Though endangered, it is not hard to find a Nene at the light house. This fellow was hanging around the parking lot. Clearly people hand feed them, although you are NOT SUPPOSED TO... they have no fear of people and he walked up to my camera wondering if it was food.
Behind the gift shop is a small balcony looking north, in the bushes I found another Nene attempting to take a nap.
Off in the way distance from this viewpoint we saw a pod of dolphins playing in the water. They were very far away, this shot is taken with a 300mm and zoomed in
The larger sea birds were not soaring quite as much as they have in past visits, so I mostly played with my pinhole cameras, but kept my DSLR ready with the 300mm for the occasional passing wildlife.
When I shot this I thought I was getting more dolphins. Turns out these were humpback whales! This is taken with the 300, but not cropped in... they were relatively close.
White tailed tropic bird
Magnificent Frigatebird
Juvenile Frigatebird
Red-footed booby
Laysan Albatross
I love how they look like they've put on smoky eye shadow
Since I kept my DSLR ready for birds, I did not shoot any photos of the actual lighthouse with it on this visit. Here is a shot I grabbed with my Clunky pinhole camera.
This was our warmest morning so far, and we were all sunburned and sweaty after a couple of hours of being on the relatively wind-free lighthouse point, so we decided to head back towards the condo and grab lunch along the way. We stopped off at this pizza food truck that D had been wanting to try, conveniently located next to our favorite music store, and just 3 doors away from my favorite fabric store on the island.
It is also very conveniently located next to G's favorite shave ice stand on the island.
Wailua Shave Ice is the only one we found that uses all fresh juices, not syrups, on their shave ice.
G started her lunch with a Lilikoi shave ice
Together we shared a margarita pizza
and their version of the "Hawaiian" pizza... carmalized pineapple, smoked pork tenderloin, basil, and a balsamic reduction drizzled over the top. The. Best. Hawaiian. Pizza. Ever.
They also serve french fries, with a variety of toppings and sides to dip them in. These were the parmesean fries. This made up for my lack of fries with my burger the previous night, also were the best fries we've ever had on the island. Funny to have that come from a pizza truck.
It was sunny and hot and none of us wanted to drive much anywhere, so we made the rest of the day a pool day. They don't allow inflatable floaties in the pool, but they do supply foam pool noodles, so I borrowed a couple of those, wrapped them around my head, and kicked my way up and down the length of the pool for about 4 laps, which probably took me nearly 2 hours. I'm not a fast swimmer.
To help explain perspective... here is a googlemaps shot of the resort. The pool is described as a "lazy river', although it doesn't flow, but it does snake around with nooks and crannies, which makes swimming lengths of it more interesting than a big rectangle pool, and also makes you feel like you are pretty much alone in the pool wherever you are (except the slide area, where people tend to congregate)
The blue circle is where our condo is located, on the bottom floor - convenient to the pool, the beach, and the BBQ area (which we never did use this time around)
D went to the bar and ordered a couple of drinks for us, (from Oasis on the Beach, the building with the orange dot on it) which they'll serve in plastic cups so people can take them into the pool area. He saw that our favorite waiter, Henry, would be working that night so he made a reservation for us for dinner as well, requesting Henry's section.
After quite a lot of swimming, and more than a few runs on the slide, I was exhausted and hungry. As the sun began to reach the horizon line, we all cleaned up and got ready for dinner.
Our dinner started with complimentary drinks. G received a "Lava Flow" - some kind of strawberry syrup/shave ice type of drink.
D and I received shots that had elderflower vodka and hibiscus
Our drinks, my sangria (which is far less sweet than what is served elsewhere, and I liked it quite a lot) G's fruit juice blend (which is less sweet than POG, and she didn't like it all that much) and D's beer.
Appetizers - sorry for the poor quality photo, I was hungry and didn't check it. I had the ahi poke bruchetta, we shared the Okinawa Potato Nachos (middle square bowl) and D and G shared the calimari.
My salad, beets 5 ways... pickled, steamed, fried, some kind of beet foam, and I forget the 5th way.
My excellent dinner, Kajiki, which is a type of blue marlin, grilled and served with kabocha pumpkin puree and green beans. (The menu said wing beans, but apparently they couldn't get ahold of any at the time so they subbed green beans)
After dinner we headed back to the room and relaxed with a movie before bed.
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