End of the Trip

We checked on the albatross mom and her chick--again perusing the two from the confines of our car.  Together the baby and mom were in a classic sleeping bird pose.  The albatross forms long-standing pair-bonds, mating for life after courting for years, and  returning year after year to the same place to nest.  The bird lays only one egg--it can take a year from egg to full fledging.  We feel a sadness around this mother albatross, as we see a homemade cross in the yard placed about three feet from the nesting mother and bearing the name "Sammy."  We cannot help but think that the father albatross has died somehow, and the homeowners who share their cliff house lot with these magnificaent birds erected the sign to mark his passing.  We wonder what will happen to the little chick without both parents to both guard and feed it.  Then, next year, the mother must try anew to form a pair-bond--will she succeed?

Sunday is the day we chose to explore up the Wailua River to Fern Grotto.  While waiting for our boatride, I was able to catch more red-crested cardinals, including a fiesty male who was trying his best to attrack the attention of a female:

The Smith family boats carry us from their lush, flower-filled gardens to the up-river state park while singers and dancers entertain us:

At the park, we follow a trail up from the boat to the grotto, which has many plants blooming along the path, including the apple banana, which is a smaller banana we see in our local market here:

 

 

On the way back we spot a duck in the river, and later see a pacific golden plover in our neighborhood:

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

On Monday, we do a little shopping in Hanalei, then head back to the condo to begin packing for the trip home (boo hoo).



Saturday Birding

This morning, Helen, Liz and I set out for Kilauwea, stopping first at Anini Beach to drop off the wine with Gary--the girls had forgot to take it yesterday to the birthday party.  Gary and family planned on flying home sometime tonight, but Audrey and Bill were staying a few more days.

It had rained hard in the night, and puddles were everywhere--the roads often were silty.  The drive in to the Kilauwea Lighthouse and Wildlife Prteserve also showed that weekend traffic is much thicker than during the week.  Still, we found a parking place and were able to walk out to the lighthouse and overlook the red-footed booby rookery, and also the nesting areas for shearwaters and other seabirds in this special refuge.  They rapidly swooped past on sharp air currents, diving into the cliffs, and disappearing from view.  I took over 300 pictures, and out of that (wonderful delete key) found that I had caught a few that are good:

Beautiful blossoms on the native plants in the preserve are also abundant, as is an unusual pine.

We saw nene for the first time this trip on the lighthouse grounds.  These beautiful Hawaiian geese have small wings and their flight is not strong, so they remain year-round residents of these islands, not migrating the thousands of miles like their Pacific flyway cousins.  Four were grazing on the grass and watching the tourists at the lighthouse, staying in two groups of two:

 

 

We left the lighthouse and headed up to see how the heavy rains had affected Opeaka'a Falls on theWailua River.  The falls were much wider and more silky than two years ago as they tumbled down the cliffs, and everybody was taking pictures:

As we traveled further up the canyon to the arboretum at the end of the road, we found our progress was stopped by high water flowing over the road, which was apparently a low water crossing.  We also photographed one of the Moa chickens, who was looking for handouts.

 

Next, we lunched in Kapa'a, where Helen had a grilled chocolate sandwich (for real):

After lunch we headed back to our condo, but first stopped to photograph some dancing albatrosses, and a mother albatross and her chick (we remained in our car on the street and did not approach these birds--this is a telephoto lens):

Lost Days

The above picture was taken some days ago, and I like the rippling water surrounding this lovely swan. 

 

The fifth day of being ill on my Hawaiian vacation is coming to a close, but I am at last feeling better, and tomorrow I expect to resume being a tourist--it has been rainy here in Kauai almost all days, but Thursday and Friday were the heaviest, with local flooding, including one woman swept away by a swollen stream just about ten miles from where I am staying. 

 

The rainy weather is not unusual, and it has remained warm throughout--so the stay has still been enjoyable, except for being ill.  Liz and Helen stopped at a couple open houises, one a condo ($570K) and another a detached house ($780K).  The prices are lower than two years ago, so perhaps the recession is still hurting Hawaii.  We also noticed that several restaurants in Waikiki were closed/shut down, including one in a nice hotel.  Perhaps that is just a common feature there anytime, but it seemed like more than one would normally find while out strolling for a dinner location.

 

 

Liz and Helen Explore without Sue

On Monday, I was feeling pretty poorly, and stayed home--Liz and Helen took an exploring walk around our complex and went shopping in Princeville.  On Tuesday, I was feeling even more poorly, so Liz and Helen decided to go on a lovely walk near Kilauwai--Helen made her all time high of over 13000 steps!  These are pictures they took:

 

 

Beginning of the Trail

 

 

Farmed Fish Ponds

 

Mahogany Forest

 

I felt a little better just befiore noon so took a short walk and captured this beautiful bird:

 



 

 

The walk tired me out, and I went home and back to bed.



Last Day in Oahu

Our last full day in Honolulu was on Friday the 15th, and the three of us studied bus routes from Waikiki (technically part of Honolulu, but at the far southwestern edge of the city and with its own atmosphere of hotels and tourist support).  We decided Bus No. 2 would run from near our hotel to downtown Honolulu near the legislative center and the 'Iolani Palace.

We arrived near the state legislature building--a remarkable structure in its own right--and  easily found our way to the Palace. The only royal palace in US soil, the 'Iolani Palace has beencarefully restored to represent its height at the turn of the century in 1900.  One of our favorite rooms was the music room:

 

 

 

Our self guided tour lasted slightly over an hour, after which we sought lunch at the nearby YMCA Cafe Julia, named after Julia Morgan the architect of Hearst Castle fame, as well as Benbow Inn.  It was a great lunch and an exquisite building, dedicated as a YMCA in 1923. 

 

We returned back to our hotel, again on Bus No. 2, with ease.

 

Our flight the next day was later in the afternoon, so we were unhurried as we gathered our stuff for the flight to Kaua'i.

 

On arrival, renting the car was slick, and finding the condo at Alii Kai in Princeville straightforward--we shopped at Foodland and were settled in nicely for the evening.

 

The next day, Sunday, we went to the historic church in Hanalei for services, returning to the town later that afternoon for a slack key concert.  By then, I was beginning to feel a little ill--perhaps my sinus infection was getting the best iof me.

 

Rembering the USS Arizona

The memorial is located within Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham, and visitors first pass through the military security (no purses or bags of any kind, but cameras allowed), which delivers you to a painted map of the world displaying the location of Hawaii to the rest of the world, showing the great distance the Japanese fleet travelled for their World War II surprise strike that brought war to the shores of the United States.  Hawaii is closest to San Francisco, but still a long distance to any continental mass.

In the distance, across an arm of Pearl Harbor, the white curved structure is striking.  Farther in the distance is the USS Missouri, "Mighty Mo."  This battleship was commissioned during WWII, and decommissioned after the first Gulf War, coming at last to join the military memorials housed at Pearl Harbor's Ford Island.   Of course, it is a fitting book-end to the World War II memorial--the sunken USS Arizona representing the start of the war in 1941, and the immensity of "Mighty-Mo" where the documents of surrender were signed by the Japanese in 1945 representing the end of war.

The displays of our march toward war, and the war itself are beautifully and respectfully presented on the on-shore memorial, and the gardens remind us that this is a tribute to the thousands lost on Deecember 7, 1941.  The film that precedes your journey across the water will bring you to tears, and the miltary water shuttle that carries you toward the USS Arizona Memorial begins to set the stage, but nothing truly prepares you for the poignancy of going onto the memorial.

It's stark white finish, and open air windows (representing the 24-gun salute) lead you to the wall of names of those lost aboard the sunken ships.  Voices are hushed, and the mood is somber, but the memorial is a tribute which should not be missed.  Leaning over the side to see the submerged sections of the Arizona, and rusty turrets still protruding above water can only bring home to you the terror of that early Sunday morning.  For a few minutes, we are transported back in time 70 plus years to that Day of Infamy.

 

 

 

The USS Arizona is a memorial to the fallen, but a reminder to those still living of the senselessness of war.

Oahu Travels--Day 1

On Wednesday, February 13, we began our visit of Oahu with a "round-island" tour.  Our pre-conceived notion of the island was that Honolulu was a place to see once, but not return, and Oahu equaled Honolulu.  This tour quickly demonstrated that nothing could be farthern from the real Oahu. 

Over a million people live on the island, all but about 300,000 in the Honolulu area, which is a huge city with skyscraping buildings--both in the Waikiki hotel area and the downtown business area.  Within about 30 minutes, Honolulu and Diamond Head recede into the background, and no other large city exists on the island.   Residential areas flank the southern side, some extremely exclusive and quite exquisite--but as one travels the loop northward, typical Hawaiian residences can be seen--the average home price on Oahu is about $600,000, but the typical entry home price is about $300,000, according to our tour drivers--which is still expensive given the tourist economy wages. 

The tour took us up along breathtaking coastlines, past blowholes and dangerous surfing beaches (like "Sandy Beach" and less dangerous but still challenging surfer beaches like "Sunset Beach"), and everywhere was a sense of history, both the more ancient Hawaiian history and the more recent 20th Century World War II history. 

The Byodo-In temple, shown above, is in a cemetary, and was beautiful, a replica of a temple in Japan, complete with Koi pond, black swans, and basking turtles:

 

 

 

 

 

A working ranch, turned eco-tourist attraction, the Kualoa Ranch, took us on a tram ride up the hillside where we could overlook the bay below, spotting the two off shore small land masses, Chinaman's Hat and Turtle Islands:

 



We were being cautious of Helen's back--she only recently recovered enough for this type of excursion, but she was an intrepid traveler:

 

 

One of iur last stops of the day was at the Dole Pineapple plantation, where sadly they no longer grow much pineapple, having shifted to coffee and corn.  We tasted the smooth, soft whipped pineapple dessert known as Dole Whip--delicious, and a "must" for any visitor, and enjoyed the beautiful planted grounds.  Their garden tour (free--they have a maze and other tours, for which they charge) showed several species of pineapple, including the one below:

 

 

Tired, but happy that we had seen so much of the island, we ended back at Waikiki about nine hours after we had left.  We decided after the tour that we may indeed return, but if so we would find a rental outside of Honolulu in one of the small towns.

 

On Thursday, we have an early tour of the USS Arizona Memorial.