Saturday February 14

Our last full day on Kauai dawned a bit humid... the rain was still working it's way out, so D went down the street to get us a couple of coffees while I debated about what equipment to bring down to the beach for sunrise. There was no good shelter down there to hide my camera bag under, so I thought it best to just bring the time-lapse in the weatherproof case.

The cloud cover was heavy, but the sun breaks through eventually.

It turned out that the coffee stand was celebrating a 5^th year anniversary, so they were giving away all their coffee drinks for free all day. How cool!

We decided to take a drive back up highway 580 and check out the conditions for hiking, so we grabbed breakfast in the room while we gathered our hiking gear together. We stopped across the street to pick up some lunch food, packed it in D's daypack, and hit the road.

Partway up 580 we stopped at a few sites...

Poli'ahu Heiau - Another ancient Hawaiian site

'Opaeka'a Falls

Having fun with my Edge 80 Optic looking down to the Wailua River

 ...then continued up the road to the trail head for the Kuilau Ridge Trail.  The path was damp but looked solid, so we changed into our hiking shoes, grabbed our poles, and hit the trail. I pulled out the 300mm to hike with as I'd read that this was a fantastic spot for birding. Not more than 10 feet into the trail, a barn owl picked up and took flight right in front of us, crossing the path and heading further into the forest. It was way too quick to get a shot of it, but it was an amazing site and one that I will not ever forget!

The bird songs are amazing at the beginning of this trail, however the birds are incredibly shy, and the foliage so thick that it was difficult to get a clear shot of any bird once I did spot them. We stopped several times, zeroing in on a particularly loud song off to one side or the other, but the little buggers were too swift for very many pictures. We came across a couple of lizards who would stand still long enough for me to grab a few shots, but most of my photography that day ended up being of the amazing views and foliage.

Hoofing it with the gear... all 22 pounds of it

Up, up, and away!

A close up of the rainbow eucalyptus tree bark

About a mile and a half into the hike, we reached a plateau of grassy field and a picnic shelter which was the perfect place to stop for lunch. As we ate and rested, I wandered around the edge of the plateau taking shots to be stitched into panoramics later. There was a little cattle egret hunting lizards, he seemed to be pretty laid back as long as I didn't approach him too quickly.

Nice view!

Lunch time!

My first attempt at a panoramic, blogger restricts the size, but I'll link to them when I get into editing these more.  The highest peak on the left side, under the clouds, is the rainiest spot in the world.  Wai'ale'ale receives an average annual rainfall of 430 inches.

As we ate, the wind began to really howl. It blew out the humidity and clouds, but we had to keep a good grip on our food to keep it from blowing away. After a good break and refueling, we continued on the trail. We hiked down behind the ridge, which blocked the wind for a bit, then emerged along another exposed ridge where D kept losing his hat.

Continuing along the ridge

We reached the end of the ridge trail, then I switched up my gear to be holding a wider angle lens and we began the trek back to the car.  The wind had become more steady now... I could hear it coming from the distance sounding like an approaching jet engine.

Standing on the ridge looking out towards the ocean and Kapa'a... I can see my house from here!

G leaning into the strong wind on the ridge

Stopping to load film.  Because I'm not truly happy shooting unless I have at least one film camera.

I paused to admire the tall rainbow eucalyptus trees, then some branches started breaking and falling from the wind so we decided to pick up the pace and get back to the car.

Looking up at the Makaleha Mountains from the trailhead parking area, the layers of green are just astounding.

Driving back towards the condo, the clouds had cleared completely so we stopped off at the Poli'ahu Heiau once more for some shots with better lighting.

Back at the condo, D and G readied themselves for the pool while I backed up my photos.  I realized I'd not taken any photos of the condo, so I thought I'd share the view.  This is where I sat when on my laptop, on the lanai just outside my bedroom.  Birds would frequent the palm tree right at eye-level, down below is the pool area and beyond that is the ocean.

Back in the room, G was anxious to get a little more swimming time in.  I did this one slide to capture the experience on video, then parked myself in a hot tub to rest my tired feet and shoulders.

To be quite honest, D and I both forgot that being Valentine's Day would mean that restaurants would be booked up for dinner.  D began calling places close by and found that the Wahoo restaurant right across the street had just had a cancellation, so we put our names down and showered up for dinner.  I had the shrimp and scallops dinner, and subbed a baked potato for the mashed that usually comes with it.

It wasn't bad, but wasn't my favorite dinner on the island and I probably wouldn't go out of my way to go back there on a return trip.

I did not even want to start to think about packing, so we just did a general look-over to make sure we knew where the suitcases were, then crashed for the night.

Friday February 13

Friday morning dawned calmer for us, and D and I headed down to the beach to take a few photos at sunrise. I tried my hand at using our time-lapse camera, however I didn't realize how wide of an angle it shot, so I caught a lot of people in the scene (including myself)

One of my shots of the sunrise

After enjoying the morning light show, we decided to head into Kapa'a for breakfast. We checked out the breakfast menu at the Olympic Cafe and discovered that they had a “light” section of the menu which included granola and oatmeal. Finally, a breakfast out that I could partake in!

HUGE pancakes!

The Olympic Cafe is on the second floor of a building and is an open-air set up (the sides windows have no glass, only curtains to bring down when it rains) so the fresh ocean air blows through the restaurant. We sat near the open windows on the land side and watched the clouds blowing over the hills as we waited for our food. The wind had already been picking up since sunrise, which told us that even if we had tried to reschedule the boat trip, it would have been canceled or not as enjoyable anyway.

As we ate breakfast and talked about potential plans, I noticed a rainbow coming and going over the Sleeping Giant hill behind Kapa'a. We'd been considering going hiking today, however the weather looked to be blowing in over the hills where we wanted to hike. As we left the restaurant we checked a couple of shops we'd wanted to visit, the were not open yet, but we did take note that they were both going to be closed on Saturday, so that left Friday to shop. Given the potential weather conditions, we opted for shopping Friday and maybe hike on Saturday. As we drove back to the condo, I watched the light changing over the Sleeping Giant and scoped out a spot to take photos. I found a little turn-around which made for a perfect viewing spot, so I dropped D and G back at the condo, grabbed my gear, and headed back up a couple blocks to the turn-around.

The Sleeping Giant - do you see the profile?  He is laying on his back, you can see the forehead and chin, then the chest below that.

This is as close to complete as this rainbow showed.

I had a great time moving at a slow pace, changing lenses and positions and attempting a pano... the wind was really picking up and I noticed the rainbow would grown and shrink and grow again. Once the rainbow subsided completely and the clouds began to block out the hills, I packed up the gear and headed back to the condo.

We gathered our shopping-and-potential-photography stuff together and headed down to downtown Kapa'a just as the stores were opening. D had planned on checking out the ukulele store, and it was conveniently just a few doors away from a cute little fabric store, so while D immersed himself in the musical experience, G and I did some damage at the fabric store. The fabric store was small in scale, but packed full of inspiration... I picked up several patterns and a couple of wall hanging kits.

G and I poked around in a few more shops, ducking out of the occasional wispy rain showers, while D completed his decision making. Upon acquiring his new red-wine burst ukulele, we decided to seek out lunch. We caught the scent of an outdoor BBQ place called Chicken in a Barrel, so we decided to give that a whirl.

The chickens are truly everywhere on the island.  Seems like a dangerous place for this one to be hanging out though.

The barrels where they cook the food... hence the name

I had the kalua pork.

From lunch we began to head up the coast to seek out photo opportunities. By this time the rain had come and gone a few times, but the wind was steadily getting worse. I tried getting out at a beach to take photos of the waves crashing, but the sand blew so hard it felt as though a thousand tiny pumice stones were being shot at the back of my legs. I thought we might have better luck getting off the beach, so we turned south for a bit and then west towards some ancient sites labeled on my map.

This is the Holoholoku Heiau - an ancient Hawaiian temple presumed to have been previously used for human sacrifice.

We stopped in a couple of spots and I managed to get some decent photos, then the real rain set in and between that and the wind, the conditions were just too poor for shooting without potentially hurting the equipment. We headed back to the condo, where G was convinced that it would be fun to swim in the pool while it was raining because “it is still warm enough!” To her dismay, the rain let up just as we were ready to hit the water, but in any case she got to enjoy a bit more pool time while I settled myself into a hot tub.

After returning to the room to clean up for dinner, the rain set in for real... big drops pouring down, wind whipping. None of us felt like wandering to a restaurant so we opted to order caprese salad and pizza from Bobby V's next door. G and I walked down to get it rather than wait for delivery... that is when I noticed just how windy it had become.

Hmm... that sign was upright just this morning...

We enjoyed dinner in our room and I went to bed pretty early, falling asleep to the rushing wind.