2008-March 6: Anini, Kee sunset

Today we headed back to the North side to get the rescission in before the 7 day cancellation period was up.
Then we headed to Anini.  It was a bit windy today.  There were lots of wind surfers out. 

 Neat to watch, but sort of scary if you're snorkeling

 But we wandered the beach a bit.

 and checked out the end of the bay.  We tried snorkeling here once, but found a strong current running out, so never went back.

 I always wonder if this is like a little Lydgate where fish hang out at the rocks.  But it's probably too shallow to snorkel.

 Wonder if these cattle egrets live here on Kauai all year long.

 beautiful Anini!  Still hadn't found the great snorkeling areas here, but did in years to come.

 Lucky horses!

 Heading in

 The water was too beautiful to pass up.  So wind surfers on not, we headed in.  They pretty much kept to the outter reef anyway.

 a little white spot toby

 found out turtles like hanging out here in Anini, too.

 an occassional shell appeared.

 lots of these guys here, too---flounder.

Then we headed North for dinner and sunset.

 Tried out Hanalei Dolphin Restaurant.  It was pretty good, but pretty expensive and service was really slow.  They were very busy.

 Walked around the shops in Hanalei a bit.

 Can't wait to meet there again.

 Since we were near the pier, we headed to the bay to check out conditions.

 the wind was kicking up the waves and there were a lot of surfers out.

 Too bad more visitors (and locals) don't heed these requests.

 With a lot of time still before sunset, we drove on to Kee. 

 Love watching the ocean there.  Outside the reef it's consistantly pretty high,

  but inside the reef it's often pretty nice.

Watched another pretty nice sunset, then started our long trek back to Lihue---about 1 1/2 hours drive, but worth every minute of it.

 2008-March 5: Lawai, Salt Pond sunset

Conditions didn't seem optimum today for snorkeling the north shore, so we headed South instead.  Figured I'd study the Wyndham papers another day.
looking back towards Lawai beach

 4 spot butterflyfish

 one of the many cleaning stations around Lawai

 male bird wrasse

 another cleaning station.  The little yellow and purple fish are cleaner wrasses

 a pair of ornate butterflyfish

 a convict tany, but mostly I was admiring the coral

 another kind of coral

 an orange bar surgeonfish

 how you usually see convict tange---tangs like to travel in schools.

 looking towards Beach House REstaurant

 black triggerfish.  Still the only place around Kauai where I've seen them.

 looking south

 male yellow tail coris

 unicorn fish

 Snuba divers (the tank sits on top of the water).  I would be disappointed if I paid a lot of money to snuba and was in water this shallow!

 teardrop butterflyfish

 male wrasse

 I like how schools of fish will often contain more then one kind of fish

 saddle butterflyfish---don't see these guys often

 The fish here are use to being fed, so they will charge up to you upon entering.

 When we'd had enough snorkeling for the day, we still had a couple hours until sunset.  So we drove down to Salt Pond.  Possibly my favorite place for sunset.

 So many palm trees to use in the foreground.

 and a pavillion and restrooms.

Another wonderful day on Kauai.  Now back to studying the Wyndham stuff.

2008-March 4: Princeville, Hanalei, and convert to wyndham

Today we headed up to the North shore, again.  We had agreed to go to the "owner update" at the Bali Hai today.  Then we planned to take advantage of the calm North shores again and get some more snorkeling in. 
One of my favorite views from our ride to the North shore.

 and another

 love the green mountains of Kauai.

 Plans didn't go as expected.  After about 6 hours at the "update", we left there as new Wyndham owners!  They convinced us to convert our Pahio weeks to Wyndham with the promise of being able to reserve ocean front units and other size rooms and being able to go to any of the Wyndham properties when we don't make it back to Kauai.  So by the time we got out of there, it was too late to snorkel.  So we went and hung around Hanalei.

 Ended up at Hanalei bay. 

 Wandered around the beach and pier.

 a nice back drop for sunset.

 One of the better sunsets we've seen at Hanalei bay---maybe the best one!

After sunset, we did our 45 minute or so drive back to Wyndham Kauai Beach Villas.  I spent the rest of the evening studying the paperwork and rules for Wyndham owners.  We've been Worldmark owners for quite awhile and really like it.  Thought Wyndham would be similar since Worldmark is owned by Wyndham.  It's not even close to being the same!  In the end, I decided there was too much for me to learn in one night, so we decided that we'd go back that next day and rescind our purchase.  Then I'd study up on Wyndham over the next year and rethink converting then.