TravelStream™ news feed for member lilly_annew on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lilly_annew en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:00:51 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204257060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204257060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204257060/tpod.html Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:00:51 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Waimea, Hawaii, United States

The flight to Kauai went nice and smooth. Not glitches whatsoever. This was the first time I flew on an airline where you had to pay to eat and all they offered were sandwiches. We ate snack we brought with us instead.We got into Kauai around 5:00 PM, picked up our rental car and then headed for a grocery store. We stay our first three nights in a little cabin with a kitchen up in the mountains of Koke'e. There is a restaurant there, but it is only open between 9:00AM - 4:00PM. We planned on hiking while we are up there, so we wanted to bring food with us so we wouldn't be limited in how long we could stay out. We stopped at a Big Save grocery store in Lihue and found stuff for dinners and some fruit for breakfast and hiking, but no baked goods that looked like something we wanted to eat and nothing really for lunch. We drove down the main highway heading to Koke'e hoping we would find the rest of what we needed in another town. We saw a little super mart on the highway near a little town called Lawa'i and decided to stop there. Sometimes you can find Hawaiian style Japanese bento boxes in little super marts and convenience stores that work perfect for a packed lunch. Bento boxes usually have rice with a choice of different items to eat with the rice such as some kind of meat, some Japanese pickles and some kind of fish. We didn't find any bento boxes at the super mart, but we discovered a little restaurant next to the super mart called Mark's Place that had some home made fruit turnovers that we bought for breakfasts, and we had teriyaki chicken for dinner. It was very good, nice and tender and cheap.We stopped at Ishihara's grocery in Waimea that we had been to before on a previous trip to Kauai. We knew it often had bento boxes and we were glad to find that they did. They were typical for Hawaii, rice with a Japanese meatball, a slice of spam, a slice of two different types of sausages, I think one of them was Portuguese sausage, oshinko (Japanese pickle), and kamaboko (Japanese fish cake). They come wrapped up in a little package, including chop sticks and are easy to take on a hike. These bento boxes are very popular with Hawaiians and we've learned to get past the idea of eating spam on occasion because they are so convenient and cheap. Once we got all our supplies, we headed up the winding road to Koke'e. While we were driving up the road, we saw two owls. Occording to my bird book of Kauai, there are only two species of owl on the island, the introduced barn owl and the Hawaiian owl. I'm pretty sure at least one of them was the Hawaiian owl, but I'm not sure of the other one. That was the first time had had seen an owl in Hawaii though. We found our key with insturctions on which cabin was ours, in a drop box waiting for us at the lodge. They also close at 4:00PM. It took us two tries before we found our cabin, but we finally figured out which one was ours. By this time is was getting pretty late and Dave was getting kind of cranky. Our rental car was really new a Crysler Sebring. It still smelled of new car and Dave was having problems figuring out how to use the remote for the locks and it didn't help that it was dark. He was trying to open up the trunk and every time he hit the button he thought was to open the trunk, the alarm would go off. He turned on the alarm three or four times before he finally figured out he was hitting the panic button on the remote (I didn't even know they had a panic button on those things.) Needless to say, this didn't help his mood any. So we start hauling all our gear out of the car and carrying it into the cabin. I noticed that mosquitoes were getting into the cabin so as I was leaving the cabin for another load, I pulled on the door intending to close it just enough to keep the mosquitoes out, when I heard it slam shut. I quickly turned back to try to stop it because as I heard it slam I pictured the key to the cabin sitting on the kitchen counter. Of course, the door was locked and the key inside. All I could say was, "Oh no, Dave. Oh no, Dave.""You locked us out, didn't you?" said Dave. I cringed. "I'm sorry, but yes, I did."For some reason, this actually put Dave in a better mood. I think it makes him feel good when I screw up and he gets an opportunity to fix things. I tell him that's because it happens so seldom. He went to the nearest window, pulled off the screen and the window slid open with no problem. What a relief! I was picturing us sleeping in the back of the car that night. I would have been in the dog house the rest of the trip, I think, if that had happened. The cabin was bigger than the one we had the last time we stayed here. It was a panabode log cabin big enough to sleep six, four single beds and one queen, one bath, full kitchen and a wood burning stove in the livingroom. That's because it gets pretty cold here at night and in the morning. All the mattresses were hard and mattress of the queen bed was concave even before anyone got into it. So we knew it was going to be bad, but we decided to sleep in it anyway so we could stay warmer. Needless to say, I slept on a slippery slope that night. I was dog tired though, so I managed to sleep through the night.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205218020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205218020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205218020/tpod.html Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:23:41 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Waimea, Hawaii, United States

Today we got up around 5:30 AM to make our flight time with the powered hang-gliders "Trikes." The pilots were late getting started and they suggested we go into the Olokele Canyon because conditions were perfect for it and they seldom have the opportunity to go into this canyon. At first we were not sure we wanted to do this because we had specifically asked to go through the Waimea Canyon and over to the Napali Coast. The owner/pilot, Jerry, seemed a little irritated with us a first, but I think that's just his normal personality. He's kind of abrupt in a non-stop sort of way. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but it isn't really. He speaks in phrases, never seeming to finish a sentence before moving on to another topic without taking a breath. So, it's sort of constant run on phrases, instead of run on sentences. This makes it hard to have a discussion with him, because he doesn't fully explain what he's talking about before he moves onto another topic. He never gives you a chance to ask him to explain what he was talking about in the prior topic. Anyway, Dave and I decided we would go where they suggested because it was an area we would never have time to see otherwise because it would take days to hike into it and some of it was privately owned by the Robinson Family (owners of the private island of Ni'ihau and a huge portion of Kauai.)The trike takes off really fast. You don't have t o go very far before the pilot pushes out and up on a bar attached to the wings of the hang-glider and up the trike goes. What a rush! It's like sitting in a plastic rickshaw and looking down thousands of feet. It's hard to explain just how exposed you feel in one of these. The only thing holding you in the seat is this seat belt that goes over each shoulder and clips into a belt that goes across your waist. It's very secure, but your arms and legs can flap around and hang out of the trike because there is no enclosure at all. It's relatively quiet compared to a small plane or helicopter. They give you an insulated flight suit and gloves to wear and a helmet with headphones for two-way communications. So, you can ask questions and chat with the pilot while you're gliding/flying. They also mount a video camera on the wing of the trike so the whole trip is recorded on video. They give you a DVD at the end of the trip. Unfortunately, there is no DVD player at the cottage and my computer doesn't have a DVD player. It's old. So, we can't watch it until we get back. I'm bummed about that.You don't get cold, but if you've ever been to one of those IMAX films with the super high speed film and experienced some motion sickness, then be prepared with some Dramamine because you will probably experience it. The land goes by so fast at times that I experienced a little queasiness now and then. This was one of the best experiences I've ever had! Huge waterfalls, enormous cliffs, swooping up and over the largest peak on Kauai, Mt. Wai'ale'ale and into the crater, thousands of feet down. Talk about exhilarating! We spiraled down from the top, getting video the whole time. At one point Jim, my pilot, and I were discussing the valley and I asked him if there were goats in this part of Kauai. I knew that some of the erosion problems in some of the canyons were caused by the goats creating wallows, but I hadn't seen any goats so far. Jim, took me to a cliff wall that had a ledge that looked like a bisected tunnel in the center of the cliff that ran the full width of the cliff, maybe a few hundred feet long, five feet high and 18 inches wide. There must have been about 50 goats on this ledge no wider than the width of a goat. We flew right at them and then swooped up, causing them too scatter, goats attempting to climb over the top of each other since they couldn't get around. It was quite a sight to see. The ledge was really something to see. I hope it shows up in the video. We also flew into the Waimea canyon, right over the Kukui trail that we hiked. Such a beautiful canyon.Jim didn't really fly with Jerry much so I seldom saw Dave except as a tiny speck far off in the distance. The author that wrote our travel guide flies is a Trike enthusiast and he was excited to have the opportunity to join us in this flight. I guess in the 30 years that Jim has been hang-gliding he has only been in the Olokele Canyon three times. Usually the weather makes it too rough or cloudy to go into it. So, he was very excited too ge the chance. We s ae this road right along a cliff edge that went into this canyon that apparently the Robinson family made to reach a tunnel that is used to get water from one side of the island to the other. The tunnel goes right through a mountain. Jim had never seen the road before. Jerry had only been in this canyon seven times and he was the one that explained why the road was there. The last part ofo the trip was over the shore near Hanapepe. We were looking for whales, but didn't find any. We did see a number of turtles though. There were tour boats taking people snorkeling in that area a nd we buzzed the boats. The tourists excitedly waved to us. The trip ended all too quickly, but they already had people waiting their turn.We were done by 9:30 AM and we still had all day. We went up to Grinds in Hanapepe for breakfast. This is a great place to eat breakfast. They have fresh baked bread and pastries and I ordered a potato has topped with scrambled eggs. Boy, do they give you a lot. I couldn't possibly finish what they gave me. It was really good too.While we were at Grinds, I called up the National Botanical Gardens in Lawai to find out if they have any self-guided tours. They did have one at the McBride's Garden for $20. They have three large gardens there and they are far enough away from the visitors centers that you have to take a shuttle to get to any of them. The shuttle to McBride's runs on the hour so if you miss a shuttle, you have to wait an hour for the next one to come by. The gardens are really beautiful, full of native plants and endangered exotic tropical plants from around the world. It's not full of bright and colorful flowers, though I did find a few orchids in bloom and a few varieties of heliconias. We did see a number of unusual plants that I've never seen before such as a chocolate plant, with ripe chocolate pods and this palm tree with the strangest looking nuts about the size of a softball and hard as rock. It has all these hexagon sections with really hard points that look something like the ball on the end of a medieval weapon, the name of which escapes me right now. Of course Dave sneaked out one of each of these. Dave poor blistered feet were still hurting him so we haeded back to the cottage early so he could soak his feet. My biggest disappointment was that I couldn't bring any cameras with me on the flight. They don't allow anything that can come loose. I bought the new video camera specifically for this flight, hoping to upload some of the flight to my travelogue. Also, I have to wait until I get home before I'll be able to do that.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204789200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204789200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204789200/tpod.html Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:07:28 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Haena, Hawaii, United States

Today we spent a leisurely time getting up for breakfast. I read my book for a while Dave chatted with Bill. We had granola with soy milk for breakfast, packed up and headed for Kalalau Beach. It's only another three miles to the beach so we knew had lots of time to get there and we had already done the hardest part of the trail yesterday. We made it in good time and ended up camping in the same camp spot as the last time we were there. Fairly close to the beach, but under some Kukui trees for shade. The rest of the day we hung out on the beach and explored the first cave around the cliff. The water level is much higher this time of year than in November, which is when we went the last time we came to Kauai. We also noticed there wasn't as much ripe fruit on the trail as the last time. Apparently, a lot of the fruit ripens in November. Our last trip here there was ripe guava all over the trail. The sweet smell was a little overpowering back then. We had also seen bread fruit, jakfruit, bananas, papaya, and avocado and noni (not something they eat, but they use too make healing lotions and dyes.) This time we saw oranges and lemons, Java plums, and a couple of the noni, but that was all. It was a little disappointing not to find fresh fruit.While we were sitting on the beach, a helicopter flew around from the cliff and landed right on the grass by the beach. Wow, that was a big surprise. Apparently, they drop off workers that pick up garbage and clean out the out houses, a thankless job, indeed. The workers said they were picking up about a month's worth of garbage. You might be wondering where all this garbage comes from. There are a lot of "hippies" more like "squatters" that live on the beach or up the valley and we think some of the garbage comes from them. But the majority of the garbage comes from people that hike in with stupidly heavy equipment that they decide they don't want to carry back and so they leave it. Then the helicopters come back and pick up the bags of garbage, hauling them out from a long cable. They came back two more times, once to pick up the garbage and the third time to pick up the workers. It was really strange to be so far away from civilization and have a helicopter land so close to you. I got a video of the helicopter lifting off with the bag of garbage.We thought about hiking up the Kalalau valley trail, but Dave's feet were covered with blisters, a common problem for him. So, we decided to wait until the next day. For dinner we had our ramen salad, it was really good and so easy to make. We'll have to do that again for a hiking meal. We didn't have to cook anything.The sunset was fantastic! One of the prettiest I've seen. I took a number of pictures.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204788300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204788300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204788300/tpod.html Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:23:38 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Haena, Hawaii, United States

We woke up around 7:30 AM, packed our backpacks into the car and headed out to the coffee shop. We had some pastries and two large Americanos to go and headed down the road to the trailhead. We were surprised to see that there was no parking at Ke'e park where the trailhead is located. So, we ended up parking down the road in their overflow parking lot. The first part of the trail is rocky and a little steep. It's also hot and humid so it didn't take long for me to be soaked with sweat. Along the way we saw humpback whales jumping out of the water and making huge splashes. Even though they were pretty far out, they were so big I could see the shape of the flippers and see the bumps that helped me identify them as humpbacks. This one woman got so excited that she was hollering loud enough to here her down at the beach. I think it might have been one of those experiences of a lifetime for her. I wanted to ask her where she was from because it was pretty obvious that it was something pretty alien to her. It was fun to see how excited she got.We reached the first beach, Hanakapiai quickly and stopped for an orange before continuing on. There were a lot of people at this beach. Not a big surprise. The next part of the trail is the steepest section and it seems even more humid and hot than the first part. It's definitely the wettest section of the trail. It's a long haul up to the top. We passed a few backpackers heading back and a few day hikers passed us by. A lot more people on the trail than the last time we did this hike. Then we only saw a couple people on the trail. The trail looked a little different this time, there was more vegetation on the cliffs and there was even more erosion. A lot of the trees were missing a lot of leaves and we found out later that this was due to a wind storm they had in December. We stopped for lunch on a bluff where we think Dave experiences vertigo the last time. We ate half our sushi and drank a lot of water. We wanted to make sure we stayed hydrated. We brought four quarts of water with us. While we were eating lunch we saw more whales jumping, but this time they were smaller, black and sleek, compared to the humpback whales. I swear I saw some flashes of white in the front portion of the whale. So, I think t hey were orcas.There's a lot of unusual plants along this trail, lots of tropical plants such as the Hala, Ti, sisal and lots of plants of which I didn't know the names. Many flowering plants too. Eventually, we reached the Hanakoa valley, six miles. This is an official campground and the spot where newcomers to backpacking the Napali coast will stop for the night. It is thick with vegetation which means hot and humid with no breeze. It is also unkempt and dirty. Dave and I stopped long enough to use the outhouse and then were off again. Too many mosquitoes as well. Once you get out of the Hanakoa valley you enter a dryer terrain. It's also more eroded do to all the domestic goats that escaped and turned wild. This section is trickier with lots of switch backs on crumbling rock that rolls under your feet like marbles. It also has narrow sections of trails along cliffs that require constant attention to your feet because if you trip, you just might die. It started raining lightly and it felt good. We were glad it didn't rain harder because the dirt can get really slippery when wet. We saw lots of goats roaming around on this part of the trail. We planned to stop at the eight mile point where there is this really nice camp area on a bluff overlooking the ocean. We were surprised to find a number of people already there and there was only one place left for us to pitch our tent. That was a little disappointing, but we were too tired to care at that point. One of the people camped there, Bill, has been staying at this spot for nine months. He hikes out about every two weeks to get more food and then hikes back out to the same place. He has sort of claimed this as his own camp ground and played host while we were there, letting us know which spot to pitch our tent, and telling us where he had dug a latrine and hung a tarp for privacy. He also asked us if we had everything we needed and wanted to know if there was anything he could do for us. It was weird! But he was a really nice guy, ex-military, originally from Florida, missing one of his front teeth. There is a nice little creek not far from this camp site with good water, though we treat any water from streams here. We washed up as the stream to get rid of the grime and sweat and then pitched our tent. Then we sat down to eat the rest of our sushi and then to bed. We were both pooped.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205546700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205546700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205546700/tpod.html Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:17:42 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Poipu, Hawaii, United States

This morning I got up early had breakfast and left Dave at the cottage while I went down to the coffee shop to finish uploading images and entries to get caught up with my travelogue. I really like this coffee shop. It's such a nice community supporting environment. Locals as well as tourists mix it up there. Everyone is friendly and every night they have a different event going on. One night they had a teen band playing, another night there was a woman giving a slide presentation of her trip to India, felt pretty familiar. Yet another night they were starting tango lessons. It was fun to watch people learning how to tango for the first time, while I was uploading images. It's really nice that they offer wi-fi for anyone who needs it. They have outlet strips all over the place so people can plug in their laptops. They also have three computers that people can use to access the Internet and I am not sure if anyone has to pay to use these. I'm going to have to ask this question tomorrow. I wish they had something like this in Leavenworth. I especially like all the different activities and events at night. I don't think these is a charge for anyone who uses the facilities for these events. I noticed they also have poetry slams here, though I haven't been down there for any of them. I would have l liked to have seen one.The other community oriented thing they have here is a community radio station. It's really great! They have great music programs, a lot of the local events are promoted and they also hold a lot of interesting events. They invite people to come in to talk and share their music interests on some of the programs. There have been a couple of DJs from other locations, I heard one from Portland, and I'm not sure where the others were from. They come as a guest on the program, so you have two DJs and they bring their own music for the normal DJ to play. I found it all very refreshing. My sister Marilene would love this stuff. It reminds me a lot of some of the things she's been involved with. Kauai is working hard to promote community wide sustainability. It's really nice to see a place where it seems to be working.Hanalei is still one of the cutest little towns that I know. It hasn't grown too much since I was last here. That was reassuring to see. There are a few more commercial buildings there that weren't there before, but overall it still looks like the same cute little town. For instance, the Tropical Taco place where Dave got his fish taco yesterday is still in a little trailer. However, they built a new building around the trailer, or probably they put the trailer into the new building, but the trailer is actually attached to the inside of this building with walls so that the side of the trailer is part of the wall that separates the kitchen from the ordering window. Of course it is all enclosed and there are tables and chairs indoors now as well. Also, of course, the price has gone up significantly. Still, Hanalei bay is still pristine and you see lots of young kids out in the bay with boogie and surf boards.Kapaa however has really gotten crowded. The traffic is terrible! There is a line of cars creeping both directions all day long and into the evening. It is constant creep. I told Dave that after this, anytime I hear him start to complain about Leavenworth traffic, I'm just going to say Kapaa and it will shut him up. Dave and I headed down to Poipu today to hand out for the day. We decided we wanted to stay put in one place for a while and since we were going to do that, we wanted to do it somewhere hot and sunny. The beach was not as crowded as I thought it would be. The sun has been out all day. It's a little windy, but hot so the wind feels good. I'm trying to keep myself properly rotated today to avoid sunburns. No more fried LA for me.I was just telling Dave that this was the first time we had come to Poipu and find no monk seal sunning on the beach. When someone shouted that there was a sea turtle coming up onto the beach and they partitioned her off with a rope like they do the monk seals when they come up on the beach. She is digging a hole and I have a feeling she is thinking about laying eggs. There are a lot of people around her and I don't want to make her too nervous. So, I quickly took my picture of her and left. I hope she does lay eggs there. I'm glad they have her roped off so people will stay away from her.We did some snorkeling and read on the beach for most of the day. When we were feeling well done, we decided it was time to check out Shipwreck Beach. It's not far from here and a lot of surfers use it. Since the surf is up right now, we thought it would be fun too watch them for a while. There was also a wedding going on at this beach. We sat in the shade for a while until we got a little chilled and then moved out into the sun and waited for the wedding ceremony to finish. They blew a conch shell at the beginning and end of the ceremony. On our way back, we stopped at the little town of Koloa to get iced Americanos at Lambert's Ice Creamery. They make really good Americanos here. This is another cute little town with beautiful Monkey trees lining the streets. Some of there trees are going to be cut down to make room for a shopping center of some kind and a lot of the locals are complaining. They have petitions to sign, but some of the trees have already been cut down. I learned today that Koloa means duck. They have a small stream running through town, but I didn't see any ducks around. We were thinking of checking out Kipu Falls on our way home until we got to the parking area. There were a number of cars filled with young locals and they appeared to be sleeping off too much to drink. There were beers cans scattered around their cars. One car had it's door wide open into the road. We didn't feel comfortable about leaving our car unattended. So we left.We had so much food left over from lunch, stopped at Mark's Place to pick up lunch on our way to Poipu, we had more of the same for dinner, along with another salad. I think we still have enough food left over for another meal.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205433840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205433840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205433840/tpod.html Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:48:02 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Kapaa, Hawaii, United States

Today we decided to go back north even though it was cool and windy today and it looked like it was going to rain. We wanted to go to the Limahuli Botanical Garden in Ha'ena because they said it was quite different from the McBride Garden. We had wanted to go to it the last time we were in Kauai, but never made it. We hoped that the day would get nicer later so we could do some snorkeling perhaps at Ke'e beach or Tunnels. I had my doubts because there was still a high waves/winds warning in effect.This garden was really different. It was better labeled with some history about the plant so it was easier to find the plants identified in the brochure, and there were a lot of other plants labeled that were not in the brochure. The brochure was easier to read and the map was much better. Also the trail was well identified so you could figure out where to go to find the identified plants. The National Tropical Botanical Garden runs both of them, but most of their work is done at the other gardens where they have many more acres available. We thought it was sort of like we had gone to the factory yesterday and today we went to the showroom It rained pretty good on us while we were there, but it didn't last long. They have umbrellas for you to use if it rains while you're touring the grounds.The plant that I've been trying to identify was labeled there. It's called an Air Plant. It is a succulent plant native to tropical Africa or India. They didn't have a Hawaiian name for it. The other plant that I had taken a picture of while on the Kalalau trail that I couldn't identify was called a Ohi'a'ai. Hawaiians use this tree as a course of food, dye and medicine. In the spring, beautiful pompom-like flowers appear on the trunk and branches (I have a picture of this, they are red pompoms growing off the branches) followed by deep red, juicy fruit which is enjoyed either fresh or dried.This garden had a lot of endemic plants of Hawaii and Kauai in particular and they are attempting to create a true native forest there without introduced plants. Because of this, some areas have been cleared of canopy trees in order to let the native plants grow. It was a really interesting garden and I'm glad we went to it. I think I enjoyed this one more than I did McBrides. We hung out at Ke'e beach and had lunch since it was right next to the gardens. Dave wanted Anini beach, but before we left we decided to hike up to a cave we hadn't seen, called the Blue Room. It has a lake inside the cave, but they have signs saying you're not aloud to swim in it. It must have been created by the ocean waves back when the shoreline was more inland. From there we went into Hanalei so Dave could try a fish taco at the Tropical Taco, something we have never had, but have always meant to try. It was OK, but I wasn't all that impressed with it. I just had a bite. I wandered around in the shops in Hanalei, but didn't buy anything. It was more of the same kind of stuff. They actually had some cute surfing shorts only they were much too short for my taste. They must be for teens. There was one shop that had some really interesting artifacts from different islands that were interesting, spears, medicine bags with jaws from a small squirrel like critter, tooth and bone necklaces. It was all way too expensive for me though. Dave would have loved it, but he was eating fish taco.We decided to go to Anini beach again because Dave has been reading this geology of Hawaiian Islands book, very interesting book, and had discovered that most of the stuff on Anini beach that we thought was coral is actually coraline, a type of algae, not animal, but plant. So, he had to get a little baggy of sand from that beach so he could take it home and study it under his microscope. We thought we might be able to go snorkeling here, but it was so windy and cold, we didn't want to get in the water. This has been the coldest day yet. We've decided we are going to have to go back to Poipu tomorrow on the south side of the island where it is drier and warmer.We wanted to get some veggies and fruit for dinner and fruit and we had heard that there was a farmers market in Kilauea (where the lighthouse is located) at 4:30 so we headed over there around that time. We got there just a little bit after that time and people were already swarming there. It was crowded with people vying for the best fruit and vegetables before they disappeared. We bought some mixed lettuce, a huge avocado, tomatoes, and cucumber for a salad. We also got a couple small pieces of fresh turmeric (looks a lot like ginger because it is a type of ginger, but more yellow in color.) We bought strawberry guava, papaya, apple bananas, and pineapple for breakfast. Everything looked so good, but we were limited in the amount of cash we had with us and we didn't want to end up with a lot of leftover. It was fun going to this farmers market. So many interesting things to look at.  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205346660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205346660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205346660/tpod.html Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:44:28 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Kapaa, Hawaii, United States

It started raining last night when we were in bed sleeping. It's the first rain we've had on our trip. We've been really lucky. If it had rained yesterday morning, we would not have gotten to go on the trike trip. It rained on and off all morning, but by 10:00 it had stopped. Dave's blisters are looking like they hurt him so we are thinking he might have to call our doctor to see if he would call in a prescription for anti-biotic. First, we're going try getting some disinfectant and bandages to see if we can clear up his infection. Right now his feet hurt too much for him to walk. It's kind of limiting was on what we can do. I left Dave at the coffee shop so he could google on the Internet while I went shopping in Kapaa. There are a lot of small little Hawaiiana shops in Kapaa with some nice things, but I have enough Hawaiiana and I didn't see anything that really jumped out at me. So, I didn't buy anything. Just looked. Later, we went to the Coconut Marketplace, but it was more of the same. We watched a hula show put on by the local girls from the hula school. They made me realize how hard it can be to do some of those dances. There is so much to remember and a lot of timing with the Mauri dances. It was a lot of fun to watch them. They really study hard to stay in the hula school. I was impressed. We found this new type of bandage designed specifically for blisters on feet that is medicated and has a gel type bandage you put over the opened blister. We hope this is going to take care of Dave's feet. My sun burn is starting to feel better so I should be good to do whatever we decide tomorrow. I guess that will depend on the weather and Dave's feet.I took pictures of some of the plants at the cottage. Those are the only pictures I have to share today.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205045460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205045460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205045460/tpod.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:45:30 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Anini Beach, Hawaii, United States

I was still tired this morning so I took my time getting up. We didn't have anything to eat for breakfast so we went down to the Small Town Coffee Co. to try out their breakfast bagels and check email. Then we went to Boss Frogs to rent snorkel gear. We found a 2 for 1 special ad in a magazine, but it turned out that the 2 for 1 was for the old style round masks that don't seal very well. It was the old bait and switch routine. I should have known better. I knew it sounded too good to be true. We still got our snorkel gear from them, but it did irritate me.We headed over to Hideaways beach and snorkeled there for a while. It started to get pretty choppy and made it hard to see much. We kept getting sloshed around. So, we got out, had lunch and then headed over to Anini beach. Anini beach is protected by a reef so we were hoping it wouldn't be as choppy there. However, the sky started to cloud up by the time we got there and the water was still choppy. So, we decided to just hang out on the beach. The locals were having a social get together at the park. There was a big crowd, live music, a volleyball net was set up, though there wasn't anyone playing and they had a blow-up water slide for the kids. It was fun to watch everyone laughing and having fun. Hawaiians are good at doing community events. We are always running into some fun social thing with the locals. Later, we stopped at the Kapaa Craft Fair.I forgot to mention that this morning Dave and I made reservations this coming Tuesday for a one hour tour on powered hang-gliders with a tour company called Birds of Paradise. They will take us, each of us on separate hang-gliders, through Waimea canyon and over to the Napali coast. These are hang-gliders that also have a motor, called "trikes" so they have much more control of where they can go. We saw them flying over Kalalau while we were there and I noticed that sometimes they turn off the motor and just glide. They supply you with suits to stay warm, helmet, gloves and a parachute just to be safe. You are given safety instructions before you leave so it's more than just a tour, it's kind of a beginning lesson as well. They also have a camera mounted on the front of the trike and they supply you with a DVD of your trip for a little more. I can't imagine a better place to try something like this. It should be one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that I love. It looked like so much fun, I can't wait.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205128980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205128980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1205128980/tpod.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:05:35 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Poipu, Hawaii, United States

Today we headed for the south beach area where we had a better chance for good weather and calmer waters. We stopped at Mark's Place to get something for lunch. Boy, is this a great place to get local food! It's really good, there's a great selection, and it's cheap. I got a sushi salad, looked a lot like chirashi which is a Japanese sushi dish that is not rolled but sprinkled with nori instead. Dave got a combo plate of something that looked like chow mein, some adobo pork, and macaroni salad, a very typical Hawaiian comb plate. It was all really good. The sun came out right about when we got to Poipu beach. We immediately went snorkeling. The beach was pretty crowded and a lot of people snorkeling. There w as a monk seal hanging out on the beach and when he got too hot he would wiggle down to the water and dip himself in to cool off and then crawl back up onto the beach and sleep some more.Snorkeling is pretty good here even though it's crowded and you have t o watch out for other snorkelers. Lots of different fish to see. The weather was really nice, sunny and hot. The water was calmer than anywhere else we had been, though still not as calm as we would have liked. We snorkeled for a while, then I got out to make down all the different fish I had seen. Then, I went back in for a while. I came out to add the rest of the fish I had seen while Dave stayed out for a while. I could soon tell that I was getting burned. Dave came out and we decided to eat lunch and then head out since I thought I had gotten enough sun. I ended up burned on one side pretty ripe red. It is going to hurt for a couple days at least. It's one of the worst burns I've received. Just on one side of my body though. We stopped at the old town of Hanapepe and I looked around while Dave sat in the car. His feet were still hurting from blisters and he didn't want to walk around. There was one artist that did oils of her garden and I really liked her work. She did close-ups of plants that played with color, light and shadow. I decided these would make great paper collages. I'm going to try to take some pictures of plants that I can use to create a similar look, but in 3D.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204933860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204933860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilly_annew/3/1204933860/tpod.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:46:05 -0400 Sun Worshipping in Kauai. Give Me that Sun and Sand, Please!

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Haena, Hawaii, United States

Today we got up pretty early, had breakfast and packed up everything. Then we hiked to the trailhead of the Kalalau Valley trail and dropped our packs. It's about a quarter of a mile back up the Kalalau coast trail so we didn't want to have to go back to pack up. We haven't been up the valley trail before and we had heard that there were a lot of old settlement remains like stone walls and some stones used as tools for grinding so we thought it would be interesting to hike up it. We found some lemon trees not far from the trailhead, but neither one of us felt like climbing up the tree to reach the ripe ones that were near the tree top. The whole valley was green with moss growing over everything, especially on the stone walls. Such and enchanting place. There were large forests of ficus trees. The Kalalau river flows through this valley and we crossed it a number of times as we followed the trail. Actually, the main trail was hard to follow because there were so many branching trails that it was easy to end up back at the beach, which happened to us once. We ran into a group that we met at the 8 mile camp site and they had already been up the valley a couple of times. Since they were going the same way we were we followed them for a while. At one point we came across one of the squatters that was attempting to bathe in the stream. One of the guys in the group kept asking him for directions to the waterfall he was trying to find. He didn't seem to understand, or maybe he just didn't care, that the guy was a little uncomfortable standing there in the nude in the stream. He was trying to cover himself with his towel, but trying to not be conspicuously uncomfortable. Nudity is pretty common around Kalalau, but usually those who are comfortable with their nudity, don't cover up. It was like he was trying to be hip about it, but not really succeeding. The group was moving fast since they had already been up the trail and we wanted to take our time to see things and take pictures, so when we came to a forest of bamboo, we held back to take some pictures and let them get ahead of us. There were large thickets of Hau trees which are a kind of Hibiscus with large yellow flowers with ruby red centers. These thickets are so twisted with branches as large as my arm in diameter that it is difficult to get through them. Someone has cut paths and propped up branches using branches they cut off to make a path to get through these thickets. It looked like a lot of work. Eventually, we came to the end of the trail where there were some pretty pools along the river that was now more like a small stream. We stopped here for lunch and headed back. On our way back we took a spur trail to see where it would lead. It came to a lovely garden with a little creek that meandered through it. I say garden because it was obvious that someone had planted impatiens along the creek and had cleared this area. It looked maintained. We discovered a couple sitting in a little clearing by the creek and apparently just chatting. I had heard that there was a community garden here that the squatters shared and I think we had just come upon it. We stayed long enough to take some pictures because it was a lovely garden. Then we headed back to our packs. We had another orange for a snack before we started off to the 8 mile camp site. While we were sitting there this gorgeous nude black man walked down to the creek. He was tall. sleek and sinewy. Wow, I think I was actually drooling. J Here I have to say that the majority of people I saw around the Kalalau area that were obviously living there on and off were all in super shape. They were all lean, muscular, yet sinewy like an Olympic athlete. Men and women alike. Obviously, something about this lifestyle was good for them. Since most of them tried to live off the land as much as possible we figured they didn't eat nearly as much as a couch potato. Also, it's strenuous getting around anywhere in this valley. I wanted to take a picture of this man so I could share it with the gals to say, see what sights you are missing! However, I didn't think it was appropriate and I refrained. Let me just say, gals, you missed some fabulous sights, indeed! There were many sightings of similar specimens. For you men, there were a number of female sightings as well. We got back to 8 mile camp to find Bill still there. No big surprise. We washed up at the creek, it felt so good to get cleaned up as much as you could with no soap. We went back and I put up the tent. Bill offered to boil some water for tea and coffee, being the lovely host that he is. He also offered us dinner of black beans and rice, but I really wanted to eat as much of our food as we could so we wouldn't have to carry it out. Bill told us that he was going back into town in the morning as well so he could restock. So, it didn't make sense to leave it with him since he wouldn't be there to eat it. I didn't want to throw it out, having carried it this far. So we declined his offer. We did give him some of our mixed nuts and cranberries. Even if he didn't eat them right away, he could use them when he got back from town.I've been thinking about our vacation trips lately and I've come to realize that what really makes the trips fun and exciting is the newness of the experiences. As much as I have enjoyed being in Kauai again, it hasn't been the same as the first time because it's all familiar. I already know what to expect. I've often thought about investing in a place somewhere in Kauai because I love the climate and the plant life. Now that I've come back to Kauai, I realize what really intrigued me was the new experience. I had never been to any place tropical before my first trip to Kauai. Now that I've also been to India and Belize, I realize what I really liked about Kauai was the new experience. So, I've decided I may never return to Kauai because there are too many places in the world I have yet to explore. Rather than go back to places I've already been, I want to go to some place new each time.
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