2011-Feb. 24: East Kauai, Kee, Tunnels, Kilauea Light house, Shark!

It was a beautiful morning on the east side. But all the rain the day before washed lots of dirt into the ocean by the river mouths. There is a drainage ditch next to KBV, so lots of dirt was washed into the water by our condo.

The north shore was suppose to be the place to be still, so we decided to head north. On our way, we stopped by Lydgate to check out the red dirt washed into the ocean from the Wailua River. It was pretty daunting.

We continued up the East side.  This is near Kealia

 Love stopping and checking out the view from the lighthouse lookout.

Love this section of road through Kilauea on our way from the lighthouse look out.

Decided to check Anini out.   I was surprised to see the water calm and clear here and wondered if it would be as clear farther North.

  Found a guy playing a keyboard there at Anini.  He was really good! But we didn't stay long since now I was wanting to check out Kee or Tunnels.

 a north beach along our drive.

When we got to Kee, the ocean was calm and clear. We spent several hours here. First I walked down the beach marveling at the calm water and reflection of the clouds in it.

The rocky shelf by Kee.

 While snorkeling, we came across another eel we had never seen before. I believe it is a magnificent snake eel.

Also saw several more coronet fish, but this is the first one I've seen at Kauai with the intricate markings (had seen them in the Caymans before).

This is another new guy to me---a Hawaiian knife fish.

With the calmness of the water we were able to get way out by the opening in the reef. There is where I found this large school or Moi fish.

And another look of the Napali with it's reflection in the calm water.

We left Kee in hopes of getting a parking spot at Tunnels and catching a sunset there. We did get a parking spot.

Here's another new encounter! Fortunately I didn't see it coming or I probably would have flipped out. I was actually standing in the water taking the picture above of Bali Hai when it came up from behind me. When I went back into the water, this white tipped reef shark was about 10' off to the side of me and vearing away towards the deep water. Since it was going away, I took this picture, then I went the opposite direction and figured I'd had enough snorkeling for one day. Knowing things look a lot bigger under water, we figured it was probably only about 4 or 5 feet long even though it looked like it was Jaws at the time!  I even tried to warn another couple about my shark sighting and their response was, "You're not from here, are you?"  Then they took off to the exact spot where I saw it.

Still hoping for a nice sunset, I wandered around the beach for awhile.

Not the prettiest of sunsets, but not too bad.

When we were leaving the beach, I was looking for the hummingbird that I had seen the last time we were there. It showed up, along with a couple friends. As I was taking pictures of it, I realized it had antennae and therefore couldn't be a hummingbird, even though it was the same size and had the same hovering and darting motions. Someone later told me it's a hummingbird moth. Definately an interesting insect.

2009-March 8: Kileaua lighthouse, Anini, East side

Almost all packed and getting ready to leave. I looked outside and what did I see?!---some sunshine!

Not sure what we'll do today. Our flight isn't until 9pm. We do get a courtesy hour here at KBV from 5-6, so we may still take in some more snorkeling.

But first, off to Kountry Kitchen.

Then to the East side walking trail

 kealia beach

Back to finish up this 2009 Kauai Blog------

The weather was beautiful (for the most part) on our last day in Kauai. We decided to head up to Anini, stopping in Kilauea for a few photos by the lighthouse. Again, found a cute sign.

It was a beautiful day for snapshots of the lighthouse from the lookout. We even saw a couple whales spouting from a distance.

Also enjoyed watching the red-footed boobies and even a few frigates. Here I caught them in fligh and lounging.

Then we were on to Anini for our last snorkel fix.   Out to the rocky area to the right of the big parking lot we found quite a few fish. At one point, I was just drifting along and happened upon a large brown eel. Shocked me at first as I was almost on top of it before I looked that direction and saw it.  Too bad my underwater camera wasn't working anymore.

About then the skies started clouding up at Anini so we swam back to shore and headed back to the East side.

We had heard if you throw you lei into the ocean and it comes back, you'll return. So we've made that a little tradition of ours--although we just throw the flowers in, not the string. Here we are on the East side by where the Wailua River meets the ocean. There was lots of brown water there, but still saw plenty of surfers out in it. We made sure we threw the flowers in an area where the waves brought the petals back to shore.

From there we went back to the condo and hung out at the pool and jacuzzi until time for our courtesy hour.

After our hour at the condo, we were off to gas up the car, grab a quick McDonald's, drop off the car, and check in at the airport. We got there with plenty of time to spare and started our long trip back home.

The flight to LAX was on time and went by rather quickly. The 3 1/2 hour wait in LAX for our STL flight seemed to take forever. The 3 hour flight to STL from LAX was on time and rather quick, too.