From Benbow to Avenue of the Giants

Three trailers traveled to Benbow, camping along the Eel River.  Friday, the day of the tsunami from the horrific earthquake in Japan, was our departure day.  The news was full of the devastation in Japan, and the oncoming tsunami's impact on our coast--hitting Crescent City, Noyo, and Santa Cruz with damage-causing waves.  Crescent City, because of its shape, was particularly hard hit.  Despite this terrible news creating a pall across the world, the day itself was sunny with a few clouds, and a beautiful travel day.  Later, rain would start early on Saturday morning and last until we left Sunday.  Still, the weekend was fun and served a good purpose of testing out one of the trailers on its maiden trip.  The new trailer actually had a small leak which would not have been found had it not rained on our weekend get-a-away.

The RV park, shown at left in autumn, has pull-throughs which made it handy for all of us to setup--even Erich's 32-footer fit easily.  Judy took some pictures of our campsite and trailers, and some of these photos are posted here.   Four dogs were part of our group:  Tillie, Brody, Pancho, and Scooter.  All of the animals did well, even Tillie (above right) on her first time away from home in the trailer.  Emily's bike was soon unloaded on our arrival, and she biked around the park, thoroughly enjoying the ins-and-outs of the lanes.

Despite the weather, on the next day, we piled into two of our vehicles and drove north to the Avenue of the Giants.  Here, the beautiful Eel River parallels the old highway.  The river was running high and wild, a milky green in color.  We stopped first at the Visitor Center for the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  The 53,000-acre Park has some of the world's most majestic ancient trees, with over 17,000 acres of old growth redwood groves.  These massive trees, some older than Christianity, were first set aside with the efforts of the Save the Redwood League back in 1917.   The Visitor Center has a pictorial history of the area from the first settlements forward, including pictures of the devastating 1964 flood.  Dioramas of wildlife and aquatic resources are only a few of the interesting and educational displays within the Center.

On the outside are equally informative signs and displays--including the one at the right of a cross-section of one of the older redwoods--although this one isn't as massive as many found in the Park.  The tree's rings have been dates, and key times in the chronology of the last 2000 years are shown in tabs on the rings.  The Center also has specimens of the other two redwoods--the Giant sequoia  and Meta sequoia (or the Dawn Redwood) a deciduous redwood native.  These trees are very localized now, but were once much more widespread 65 million years ago.  In those ancient times, both the dawn redwood and the coast redwood were widespread throughout the northern hempisphere.  Today, they have retreated to small outposts in Northern California (Coastal Redwood), China (the Dawn Redwood), and the Sierras (Giant Redwood).

After leaving the Visitor Center, we traveled further north to Founder's Grove, which has a lovely short hiking trail with interpretive signs starting at Founder's Tree.  However, the rain became heavy at that point, so we only walked a short distance along the trail.

Still, Founder's tree is impressive, and its top was far from view.  

We continued on our way, returning via the freeway to Garberville and a lunch at a family-run cafe.  It had Emily's favorite on the menu--chicken strips.  The meal was mezza mezza, but better dining was ahead!  That night we had barbecued hamburgers and had hoped to sit outside around Erich's fire pit, but the rain made an indoor cook-out more comfortable.  We stayed warm and dry inside Brad & Judy's comfy new trailer--twice dining around the U-shaped table.  Friday night was hot dogs, and Saturday night was hamburgers!  Delicious camping cuisine.

A Temple Rises Along the Wailua River

Liz and I joined Wanda for a tour of the Hindu temple that waa founded several decades ago along the banks of the Wailua River just up from Kapaa near Lydgate Park.

The monastic order has developed a lovely garden amid their many statues and water features about five miles up from the highway.  You park in a residential area, then walk into the temple grounds.  The old Temple is the near the start of the garden area, and then the paths wind along the river, all leading up to a new temple that is being built at the back of the garden area, and will be a spiritual destination place for pilgramages from around the world.  As one walks along the serene paths, many different flowering tropical plans from around the world are found, as shown below.

Purple, red, yellow, white--the blossoms of unusual plants were abundant throughout the length of the pathways, surrounding stauary and water features.

Finally, the end of the path led to the partially completed temple, shown below.

The temple is all hand carved by carvers brought from India using ancient tools.  The detail of the carvings is remarkable:

The carved granite temple sits atop a huge foundation of concrete, created and designed by a UC-Berekley engineering professor whose speciality was concrete before he left the university to tout the everlasting qualities of this speciality concrete--the mixture contains considerable fly ash from Washington state.  The temple is being designed to last 1000 years, and should be completed in 2017.  Tours are every week, and reservations are strongly recommended.  No shorts are allowed, and anyone wearing shorts (men included) were given sarongs to cover themselves for the tour.

We completd the day by dropping Wanda off to rendezvous with her sister for catching the plane to Maui, and then later Helen, Liz and I spent the afternoon around Hanalei.  We went out a farm road by the taro fields and saw much birdlife upclose--ne ne geese, and many others, then shopped a bit before returning home to the condo.

Kauai' History

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 was the day Liz, Helen, and I travelled with our friend Wanda to Grove Farm near Lihue on Nawiliwili Road (http://www.grovefarm.net/sitemap.htm) .  This farm was the working-side of the missionary life.  This plantation was founded by the sons of missionaries who arrived in Hawaii in the 1830s.  Here, young George Wilcox (at left and son of the missionaries who built the mission house we visted earlier) began clearing land of kukui trees at the same time the Civil War raged on the mainland.  The thriving sugar plantation which he founded would produce sugar through the 1970s, when the heirs to the land created a non-profit entity to manage the grounds for historical preservation.

Not surprsingly, many of the items on the grounds are also found in the Old House and barn, having come from the same era.   The visit was a good opportunity to learn history of Kauai as well as help in idenification of the abundant trees and flowers of the island.   Regrettably, I accidentally deleted these photographs from my camera.

After the tour and a lunch out, we also stopped at the Kilauea lighthouse, which Liz, Helen and Wanda toured. 

On Thursday, we toured the National Tropical Botancial Gardens--Allerton Gardens (the same Allerton as in England), the scene of many movies and one of the homes of Hawaiian Queen Emma.  Photos are at the end of this write-up, including some huge root laterals which are as tall as a person and were used in the film Jurassic Park.

Robert Allerton purchased this land in the Lāwa‘i Valley,and set about to create an exquisite garden of landscape beauty and design. Later, the property was placed in a trust to perpetuate this garden legacy.  Before this, it was used as a vacation/hideway spot by many celebraties, including Jacqueline Kennedy immediately after the assassination.

After touring the gardens, Helen and I headed back to our condo for some leisure time, and Liz remained with her friends to do a little shopping.

Resting Day for Some

Yesterday, February 1, 2011, was a day of rest and Advil for Helen and I.  After sleeping in as long as we wished, we breakfasted leisurely.  Several coffees later, we did a few household chores, made a quick trip to the market, then returned for lunch and a nap.  Around 4:00, we walked over to the St. Regis and toured its swimming area, ending up with a Mai Tai and Pina Colada to accompany spring rolls for a light dinner.

We caught up on the news--the turmoil in Egypt and the big storm hitting the east--then went to bed early.

Meanwhile, Liz' day was another busy one:  picking up Chris with Wanda and Glenda, but first viewing her garden, followed by going to Anini Beach, being caught in a traffic jam from an accident, visiting the coffee planation for a walk-around and malasados, lunch of kahlua pork, taking in a waterfall, doing a cliff walk with a close-in whale playing, and watrching a monk seal. They arrived back at their condo about 6:00 p.m.

Finding Aloha: peace and welcome

This is a continuation of the prior post.  You may wish to begin reading the prior post first....

 On Saturday, January 29th, we found a Farmer's Market in Hanalei and purchased many fresh fruit and vegetables, some with strange names and appearances.  We also toured the Mission House, which was built to shelter the early missionaries.  It was a very large and spacious home, needed for the family of nine that first lived there in the 1830s.  We then returned to the condo and had a quick lunch, before traveling to meet Wanda, Glenda, and their friend Marsha (a resident) who was taking us to a Buddhist temple near Lawai (right). 

The Lawai International Center is a non-profit community project to restore and preserve an archaeological and cultural treasure.  This small valley apparently was long recognized as a healing sanctuary, and in 1904 the first generation of Japanese immigrants built 88 shrines replicating an ancient pilgrimage of 88 temples in Shikoku, Japan. Today, it is the only such site existing outside of Japan and is one of the oldest Buddhist temple sites in the country. Volunteers are bringing these shrines and this valley back to prominence as an international center for compassion, education and cultural understanding.

Arriving at the little valley (down a small narrow drive), we were treated to tea and a native cookie.  We then listened to an informative lecture about the place.  The sanctuary is in the shape of a turtle, with his head being a small grassy mound, his neck being a staircase of lava rocks, and his flippers represented by a series of jutting lave walls (pictured above).  One begins by passing through a cleft in a tree, forming a short tunnel; the climb starts up the back of the turtle, where  the 88 minitaure shrines are scattered along the narrow track, as it winds its way up the steep cliffside.  They provide walking sticks at the beginning of the track, which are helpful for keeping balance along the narrow track.  The vegetation all along the track is thick, but shows the signs of constant whacking back, to keep the ever growing lushness from encroaching over the temples.

This must be an ever-constant job--keeping the vegetation at bay.

 Each temple is unique--some are empty and many contain a small buddha image.  Those which are empty either contain a small stone stack or perhaps a shell lei. 

Small piles of coins--often corroded are turning blue from the weathered copper--are piled in the arching door of the miniature temple.

All of the temples had to be dismantled and salvaged before the hillside was cleared, then re-assembled in thier proper place.

As they are about three feet tall, one needs to bend over and peer inside to see whether the doorway leads to a buddha or is still empty, containing only the stones or lei.

The closeup of the interior of one of the temples, shown below left,  reveals a buddha, along with the pile of coins and a small sprig of vegetation which has been placed in the doorway.

These number 88 (double infinity when on its side) and are dotted along the track.  Once you reach the top of the cliff, you must descend, passing still more temples until you once again come out near the neck of the turtle.

The place is tranquil and worth a visit--it is open on two Sundays each month--for more information you can go here: http://www.lawaicenter.org/pages/home.html

The next day was Monday--this was a long day, spent first touring the historical town of Waimea (Wanda, Liz, Helen and I), then going up into the Wamea canyon as far as we could travel. 

The historical town tour was led by a Native Hawaiian lady, about 80 years old, who was spry and energetic--more so than me.  She was born in the area, and related the tales of her childhood as well as earlier times, and taking us past the old church and buidings which had been destroyed and re-built after a great flood.  It was a delightful tour, lasting all morning.  It is clear that Captain Cook (who introduced mosquitos from discarded bilge water) is not a favorite among the locals.

After lunching out, we went up to the Waimea Canyon, all the way to the top lookout where we could look over the roadless Napoli coast.

On Tuesday, Helen and I took a break, as we both needed to rest up a bit, while Liz went down to the southcoast again.  We plan to go over to the  St. Regis and have a cocktail later.

Finding Aloha

Liz, Helen, and I arrived in Hawaii on January 25th, and found our vacation rental easily at Puu Poa in Princeville on the northshore of Kauai.   The two middle lanais pictured on the left on the second floor are our lanais for the 2BR/2BA condo.  The one with the potted palm is off the living room and the one overlooking a garden area with a palm on either side is off the master bedroom and entry area to the condo (passing through our blue-weathered bronze entry doors).

We are right on the cliff next to the sea and whales move past within easy view.  Spouts are everywhere, and we have seen flukes and backs, and one breach.   Ne Ne, the native Hawaiian goose, come in each day and graze on the lawn.  Of course, the ever-present feral chickens graze on the lawn all day long. 

The view from either lanai at our condo (as well as from the kitchen, dining room, and living room) is spectacular.  A small beach is just below us, and surfers are usually out during the day.  The roar of the ocean lulls us to sleep every night.  The picture at the left was taken from our living room lanai.

Each day we have had an outing--some more strenuous than others and some lasting from 7 a.m. till 6 p.m.  Today, both Helen and I decided to pass up the planned outing (Liz is going with her friends Wanda and Glenda on a cliff walk led by Wanda's friend Chris, who lives here) and just be lazy around our condo.  Of` course, that gives me an opportunity for updating this blog.

On Wednesday, the day after we arrived, we headed to the southcoast about an hour-and-a-half away and went for a whale-watching excursion in a rubber raft boat.  It was quite a trip, and I wasn't sure if it wouldn't be the last excursion of the trip....The pilot raced across the waves, slapping sharply against the bow, and would easily have tossed us all into the sea if we hadn't followed instructions.  Sitting on the sides of the rubber raft, we were told to hold on to the top rope with our right hand, the middle rope with our left hand, and to hook our feet under the bottom rope on the boat's bottom.  Lizzie hung on for dear life and I was next to her following suit--Helen was more to the rear where the wave crashing was less severe, but still she had a death grip on the ropes. 

The trip did reveal whales at a distance, but bottlenose and spinner dolphins were up-close and personal.  The bottlenose were flipping a dead fish around, playing some dolphin version of soccer, and the spinners were leaping and turning next to the boat for a quite a while.  We also saw a rare monk seal, and a large school of flying fish, one of my favorite sights.

On Thursday, after a rainy night, Liz and I climbed down a steep trail to the beach below our condo--we have now made two trips:  first and last.  The trail was steep with only frayed rope handholds for part of it (Helen wisely turned back), but Liz and I made it all the way to the bottom, where the sea was clear.   We can access the same beach area from either the easy trail through the St. Regis Hotel or through a paved trail along the condos to our immediate east.  That's our intent during the next exploration of the area.

Later in the morning, the three of us split up--Liz and I went snorkeling at Lydgate Park and Helen joined Glenda (Wanda had not yet arrived) for a day of shopping.  The diversity of fish contained in a pool behind a rocky wall was great--the high tide sweeps them in, and mostly they stay within the pool.  Needlefish and other tropicals abounded.  This was the first time snorkeling for Liz, and the first time I have snorkeled in the sea, so Lydgate is protected and a nice calm place to get our sea legs, so to speak.  Helen's shopping trip proved worthwhile and she bought some material at the Stichery.

On Friday, we joined Wanda who had arrived the evening before, and explored to the end of the road on the North shore, all the way to Kee Beach.  The surf was high, and althouigh we had our snorkeling gear, there was no safe way to be out in the sea, so we hiked along the cove trail for a ways, before returning to the beach.  We stopped briefly on the way back at both wet Cave (pictured) and dry cave--these are lava tubes similar in appearance to the Lava Beds National Monument which we have frequented in Modoc County, CA, but are right at the cliff edge to the sea.  Exploring the wet cave requires a swim (which we didn't do) and exploring the dry caves requires scrambling and a flashlight--so we postponed that as well.  The next stop was at the Limahuli Gardens, built on the site of an old (700 years) native encampment. The gardens have terrifc information on indigenous, introduced, and invasive plants, and also are quite lovely:

The bottom terraces had taro growing at differnt stages of its life cycle.  The taro plant, introduced from Polynesia, has been an important staple for the Hawaiians for centuries.  This is the sticky purplish food often found at luaus and frequently described as bland or unpalatable.  However, it is not prepared and presented in the best way at a tourist luau.  We were told by a native Hawaiian that first the root is pounded into a soft sticky pulp which is then kneeded.  It may also begin to ferment--the thicker it is, the more sweet and flavorful.  The thin poi found at luaus is a far cry from the thick, sweet poi eaten by the Hawaiians.  Taro fields are abundant in Hanalei.    The valley below the overlook along the haighway is shown below, and we hope to exlore the valley in a few days.

Next we returned home to our condo for a brief rest as that night we were returning to Hanalei for a slack-key guitar concert.  Slack-key is a traditiobnal way of playing the guitar, learned by the Hawaiians as they taught themselves the instrument introduced by cowboys from South America.  It is quite lovely, almost tranquil. 

[to be continued in the next blog entry as Little Red's computer's memory is not great for all the pictures, so I need to post this before continuing]