Us to Hawaii!! - Ya gotta be kidding

Who woodda thought Mom and I would go to Hawaii. Well, we had a chance to use someone else's timeshare so off we went. After 5 hours of flying from the mainland we made it to Honolulu, changed planes and jumped over to Kauai, rented a car and drove up to Princeville to the Bali Hai Villas. The first picture is the entrance with dolphins in the pool.

Next, the stairs to our upstairs condo.

Our fantastic kitchen

And a sunset view from our balcony one evening

The temperature was just perfect while were there... maybe a little muggy, tho. We ate out on the balcony/porch most of the time (when we ate at the timeshare). I set some cereal bowls out on the table one morning, poured in a little cereal and went back in to get some raw pineapple, milk, etc. When I came back, the birds were sitting on the table pecking away at the cereal. They didn't miss an opportunity to get some free food.

The first night we drove on down to Hanalei (about 4 miles) to a seafood restaurant. First we stopped at an overlook to see a panoramic view of the Hanalei valley. Very spectacular! If you click on the picture below to get the full view, be sure you scroll left and right to see it all.

At the restaurant we had window seats (open air) looking right out into their lush gardens. The birds came to see us there, too, looking for food. Did we mention that the food was absolutely delicious.

One afternoon we went a boat ride to the Fern Grotto (state park), a tour of the "Tropical Paradise Gardens," a Hawaiian Luau and an after dinner show similar to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu; not on such a grand scale but very well done.

The Fern Grotto was formed where water runs continually over the edge volcanic formations. Over 19,000 wedding have been performed there since it was set aside as a state park over 60 years ago. You can see a dark area in the left center of the picture which is a former lava tube. The bride and groom stand in the tube behind a veil of water which falls down in front of them. Very picturesque. Interestingly enough, while were there, the guide asked if there were any new marriages in the group. The most recent one was 3 days old. Turned out to be a couple, now from Colorado, who were married in the Salt Lake Temple. The bride is from Salt Lake City. We even sat across from them at the Luau later that evening. A nice coincidence.

The Tropical Paradise Gardens (and luau and show) is a family-run attraction. How about this peacock in the gardens?! Wow! What color!

We bought some birdseed and the peacocks knew how to get it.







After the pig came out of the "imu" pit, the feast was on. Very delicious... even the poi was "good" on bread dipped into it. Over 300 people attended.








Hawaiian music and other entertainment was provided throughout the evening.







And then there was the culturual show which included of course, the trditional fire dancer from somwhere in the South Pacific. He was good.

All the beaches in Kauai are plentiful, beautiful and FREE. This is the one where much of South Pacific was filmed. The color of the water is just gorgeous.

I'm sure you are wondering if we ever got totally wet in blue Pacific Ocean. Of course we did. This was a secluded beach called Anini Beach. It was superb. I got in, too but we didn't get a good picture of me.

By the way, the little island you see just above Mom's head is the northern-most point in the state of Hawaii.

One other big attaction on Kauai is Waimea Canyon. It is called the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. This picture was taken from an elevation of almost 4, 000 feet . Very spectacular. The picture is a panoranic view, so be sure to scroll left and right as you view the large image of it. This is the day it just poured rain in the morning and we weren't sure we were going to be able to drive to this place at all. But we took a chance on it clearing up and it did for just a few minutes just as we got there. Then it clouded up and rained again.

Well, there are lots more pictures but we are not going to post them here. We'll just close this part of the blog with two more pictures. One is a beautiful evening picture of some palm trees in the village of Hanalei and the other is map of Kauai. Notice there is only a road around 3/4 of the perhipery of the island. The northwest coast is not accessible due to its terrain. OK, OK. We'll throw in one more picutre of the beautiful Napali Coast even though we didn't make it there. You can only get there by boat, by helicopter or by hiking. That's it.