Jan. 29, 2014 --Another cloudy rainy day, so off to another garden:


Today we got up early to head over to the resort's owner coffee.  Heard, again, about the scheduled renovations for Kauai Beach Villas---for about the 12th year.  They are actually working on the outside of the oceanview units, but the insides are basically the same as it was when we bought in in 1996 (with the exception of pergo flooring put in the kitchens and bathrooms).  He said the carpeting and new kitchen/bathroom flooring has been purchased!  Then furniture is suppose to be replaced.  So next time we're here, maybe my pictures of KBV will look different!  I still love the location and layout of the condos, so I won't be too hysterical if nothing is done again.  Although if I have the oppurtunity to stay at Kauai Coast Resort again, I'll take it!

Anyway, I was sad to see that it was totally overcast this morning and raining off and on.  But rain on flowers always looks pretty, so I suggested we go to Na 'aina Kai sculpture garden today.  This is a very nice garden on Kauai that has a reciprocal program with our Missouri Botanical Gardens.  That is a fabulous garden in St. Louis, so I like to get a membership there and use it several times there and lots of other gardens.  This was actually our 3rd time to Na Aina Kai with the reciprocal membership.  They have several garden tours, but the free reciprocal one is the $35 1.5 hour guided walking tour.  Each time we've gone they've talked about different things and taken slightly different routes, so I still enjoy it.  It did rain a bit before we left the condo and again while we were waiting for the tour, but the sun did actually come out now and then.

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!

2011-Feb. 17: Na' Aina Kai

I'm a sucker for gardens. When I learned Na' Aina Kai was a reciprocol garden to our Missouri Botanical Gardens, I decided it was time to see what this garden is all about. In previous years we've been to McBryde and Limahuli and enjoyed their tropical natural gardens. Would love to go to Allerton some day, but may have to win the lottery first. Anyway, Na' Aina Kai botanical gardens are the estate gardens of a wealthy resident couple of Kauai. After showing their "yard" off to friends and friends of friends for many years, they finally moved off the estate and donated the grounds to Kauai. There are several different tours offered, but the free recipocol tour was their $35 1.5 hour walking tour. I even extended my Mo Botanical Garden membership before we left home so I could add Ken's name onto the membership and he could get in free, too. Here's the parking lot to the garden office.

Our tour actually lasted about 2 hours and we were invited to wander around some more by ourselves after the guided tour. I highly recommend this tour. It's more formal then the other gardens and just as beautiful, just in a more structured way.

 Plus it's a sculpture garden so there are a lot of neat sculptures

 a really neat pool area

 part of the cactus garden

a couple of the many types of palms here

the original owners of the house and gardens

 Even though we had a lot of sun during our tour, we were also rained on off and on throughout the tour.

After spending the afternoon at the garden, we headed back to the East side stopping by the bike path north of Kapaa and wandering along it for awhile.

With sunset out of the question again, we headed to Kapaa for the Brick Oven Pizza buffet night.