2010-2-27 tsunami!!!

 Sat., Feb. 27th, started pretty early for us. At 6am workers at the ocean front resort we're in (Kauai Beach Villas), knocked on our door and basically told us to get out----now! With the 8.5 earthquake in Chile a couple days ago, we knew there was a chance of a tsunami reaching us, so this evacuation wasn't a surprise. Our first stop was Walmart. Not for water and food supplies like just about everybody else there, but for snacks---plus I'm looking for new snorkel fins. No luck with the fins, but did find snacks. We also checked out K-mart for the fins, but had no luck there, either. So we headed to breakfast at Dani's---along with half of Lihue! They were busing tables like mad. Our wait for food was a bit lengthy, but they had a full house. We also noticed lines of people waiting for gas for their cars. That sort of surprised us. We wondered were people were going to drive with a full tank of gas if the island was hit hard. I guess we weren't expecting it to be as bad as many of the residents did--but what experience do we have with tsunamis out in the mid-west?! Fortunately, the tsunami pretty much fizzled out by the time it got to Hawaii.
Because of the tsunami, we decided to check out the train ride at Gaylord's. With roads being closed all over the place, we were somewhat limited in where we could go. Couldn't go towards Kapaa since the highway was closed at WAilua. Couldn't go to any beach since police were turning people away. So the train ride seemed a logical choice.
We hadn't planned to do this excursion, but I am happy we did it. Some people think it's kind of corney---or good for kids, but I thought it was a nice photo op, too. We had a discount card, so we were able to get 24% off on our fare, so it only cost us $13@ for the 40 minute ride. This is the old train we were on.

The ride took us through their many fields of fruit crops. Here we are by the pineapple fields.

Then it took us to their animal pastures. Here we were at the wild pig pasture. They let us off the train here and let us feed the pigs (from the other side of the fence from them).

Another last look at the animal pasture.

 more views from the train.

 lots of gardens throughout the property

 wonder what kind of horse this is---seems really stocky

 more of the grounds

 even a few fish ponds

 and back to the Gaylords Plantation house.

 After the train ride, we headed south. All the time the radio was covering the tsunami. By now it was past noon, so we were curious to hear what had happened in Hilo and Kauai. Although the ocean apparently receeded from the Napali a bit, there were only about 1 foot tsunami waves here on Kauai. Hilo had about 3 foot waves, I believe, but there was no damage to any of the islands. Tim and Faith called and said all was well there on the Big Island. Lots of roads were closed so they were hanging out on a lava field and in the jacuzzi in the jungle. They went into Hilo for dinner after the warning was lifted and said there was no sign of high surf.
We continued south. About 1pm we stopped for lunch at Brick Oven Pizza. I love their pizzas, although they are spendy at $19 for a medium 1 topping pizza. But it was good.  Someone had even brought in a tv so we were able to watch the news about the tsunami.
About 2 we were heading back towards Lihue to hit the movie theatre when the radio said the warning was lifted and the roads were reopened. With that, we decided to forgo the movie and just head back to our condo.   The ocean looked pretty much like it normally does by Kauai Beach Villas.

 The state parks are suppose to be closed for the rest of the day so snorkeling was out, so we decided to walk part of the new bike/walking trail along the east coast. We had walked the part from just north of Kapaa to Kealia Beach last year. So this time we started at Kealia Beach and headed north.

 Surfers were enjoying the "tsunami" at Kealia Beach.

  It's a fantastic paved path!

 Can't get much closer to the water then this!

 I'd read that Donkey beach was a nude beach---

I guess it is!

By the time we headed back, the sun was setting to the west and turning the clouds here to the East beautiful colors.

 it also happened to be a full moon!

 The moon even rose right around sunset.

the pier where business was done way back in the day when this area was a salt producer and sugar cane producer.

For looking East, it really was a pretty sunset!

 looking South

 Checking out the full moon rising, again.

 almost back to the car, and almost dark---except for the light of the full moon.

looking SW for the last of the light.

 Certainly was a different kind of day for us here.  But interesting in it's own way.  Got to do a couple things I probably wouldn't have done if there was no tsunami---like take the train ride and walk the path on the East side.  Like they say, "when life gives you a tsunami---go take a hike".  Ok, maybe they don't say that, but maybe they should!