Partly Cloudy!

Hi, everyone!

Moose-san and I thought we wouldn’t get a chance to see the lunar eclipse, but we did!  The clouds cleared about 4 a.m. Wednesday morning and Grandma got us up to see the red moon.There was lightning at the same time, and clouds over part of the sky.  We were lucky the moon was in the clear part!

On Wednesday morning, Nancy-san had a doctor’s appointment for her thumb in Lihue.  Since we were partway to the north shore anyway, we went to Kilauea Point!  The weather was cloudy in Poipu and Lihue, but it was clear to the north.  Kilauea Point is a national wildlife refuge on the site of a lighthouse that isn’t used any more.  It is a very pretty place!  Lots of people had the same idea for visiting Kileaua Point as we did, so we had to wait a little while to get a space in the parking lot.  Moose-san and I made friends with the park ranger, once we got to the entrance!

Kilauea Point is mostly a refuge for seabirds.  Red footed boobies have their nests on the east side of the point and laysan albatrosses nest on the west side.  There are also nesting areas for shearwaters and long-tailed tropic birds, but we didn’t see any of them on this visit.

We did see lots of Hawaiian geese, or nene.  Moose-san and I made several nene friends on the lawn around the lighthouse!  Then we looked for whales in the surrounding ocean and saw some spouts.

There were lots of pretty sights:  the lighthouse, the albatross soaring overhead and the new pathway and wall.  We couldn’t visit Kilauea when we were in Kauai two years ago.  The refuge was closed because a section of the pathway collapsed into a lava tube.  The repaired section has a sturdy wall!  We stopped at the gift shop and took a wildlife quiz.  Moose-san and I had to think hard about the answers to the questions!

We had lunch in Kilauea, then we drove back to the south shore.  I had a date with my friend, the Heavenly Haku lady, at Kukui’ula Culinary Market on Wednesday afternoon.  I had missed seeing her at Saturday farmer’s market because I stayed home with Grandma.  Just as we got to Kukui’ula, it started raining!  Grandma tucked me and Moose-san into her rain jacket while we walked around looking for my friend’s stand.  The rain stopped, and my friend was just setting up when we found her!  Moose-san wanted to see what she had in all her baskets.  There were all sorts of plant fibers and flowers, and there was even a haku she had made for me!  I was glad I had a chance to see Elvrine-san again!

Since we were at Kukui’ula, anyway, we stopped at Lappert’s to buy ice cream.   Some of it was for Wednesday dessert.  The rest was for Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, on Saturday February 3.  Moose-san and I got to choose four flavors of ice cream for the quart container Grandma bought!  When we got home, I let Moose-san wear my haku. He promised not to eat it, even though some of the flowers taste like aquatic weeds!

The path we walk to the beach is landscaped with lots of plants!  Sometimes Moose-san and I stop to look at them and appreciate how pretty they are.  One day there was a yoga class going on and I stopped to join that, too!  On Thursday, there were three sea turtles on the beach!  One of them was just leaving when we got to the beach.  Grandma says there’s a saying:  two’s company, three’s a crowd!  Do you think that’s why the third turtle left?

After we saw the turtles on the beach, we took a walk with Grandma and Nancy-san and Joe-san to the Hawaiian native village that is being restored behind Poipu Beach Park.   There were lots of signs explaining how the site was identified and what went on in the parts divided by stone walls.  There were dwellings and temples and a big space for public gatherings.  So far, some of the walls and the fish ponds have been recreated.  The tikis were placed to mark where the sun rises and sets on the winter and summer solstices.

When we got back from our walk, Grandpa went out to get another lunch from Dim ‘N’ Den Sum.  Moose-san and I went along to see all the food trucks again!  Everybody really likes the food Yoshi-san makes!

Friday was Ground Hog Day, and the day started out cloudy again!  Moose-san and I looked for our shadows!  At first, we couldn’t see them.  Then Grandpa pointed out a sunbeam and we did see our shadows, just for a little while!  Then it started raining and didn’t stop all morning!

When the heaviest rain was over, Grandma took me and Moose-san out to see what had flooded.  The low part of the resort lawn had turned into a pond.  A big snail had crawled out on the wet lawn.  The road by Poipu Beach park was flooded, too!

By Saturday morning, some of the water had drained off the lawn and the road, but everything was still soggy!  Saturday was Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, so Moose-san and I did!  Then we all went to the farmers’ market at Kauai Community College.  We looked at the flowers and vegetables.  Then we bought Midnight Bear Bread and goat cheese and lettuce to make lunch.

We had a special guest for lunch!  Uncles Bill and David’s friend Chad-san is a pilot for American Airlines, and he flew into Lihue Friday night.  After we were done at the market, we picked up Chad-san and brought him back to Poipu with us.  We took him to the beach.  There were two monk seals, but no sea turtles!  We looked for whales, too, but didn’t see any.  After lunch, we all walked to Makahuena Point.  At least there were sea turtles swimming in the cove!  Chad-san ‘s children are the same ages as Bill, Karin and Thomas.  We told him all the places on Kauai that his family would enjoy if they came to visit!

When we took Chad-san back to Lihue, we had another drive through the tree tunnel.  Grandpa says the cloudy weather is just supposed to last one more day, then it will be sunny again!

Love,

Lion-san