Feb. 23, 2012: Kilauea, Na 'aina Kai sculpture garden, Anini

So starts the days of having a little bit planned. 

 Last year we had done the Na aina Kai 1 1/2 hour walking tour free with the reciprocol garden entry for our Missouri Botanical Gardens.  So I asked our friends if they would like to join Mo Botanical Gardens and do the tour here.  At $35 @, that more then paid for our membership to MOBOT and we'll be able to continue enjoying our gardens in St.Louis.  They said yes, so I made reservations for the tour today at 1pm. 

That gave us plenty of time to go to breakfast and do a little more sightseeing on our way to the gardens.  So we ate at Olympic Cafe.   Had another enjoyable meal there. 

Then we headed north.  We did stop for a little while at one of the pull offs on the east side with access to the walking path and walked a bit.

 The trades have been blowing with authority.  Fortunately we haven't had much in the way of rain in the daytime.  Although it did pour here on the east side again last night.  But it was another beautiful day today!  In fact, if we didn't have plans, we may have gone north again.  It looked like conditions were good there again today.  The east waves were still way up and in the advisory levels. It's been fun to watch the waves. Haven't even seen many surfers on the east side this trip.

We still had a couple hours before our tour, so we headed to the lighthouse.  We often go to the lookout for the obligatory spectacular photo.

Paid our $5/person to get in (or should I say John and Coni paid our fee), and hung out there a bit over an hour.  Saw a few whales spouting, but they weren't too active.  Also love watching the birds there.  I think this was a red footed boobie.

Views of the surrounding lands were spectacular, too.  Here is a view towards Crater Hill, the area a bunch of the birds seem to live.

Soon it was time to head to the gardens.

The walk was an easy one and even the guys seemed to enjoy it.  Here is the cactus garden.

 Saw this interesting bird while we were wandering through the palm garden.  I think it's a White Rumped Sharma.

 Love all the texture and design in the plants there.

 These interesting plant says "stay away from me" by putting out white blooms that quickly turn brown.

 Don't remember what this plant is, but it's just one of the many gorgeous flowers.

 Love all the sculptures throughout the gardens, too.

Since we were close to Anini, after touring the garden for over 2 hours, we headed to Anini for some more snorkeling----or sitting on the beach for some who find the ocean cold.   Here are a couple blue goatfish.  I've only seen 2 of these guys one other time in 11 years and that was at Lawai.  I was excited to see them here at Anini.

 Don't know what this little guy was, but I don't remember seeing one like it before.

 Even found this big filefish there.  I've seen several over the years, usually at Lawai, but this was by far the largest one I've ever seen!

 Even found a few of the unofficial Hawaiian state fish--- the Humuhumunukunukuapua`a.

When we had enough snorkeling, we packed up, changed clothes and headed to the buffet at Brick Oven Pizza in Wailua.  We all really enjoyed it again.  The place was packed, but the work staff was buzzing around and doing a great job.  

Back at the condo, we hit the jacuzzi for a bit.  A great end to another beautiful day!

 Feb. 22, 2012: kee, Kilauea Lighthouse, Hanalei

Today was an EARLY start.  Between my husband being on the computer at 4 am and the mainland visitors getting up, then, too.  I didn't sleep much past that. 

At least we did walk to the beach and watch the sun rise.  That was about 7:04am.  It was pretty cloudy, so it wasn't too spectacular, but it was a pleasant morning---probably low 70s and the wind was down a bit.

We decided to have breakfast at Scotty's.  Last time we were there breakfast was ordered off a menu.  Now it's buffet style.  It was pretty nice.  Pretty similar to Bobby's V's, but I will admit I prefer the ocean views from Scotty's.

Then we decided to make some reservations for some activities they want to do.  Being first time (and not knowing if it's their last), they want to see and do as much as possible.  So---we'll be going zip-lining and to Smith's luau on Friday and on a helicopter ride on Sat.  Plus they wanted to try snorkeling for the first time.  They also wanted to go to Hilo Hattie's and Costco and get souvenirs to take home. 

On the way back from Lihue, we took them up to Wailua falls.  That's a quick, but worthwhile stop.

Back at KBV, we stopped to take a picture of a "jurassic" tree (Morten Bay Fig Tree) amongst the trees lining the entrance to the resort.

Then we decided it was time to hit a beach.  We had heard that the surf was down on the north shore and conditions at Kee were listed as good, so we decided to take advantage of that and head north for a little snorkeling.  Loved the ride north with lots of beautiful views such as this one.

Even saw this cute little bird (the highly endangered  'Alae 'Ula, the Hawaiian Moorhen)  as we were driving along.

Also noticed they're apparently widening the road, or moving the road, along one of the curves on the far north side of the drive.

We noticed a parking spot by tunnels, so we stopped there to check it out.  It was doable, but with new snorkelers, we thought Kee would be a little better. 

So off to Kee we went and spent the next 2 or 3 hours there.  Snorkeling was pretty good.  It was near high tide and there was a bit of a current, but the newbies did pretty well. 

Although Coni did think the water was about 10 degrees.  Took her awhile to get all the way in. 

The first time snorkelers didn't venture too far from the shore, but they seemed to be getting the hang of it.

I was watching all our valuable towels and such while they were snorkeling when this giant rooster showed up!

When they had enough fun, Coni and I took a walk down the beach for a better view of the Napali.

About 5 we decided to start heading back to Hanalei and took them over to the hanalei pier for a little while.

Even got to watch some outrigger canoers.  Looked like fun.

It looked like the clouds were too heavy for a good sunset, so we decided dinner was in order.  As we were leaving, we noticed this post.  i don't know how long it's been there, but I've never seen it before.

Dinner ended up by Kalypso's again.  We even found out that on Wed. nights happy hour is all night!  So we shared wings (hot and bar b q --- exellent!), a rolled crusted and fried kalua roll (ok), fried calamari (wasn't impressed),  Coni had a couple mai tais (said they were great!), I had a pina colada (also great) and Ken and I shared a fish and chips dinner, while Coni and John shared the shrimp and swordfish dinner (no complaints there).  It was another great dinner---followed by lilikoi pie back at the condo. 

So ends another great day in paradise! 

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.

2006-Feb. 7---Kilauea and North shore:


 Time for the kids to join us at the KBV resort.  Time to share this beautiful view with them.

 Miles of secluded beach

 almost secluded

 It was a nice touch when KBV use to welcome their guests with leis. 

 Now it's time to get out and explore some more.  Time to head north.  Not too snorkel---surfs still up, so time to do some sightseeing.

 On a day like today, it's worth the time to go to the overlook of the lighthouse.

 We don't often go all the way to the lighthouse anymore, but the view from the overlook is never tiring.

 I also love this view of Anini from up by the lighthouse.

 I never tire of driving to Anini and gazing out at it, either.

 Looks like it would have been an ok day to snorkel here, but we had other plans in mind.

 wonder if these guys appreciate Kauai as much as I do.

 Love the up close towering views of the mountains on the north side, too.

 Looking back at the St. Regis from the other side of Hanalei Bay. 

 On to Kee.

 around the side of Kee to get a glimpse of the NaPali

 Heading back we stopped at Haena Beach.  Love this sign!  I didn't know you could "close" the ocean!

 My favorite view on Kauai---especially with the "kids" in the view.

 Looking up towards Tunnels.

 No snorkeling today

 But I could just sit and look at this view all day!

 I guess the ocean wasn't closed to surfers.

 from the road as we rode back to Hanelei.

 We just happened to come up on the farmers market by Hanalei.  So we stopped to check it out.

 The coconut drink was refreshing.  So was the coconut meat which the vender cut out once the liquid was gone.

 Ken found this souvenir of Kauai---a chicken we could actually take home.

 I loved these.  One year I had painted one myself and mailed it to Tim and Faith.  The post office stapled the stamp right onto the husk and sent it through the mail like that.  Wonder if they still do that?!

 Always love this view of Hanalei pier, too.

 We went down the bay  and watched some surfers and boggie boarders.

 The waves don't look all that big until you see a surfer on them.

 Time to do some shopping in Hanalei.

 And dinner at one of  our all time favorite restaurants anywhere---Calypso's.

 Looking across the street towards the old grade school turned shopping mall.

 the Hawaii State flower.

 Ching Young Village shopping Center across from the old grade school.

 the walkway between shops in Ching Young Village

 More of Ching Young Village

 Love all the folliage around Kauai.

 Can't leave the North side without the obligatory photo from the taro field overlook.

 Where our new friend spent the rest of the trip.

 Another fun day---lots of riding around, but with this kind of scenery that's fine with me!