Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Five years and counting…
Roger and I celebrated our 5th anniversary the last week of May by returning to the place of our honeymoon.
We left home on Saturday morning (about 5:00 AM) and arrived at the condo in Kauai at 6:00 PM that evening. We got settled in and after two pieces of chicken and a bottle of wine we were ready for some sleep but… We forced ourselves to stay up until 8:30 so we would not be awake before daylight.
Now I know it does not seem like much time to be awake until you realize that 8:30 PM in Kauai is really 11:30 PM in Washington. It really was a long day.
Needless to say, Sunday was our day of rest; really, rest. It wasn’t until towards the end of the day that we finally ventured out and that was because we were hungry. On our return to the condo we stopped in to see one of the units they had for sale in the same complex we were staying. Nice, cozy (about the size of our condo in Laguna Woods), beautifully furnished and asking $1.5M. Wow!
Monday: This morning we had scheduled a bus tour of the island. The tour began at 9:00 AM and ended at 6:00 PM. We now have an idea of places we want to revisit and places we have no desire to return to. Kauai is a beautiful island. I’m sure it would have been more beautiful had I not forgotten my relief band (motion sickness watch). Carol, our bus driver, was very informative and took us on a few roads that were not exactly on the tour route (not particularly wide and not particularly well maintained).
The Kauai 'Grand Canyon'. 
Sugar Mill and yours truly. 
The view from the top of one very bumpy road.
A tree in bloom. 
Entertainment on the return from the Fern Grotto.
Tuesday: Today we walked up to the golf course for brunch. This little bird was insistent about dining with us.
He's a Red Headed Cardinal. 
After brunch we continued our walk to see another open house. This one was really a ‘house’. Two stories, cherry wood floors, open design with beautiful views of the golf course and ocean. The asking price was $1.8M. I don’t think we’re moving to Kauai any time soon; unless (of course) my philanthropic uncle decides to fork over a large chunk of money. Oh yes, I don’t have an uncle do I?
On the return trip we saw a couple of people on the golf course with what appeared to be a small animal. There are signs posted all along the walk that people were not allowed to walk on the golf course. I know, curiosity killed the cat and we were curious as to what was going on. So, onto the golf course we went.
What we saw was two ladies trying to touch a chick (baby bird). This ‘chick’ was about the size of a very large chicken or a medium size turkey. The bird was also not afraid of people (it’s a golf course, remember). There were signs posted around the ‘chick’ stating, “The chick has not been abandoned.” Even with all of the posted signs the ladies were getting too close. I pointed out the signs to the ladies and they backed off. BTW: the ‘chick’ was/is an Albatross (aka Gooney bird).
We snapped this photo and continued back to the condo. We did ‘check on him/her’ each day but from a safe distance. There was no telling when Mom and Dad would return. Evidently they do often enough to warrant an Albatross Crossing sign.
Wednesday: I was sitting on the lanai this morning looking out at the ocean and enjoying the fresh air and quiet beauty of the landscape. I could see something in the water but couldn’t quite make out what it was. I picked up the binoculars form the table and looked out to see a pod of dolphins chasing fish through the water. Both the fish and the dolphins were jumping out of the water. What a sight. I just wish I had thought of the camera.
Wednesday afternoon we took an aerial tour of the island. We sat in front with the pilot. Roger has such connections, or maybe it’s because I was the only one who suffers from motion sickness. It was a great trip and we had a good time. I’ve found out also that the relief band has its limits. It doesn’t seem to help when there are sudden drops and many bumps.
Waterfalls... 
Calderas,
and the Ne Pali coast line...
Thursday: There are many feral chickens on the island and we are awakened each morning to the sound of the roosters crowing. This morning I heard one of the roosters raising a such a ruckus I got up to see what he was upset about. It seems that a trio of endangered Hawaiian Wild Geese (called Né Né) were invading the rooster's territory. His squawking didn't seem to bother the geese. In fact one of the geese challenged the rooster. Evidently embarrassed, the rooster began chasing off the smaller birds. (I think the hens must have been watching).
We drove to the end of the road to Kaá Beach to explore the cave and beach. We also hiked up the trail (about a 45 minute climb) to catch the view of the Nepali Coast. I can definitely say that we got our cardio-vascular exercise that morning. A young man at the bottom of the trail was selling water (and soft drinks) for $4.00 a can. Sounded expensive to me but he told us he was making more money selling soft drinks than he was making working a 9-5 job as a computer technician. It’s a tough climb and there are a lot of thirsty people who make the climb on a whim like we did. No, I didn’t pay $4.00; I had my water with me.
My hero (in the cave) 
Footprints
Look it's easy... 
And steep.
But we made it.
The other side of the Ne Pali Coast and the beach from which we hiked.
We made it back down safely.
We had reservations at the Princeville Hotel for dinner. I think I could get used to this.
Photo by the fountain 
Friday: This is our last day here at the condo and tomorrow will be a long day for us. We passed the morning just talking, napping and watching the surfers and sail boats. This afternoon we walked down the steep hill to the beach to do some snorkeling.
Saturday: Until next time; we packed our stuff, loaded up the rental car and headed out towards the airport. It’s 10:00 AM and our plane does not leave until 6:00 PM so we stopped along the way to visit a street fair, the light house and bird sanctuary.
Roger resting... A pretty tree at the street fair... Bird sanctuary...
We finally arrived home about noon on Sunday. We had an eight-hour wait between leaving our condo and our flight from Kauai to Oahu; a 2 ½ hour layover for our departure from Oahu to Seattle and a five hour layover in Seattle for our flight to Pullman. Gosh it’s nice to be home.
Roger and I celebrated our 5th anniversary the last week of May by returning to the place of our honeymoon.
We left home on Saturday morning (about 5:00 AM) and arrived at the condo in Kauai at 6:00 PM that evening. We got settled in and after two pieces of chicken and a bottle of wine we were ready for some sleep but… We forced ourselves to stay up until 8:30 so we would not be awake before daylight.
Now I know it does not seem like much time to be awake until you realize that 8:30 PM in Kauai is really 11:30 PM in Washington. It really was a long day.
Needless to say, Sunday was our day of rest; really, rest. It wasn’t until towards the end of the day that we finally ventured out and that was because we were hungry. On our return to the condo we stopped in to see one of the units they had for sale in the same complex we were staying. Nice, cozy (about the size of our condo in Laguna Woods), beautifully furnished and asking $1.5M. Wow!
Monday: This morning we had scheduled a bus tour of the island. The tour began at 9:00 AM and ended at 6:00 PM. We now have an idea of places we want to revisit and places we have no desire to return to. Kauai is a beautiful island. I’m sure it would have been more beautiful had I not forgotten my relief band (motion sickness watch). Carol, our bus driver, was very informative and took us on a few roads that were not exactly on the tour route (not particularly wide and not particularly well maintained).
The Kauai 'Grand Canyon'. 
Sugar Mill and yours truly. 
The view from the top of one very bumpy road.
A tree in bloom. 
Entertainment on the return from the Fern Grotto.Tuesday: Today we walked up to the golf course for brunch. This little bird was insistent about dining with us.
He's a Red Headed Cardinal. 
After brunch we continued our walk to see another open house. This one was really a ‘house’. Two stories, cherry wood floors, open design with beautiful views of the golf course and ocean. The asking price was $1.8M. I don’t think we’re moving to Kauai any time soon; unless (of course) my philanthropic uncle decides to fork over a large chunk of money. Oh yes, I don’t have an uncle do I?
On the return trip we saw a couple of people on the golf course with what appeared to be a small animal. There are signs posted all along the walk that people were not allowed to walk on the golf course. I know, curiosity killed the cat and we were curious as to what was going on. So, onto the golf course we went.
What we saw was two ladies trying to touch a chick (baby bird). This ‘chick’ was about the size of a very large chicken or a medium size turkey. The bird was also not afraid of people (it’s a golf course, remember). There were signs posted around the ‘chick’ stating, “The chick has not been abandoned.” Even with all of the posted signs the ladies were getting too close. I pointed out the signs to the ladies and they backed off. BTW: the ‘chick’ was/is an Albatross (aka Gooney bird).
We snapped this photo and continued back to the condo. We did ‘check on him/her’ each day but from a safe distance. There was no telling when Mom and Dad would return. Evidently they do often enough to warrant an Albatross Crossing sign.
Wednesday: I was sitting on the lanai this morning looking out at the ocean and enjoying the fresh air and quiet beauty of the landscape. I could see something in the water but couldn’t quite make out what it was. I picked up the binoculars form the table and looked out to see a pod of dolphins chasing fish through the water. Both the fish and the dolphins were jumping out of the water. What a sight. I just wish I had thought of the camera.
Wednesday afternoon we took an aerial tour of the island. We sat in front with the pilot. Roger has such connections, or maybe it’s because I was the only one who suffers from motion sickness. It was a great trip and we had a good time. I’ve found out also that the relief band has its limits. It doesn’t seem to help when there are sudden drops and many bumps.
Waterfalls... 
Calderas,and the Ne Pali coast line...
Thursday: There are many feral chickens on the island and we are awakened each morning to the sound of the roosters crowing. This morning I heard one of the roosters raising a such a ruckus I got up to see what he was upset about. It seems that a trio of endangered Hawaiian Wild Geese (called Né Né) were invading the rooster's territory. His squawking didn't seem to bother the geese. In fact one of the geese challenged the rooster. Evidently embarrassed, the rooster began chasing off the smaller birds. (I think the hens must have been watching).
We drove to the end of the road to Kaá Beach to explore the cave and beach. We also hiked up the trail (about a 45 minute climb) to catch the view of the Nepali Coast. I can definitely say that we got our cardio-vascular exercise that morning. A young man at the bottom of the trail was selling water (and soft drinks) for $4.00 a can. Sounded expensive to me but he told us he was making more money selling soft drinks than he was making working a 9-5 job as a computer technician. It’s a tough climb and there are a lot of thirsty people who make the climb on a whim like we did. No, I didn’t pay $4.00; I had my water with me.
My hero (in the cave) 
Footprints
Look it's easy... 
And steep.
But we made it.
The other side of the Ne Pali Coast and the beach from which we hiked.
We made it back down safely.We had reservations at the Princeville Hotel for dinner. I think I could get used to this.
Photo by the fountain 
Friday: This is our last day here at the condo and tomorrow will be a long day for us. We passed the morning just talking, napping and watching the surfers and sail boats. This afternoon we walked down the steep hill to the beach to do some snorkeling.
Saturday: Until next time; we packed our stuff, loaded up the rental car and headed out towards the airport. It’s 10:00 AM and our plane does not leave until 6:00 PM so we stopped along the way to visit a street fair, the light house and bird sanctuary.
Roger resting... A pretty tree at the street fair... Bird sanctuary...
We finally arrived home about noon on Sunday. We had an eight-hour wait between leaving our condo and our flight from Kauai to Oahu; a 2 ½ hour layover for our departure from Oahu to Seattle and a five hour layover in Seattle for our flight to Pullman. Gosh it’s nice to be home.
# posted by JacquelineKD @ 4:39 PM 
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We sure had a great time ... but do we have to wait five years to go back? I hope not. Kauai is what Hawaii is all about!
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