Kauai Day 6 - Lounging around at the beach

This post is a short one...didn't do much today but lounging around and snorkeling.


beach view...







Spouting horn...cool what the ocean can do!

Kauai Day 5 - Kayaking down the Wailua River

Today we kayaked down the Wailua River and hiked to the Secret Falls. The trip was great and our tour guide Aaron (originally from Mass :-) was excellent. We learned so many things, I guess it helped that he was a marine biologist. I think he liked having two science nerds on his trip! We asked lots of questions! The trip was really nice and peaceful along the river. We also hiked to Secret Falls. That was cool. The waterfall was so powerful, if you got within a few feet of it you got blown away! Before and after we went snorkeling and practiced with the camera!



















Trunkfish


Hawaiian triggerfish (state fish). Hawaiian name: humuhumunukunukuapua'a

Kaua'i Day 4

Today we went to the North coast to see the lighthouse and went to Tunnels and Ke'e beach. The lighthouse was beautiful. It was a beautiful day and the views from the little peninsula were amazing. We even saw 3 seals laying around on the rocks taking a nap. Just off the tip of the lighthouse was a small island that is a bird sanctuary. This was really the place for bird lovers. Lots of birds....can't remember the names of all of them, sorry! I do know that we saw albatross.
Next we went to Tunnels beach, they are supposed to be the best for snorkeling. Enjoy the pics!


Now I know why they call Hawaii the rainbow state....every time it rains you see one or even two.


The lighthouse


The bird sanctuary


Can you find the 2 seals??


View of the coast from the lighthouse


Up close and personal with the lighthouse...





Snorkeling at Tunnels Beach....getting better with the underwater camera finally!

Kaua'i Day 3

Day 3 started off with jogging and snorkeling....yesterday afternoon we went snorkeling and saw a huge green turtle feeding and of course I didn't have my camera! We thought we'd try in the morning and maybe we'd see one. Well we didn't, but there were tons of them just a few feet down in the water. The waves were too rough here so we watched them from the surface. We also did a road trip and saw a few waterfalls and went to a new beach. This was all on the west side of the island.



Wailua falls
Opaeka'a falls
The Wailua River....which we will be kayaking down on Friday.

Some more fish underwater....still not much of an improvement....I have to fix the settings!

Kaua'i Day 2

Our second day started at 6:30 (rooster time) but that wasn't too bad since we were in bed at 9:30pm the night before! It was worth getting up that early...we went snorkeling and saw lots of colorful fish right at the beach across the street and a beautiful rainbow after a 5 min. shower...




We drove to Waimea Canyon today and the views were breathtaking.

Waimea Canyon

Waimea Canyon

Polihale State Park
After a 5 mile dirt road (we thought we would never make it...the sign said 4WD only, which of course we didn't have!) we arrived at the longest stretch of beaches on the whole island. The beach had about 10 people on it at the most, it was fantastic! The waves were really high and I got dragged through the sand by one....I need to learn how to ride waves better.

Kaua'i, Hawaii Day 1

After another 5 hour plane ride (like 11 wasn't enough?) we finally landed in paradise....we arrived at night so we had no idea what was awaiting us....I tell you, this place is PARADISE!! Thanks to Jan and Megumi for telling us about it! We have definitely found our favorite spot in the world!


Our beach bungalow we are staying at...we have the top floor...it's amazing you can hear the sound of the waves crashing and the lovely sound of wild roosters crowing every morning at 6:00am! A little bit of a drawback but whatever. We are within seconds of the beach...

The view from our balcony in the morning....after roosters and coffee....

Poi'pu beach. The beach where we are staying. We've seen a seal up on the beach and lots of green sea turtles swimming around.

My attempt to test out the underwater camera....better pictures coming soon....here is a little "scary" (according to Christian) spotted moray eel. It's head was the size of my two fingers....


This is how I felt after all of the plane rides, jet lag, roosters on the first day!

Our vacation begins with San Francisco...

Our vacation began with a stop over in San Francisco....was a little cooler than we expected and for sure we learned from the locals that the summer months are not nice ones. Doesn't that figure? Anyway, we used all of the warm clothes we had (not many) and survived the few days we were there. Amazingly enough, the sea lions didn't think too much about the weather, they were swimming away while we were blowing away! We did a lot of sightseeing and went to see the musical "Wicked" one night which was "awesome!"

Pier 39 with the sea lions

Alcatraz...we didn't have enough time to go through it, but took a picture of it anyway...next time

Where's the Golden Gate Bridge in this picture? Unfortunately there was fog...but the bridge is in the background, I promise...

The Japanese Tea Garden in the Golden Gate Park...we even stopped for some green tea to warm us up (even though Christian preferred a beer, I talked him into the tea).

The painted ladies...these houses are in a lot of commercials and movies I guess....so they said?!