2011-Feb. 12: Wyndham Kauai Beach Villas, Lihue

This was the day we checked in for our first week at Kauai Beach Villas, so we didn't do much but hang out and wait for our room to be ready. We did check out the new pool area. They took down the concrete retaining wall and very nicely renovated the restrooms. Taking down the rataining wall opened up the area, but also lets more wind in. I guess it's nice, but certainly not as nice as the ones at the other Wyndhams. At least the new management at the Aqua hotel next door is allowing KBV guests to use their much nicer pools and jacuzzis again.

We were finally able to check in about 3pm. Then maintenance had to come by and fix a couple things. This was our first time on the ground level at KBV. I was concerned that our ocean view wouldn't be very good from the ground level, but we still had a pretty nice view. It was a 1 bedroom/2bath condo in building G (1 or 2, I forget which one is the 1 bedroom/2 bath and which is the 1 bedroom /1 bath). We were scheduled to be in this room for the whole 2 weeks, but I was able to pull a little Wyndham VIP magic and find a 2 bedroom lagoon view unit for the 2nd week for half the amount of points normally needed because it came available within 60 days of our check in date. So I cancelled the 2nd week in the 1 bedroom/2 bath oceanview unit and hoped for an upgrade. That worked out really well, as they ended up giving us my requested 3rd floor and upgrading us to an oceanview room for our 2nd week and we have enough points left over to vacation another week just about anywhere on the mainland with the points we saved. (Actually ended up using some of the points to send Angie and Josh to St. Thomas for vacation in Sept. and used the rest of the points to trade into Trading Places for 2 weeks in 2 bedroom condos + 2 bonus weeks.  Have one of those weeks booked in a 2 bedroom unit at Maui Hill for May 2012!)  Here is the livingroom/diningroom area of our ground floor 1 bedroom unit. It was nice being able to walk right out our sliding glass doors and almost be on the beach.

While we were waiting for our room, we also made it over to Lihue to the farmer's market. There wasn't much left by the time we got there--no apple bananas, no flowers, just some mango pie which I forced myself to buy and eat. It wasn't the prettiest of days and by the time we got all settled into our new room, it was getting late, so we didn't venture south in search for a sunset that probably wasn't going to happen.  Here's a picture of the Lihue farmers market and the thick cloud cover we had most of the day.

We stuck around Lihue until dinner time, then went to BullShed for dinner---one of our regular haunts since we discovered it a couple of years ago.

 A rather gloomy day, but not as gloomy as it is in St. Louis!

2010-2-25  hanging out on the East side, waiting to hear Tim and FAith made it safely to the Big Island---

On our 7th day here, we woke up eager to track Tim and Faith's flights to the Big Island. Seems they got to Dallas, Texas, OK, then the problems started. First their flight was delayed 20 minutes, then 30. They finally left about an hour after their scheduled departure time. Therefore, they missed their Hawaiian flight from Oahu to Hilo. Talking to Hawaiian, they said they wouldn't put them on the last flight because they won't be checking in 45 minutes before that flight, even though the plane is scheduled to get in there 40 minutes before that flight. So that pretty much ruined my day.

I let Ken have the day off from driving a lot today.  We just puttered around the East side and checking flighttracker.com every hour or so.

We did go check out Wailua Falls.  We hadn't been there in awhile. I was surprised to see the "no vendor" signs up. Last time we were there we actually bought a painting from one of the vendors. They have done a lot of work to the viewing area since we were last there. Although you can see in this picture that some people think you need to get closer! I couldn't believe this young man was walking around so close to the top of the falls with his very young daughter. You can warn people of danger, but not everyone will heed it. They actually even got closer to the edge then this. At one point the man even picked his daughter up and was carrying her next to the edge. Then he would wave to the onlookers.

 look to the middle top of this picture you can see the guy holding the girl and they're sitting on the top of one of the waterfalls!  Risky?  Crazy?  Stupid!!!

 I use to sew a lot and make a lot of crafts.  Now I just take a million pictures and spend countless hours photoshopping them!  But I still enjoy wandering around craft and fabric stores.  This one in Kapaia (by Lihue) is really neat!  What a collection of Hawaiian fabric!!!!  They even have comfy benches on the porch for bored husbands to sit on.  I happily spent an hour or so here, too.

 We also like to go to the lighthouse by the Lihue airport.  Looking out to the ocean there, we often see whales, dolphins, and turtles.  It's also kind of fun watching the airplanes fly over the lighthouse.

 It's also on the side of Kalapaki Bay and Nawiliwili Harbor.  We use to talk about how neat it would be to take this cruise.  But we always end up on Caribbean cruises.

 We even checked out Lydgate.

 Probably ate at Brick Oven Pizza for dinner.  They have a buffet twice a week and we really enjoy it---great pizza, great wings, pasta isn't bad, lots of salad.  They even have a couple dessert pizzas.

Ended the day with a nice view of the moon!

Fortunately, all turned out well for the kids getting to the Big Island. As soon as the kids landed in Honolulu, they made a mad dash to the interisland gate and made it just in time to be allowed on the last flight to Hilo tonight. What a relief! 

Hard to believe we've been here a week already.  Seems like we just got here!

2005-2-8---Lihue:


Back on the east side we often like to go over to a lookout of Nawiliwili Harbor in Lihue. We like to watch the boats come and go and have even seen a few whales from there. One time a mother and her calf were actually coming into the harbor. Someone from a conservation organization showed up at the lookout and we had a really interesting chat with them about the whales around Kauai. They were getting ready to launch a boat to herd the mother and calve out of the harbor, but the whales turned around and headed out before that was necessary.

The 86-foot tall wood and concrete Ninini Point lighthouse overlooks Nawiliwili Bay, right by the LIH airport. Built in 1906, the lighthouse was automated in 1953.

Nawiliwili Harbor is located about 1.5 miles southeast of the small city of Lihue, along Kauai's southeast coast, and has been the main harbor on the island since 1930.