Monday in Kauai, November 30, 2015

Martha and Ben went hiking in Waimea Valley, while Megan, Patty and I went scuba diving with Garden Isle Divers.  We met them in Port Allen in Eleele and set out for two dives.  We were the only divers on the boat and chose to be led on both dives by their divemaster.

On both dives, we saw lots of sea life, but much of the coral was bleached out.  The second dive was to an area where there was a turtle cleaning station - a place where fish will eat the algae and other growth off the turtles' shells.  As we arrived, we could see turtles surfacing around the boat.  On previous dives, the turtles would usually leave as soon as divers entered the water - but not here.  There were so many turtles that hung around we could not count them all.  And they were just relaxed, lounging around - they were not trying to evade us divers.  In one case, I had to move out of the way for the turtle to get by me as he came out from under a coral shelf.  And these turtles were huge - many were as long from head to tail as we were from head to toe, and were three to four feet wide as well.

After the dives, we contacted Martha and Ben, and met up with them at Kauai Island Brewery and Grill for some locally brewed beers and a yummy lunch. 

Sunday in Kauai, November 29, 2015

Sunday was an easy day.  We all had breakfast together at the condo.  Then Martha, Megan and Patty went to the Spa Makaiwa for three hours.  They had seen the spa when we were there for our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday evening at Hukilau Lanai Restaurant.

Kauai is very green and lush because of all the rain it gets.  We got rained on many times during our stay but also had much exposure to the the sun.  We saw many rainbows as we were out and about Sunday.  These photos were from our afternoon walk along the beach in the state park to which our condo was adjacent.

Saturday in Kauai, November 28, 2015

Saturday, we went north together.  Our first stop was the Kileaua Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge.

We had a fantastic tour of the lighthouse with an excellent volunteer docent.

The lighthouse lens and inner workings were made in France and shipped to Hawaii, with assembly instructions in French.  We also learned about the first airplane flight made only a month after Lindbergh flew to Europe.  After failure of all the minimal navigational aids, the US Army crew flying the plane finally saw the light from this lighthouse and allowed them to turn and safely land in Oahu after more than 24 hours of continuous flying.

We continued north and stopped for lunch at Pinks Creamary in Hanalei.  The town is a bit touristy, but still a nice stop.  Just north of town, where the Hanalei river enters the ocean, they have been reviving the former wetlands.

We continued on to the Limahuli Botanical Gardens in Kalaheo.  There is a wonderful self guided tour through the gardens which took us a couple of hours - a pleasant hike up the hillside to see it all.

At the top of trail, there were nice views of the surrounding wilderness.

We continued on to the end of the road on the northwest part of Kauai and reached Ke'e beach in Haena State Park.  The beach was beautiful and we stayed to watch the sun set.

Thanksgiving in Kauai

This year, Megan flew from Ketchikan, Ben and Martha from Portland, and Patty and I from Phoenix - and we all arrived in Kauai on Thanksgiving Day.  We rented a condo for the week.  This is the view from the living room deck.

In America, we used to be proud of our motto "E Pluribus Unum" - out of many, one people.  Kauai has their own version.

Our condo was in a very nice area of Kauai - not millionaire's row, but still very nice, with a state park in one direction and a golf course in the other direction, all three (including our condo) along the eastern shore of the island.  But ever since Hurricane Iniki in 1992 destroyed chicken enclosures, there have been feral chickens and roosters all over the island.  And I mean everywhere, with the roosters crowing regularly through out the day - from before day break until after dusk.

 

And they are quite brazen, coming up to check me out when I was sitting on a park bench.

And here is the pool for our condo.  The tikis burn until the pool closes at 11:00.

Because we flew on Thanksgiving Day, we did not get to have our Thanksgiving dinner until Friday night.  We went to Hukilau Lanai Restaurant and had a fine evening together.  We did not have turkey, but instead several varieties of fish - but we were together for Thanksgiving for the first time in many years.  I think the last time we were all together for Thanksgiving may have been in 2007 before Megan graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh and while we were all still in New England.