Feb. 23, 2012: Kilauea, Na 'aina Kai sculpture garden, Anini

So starts the days of having a little bit planned. 

 Last year we had done the Na aina Kai 1 1/2 hour walking tour free with the reciprocol garden entry for our Missouri Botanical Gardens.  So I asked our friends if they would like to join Mo Botanical Gardens and do the tour here.  At $35 @, that more then paid for our membership to MOBOT and we'll be able to continue enjoying our gardens in St.Louis.  They said yes, so I made reservations for the tour today at 1pm. 

That gave us plenty of time to go to breakfast and do a little more sightseeing on our way to the gardens.  So we ate at Olympic Cafe.   Had another enjoyable meal there. 

Then we headed north.  We did stop for a little while at one of the pull offs on the east side with access to the walking path and walked a bit.

 The trades have been blowing with authority.  Fortunately we haven't had much in the way of rain in the daytime.  Although it did pour here on the east side again last night.  But it was another beautiful day today!  In fact, if we didn't have plans, we may have gone north again.  It looked like conditions were good there again today.  The east waves were still way up and in the advisory levels. It's been fun to watch the waves. Haven't even seen many surfers on the east side this trip.

We still had a couple hours before our tour, so we headed to the lighthouse.  We often go to the lookout for the obligatory spectacular photo.

Paid our $5/person to get in (or should I say John and Coni paid our fee), and hung out there a bit over an hour.  Saw a few whales spouting, but they weren't too active.  Also love watching the birds there.  I think this was a red footed boobie.

Views of the surrounding lands were spectacular, too.  Here is a view towards Crater Hill, the area a bunch of the birds seem to live.

Soon it was time to head to the gardens.

The walk was an easy one and even the guys seemed to enjoy it.  Here is the cactus garden.

 Saw this interesting bird while we were wandering through the palm garden.  I think it's a White Rumped Sharma.

 Love all the texture and design in the plants there.

 These interesting plant says "stay away from me" by putting out white blooms that quickly turn brown.

 Don't remember what this plant is, but it's just one of the many gorgeous flowers.

 Love all the sculptures throughout the gardens, too.

Since we were close to Anini, after touring the garden for over 2 hours, we headed to Anini for some more snorkeling----or sitting on the beach for some who find the ocean cold.   Here are a couple blue goatfish.  I've only seen 2 of these guys one other time in 11 years and that was at Lawai.  I was excited to see them here at Anini.

 Don't know what this little guy was, but I don't remember seeing one like it before.

 Even found this big filefish there.  I've seen several over the years, usually at Lawai, but this was by far the largest one I've ever seen!

 Even found a few of the unofficial Hawaiian state fish--- the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a.

When we had enough snorkeling, we packed up, changed clothes and headed to the buffet at Brick Oven Pizza in Wailua.  We all really enjoyed it again.  The place was packed, but the work staff was buzzing around and doing a great job.  

Back at the condo, we hit the jacuzzi for a bit.  A great end to another beautiful day!