Friday January 1st

To spite my late night, I did wake up early enough on New Year's Day to wander down to the beach for a photo of the first sunrise of 2016

We had a slow morning of waking and breakfast in the room, then gathered up our beach and snorkel gear with a plan to snorkel up near Ke'e Beach on the north end.  It was a nice drive up the coast, and we stopped at a viewpoint over the taro fields near Hanalei.

I had attempted here to do long (30 second) exposures using the ND filters.  I discovered that flat grey clouds on a flat grey sky do not make for a very interesting long exposure, as there is not enough contrast to show the cloud movement, it just looks like gray sky.  In addition to that, my longer exposures had a terrible amount of very sharp looking lint showing up from the filters.  I later figured out that the lint was showing up due to my choice to shoot at f/22... whereas shooting at f/8 renders most of the lint so blurry that it doesn't show up in the shot.  That may not make sense to many people, but I'm making a note of it here for my own reference in the future, and I might do a longer blog post with photo examples later in my regular blog.

On to lunch!  As we arrived in the town of Hanalei, a rain shower passed through the area so we ducked into a parking lot and looked around for a place to eat lunch.  We were parked right outside a place called Hanalei Gourmet, so we decided to give that a go.

Their mai tai was a little sweet, but tasty with the extra lime.

I had the nachos with grilled marlin, which sounds odd but was quite tasty and added a bit of "healthy" to an otherwise unhealthy lunch choice.  Also, jalapenos are my favorite.

After lunch, we spent a little time in the surf shops adjacent to the restaurant.  I found a pair of flip-flops (called "slippas" on the island) which actually had enough arch support that I could wear them without hurting my right toes, so I picked those up for future beach-going.  Once we felt our food was digested enough, we continued down to the end of the road for Ke'e Beach.

We passed by the Maniholo dry cave, which had heavy machinery moving boulders just outside of it, while the interior was filled with people wandering about.  I commented on how I was happy we managed to get the shots of it that we did last year while it was empty.  This was clearly a busy time of year to be in any "tourist" spot on the island... the parking lots were all filled to the brim, and the sides of the road leading up to the beach were covered in parked cars.  We managed to get a spot decently close to the beach entrance, pulled our chairs out of the back, and walked up the road to the lifeguard stand... where we discovered that the swimming and snorkeling areas were closed due to dangerously high tides.  It was very windy and the skies were threatening additional bouts of rain, and G really wanted to play IN the water, not just sit in sand.  I thought perhaps there would be interesting photo opportunities, however the ironwood tree trunks - which had made for very interesting subjects last year - were covered with sand, and everyone coming down from the Kalalau Trail looked miserably muddy, and most were injured, so we decided we would pack it in and find another beach.

On our way out, though, we drove over the bridge which spans a small creek adjacent to a botanical garden.  D and I decided this would be a great spot to practice long exposures.  G opted to sit in the car and play on her phone rather than come out for photos, so we parked next to the creek and D and I made our way down onto the boulders with tripods and cameras in hand.

Here is where I made the mistake of raising the center post of my tripod, rather than setting the legs longer for a more stable stance.  I realized my tripod was a little off kilter, so I kept my left arm out to catch it just in case it tipped during the shot.  As I'd feared, the tripod did begin to tip, but rather than wrap my left arm around it (as I had planned) I instinctively also nabbed the post with my right hand, which had been holding the remote until I opened my hand to grab the tripod, at which point I chucked the remote into the drink.  I believe my exact words were, "SHIT!"  D, for his part, did try to dig around for the remote, but it landed right between two large boulders in fast moving water.  Thankfully it is entirely replaceable, and we did have a second (slightly smaller and more difficult to deal with) remote that we were able to share for the rest of the shooting.  But lesson learned, set the tripod legs out and tether the damned remote.

I have since ordered two replacement remotes, just in case.

I finished up my creek shooting and headed back to the car, where G had discovered several red-crested cardinals on the hill next to where we had parked.  I pulled out my zoom to grab a few shots.

From here we wandered up the road looking for a beach.  We decided to stop off at this stretch of sand where we'd spent some time last year... there is a creek that runs out to the ocean on the left side which seemed to give a decently protected entrance into the water to at least wade a bit and/or float around without worrying about the extreme waves crashing on the main beach.  Here, D tried to give G some pointers on the timing of using a boogie board

I had entered the water briefly, but the water was cold and the wind was high so I opted to just enjoy the warmth of the sun and sand.

Now that I'm home, I'm able to look up the name of this otherwise unlabeled beach... it turns out it was Lumaha'i Beach, which is one of the least safe beaches on the island in terms of swimming (due to it being completely unprotected by reef or cliff)  but it is one of the most beautiful beaches to look at.  Also, this was the shooting location for "South Pacific", so that's pretty cool.  Visually it was one of my favorite beaches to visit, though the surf was so high that day that the mist coming off the waves looked like smoke blowing over the beach.  Due to the salty air, I left my big camera in the car that day.  But I did shoot this video of the waves...

On the way back home, as we climbed the hill over Hanalei, I noticed some amazing sunbeams shooting through the clouds, so we stopped on a turn-out to grab some photos.

After such a long day of misadventures, we all felt salty and sticky and none of us wanted to be in a restaurant, so we ordered pizza from Bobby V's just outside the resort and settled in for a movie-and-pizza night.  Ironically, we watched "A Walk in the Woods".

Thursday December 31st - New Year's Eve!

New Year's Eve began with heavy cloud cover, and I knew the evening would be a late one, so I decided to skip the sunrise in favor of sleeping in a bit longer.  The clouds soon burned off, however, and I woke to practically cloudless skies.  I admit I felt a bit remiss about what seemed like a missed opportunity for a trip back to the canyon... it seems that the weather forecast for the island is just not to be trusted.  Though even if I made plans for the day based on direct observation of the skies, I would not have suggested the canyon given the heavy cloud cover just one hour earlier.

So along with the sunshine outside, D put together a breakfast made up of fruit from the sunshine market.  The rambutan (red spikey guys) and the longans (grape-looking round things on the other side of the plate) both have a similar texture to a peeled grape, but with one large seed in the middle, and both with a far sweeter and tropical flavor.  The rambutans were slightly softer, and had a sort of mango-grape flavor, whereas the longans were firmer and tasted more like a tangerine/grape mix.  Both were lovely fruit, and the oranges were incredibly juicy and far more flavorful than anything we get on the mainland.

Breakfast plate

While D and G got themselves ready to head out for the day, I poked around the garden just outside our condo, taking photos of a patient lizard.

Since discovering the extra storage in our closet, we decided we should stock up on a few nice beach supplies which we could use and then leave in the room for our next visit.  To that end, we headed into Lihue to visit Costco.  There we picked up a few beach chairs and a cooler bag, along with a couple of kitchen items we wanted to replace and a couple odds and ends in the clothing department.  We were on the lookout for beach towels and water shoes for D, however Costco didn't have any in stock.  I made a mental note of the huge selection of sushi grade ahi and large packs of poke they had in the meat department at really incredible prices.  The volume was too high for us to pick it up that day, but on future trips I think we should consider a stop at Costco in the beginning of the trip so we can do more economical meals at the condo.

(Poke is like a seafood salad dish, similar to a ceviche, made of raw fish chunks mixed with a dressing and other herbs/onions/sesame seeds/etc...  There are several kinds which are made with a mayo or ailoi based dressing, which I can't have, however Costco lists all the ingredients of their pokes, and they had two or three which were entirely eggless.  I was tempted to buy one, however I really don't want to buy raw fish unless we're eating it immediately, or have a cooler ready for transport)

After a quick trip to Sports Authority across the street (which finally had water shoes in D's size, however did not have decent beach towels) we felt like it was a good time to grab lunch.  We decided to head to the large plantation across the highway called Gaylord's.  This is actually the same location where we had attended a luau on our last visit, but we had skipped the meal part in favor of eating at Duke's, so this would be our first time enjoying a meal at the plantation.

The restaurant is in a separate building from the luau location, so we were surprised by the lovely view from the outdoor seating.

(you'll notice just on the horizon that clouds were already forming on the canyon side of the island... thus showcasing that even on a clear-blue-sky day elsewhere, you can't really guess the weather at the canyon unless you are AT the canyon)

Our waiter at Gaylord's was a California transplant, and it turns out he grew up in Santa Cruz around the time D lived there, and had graduated high school just two years prior to D.  They shared a lot of stories about Santa Cruz over the course of our meal.

My lunch: grilled Mahi Mahi over jasmine rice and a coconut/wasabi cream sauce

I love the various interpretations of Christmas Trees that we found around the island.  

After a lovely and satisfying lunch, we headed back to Kapa'a for a little more shopping.  D and I investigated the option of renting bikes while G went down the block to get herself a shave ice.  We gathered up the rental information from a few places, made a note of who would be open for the holiday and who would be closed, and decided to head back to the room to unload the car.  

G spent some time in the pool while D and I unpacked the items and straightened up the room a bit.  Our dinner reservation was a late one (8:15) so we took our time and snacked a bit in the room, and enjoyed a glass of wine to toast the New Year a little early

It is hard to see the etching in the glasses, but each glass says "Aloha Kauai" below a tropical image

I also wandered outside to get a picture of the sun setting on 2015

After cleaning up from the pool and hot tub, we all headed down to Lihue for our dinner at Dukes.  Traffic was pretty clear and we arrived early, so we walked up and down the path by the beach while we waited for our table.

G and I on the beach side of Duke's

Inside of Duke's, they put a Christmas tree at the top of their fountain/coy pond

Mai Tais are served in grumpy-faced glasses here

My dinner: simply grilled lobster and broccoli... plus a salad from their immense salad bar

Our dinner was fantastic.  Our waiter not only double checked all the ingredients for my dinner, but he also alerted the kitchen staff to my allergies to avoid cross-contamination AND he told his manager about my allergies just to make sure everything was checked and double-checked by staff before coming to my table.  After dinner we headed back to the condo to ring in the New Year.

On the way back to the condo we passed the airport and I grabbed a quick snapshot of their Christmas light display while we were stopped at the light.

G's bare feet on the beach on New Years... not really possible in the Pacific Northwest!

After lighting off the sparklers on the beach and watching a few other people light of fountains, etc... I felt myself nodding off and realized I would not last all the way to midnight.  Inside the condo, I climbed into bed and drifted off to sleep while D and G stayed up to watch TV.  At midnight G opened the bedroom door and yelled "Happy New Year!" I believe I mumbled "yeah... Happy New Year" back, or maybe I dreamed it.  I don't know, I was tired.

Jet-lag

I am home now, still working on photos and notes which have been transferred to my big and much faster laptop.  To spite the additional speed, however, the jetlag hit me harder than I thought it would, and there is the whole business of getting back to work, picking up our parrot from boarding, getting G settled back to school, and the frequent "I can't think straight I need to sleep" pauses in between.

Although it won't be a live update (as if the blog ever is) I still have the 31st to Jan. 4th to complete.   I'm going to finish it while the trip is fresh in my mind so that I can use it as a reference for when I eventually get my scrapbook of the trip together.

As I re-sort my trip photos, I realized that I neglected to share this one from Tuesday the 29th... as we explored Poipu Beach, we passed by a couple of sleeping monk seals.

This was an otherwise entirely crowded stretch of beach, but as is Hawaiian law, volunteers roped off an area around the sleeping creatures and nobody was allowed within 150 feet of them (even the snorkelers seemed to keep their distance on the water side)  I considered going back to the car for my big camera, but the beach was so crowded that I didn't think I'd be able to angle a good shot anyway, so I just grabbed a quick snapshot with the underwater point-and-shoot.

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.

quick update

Sorry for the lack of daily updates on this trip... the nights have been late (so I'm too sleepy to think about writing) and mornings have been a lot of hustle and gear cleaning/dish cleaning/re-packing/adventure deciding, along with computer-randomly-updating, so not a lot of computer work time.  We're off to snorkel on the sunny side of the beach today, and I have no idea where we'll be in the evening, but I've been backing up my photos so at least they're on the laptop for me to poke at.  (I also attempted to play with HDR on this laptop, but the processor can't seem to keep up and it locked up on me.  *sigh*  I can basic edit though, so there's that)

Hopefully will update tonight.

Tuesday December 29th

The day started out with great promise.  We were up before dawn, packed all our hiking gear, had breakfast, and were on the road by 7:30 to head to the canyon for a day of hiking.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, with puffy clouds off in the distance.  We'd picked Tuesday for the big "hike to the world's highest swamp" day due to it having the best looking forecast for the entire trip.  (I had been checking the forecast constantly for weather all over the island)  After about 45 minutes of flat highway, we began the slow 17 mile switchback drive up the mountains.  Then we saw the clouds rolling in, and thought maybe they would burn off or pass over.  About halfway up we realized we were now inside the clouds.  Every viewpoint was entirely socked in.  At the end of the road, at the highest viewpoint, we found the trail head.

We wandered around the "view" point debating about what to do.  We came prepared enough, with rain jackets and full hiking boots and poles and everything, but the trail conditions were - quite honestly - shit.  (Red dirt slick shit, to be exact)  Even with boots, we were sliding on the flat part.  Even if the clouds did clear for a view (which they never did) the first mile of the trail is not only red dirt slick shit, but it is steep red dirt slick shit, which given my "light" pack of 20 pounds of camera gear, is just a huge recipe for injury-so-bad-your-trip-is-ruined.  As we discussed our plan, we saw a hiker hit the trail holding those ice-pick looking shoe attachments (you know the kind... for climbing up the sides of icy mountains)  In his experience, they were necessary to get through this trail in wet conditions. We briefly thought about trying it another day, but the drive up and back amounts to over 3 hours of time, which I don't want to waste again, so we abandoned my planned hike.  *sigh*  With a promise that we shall attempt it sometime when we visit in the summer season.

Plus, there are plenty of hikes to be had on our side of the island, which is not only a shorter drive, but better trail conditions, so we might fit one of those in.

We made the most of what would have been our hiking time by driving back down the mountain and heading into the town of Koloa, stopping at a viewpoint along the way.

(G asked me to get this shot of her)

We were hungry for lunch, so we stopped into Pizzetta, an Italian place that smelled delicious.  They did not dissapoint.

Their mozzarella sticks consist of cheese folded into pizza dough and baked.  It's like deconstructed-reconstructed pizza.

Mele Kalikimaka, here is your pizza!

After lunch we visited a few shops, picking up a couple of Crazy Shirts (which are great quality and so comfortable!) and a couple bottles of wine from a wine shop.  The shopping area is surrounded by these huge monkeypod trees, so I spent a little time getting pictures of their canopy.

From Koloa, we headed south to Poipu Beach.  We'd brought along our bathing suits and towells, just in case we found the time and water to play in, and Poipu looked like an ideal spot to take a dip.  This is a very popular beach, given the size, the location on the "sunny end" of the island, and the relative protection from the open ocean.  I hear the snorkeling is great here, but we only had bathing suits, not our snorkel gear, so we just played in the waves for a bit.

I'm smiling through my panic.  I was honestly freaked out and clinging to D for dear life.  (Yes, people were able to walk just a few feet behind us, but it gets deep quick.  And I'm short.  And OCEAN.)

This is what I was looking at.  OCEAN.  BIG MOVING OCEAN.

We headed back to the room where G and I spent a bit of time in the pool, then hot tub, then we came in to clean up and get ready for dinner.  By that time, the locksmith had shown up.  

There are several cupboards in our condo with locks on them.  We presumed the property manager was using them for storage of cleaning supplies, so we asked if there would be room for us to store things (like beach towels, etc..) in one of the drawers so that we wouldn't have to lug so much stuff back and forth from the mainland.  It turns out that the property manager thought we were using the cupboards, as they weren't using any.  So all the locked drawers, cupboards, and closets are available to us for our own storage between visits!  However nobody seemed to have any keys.  Hence, the locksmith.

The locksmith took about an hour to change out all the necessary locks, and at that point we were unable to get a table at Sushi Bushido.  We drove into Kapa'a and checked out a few restaurants... one was a lounge with a very loungey vibe, loud live music, and only big loungey chairs to sit in... another was a fish market with a counter where you could order food, but all the tables were taken up.  We took a table at one place, but discovered the menu was far more limited than we'd thought it would be (leaving me and my allergies with very little option) so we went to Olympic Cafe.  Olympic was our favorite place for breakfast on the last trip, and does have a terrific breakfast, but while their dinner menu is Cheesecake-factory-huge... their food quality for dinner is really lacking.

 

The Mai Tai was pretty good.

G being a teenager.  "No pictures Mom"

This was my blackened ahi/shoe leather, along with the waffle fries.  I had subbed fries for the mashed potatoes, my plate originally came out with mashed potatoes, when I pointed out the error, they took my plate back, scraped off the mashed potatoes, and put the fries on.  I absolutely hate it when restaurants do that - I sub my orders due to my allergies (a lot of times restaurants put chicken stock in mashed potatoes, so I never order them) so when they goof up, the plate is contaminated. In this instance, their potatoes only have garlic and butter in them so I didn't have an allergy concern, but "scrape and send the somewhat dirty plate back out" is poor form and shows a lack of care for the food they are serving. I'm only posting a photo so that I remember not to go here for dinner again.

But honestly, we've always enjoyed their breakfasts (though keep in mind, I only ever order oatmeal.  G seems to love their pancakes, so I guess one could say they do simple food well.)

So the day was bookended with some disappointment, but it's all in paradise so no big whoop, right?