Wednesday December 30th - driving and exploration

I woke shortly before sunrise on Wednesday morning, and after making a cup of coffee I headed down to the beach to take a few photos of the sunrise.  I concentrated on panoramics, which have proven to be difficult to edit on my travel laptop (just not enough speed, after PS locked up twice I gave up)  On my way back to the condo I found a monster snail just outside our lanai, so I had to stop and get a few shots.

After breakfast in the room, and upon gathering up our gear for any and all potential activities (read: beach, hiking, photography, or some combination thereof) we headed out to explore the island.  We headed up along the Wailua river area to stop off at a viewpoint over Opaeka'a Falls.  We drove a bit past the falls to check out some potential landscape shots, and discovered a large park with lovely views of the tropical landscape around the perimeter, so we took some time to wander around and explore some compositions.

After a bit of shooting, we headed back down the road to the falls viewpoint.  I shot these falls last year, so in order to try something different I played around with long exposures using the +10 neutral density filter which I received for Christmas.  The results need some work...

I discovered, the hard way, that I need to cover the view finder when doing exposures upwards of 15 to 30 seconds, as light can leak in through the viewer and cause lines on the images.  I'm not sure if we'll make it back up during this trip to try this again, now that I know the fix, but lesson learned at any rate.

After much photography, we headed back to Kapa'a for lunch.  Today we decided to try Verde, a Mexican restaurant in town.  

Drinks are served in giant ball jars.

Fish tacos.  Not quite as much fish as Tiki Taco, but tasty.

G had some monster nachos with shredded kalua pork on top.  

After lunch, we headed to the Kapa'a farmer's market (called Sunshine Markets on the island).  We'd heard this is the largest sunshine market on the island, and also that it sells out quickly, so come early and buy quick.  We showed up not two minutes past opening, and the parking was already packed.  This is a true "farmer's market" - we saw several chef's from area restaurants stocking up on supplies for nightly menus.  

So many tropical fruits.

It is so good to see variety in bananas!  On the right is a sour sop, one of my favorite treats from my Jamaica travels... I still don't know what the big flower pod is used for, but I believe it is the flower that grows on the end of a bunch of bananas.

There are chickens all over the island, this is the only pet chicken I have seen.

G enjoyed a fresh coconut.

The market from the road as we drove away, filled with bags of special tropical fruits... some "ice cream bananas" along with

rambuton and longbow... two odd looking fruits which are both very similar to large grapes containing one large seed, but each with a uniquely tropical flavor.

After a quick stop off at the condo to wash the fruit and stow it away, we hit the road again... this time heading north towards Hanalei.  The viewpoint overlooking the taro fields was particularly beautiful so we stopped off to grab a few shots.

Further down the road, we hit Hanalei Bay right at sunset, so I wandered to the end of the pier to watch the sun set behind the Napali Coast

After sunset, we headed back to the other side of Hanalei to find dinner.  The Dolphin was one of our favorite restaurants on the last trip, so we decided to stop here for dinner.  

At first we were told that a table would be an hour wait, however they have an outdoor seating area where they serve sushi, appetizers, and drinks while you wait, so we headed out there to grab a spot and wait a spell.

My "this should last an hour" mai tai.

It turned out that the hostess was not quite on par with her guestimate, and we did not get a table for nearly 2 hours.  Had I known, we would have started ordering sushi outside rather than give up our outside table at the 1 hour mark, expecting to be seated inside.  We were eventually seated, and began ordering right away.

Steamed artichoke app.  A bit tangy with the spices and lemon they added, but I was hungry enough to not care by then.  It was pretty good, I just prefer it plainer.

Several interesting pieces of nigiri, some ahi and hamachi, which are both turning into my favorite new expensive thing to like to eat.  

Along with sharing nigiri with D, I ordered grilled opah, which is a nicely flavorful white fish.  

Our dinner did not even begin until after 9 p.m., so by the time we were done eating (sometime after 10:30) I was exhausted, and barely remember crawling into bed after the drive home.