Jan. 23, 2014-Thurs--south to Lawai and Saltpond:

Another beautiful sunny day, albeit a bit cooler---only up to about 74 today.  The first 4 days have been up to about 80.  Cool tonight to about 62.  Kona winds right now, but trades coming back in a few days.  No more pancakes and eggs for breakfast, so we had cereal.  

Finally made it out of the condo about 11 and headed south.  We did stop at Walmart, Macy's, and K-mart.  I was in search of new shorts to wear while snorkeling.   Also  replaced my short sleeved rash guard with a long sleeved one for sun protection (being more cautious after a recent melanoma spot removed).  Finally found what I wanted  at K-mart!  Also found the malasada lady there and we got 3 malasadas to share.  They were very good and quite a deal at only $1.50/3.

We continued on to Lawai beach.  Changed into our swimsuits and hit the water.  We were surprised and disappointed to see the sandy entrance area was almost all gone.  Made getting in and out tougher on us tenderfeet.  But snorkeling was great.  We had to get out a ways to get to clearer water, but we spent about 2 hours visiting with the fishies.  We were also excited (or I was) to see the Hawaiian ice place back!  Unfortunately she closed before we could get back to her.

On to snorkeling----

Ambon tobies.

 ringtail surgeonfish

 barred filefish

 raccoon butterflyfish

I was happy to see young black triggerfish here.  This is the only place on Kauai that we see them and a few years ago it looked like they were thinning out.

 Some of the fish out at the outter reef.

 unicornfish

female bird wrasse and some healthy coral

school of ring tail surgeonfish and a large redlip female parrotfish.

 Stocky Hawkfish

 saddle wrasse

yellow tail coris

female surge wrasse

banded urchin

orange spine unicornfish

saddle butterflyfish

 trumpetfish

 this was 1 of 2 lobsters that we saw here.

 Another odd colored sea cucumber

 convict tangs at a cleaning station

  Hawaiian Dascyllus--he sure looked sad. 

 elegant coris

 adult black triggerfish

pink tailed triggerfish.  I don't remember seeing them around Kauai before, but we saw a lot of them around Maui last year.

 teardrop butterflyfish

I don't recall seeing these Lined butterflyfish here on Kauai before, either.  There was a pair of large ones here.  I just now noticed the jack and the blue goatfish also in the picture.

 A male surge wrasse

About 4:30 we decided it was time to change into dry clothes and head off to find food.  We love Brick Oven Pizza, so went to the one in Kalaheo.

 On Monday and Thurs nights from 5-9 they have a buffet.  So we had that and really enjoyed it.

 Then we headed a few miles farther towards Salt Pond.  Stopped for a quick photo at the canyon overlook.

Got to Salt Pond with about 10 minutes to spare before sunset.

 looking towards the lifeguard stand

Spotted these weird looking plants while waiting for sunset.

 One of the MANY feral cats we saw around the island.  Later we were told that many of the feral cats have been spayed or neutered then released again to live in their colonies.  There was a rather large colony of them by Walmart.

Finally the sun set.  It didn't go with much flare.

  But Salt pond is a good place to be for any sunset.

 Almost the end to another perfect day!

On our way out, we saw this interesting looking plane.

 Tried to get some icecream from Costco on our way home, but they were out. Had to settle for heading to the jacuzzi and pool instead.  Hard to believe that was day 6 already!  Hope the rest of the days are just as good as the first 6!