3-9-2003  a day on the South side:

and a day of snorkeling!  First stop----Poipu---

 a beautiful big beach with 2 great areas to snorkel.  this side is in front of a lifeguard stand.

 It's pretty shallow and has a reputation of poor snorkeling, but I think the snorkeling here is really quite good.  Especially for underwater photography since you can get up close and personal with the fish.

 some of the fishies here.

 one of my favorite---moorish idol.

 and christmas wrasse

 after spending a couple hours snorkeling, it was time to go in search of lunch.  But first, a walk through the park.

 on the other side of the park is Brennekes Beach.  It's almost always rolling---a good place for boogie boarding.

 between brennekes and poipu

 poipu

 by the lifegaurd station---with baby pool to the far left.

 we hit the road and headed through Koloa town. 

 cute little town with a ton of  Monkeypod trees. 

 took our time and explored some more of the South

 There certainly are a lot of pretty old churches on Kauai.

 should have gotten a better look at this so I actually know what it is!

 another church

 and our lunch destination---Brick oven pizza

 Love their pizza!

 the inside of the place is cute, too.  Love all the license plates hanging on the rafters.

 there's even a window so you can watch the pizza being made

 After a tasty lunch, we headed back towards Lawai.  Went through the eucalyptus tree tunnel again. 

 thought I check out the Beach House restaurant just in case we wanted to go there some day.

 Looks like to rich for our tastes!

 looks mighty tasty, though

 wonder if we can just go for appetizers?

 Another great pedestrian sign

 I've often wondered about getting an RCI exchange into this resort.  It's right across from Lawai beach---the best snorkel spot on the South side.

 Lawai "beach"

 good place to surf, too---off to the left

 not much of a beach---which I guess is what makes the snorkeling so good.

 walking by the area in front of the beach House Restaurant.

 some great snorkeling here.

 getting ready to head in

 the "beach".  Not much of one, and the entrance area is really small---the tiny greenish area towards the left of this picture.

 another view of the snorkel area

 back on the lawn of the restaurant

 This is a great place to catch sunset.  Plus the retaining wall makes a great seat.

 some of our snorkeling sights----scrawled filefish

 only place we see black triggerfish on Kauai

 orange bar surgeonfish

When we were tired of snorkeling, it was dinner time!  So we headed back to Poipu and gave Brennecke's a try.

 views from the upstairs restaurant are really nice.

 good over view of the Poipu lawn area from Brennecke's bar and grill.

 inside the restaurant

 looking towards the snorkel areas

 Thought we'd stay for sunset, but it was getting pretty cloudy

 didn't look like we were going to get much of a sunset

 so we just left and started our 40 minute or so ride back to the East side. 

Another perfect day in paradise!