Rain rain go away....come back another day

Today was another rainy day with flash flood warnings all around the island.  The island is so saturated with water right now that there is no place for it to go.  It's a very unusual and difficult year for the people here at Kauai.

Ralph and I were up early (4:15) eagerly anticipating some photo taking at Shipwreck beach. It wasn't supposed to rain until later in the morning so we thought it would be a good time to go.  When we got there though it had started to rain and since the location we had scouted out the day before was about a 30-40 minute walk we decided not to do it today.  We didn't want to give up so we drove a little further west to Spouting Horn where there is some interesting things to photograph as well.  We've been here a few times.

Ralph and I took turns taking pictures and we were able to get a few nice ones before the rain got too heavy.

Lava tube 

Spouting horn

Spouting horn

Afterwards we found a place for breakfast and then headed back to the hotel.  We relaxed for a few hours.  While Ralph took a nap I went out with the camera and walked to one of the beaches by our hotel.  There is still a lot of driftwood here but it's slowly being cleaned up.  It's going to take a few weeks/months before that will be completed.

At the mouth of the Wailua river

Driftwood (would look great in our garden)

Wailua River - this is mountain fed - this is where all the wood flows down during the rain storms (cattle come down these rivers as well (swept away))

Patterns in the sand

Driftwood

Wave at the shore

This morning we heard that mount Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii erupted and there is a major lava flow going on.  The park has been closed (most of it) and many people are being evacuated from areas near the volcano.  They also experienced a 5.4 magnitude earth quake near the volcano.   We called our hotel to see if there might be issues with our reservation and whether we needed to make other plans.  So far all is well.  We will most likely need to change our plans though as we did want to get close to see the flow.  From what we have heard all tours (boats, helicopters) are currently closed until a full assessment can be made.  Our prayers are with the people on the Big Island and hope that they are safe!!

An unexpected day

This morning when we woke up it was pouring rain.  We checked around the island and it was raining everywhere.  Hmmm, it looked like it wasn't going to be a great day.  We relaxed in the lobby and met a couple (Bud and Ede) who were from California.  They were celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary and Ede was celebrating her 75th birthday.  What a nice couple!  Bud reminded Ralph and I of Alvin Holtvleuver.  He could have been his brother.

We decided to do a little shopping today and enjoy a nice breakfast out. After breakfast we headed to Shipwreck Beach. This is becoming one of our favourite locations as it's very rugged.  They have rocks here that seem to sing when the waves wash over them.  It's so cool to hear.

We walked along the shoreline (it was raining but not heavily) and did a little bit of tide pooling. There isn't alot of sea life that is seen along the coast here but we did see a sea cucumber and a beautiful seashell (with with animal still contained within).

Sea cucumber

I thought these were seashells.  They weren't - they were really soft like plant material

Petrified wooden log

Beautiful pattern in the wood

Live sea shell - these are cut and made into jewelry

During this time, the waves started increasing in size and the currents in the water got stronger.  So strong that it pulled off one of my flipflops and it quickly went out to sea.  I gave it up as lost but not Ralph.  He patiently waited for the ocean to give it back (although I thought he was going to get knocked off his feet a few times by the waves).  He too lost one of his flipflops but was able to get it back before floating away.

Flipflop rescuer!!

We then decided to take a hike along the trail on the cliffs.  It was a really nice and scenic walk.  We really enjoyed the walk (got a little wet) and have chosen a site to go back to for sunrise pictures.

Watch your step

Marriott Golf course in the distance

Happy hikers

Waimea Canyon

Today the weather was calling for rain all over the island.  We decided to take it easy and just drive to the end of the south shore to see what was out there.  We first enjoyed a nice breakfast at a Vegan restaurant.  I had amazing Banana Macadamia nut pancakes and Ralph enjoyed some oatmeal with granola and banana's.  We switched halfway through.  Yummy!! Both were really delicious.

We sat outside at the back of the restaurant.  The island is full of chickens and they are everywhere. The restaurant had signs about "not feeding" the chickens but also to treat them respectfully with a spray bottle if they became too much of a nuisance.  The chickens are like seagulls,  they jump up on the chairs and tables in search of food.  We had to shoo this one away a couple of times.

The ground where the tables are was covered in a layer of broken glass pieces.  They were small and not necessarily sharp where you would worry about cutting your feet.  If the sun was shining I'm sure it would have looked really beautiful.

After breakfast we headed south.  It hadn't started raining yet so we decided to drive up to the top of the canyon to see if we could photograph the canyon where it leads into the ocean.  By the time we got to the top it had started to drizzle a little but we thought we would give it a try and take a short 1/4 mile hike to get to a spot where the view showed both sides of the canyon.

We were able to get several shots but then all of a sudden the clouds started moving in and in less than 1 minute we couldn't see anything in the canyon.  The walk back up to the top was quite slippery from the little bit of rain that we were getting but it was good that we left when we did because it was getting pretty muddy.

Afterwards we drove to the end of the west side of the island near Polihale State Park.  Unfortunately the road was closed so we weren't able to enter.  We have heard that the road is almost impossible to drive as it has huge potholes as a result of all the rain.  It was still a nice drive along the ocean.  

We went back to Eleele and enjoyed lunch on the cliff's overlooking the ocean.  It was raining at this point and started getting heavier.  We saw another monk seal on the beach - they love to sleep.

We then drove to the south east side of the island and explored one of the golf courses which was right beside the airport.  We saw the lighthouse that was on the point and took a quick photo before heading back to our hotel.  We did have to stop once to take this last shot though as the clouds over the mountains were so beautiful.

A day to slow down and relax

Today was a golf day for us,  we played at Puakea Golf resort.  We really enjoyed our round there last week so decided to go back again.  This time it was just Ralph and I playing together.  It was great as the course wasn't busy and we could set our own pace and take pictures along the 18 holes. We finished our round in just 3 hours.  It started as a beautiful sunny day but got cloudy as the day progressed.

The views on the course are really pretty with the mountains in the background.  There are so many different trees and bushes on the course as well.  I lost quite a lot of balls today, but Ralph found me just as many so I came out even.  What a difference from when we golfed in California.  There is plenty of water on this course and many sand traps.  I found the sand often (hah hah).  All in all we both had a lot of fun though and it's a course worth playing.

Afterwards we went back to our hotel and got changed and then headed to Opaekaa Falls as we wanted to take a few more pictures here.  I wasn't happy with the results from the first time that we went and we are both much happier with the results this time.  Ralph and I are learning alot on this trip with respect to photography.  We have the time to analyze our pictures and figure out what we did wrong or how we would like to change things.  It's been nice to have the time to do this.  It's also really good for us to bounce ideas off of each other as we're setting up the shots.  I'm really enjoying this.
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We finished off our day with dinner at a local burger restaurant.  They make the "best" burgers!!  The beef is all natural and from a local farm and tastes so fresh and flavourful!