Day 8, Aug. 14 - Wednesday

A lot of today was taken up by our travel to Kauai. As we suspected, Kauai is truly beautiful. There are plants and trees and mountains everywhere and, of course, gorgeous beaches. Our hotel is much nicer than our one in Oahu. This one is "Plantation" style. The rooms are bigger and we have a beautiful view of the pool and ocean. Almost immediately, we also noticed how much more peaceful Kauai is. There are fewer people and the towns are all much smaller and more rural. After we got settled in our room, lunch was top priority. We ate at the restaurant right next to the hotel, the Jolly Roger. The food was fine and the atmosphere was pleasant, though dated. We especially enjoyed the birds that would fly in through the large open door/windows near our table. A cat also roamed the bushes right outside.

Our hotel is right behind the Coconut Marketplace, which has lots of small shops catering to us tourists. There's also a great little ice cream stand with homemade and tropical flavors - very yummy. After spending a short time at the marketplace, we hit the beach out back. The surf is actually very rough out there. Andy and Vienna enjoyed jumping the waves and trying a little snorkeling, but I chose to relax on the beach and read a new book on Kauai. For dinner we went to an old Oahu favorite, Duke's Canoe club. We had great Ahi and prime rib dinners with Duke's awesome Hula Pie for desert. On the way, we went through the town of Lihue and noticed something strange - chickens and roosters on the side of the road. We'll have to ask about that, tomorrow. "So, what's up with all the chickens in the streets?"

Once we got back to the hotel, Vienna fell right to sleep while Andy and I took an evening stroll on the beach. Along the way, we found a seal trying to sleep on the sand. We don't know anything about seals, so we asked our hotel desk clerk if we should call the humane society or something. He said the seals sleep on the beach often but that we aren't to go near them. It's illegal to get within 25 feet of the gentle beasts, no matter how much we wish we could pet them. Later, we found out that it was a Hawaiian Monk Seal and that there are only 1500 of them left in Hawaii and only 15-20 in Kauai. So, we count ourselves lucky to have seen one up close.

 

 

Writing by Jenny Wood ~ Web Design by Andy Wood