Walk to the Beach House

We decided to take a long walk down the beach and the blues and greens were just spectacular. And then it happened....I had seen a picture of a beautiful water lily in a coffee table book of Kauai, and I talked Kevin into going into the Plantation Gardens to see if they still had water lilies. Not only did they have lily pad ponds, but they had hundreds of orchids, and heliconia, and an entire cactus garden that must have been 100 years old. It was then, that I fell in love with the flower of Kaua'i. Oh my goodness...and me with a new camera!

Snorkeling and finding Sea Turtles

We love to walk along the coast, looking for sea turtles. They were everywhere, this year. Not hard to find at all. This is our favorite snorkeling beach. We walk over the hill from the condo and watch the sunset from here most evenings -- and almost always there are sea turtles right along the beach.

Pihea Lookout

We decided on a whim to go to Pu'u'o Kila Lookout where you can see the NaPali Coast and Mt. Wai'ale'ale (5148'). I've always wanted to see the top of the mountain (which you can see from many places on the island), but it has always been covered in clouds. We've gone to Pu'u'o Kila Lookout several times before, and it's always been misty and cloudy. And quite naturally so, since it's just on the other side of Mt. Wai'ale'ale, the wettest spot on earth. With 440 inches of rain a year, it rains all of the time. But I wanted to go on a hike -- and I had brought my hiking boots for just a time as this.

When we got there, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Not a cloud in the sky - the whole day. It was amazing. "A one in the million kind of day" according to the woman at the Ke'e Museum.

So we took her advice and decided to hike to Pihea Lookout...a moderately strenuous hike mind you -- which means that at some points you are climbing hand over hand up the "trail," holding onto the the roots and trying to find a place to put your foot. What fun! Seriously fun! I was glad that I'd been getting a little exercise climbing the stairs at work.

The only bummer was that my camera broke. So there we are on and absolutely gorgeous day with no camera...but my phone. So we decided to live in the "now" and just enjoy it. We'd have to record the memory in our minds. Until a nice couple from Spokane volunteered to take our photo and email it to us. So here we are at Pihea Lookout, standing in front of Mt. Wai'ale'ale -- where is the mountain you might ask? Yes, where is the mountain. The top is flat. Unbelievable. I'd been imagining Mt. Rainier -- and it's more like Table Mountain.

Kauai

We had a great time in Hawaii. Every morning I loved watching the sunrise. It truly is new every morning. And almost every evening we watched the sunset. The weather was perfect. We kind of got into a routine of watching the sunrise, then having a little breakfast, taking a couple of hours to read and journal and pray on our own. Then we'd talk for a couple of hours about things that really mattered to us. We had time to talk about "us" and share deeply with one another. The we'd go for along walk along the beach, come home for dinner. It was fabulous!