Wednesday the 28th, I woke slightly before dawn, made a pot of coffee, and wandered down to the water's edge. I noticed a man standing on a chair with a camera in his hand, so I backed off of the path because it looked to me that he was trying to get a super wide shot of the sunrise. I was right, when he saw me get out of the way he hopped down to show me his shots thus far... the clouds were heavy on the horizon but there were breaks that looked promising. I guessed they'd be going pink in about 5 minutes (I was right about that too) We talked a bit about photography and where we .were from (he was Canadian... which I should have caught from the accent) I considered getting my gear, but I spent so much time shooting sunrises last year that I don't feel as anxious about trying every single morning, so instead I headed back to the room for more coffee, and to get my yoga paws. I picked a spot under some trees down the path, where there is a break in the bushes to see the ocean, and did some yoga.
My view during yoga
This was very necessary... my back locked up last week just before Christmas Eve, from a combination of over-working at the gym, and the stress of preparing for Christmas, along with the physical strain of leaning over the kitchen sink scrubbing more than usual. I could barely stand upright on Christmas Eve, and Christmas wasn't much better. I could feel my back loosen up as we were driven to the airport, and by some miracle I was better able to stand AFTER sitting on the plane for nearly 6 hours (which should have made it worse) So the stress tension loosened up as we entered vacation, but the muscle tension from days of stress was still there. I can tell when I do my sun salutations that my lower back is still a little locked, I can't quite arch in up-dog like I normally can... but it is getting better.
D was just getting up as I'd left for yoga, and G woke up when I got back to the room. We've decided we'll likely stay in for breakfast for a lot of this trip, so I enjoyed an English muffin and some of the fruit we'd picked up at the farmer's market.
Rambutan, the red spikey fruit, was one of my favorites but in this batch I'm preferring the texture of the little brown fruits... they are also kind of a peeled grape texture around a hard seed, but a little easier to peel out of their shell/skin. I'll have to look up the name of these later, as I can't remember it accurately right now.
After a filling breakfast, I pulled out my camera and 300mm and wandered the grounds looking at birds.
Golden Plovers are easy to spot, and aren't too afraid of humans around here. If you sit still they'll likely wander up next to you, concentrating on bugs in the ground rather than what you are doing.
When I came back from shooting, I started looking into a few tour options to see if there were dates available, etc... I was using my computer, which is still on west coast time, so when G asked if she could go to the pool I said sure, but it would have to be a short swim because we'd be heading to lunch soon (thinking it was 11:15. And it felt like 11:15) About 10 minutes later, when I looked at my phone, I went to the pool to let D and G know that it was actually only 9:30, and we had plenty of time before lunch.
I worked on photos and did a few dishes while they were out at the pool, and after we all cleaned up and gathered our gear for the day, we loaded the car and headed south, towards Lihue, with the thought to stop in Koloa for lunch.
Christmas decorations are still up around town :)
We read good things about this lunch truck, and it was always closed on our previous visits so we decided to give it a try.
The food truck is in the same filed as this monument to the sugar mills. A rain shower had just passed, so the lady in the food truck loaned us a towel to dry off the picnic table. It's a "grab and go" food truck, but there is plenty of seating in the park surrounding it.
LOTS of chickens. Everywhere.
I was particularly impressed by this guy's feathers.
I chose the Kauai shrimp/fish lunch, which comes with rice and sweet corn, and normally a salad but I couldn't trust the dressing so I opted for extra corn. While the fish looks dried out, it was actually marinated in teriyaki sauce, and was surprisingly light and moist.
I did, however, spot a couple of sea turtles, so I threw my 300 on the camera and waited to get a few shots of the floating sea turtles.
smile!
After dodging a passing rain shower, we meandered around Poipu for a bit longer, then began to journey back to Kapa'a. G needs water shoes for the ATV trip we're going to take, so we stopped into the nearby Coconut Grove mall to find her a pair. The mall itself is beautiful, they have been in the process of remodeling it for years - it is an outdoor collection of shops that is now a quaint set of small buildings set around a park-like area. Unfortunately they just don't have very many shops, so it almost feels abandoned. The shops inside here are gems, though, and it is nice to get away from the crowds anyway. Bobby V's has moved here (it used to be right next to our condo) and they now have a large seating area. Being still on west coast time, we were hungry for dinner shortly after 4, so we decided to stop at Bobby V's and grab dinner.
Not a lot to say about it... it is pizza. It is good pizza - better than a national chain - but still.
During dinner I researched some of the many botanical gardens on the island, and we talked about the pros and cons. There are a couple that sound amazing, but are only available as guided tours and I don't like feeling rushed when I want to photograph, so we settled on driving down to a larger garden that we can wander at our own pace. After dinner we went back to the condo for the night to kick back and head to bed relatively early. During the past year we had our TV's in the condo upgraded to wifi enabled, so we are now able to watch Netflix. We've been trying vudu, but the internet doesn't seem to have the capacity to download vudu (although we have our own router, and it is located directly behind the TV, so the wifi signal can't get any better than that. I thought about hooking up a CAT5 for speed, but the TV doesn't have a plug) I've concluded that the internet signal itself is too wonky for Vudu, but hey... Netflix works.
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