Feb. 26, 2012: South Kauai, Kauai Coffee Plantation

Ahhhhh---what a difference a day makes!!!  The weather didn't get any better, but I sure feel better today!  As for the weather, it rained and stormed all night and most of today.  Lots of lightening and thunder even.  Our helicopter tour was cancelled.  We heard the Hanalei bridge was closed due to flooding.  Even our resort on the East side had flooding and they had their pumps out.

The rain didn't stop us, though.  Especially after having spent the last day sick in bed most of the day.  It was time to get out and first activity on the list was----food!  So we headed to Eggbert's in the Coconut marketplace for breakfast.  It was good.

After a quick stop back at our condo, we decided to head south.  First, though, I took a picture of the motocross tracks across from our resort.  I bet they wish they were out there today instead of yesterday.

As we drove through Lihue, we stopped at Hilo Hattie's for a few more souvenirs.  Then continued in the rain to Poipu.  The flooding down south was even bad.  This was the road not far from the Spouting Horn.

The view of spouting horn was pretty interesting with the red water in the back ground.

Another tradition of ours for rainy days has been to go to Na Hoku jewelers in Poipu Shopping Center.  So today mre then qualified as a rainy day!  So a trip there was in order.  Some day I'd love to get this necklace.  My daughter and son-in-law actually got me the pendant a couple years ago so I'm on my way to owning the whole thing!

But for now, I "settled" for this, my first pieces with Koa wood in them:  Happy helicopter ride to me!!!  Even Coni ended up with a NaHoku bracelet. 

Across from the shopping center is the Moir orchid gardens, so we took our guests there to show it off to them----a great little free garden!  Not only do they have orchids, but also cacti and other flora.

Then we decided to head further south in search of drier ground.  Along the way we checked out glass beach---from above.  The ground was way too wet and pot holed to drive down too.  We watched a bit while the stream leading to the little bay turned the ocean red.

Since we were by the Original Red Dirt Shirt Factory, we checked it out and got a few more souvenirs.

We drove to Salt Pond before turning around.  It was even raining there, so we started heading back then.  On the way back, we stopped and did the walking tour at the Kauai Coffee Company.

Although most of the trees didn't have coffee bean on them this time of year, a few hybrid ones did.  It was interesting seeing how they grow on the branches.

The coffee drinker in our group (only one of the 4 of us) said the Peabody Dark Roast was excellent with a full body taste but no bitterness. 

 By the time we left there, it was getting near dinner time, so we headed back to Poipu to Keiko's Paradise for happy hour and half price appetisers and drink specials. 

 Finished it off with their mint chip hula pie.  Like a slice of ice cream sundae.  Good but I wouldn't call it a pie.

 Not many people were at Poipu beach today.  Could be because the parking lot by the park had turned into a lake!

 We did see a sliver of blue skies, though, so decided to hang around the south side for another hour and see if we could catch a sunset.  At the last few minutes the horizon became totally clouded over, but the sky did light up a bit and it turned into a beautiful sunset.  This was taken at the Beach House Restaurant lawn.

Not a bad day!  Rain or not!!!  I do hope the sun comes back out so we can see the beautiful blue (and now red) ocean.  At any rate, it beats a dreary day back in the midwest during winter!