garden; north shore waves

 During the past year, we added to our collection of weeks here at Pahio Kauai Beach Villas. We bought another 2 bedroom EOY week resale to go with the other 2 bedroom unit EOY week we had. Only thing different this time was that we had the 2 bedroom unit all to ourselves this year.

Note about cameras:  above ground-Canon 20D; underwater-Coolpix S5 with housing.

2008-March 1: East Kauai, Hanalei

2008-March 2: sunrise, Tunnels, Kee

2008-March 3: Lydgate, South for sunset

2008-March 4: Princeville, Hanalei

2008-March 5: Lawai, Salt Pond sunset

2008-March 6: Anini, Kee sunset

2008-March 7: Poipu, Lawai sunset

2008-March 8: East side and hula kids

2008-March 9: Polihale, glass beach

2008-March 10: Lawai

2008-March 11: Lydgate, Moir Garden, Nihi Kai sunset

2008-March 12: Huge North Waves

2008-March 13: Lawai

2008-March 14: Lawai, then back to STL

Weather this year was the best yet. No rain, 80's almost every day, and calm on the north shore for the whole first week.  But got to see some huge waves on the North shore one day.

Another 2 weeks gone all too quickly!

2008-March 14: Lawai, then back to STL

Last day!  I don't have much of a record of today other than we went to Lawai again.  I assume we had a red eye flight or Ken would never have left the East side.  Must not have had any problems with the flights.  But before then----

one last photo of a rooster

 one last walk along the beach (Gilliams?)

 one last snorkel trip---all our fishie friends gathered to tell us good bye

 even this guy, whom we hadn't seen before---brown side hawkfish

 another bunch

 glad to see a couple of the red parrotfish I talked about in yesterday's blog.  The wrasses are a good size---these parrot fish are huge.

 close up of a parrotfish munching on the reef.

 bye to the orange bar surgeonfish

 and the large saddle butterfly fish that hung out here the whole time we were one Kauai

Even had a beautiful sky of clouds today.

 Time to grab a bite to eat and make our way to the airport.  

2008-March 13: Lawai

Time to get some more snorkeling in.  Time is running out!  The North waves were still making the north side too rough to snorkel, so----back to Lawai.
Never tire of seeing our old friends.

 They didn't seem to mind seeing us, either.

 The cleaning stations were active, as usual---great place to look for different fish.

 Even happened upon a foraging snowflake eel.

 and a sea cucumber wishing us a little Aloha (no, we did not write that on it).

 And our turtle friend came by to see us along with his coronet fish friend.

 Even found the Nudibranch again.  This was the only trip that we saw this guy.

 a stocky hawkfish

 our colorful parrotfish friend.  There use to be large schools of red parrot fish here, but we haven't seen many of them this trip.  It's always a little painful to see the spear fishermen coming out of here with parrot fish on their lines.   But I guess if they eat them then it's not just for sport.

 Don't know why I don't have any sunset pictures for tonight.  Must have started raining so we probably were eating dinner then.  But not a bad last full day here!

 

2008-March 12: Huge North Waves

Today the North shore was predicting extremely high waves.  So we decided to go check them out.  NOt for snorkeling---just for acting as a curious tourist.
First stop---Hanalei bay. 

 even the residents were enjoying the views---I assume they're residents because of the pup

 It was fun to watch the surfers

 This guy was way out there.  The waves don't look that big from this view, but I'm guess they were about 8-10'

 more surfers heading out

 I presume this is a "grom"

 And this would be me if I were toting a baby around.

 the area where the surfers park  by the pier.

 view back towards the beach from the end of the pier.

 love these flowers growing at a residence near the pier.

 We headed down the road.  Stopping here at Haena park by Tunnels.

 the point of sand is where we like to snorkel at Tunnels

 zoomed into Tunnels

 the sound was amazing

 just a little warning to stay out of the ocean today----really?

 a little perspective

 not even the experts were out here today

 this is why

 on to Kee.  Ken posing by a really cool tree root system.

 from a wide angle, it doesn't look all that vicious

 but zoomed in it's pretty impressive.

 even got a bit of a rainbow in this one.

I discovered if you walk down the beach far enough, you get a great view of the Napali.

 one of my favorite photos all time

 Getting near sunset

 there it goes

 a little bit of pink in the clouds, but, again, not much color in the sky.

 Ken's ode to me.

It was really neat seeing the huge waves.  Usually we head the opposite direction so we can play in the water, but it was neat seeing the winter waves for a change.