Photos from last day on island

Entry by Rebecca

We have returned to Seattle. Here are photos that we took prior to leaving Kauai. Many were taken while walking around the Sheraton Resort in Poipu (sp?) that we were staying at.













Here is the same photo after adjusted via photoshop. I followed the directions on this website....
http://www.projectwoman.com/2009/02/photoshop-fixing-photos-shot-from.html

Northern Kauai

Entry by Mark


Rebecca and I played in surf around the hotel yesterday during the morning, and then drove to the eastern and northern parts of the island yesterday afternoon. It gave me an idea of the size of the island. Also, it really reinforced the nickname of the "Garden Island" for Kauai. Everything is very lush here, and the people who live here are very cheerful and friendly. Our tour guide during the Allerton Garden tour said that he came here for Spring Break in the early 60's and never went home. I can see why.

One of the stops we made along the way was a quilting shop for Rebecca to browse. I loved this shop mainly because it had a nice deck out front with comfy chairs and I had a very nice nap in one. Every store should adopt this approach and everyone would be much happier. There were also nice flowers at front and I distracted myself for while taking photos.





We drove all the way until the road ended on the north of island (or at least until the road dissolved to the point we were afraid to even take the rental car)(this place is like a testing facility for cars, only the strong survive). I think the beach was called the "Tunnels Beach" because there were tunnels carved into the cliffs, but I am not sure.




Every beach has lava rocks laying about (obviously).





I took about 20 pictures of this shell, this the one that turned out the most clear. The shell itself is only about a 1/4" long, so my camera was having a difficult time trying to figure out what I was trying to focus on.




Everywhere you turn, you see lush growth.





Rebecca took most of the photos on this today, including alot of the close-ups on the items on the beach and the mountain views. Here is an artsy photo of the foam on top of the water.




Rebecca found many interesting rocks, coral and shells on the beach.







This is from a scenic overlook.




On the way back, Rebecca took several pictures from the car (I think I offered to stop, but we were ready to go home and there weren't many places to pull over). They turned out great and give an idea of the geography of the land.

Artsy picture

Entry by Mark

Obviously I need a new camera (or at least a tripod). I was trying to get a picture of the moon and a palm tree.

Allerton Garden Tour

Entry by Mark

Rebecca and I went on the Allerton Garden Tour at the National Botanical Gardens near our hotel. I only have time to post the photos. It was a great day for a stroll through a garden.

Here is there web address
http://ntbg.org/gardens/allerton-tours.php

More mud than a Northern Cascades trail

Entry by Mark

On Monday, Rebecca and I drove up to the top of Waimea Canyon and hiked the Pihea and Alakai Swamp trails. The book warned of how muddy the trail would be and how we should bring shoes we didn't care about. As you can see, we appreciate their warning.

The trail was wonderful and quite the adventure. The views when the clouds opened up were good, but limited. Today (Tuesday) is incredible weather, I wonder what the views would look like today (but not enough to swim through the mud again). All our northwest hiking in rain prepared us for this trail.

At the end of this post has pictures of the canyon itself. They call it the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific", and from the pictures you can see why.


http://www.hawaii-guide.com/index.php/kauai/spot/pihea_trail/



The tour book and the woman at the museum said the trail was "very muddy for the first mile, until you hit the boardwalk". We took the following picture to show how great we had been staying (relatively) clean getting to the boardwalk. Unfortunately, it was only a 30 foot long stretch of the boardwalk, and we had alot more mud to travel before getting to the real thing.




I didn't take a photo at the beginning of the "real" boardwalk, but I did take a photo of our feet when we turned around (we had set a time to turn back, and we stuck to it. The days are much shorter here compared to the northwest, and it goes from "day" to "night" much quicker because the sun plunges straight into the water instead of lingering at the horizon forever as it does in Seattle)(also, I had brought a great little flashlight all the way from home, but left it at the hotel). As you can see from the photo, we didn't stay clean the whole time.







This was taken very early in the hike. Look how spotless we were.




This is Waimea Canyon.




This is the Grand Canyon (in Arizona) for comparison.

Hawaii pictures

Entry by Mark
Rebecca and I have been enjoying our vacation. We have been missing J, but have been getting e-mail update and sounds like she is having a wonderful time with Rebecca's parents.

We spent Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning at Waikiki on Oahu. The weather was a mix of light rain and sun, and we have been enjoying the really warm weather. Yesterday morning we took the bus to the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. There is two parts to a normal visit there. First you visit the museum and theater, then they take small groups to the memorial that has been built above the USS Arizona, which still sits where it sank in the shallow water. I really enjoyed the visit, it was great to be able to see in real life a place that I have learned about in so many history books.

We didn't take many pictures, but here are photos of Rebecca and myself in the visitor center.






The rest of Saturday we walked around Waikiki and saw the beach, shops and people walking around. In the evening, we had a extremely nice dinner at Dukes which is right on the beach.



This morning, we woke up to nice weather. This is a photo of the early morning from our balcony at the Waikiki Sand Villa.




This afternoon we flew from Honolulu to Kauai on a small jet. I paid much closer attention to the instructions about what to do in case of a water landing, as that is all that is possible if you don't make it to Kauai. As soon as you land, you realize that Kauai has an even more laid back feeling to it than Oahu. All you see if lush greenery everywhere. Before we went to the hotel, we drove out to see Wailua Falls which are near the airport. On the drive up to the falls, it was as if the vegetation was growing by the minute trying to recapture the roadway.





Also this afternoon, we went to see the Spouting horn. It is a natural blowhole that shoots water up into the air about 20 feet. There is another blowhole nearby that makes a spooky groaning sound each time also. The legends say that a giant female lizard called a mo'o protected the whole coastline and would capture and eat all that came near. One day a great warrior came and when the lizard came out, he speared it. The sound is the lizard still moaning in pain.



As you can tell from the photos, we are having wonderful weather. Everyone that we talk to says we have arrived at the perfect time, before we arrived they had been going through a week and a half of wind and rain.