A Smattering of Kauai!

Here is the villa/condo where we stayed. I spent many a morning sitting on our lanai reading and watching chickens. Yes, lots of chickens and roosters. The roosters wanted to make sure every guest felt at home, regardless of what time zone they were from! So, they crowed just about every hour! One night a rooster was cock a doodle doing on our lanai perched on the little table. Kelly politely encouraged him to go sing elsewhere.
Below is a photo from Kipu Falls (the rope swing place). I took this because the man in the right of the picture was cracking us up. The Red Wonder as I call him, stood right there contemplating jumping for almost the entire time we were there. He and his family arrived after us and ended up leaving the same time we did. He never braved it and looked quite bummed when he was packing up to leave. Maybe next time R.W.

This is a view from our Lanai. There were tiki torches around the whole resort, I loved the old school Hawaii feel. And, we had the pool and hot tub to ourselves most evenings!

As evidenced here: Kelly relaxing in the hot tub!

Here is the pool we spent the most time at, super peaceful:

In the town of Hanalei we had a most tasty treat... Shave Ice (not shaved as I previously thought) with Macadamia Nut ice cream on the bottom!

This is at Tunnels Beach, the best snorkeling we have ever done! I finally saw neon tropical fish by the dozens and felt like I was watching the Discovery Channel, so much fun!

More Tunnels Beach, see all of the snorkelers and divers in the background...

Some of the pretty scenery. I honestly felt like I was on the set of Jurassic Park/King Kong the whole time. It was something else!

This is taken from a Cave/Tunnel looking out, I'm the closest figure :)

Kelly was wishing he had his headlamp with him, he of course explored a little more adventurously than I did:

The Garden Isle:

Lots of relaxing at our favorite pool:

The chickens and their little chicks came to visit us quite frequently. They often slept in the shade of our chairs.

More than once we sought shelter during tropical rain under the (I can't remember what they were calling them, started with a "P" hmm???) "umbrellas" as Kelly just called them.

Bobbing around in Queen's Bath:

I wish I took more pictures of this, it was like an ocean swimming pool. To the left of where Kelly is, it continued for quite a bit and was completely enclosed by the black rocks.

A few randoms for you:

-We met an amazing artist in Hanalei and purchased a painting titled "Disco City Museum." I loved talking with him and asking him all about the piece, it was such a pleasure to hear his thoughts behind it. He is an inspiration, check out his story and website: www.mosesart.org.

-I saw more hitchikers in Kauai than I have seen in my whole life! I think it is because there isn't much of a public transportation system. It was often just teens talking on their cell phones with their thumbs out, and mini vans or business men picking them up. We didn't partake in either role, not embracing the island life to that extent.

-We had the best ice cream (twice) that we have ever had! www.tropicaldreamsicecream.com. The ice cream shop was half ice cream/half movie rental. The owner of the shop was also the ice cream scooper, he was pretty entertaining and wanted to make sure we sampled just about every kind. Of course we didn't want to be rude, so we fully accepted his offers! Apparently the ice cream maker is Wolfgang Puck's personal ice cream chef?!?