Rain and Revisits!

Hi, everyone!

Since we got here, we have had some rain every day.  Most days, there has been blue sky with passing pop-up showers. Grandma and Grandpa take their rain jackets with them everywhere, but that doesn’t keep us from walking around and checking in on our favorite places!  We take walks on the resort greenway and go to Poipu Beach.  When we’re at our unit, I have my own bedroom because none of our friends could visit us here this year.

Every day Grandma helps me visit my friends on the beach!  There have been lots of sea turtles to see!  They come up on the beach to spend the night, but some of them are very late sleepers and spend the day on the beach, too!  The rain showers don’t seem to bother them at all!

The turtles are mostly on the keiki side of Poipu beach, which is the most protected area.  After I visit them, Grandma takes me over to the other end of the beach to see my monk seal friends.  They’re usually sleeping, too!

Last Sunday Grandpa and I watched the Super Bowl together.  Because of the time zone difference, it was afternoon for us!  The game was over in time to go to the beach to watch sunset.  It was very pretty!

Monday was a day when all our walks had at least one rainy period!  It started with a cloudy sunrise, and there was a lot of wind and surf!

Grandma and I took a walk down the main road.  When we stopped at the historic site of the native village, I got a surprise!  The poles were missing from the solar calendar!  They were sawed off at the bases!  Without the shadows the poles cast, the calendar is like a clock with no hands!

We walked further up the road to the Plantation resort.  The gardens weren’t being maintained last year, so I didn’t know what to expect.  There’s still a pretty walkway, but the lily ponds have all been drained.  In the Moir Garden, some of my cactus friends have been cut back and have new growth.  I was happy to see one of my strelitzia friends was still blooming!

We walked back on the beach.  There were two monk seals near the beach where Bill and Karin learned to surf last year!  I was happy to see Puka Dogs was still in the new location.  We had a sudden rain shower while we were walking on Poipu Beach, but the sun came out again afterwards!

We had the same sort of weather on Tuesday!  We drove into Koloa to pick up lunch at Dim ‘N’ Den Sum.  I hoped to see my friend Lynell-san there, but she was away.  We took our lunch back to our resort unit to eat.  It was yummy!

After lunch, we went to Makahuena Point to watch for whales.  There was less surf, so it was easier to spot whales.  There weren’t any nearby, but we did see some big splashes farther out.  It rained as we were leaving the point, but it stopped for sunset.

We had reservations for Kilauea Point National Wildlife Reserve on Wednesday morning.   We didn’t know whether or not we should make the long drive to get there.  The weather radar showed rainstorms popping up all over the island.  We decided to go, anyway!  When we got to the north shore of Kauai, it was raining hard!  When we got to the visitors center, the rain stopped!  We had rain to the west and sunshine to the east! I was happy to see a nene friend on the lighthouse lawn.  There were flocks of nenes on the approach road too — more than I’ve ever seen before!  The rain started again just as we got in our car to leave!

On our way back to our unit, we stopped at Kukui Grove shopping mall in Lihue.  Grandma wanted to visit the quilt show taking place there.  We had a saimin burger for lunch at the food court.  That’s a hamburger between two patties of fried noodles!  The quilts at the show were very pretty!  Grandma said some of the patterns reminded her of the quilts her grandmother used to make.

I have to keep away from my live sea turtle friends, so it was fun to get up close to some other turtle friends in the keiki play area at Kukui Grove.  While I was doing that, Grandma noticed a sign for the Kauai Ocean Discovery that said it was just about to open for the day.  We were the first visitors!  The guides were very happy to tell us about the history of the Hawaiian islands and the marine reserve that protects the sea life.  I was surprised to see that there’s a proposed marine reserve for Lake Ontario, too!

Thursday morning, after our walk to the beach, we drove to the south shore National Tropical Botanical Garden center in Lawai.  Last year, my friend Elvrine-san was part of the Aloha Market there, and I wanted to surprise her.  She wasn’t there this year, but I did get to revisit the rainbow eucalyptus tree!  On our way back we stopped at the local produce stand for more bananas, pineapple and greens!

Thursday evening, Grandpa showed me the big storm system on weather radar.  It was headed our way!  We watched sunset from the lanai of our unit as the clouds moved in.

Friday was mostly cloudy all day!  We got lunch at Kickshaw’s food truck.  We made our daily trip to the beach after lunch, when there were some patches of sun.  Every day, another lost shoe shows up on the rock fence at the edge of the beach parking area.  None of them match each other!

There were five sea turtles on the beach, and another one joined them while I was there!  I guess the clouds made the turtle think it was twilight!  I made friends with the volunteer who was protecting the monk seals.  He told me lots of stories about my seal friends! My Tuesday seal friend from the Big Island used to join triathlons there and nip at the swimmers.  That’s why he was relocated to Niihau.  After his time-out there, he is much better behaved.  One of the Friday monk seals likes to chase other monk seals off the beach.

Today is a rainy day, too!  People on the north shore of Kauai are being warned about flash flooding.  It’s starting to brighten up on the south shore, where we are, and we might even have a visible sunset.  The flowers are looking refreshed from all the rain.

Love,

Lion-san