Jan. 20, East side----

Another beautiful day here on Kauai!  I was surprised to see it was light already when I woke up.  I must be on Hawaii time already!  Breakfast was here in our condo today---eggs and half of our leftover pancakes from Olympic Cafe  (they even gave us syrup to bring "home").  Then I wandered around the KCR grounds a bit.  Even went and asked at the office if they had beach chairs and umbrellas to borrow, they did, so I happily borrowed some.    I also sat staring out at the ocean for awhile being entertained by a very energetic whale.  It put on quite the breaching exhibition!  Too bad it was so far out.  I did take a picture, but it was with my p&s camera.  That was just the first of the many breaches we saw today.  Unfortunately, they were all way out there and I didn't have my dslr with me at the times.  I have never seen so many breaches in all our trips to Hawaii!!! 

I was anxious to check out Lydgate.  So we headed there and spent about 4 hours there.  I will admit, though, that I was a bit concerned when I first stepped in.  I have been spoiled by the Caribbean water temperatures (about 83 degrees)!  But it wasn't too bad once I took the plunge (about 75 degrees).  We spent about 2 hours snorkeling the rock wall.

 I was impressed with the variety and size of the fish there.   Also impressed with the clarity of the water.   It had been a couple years since the dredging and rebuilding of the rock wall and they had quite the problem with the water being murky after that.  All the regulars of the past were still there---the Stripeys, the big yellowfin surgeon fish, the schools of silvery fish big and small.  Plus there were lots of other species there.  Here are a few:

 This guy I hadn't seen here before.  I'll have to investigate and find out what it is. (This is a cigar wrasse.) 

My Stripeys!  The only other place I've seen these guys was in the aquarium on Oahu.

The big blue Yellowfin surgeon fish and Hawaiian sergeants.

puffer

 white saddle goatfish and assorted others

snowflake eel

little brother of the other long one?

 belted wrasse (saw lots of these guys all around Kauai this year)

 yellow stripe goatfish

I was chilling on the beach with my Cardinal insulated glass full of ice tea when I found out what a small world it is!  We got in a conversation with the couple next to us.  They're from Oregon and we're from Missouri, but we know some of the same people in Oregon.  Spent another hour or 2 chatting with them.

we finally decided it was time to leave.  But first I took a few pictures of the beach to the south of Lydgate. 

 From the rock wall of Lydgate out to the ocean.

 Final look back at Lydgate---for today. 

Back at the condo, we hit the heated pool and Jacuzzi.  Hard to believe last week I was taking pictures of Bald Eagles on the ice flow on the Mississippi just north of St. Louis!

 With that in mind, I have to throw a few more flower pictures in here!

By 4:30 we were pretty hungry.  So we exited the water and cleaned up.  Then we decided to head up to Bullshed.  We got there right as it was opening.  It certainly has great views!

View from our table.  Again I was treated to a whale breaching show!  It continued for most of dinner!  Too bad it was way out there.

I love their salad bar.  Anywhere I can put peas and garbanzo beans on my salad wins me over!  Our dinners were really good, too.  I got the steak kabobs and grilled veggies.  Ken got the teriyaki chicken breast.  The beer was pretty tasty, too--as is the Kauai Golden Ale I'm consuming while working on this blog.

By the time we were done, it was a little after 6.  So we headed to Kealia Beach and watched the skies turn pink.

 Also enjoyed watching 2 youngsters boogie boarding.

 It was a pretty nice sunset---even on the East side.

We left there and headed to Kauai Beach Resort for the free annual Monday night concert series that started today.  They even gave out free beautiful lays and head dresses for those who aren't from the islands.

  It was a wonderful evening listening to some great Hawaiian music by some very talented gentlemen.

Thus ends another fantastic day.  All the news is talking about right now is the surf surge of the decade that's on it's way.  They're predicted wave heights of up to 50' on Wed. and rain to go with it.  Hope they're wrong about the rain!