Feb. 7: north and Anini---
Tired as we were, we were up by 7 (11am STL  time).    The weather was beautiful!  Very little wind, partly cloud and highs in the mid 70s.
View from our first room-- F3.

  We were in one  of the newly renovated Kauai Beach Villas condos.  It has been a long time since they have done much to the units.  New floors, new furniture, new bedding and curtains.  Same old cabinets and counters, but I'm happy with what has been done.

 This is a 1 bedroom /2 bath ocean view unit in F building.  

 Lots of new artwork, too, with a Hawaiian theme to them.

 the Napali coast

 This looks like Oahu to me---with Rabbit Island off in the distance.

Our welcoming committee---baby Nenes, I presume?

 We started the day with breakfast at The Beach Walk in Kapaa.  I had their Hawaiian sweet bread french toast stuffed with cream cheese last year and looked forward to having it again.  It was good, but service was disappointing.  There were plenty of waitresses, but we waited to pay for over 30 minutes.  I actually went down to the beach and took pictures and when i got back, Ken was still waiting to pay.

 Cool kids' seat!

  The shore by The Beach Walk restaurant. 

 colorful "fencing"

 The East side waters were unusually calm, so we thought the north shore might be, too.  The website hadn't updated their findings yet, so we took a ride.  Rode all the way to Kee, but as with the last couple times we went that far, there was no parking anywhere near there.  The water was pretty rough anyway, so we headed back.
Got a kick out of this sign in Hanalei.

  Sports swap meet in Hanalei.

 a north beach

 how to tenderize your pulled pork!

 We even came across this "walk" for Muscular Dystrophy.  Nice to see a group of people marching for a cause without shouting, looting, and burning down buildings like has happened in Ferguson just a few short miles from our house.

  Hanalei bay

 There were people out enjoying all kinds of occassions today. 

 We continued on to Anini and snorkeled for awhile.  We're  really getting spoiled by the temperatures of the Caribbean waters, but it wasn't too bad once we finally took the plunge---probably about 74 degrees.

 The first fishie friend to greet us this year!---a saddle wrasse

 first moray eel to greet us this year.

 a school of yellow stripe goatfish

 One of the 3 turtles we saw there.

 Another school of goatfish

There was a pretty good current going through Anini today and my mask was really being a nuisance.  So we decided to try to find another mask tonight.  I've had the old one for about 15 years and guess it's seen better days.

 From where we parked at Anini.

Our hunt for a new mask took us to Costco, Sports Authority, K-mart, and finally Walmart.  Walmart actually had the largest selection.  Sports Authority had a large selection, too, but were quite a bit more expensive.  We'll soon see if that makes a big difference.  I didn't get the cheapest one at Walmart.  I wanted a nose purge, so spent about $20 on this mask.  Didn't need a snorkel or fins, so it was nice not having to buy them as part of a kit like Costco had.  Hopefully we'll test out the new mask tomorrow and it'll work great! 
We're now able to see what they're doing to the highway through Lihue.  After a couple years of construction on the south bound lanes, they seem to be done and now the North bound ones are being worked on.  They even put a median of grass between the lanes.   It's almost looking like a little mainland town now.

  I want one!

 Finally we had dinner at the new Kalapaki Joe's in Lihue.   The food and services were very good.  On our way to dinner, we just happened by Humira Saimin so we stopped to pick up a piece of pie for dessert later.  Turned out she "misunderstood" me and brought out a whole pie, so I took that as an sign that I should buy a whole one.  Yea!

 Back to the resort and switched over to our new OV room.