2009-March 7: Hyatt grounds

I'm starting this earlier today. No need to be out of the condo too early today and no sun reports anywhere, so we're taking it a bit easy this morning. We even got a reprieve on the early morning wake up call this morning. The rooster must have slept in, too, and we didn't get up until 9 am. It's cloudy again. I've checked the forecasts for north, east and south---all areas say clouds and chance of rain. We'll probably head south anyway. At least the winds are down so snorkeling should be good there. Ken cooked up the last of the eggs and bacon today. Tomorrow it'll be our traditional mac pancakes at Kountry Kitchen's for our last breakfast on the island this trip. We're about ready to head out now. I think we'll stop at the Ben Franklin craft store on our way south. Haven't been to one of them in years.

 It's about 71 degrees and a light off and on drizzle, but the winds are very still today. Off in the distance (the other side of the resort), I can hear the motocross riders on the track adjacent to the property, but we've never been bothered by their noise. They don't seem to start until mid morning and I think they're only there on the weekend.

We did get to the Ben Franklin Craft store and I was very impressed with it. Then we went to the Stitchery store and I was equally impressed with it. The craft and fabric stores around home don't carry the tropical and Hawaiian things like these stores do.

When we finally headed south, it was close to 1:30, so we stopped at the little Poipu Grill for a quick bite. It's just a window next to a grocery store, but the food was very good. We shared a fish and chips and lilikoi cheesecake. Loved it all.

Then we headed on to Lawai beach. It was still overcast and some off and on rain, but the water was great. We spent a couple hours there. I even saw a couple fish I hadn't seen before.

We went from there to the Hyatt. When we were there the other day for the lighting ceremony, I noticed they have beautiful grounds. So today we went back there to wander around. I can sum up their grounds in one word----WOW! If I were going to stay in a hotel, I'd sure love to stay there!

This is a view of a fraction of their pool areas.

Here's another pool there.

 some of the beautifully landscaped grounds

more grounds

  Their over the water restaurant

 one of the jacuzzis

 a man made waterfall on property

More of the restaurant--too expensive for our tastes

This is looking up to where the lighting ceremony is held.

Just another gorgeous flower here on Kauai, by the Hyatt.

ANd more.

 We also wandered around the beach by the Hyatt.
Looking pretty bad for sunset!

a very large monk seal

Since Leilani and ? were singing when we were done wandering around, we stayed to listen to them and catch the lighting ceremony again.

It's short and sweet and we were able to tell Janet from the tripadvisor forum hi and goodbye, too.

Then we headed back to the east side. By the time we hit the tunnel of eucalyptus trees it was raining pretty good. It's a good thing we hadn't tried to go north today! We heard the rain flooded the bridge into Hanalei this morning and was closed. Not sure if it's been reopened yet.

We stopped for a quick dinner at Taco Bell.

Back at the condo, it was time to do more laundry and start packing.