The Garden Isle
February 24th to March 3rd
with good friends John and Susan Wachsman

This is a very popular beach. Travel Channel named Poipu among the 10 best American beaches.  The unusual reef formations account for the calm water and white sand.

After a long airplane ride, it felt good to go for a walk on the beach in the sun.

This was our first introduction to the wild fowl that roam freely all over the island.
They were first introduced to the island by Captain Cook in 1778.  There are no natural predators for chickens, including snakes, so they proliferate. I would be reluctant to lay in the ...err grass.

This looks like a good place to eat.

Let's check out the menu.

Looks good.

And it was.

The view of the beach and ocean wasn't bad either.

Time to head to our timeshare. The Pono Kia Resort near Kapaa.

This resort is in a great location on the East shore.  The water was always calm and within walking distance to Kapaa.

Our condo still wasn't ready. So we explored the property.  They had a wonderful pool, tennis courts, ping-pong, bocce ball court, croquet court and several putting greens.

We discovered this wonderful path for several miles along the coast and to kill time we started to walk.

Soon we spotted a restaurant with a balcony overlooking the ocean and decided it was time for happy hour.

Note to self:  Photoshop has it's limits.

Finally, we are assigned a room.

We're on the ground floor with the ocean about 500 feet across the grass.
 Sure hope this isn't tsunami season.

Day 2 started with a walk to Kapaa and our favorite coffee shop.

We had lunch with Jerry and Sandy who were on the Rick Steve's Best of Europe tour in 2011.

They live half the year on Kauai and had lots of suggestions on what to do and where to go on Kauai.

After lunch we selected our top activities and made a plan.

2011 in Bacharach, Germany

 Too late to start a new activity. Soooo why not pull out the bidding boxes for a few hands of bridge.

We decided to try one of the recommended fancy restaurants within walking distance (1.5 miles). We arrived early; however, there were no tables available until 9:30 pm. So we decided to eat in the bar.

The consequence of this late dinner was a harrowing walk back in the pitch black darkness next to a busy highway.

Two hours and 3 pina koladas later our food was delivered.

My meatloaf was almost worth the wait.

Jerry and Sandy told us that Waimea Canyon is a must see attraction but only if it is an absolutely perfectly clear day.  When we woke up this morning it was a clear day so the trip to Waimea Canyon went to the top of our list.

Waimea Canyon is described as a large canyon, 10 miles long and 3,000 feet deep. It was formed by a catastrophic collapse of the volcano that created Kauai and then was eroded and sculptured by runoff from Mount Wai'ale'ale, one of the wettest places on earth.

It was a two hour drive to the canyon.  As we got closer to the lookout, the clouds started to close in and there was heavy mist.  This is what we saw.
 
At 3,495 feet, it was cold and the wind was blowing hard. We didn't stay very long.

By the time we reach the highest lookout, it was raining, bitterly cold and all you could see was white.  Who said Hawaii was always warm and sunny?
 

Susan was thrilled to find a warm fire.

At the Kokee Lodge Restaurant
 

Next on our list of activities was a tour of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. However, two navigators and three GPS map apps failed to find the entrance. John's direction was for me to "drive toward the ocean until your hat floats then turn right".  We did eventually find the entrance only to learn the gardens were 5 miles away, you needed reservations, and the last tour had already departed. So far, our day was zero for 2.   But wait, it gets better.

The Spouting Horn Park was only a mile away. This place is right on the coast and is known for its blow holes. Blow holes are rock cliffs with hollowed out tubes. When the waves crash into the cliff, water is forced into the tube resulting in a spout of water shooting out the other end of the tube usually into the air. At least that's the description. When we got there the waves were so calm there were no spouts. Strike 3!

On the way back to the timeshare, we decided to drowned our sorrows in the famous Lappert Hawaian Ice Cream.

 We got lucky and found the plant that makes the ice cream for the whole island chain.  It's not much to look at but the ice cream is outstanding.

 My personal favorite...

Carmel Cashew Turtle Cluster

Drove to the north side of the island. Stopped at Kayak Hanalei.  They gave us waterproof bags to protect our valuables.

 Time for lunch while watching the kayaks and paddle boards on the river

Today we returned to the North coast.  First stop was the Kilauea Lighthouse.
This was by far the best lighthouse exhibit I have ever visited.

On the walk to the lighthouse you pass through the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge. Those are thousands of Red-footed Boobies nesting on the hillside.

 Great day for whale watching.

Don't feed the seagulls.

Lunch at a Thai restaurant in the Princeville Mall.
You had to fight off the chickens to defend your food.

We arrive at the Botanical Gardens just in time to see them lock the gate. Turns out they close at 3 pm on Friday but it didn't matter because the tours have been booked for two days.

This is a must see on our next visit.

This is the premiere garden on the island. We only got a taste of the 120 bronze sculptures.

Nothing left to do but search out the water falls on the Wailua River. The first one you could only see from the road about 800 yards away.

The Wailua Falls was at the end of a windy road with a good view point. Didn't see any people at the bottom of the falls so we assumed there was no access.

By this time we're ready for happy hour and decide to stop by the Koloa Rum Company for a little rum tasting.

To taste rum you have to be 21 and they were very strict about checking identification. The only problem…Susan left her ID in the timeshare. No amount of common sense could persuade the attendant to let Susan into the tasting room.
Not wanting to leave Susan behind we talked her into camouflaging her looks and using Barbara's ID. The attendant didn't buy it and tattled on her to the tasting room manager. After that we could not talk Susan into sneaking in with us.

On the half hour, only 16 people are let into the tasting room.

The bar tender was very entertaining.  He said the best way to enjoy a Mai Tai is to pour the dark rum on top of the pineapple juice and simple sugar mix, then toss it back all in one gulp.

No joy here, all I got was a strong taste of rum and very little mix.

This time we got smart and made a reservation for this tour 2 days in advance. The only access to this garden is by guided tour.  The tour group is taken by bus about 1 mile to the garden entrance. Our guide was terrific:
 

Robert Allerton made his money in Chicago in livestock, banking and real estate. In 1936 he bought 80 acres and began a life long landscaping project.

 I took this photo from the bus on the road into the garden. Once I saw this view, I got real excited about seeing the rest of the garden.  That's the Allerton residence.

There are a thousand opportunities for photographs.  I'll try and restrain myself.

Three Pools

Dina's Fountain

This was a very educational garden tour.  Here's an example:

I learned there are two kinds of bamboo...Clumping and Running.  Running is the kind that spreads vigorously.
Clumping has a very short root structure and can not spread more than a few inches a year.  This grove is the Clumping kind.

Now here's the part that surprised me...the guide said they grow up to 18" every 24 hours.

Here's another example.  I've never seen or heard of anything like this fountain design.

That trough is 100 feet long with a 3% grade. The sections where the width narrows contain finely tuned baffles. As the water flows downhill and hits a baffle, a back wave is generated.  This results in a undulation that pulses between 52 and 54 beats per minute.

If one were to sit quietly by the end of the fountain his heart rate would tend to synchronize with the beat of the fountain.

These are Moreton Bay Fig Trees.  This exact location was used in the 1992 Jurassic Park film.  It's where the kids found the dinosaur eggs.

Watch out Barb, I think there may be some dinosaurs still roaming around this place.

After the garden tour, we drove to Port Allen to catch Capt. Andy's Na Pali Dinner Sunset Sail.

When we arrived we learned the cruise was cancelled because of 25 to 35 foot waves.

Very disappointing.  We had to drown our sorrows with another stop at Lappert's Ice Cream Shope.

On our last full day in Kauai, our only adventure was walking to Kapaa for breakfast and again for dinner. The restaurant is on the second floor overlooking main street with a great view.
This evening, the town was alive with people and bands.
 

Come on guys...it's our last night...help me eat this.

Aloha