Aloha Means Goodbye, Too!

Hi, everyone!

Last Tuesday, Grandma reminded me that we only had three more days on Kauai before we were going home.  I wanted to make sure I said goodbye to all my friends! Tuesday morning was so windy I had to stay close to a marker cone when I went to visit my sea turtle friends.  Otherwise I would have blown away!  I grabbed onto the monk seal sign when I went to visit them!  The wind was blowing sand into the monk seals’ faces, but they didn’t seem to mind.  The surf was wild, too!

The spot in Koloa where my favorite food truck is parked used to be the first sugar mill in that part of the island.  Nothing is left now except the big chimney!  I had some time to look at it while we were waiting for our lunch.  We tried a new-to-us food truck, Taco Libre.  Their carne asada burrito was yummy!

We had a pretty sunset on Tuesday and sunny, but windy weather Wednesday morning.  I was happy about that, because Grandma had another reservation for Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge!  Before we headed to Kilauea, I had time to visit my beach friends.  One of the turtles that got a shell ID number last week was back on the beach!  The monk seal sleeping on the beach was covered in sand!

On our way to Kilauea, we took time to drive up the Wailua River to the state park and ‘Opaeka’a Falls!  ‘Opaeka’a Falls isn’t directly on the river, but it’s just across the road from one of the river viewpoints.  In traditional times, Wailua River was the favorite residence of the king.  There were temples all along the banks.  Some of the stone walls are still standing.  Now there are lots of kayakers on the river!

Last time we were at Kilauea Point we were in between rainstorms and it was cloudy to the west.  On Wednesday, it was sunny!  There were two nenes on duty at the lighthouse and a family of nene chicks on the access road.  There were red-footed boobies and long-tailed tropic birds soaring over the point.  We even saw a frigate bird!  I discovered that the visitor center has a back porch.  You can see the lighthouse from there!

Of course, on our way back from Kilauea to Koloa, we drove through the tree tunnel!  Then we stopped at Dim ‘N’ Den Sum to get their daily special:  dan-dan noodles.  Lynell-san was worried they would be too spicy for us, but they were yummy!

After lunch, Grandma took me back to the beach again.  There were more turtles than in the morning!

Even on our sunny day, we had a brief shower coming back from our afternoon trip to the beach.  There was a rainbow afterwards!  By sunset, it was dry again.

When I got to the beach on Thursday morning, most of the Wednesday afternoon turtles had already left.  The monk seals had just come up onto the beach to nap after playing in the water.  I helped the volunteers set up the signposts and rope to protect them!

At lunch time, I said goodbye to Lynell-san when we picked up pork belly bao buns for lunch.  They were yummy, of course!

Then I went back to the beach to watch the surf.  Guess what?  The turtles were already coming up for the night!  Maybe they were tired of playing in the surf and wanted a protected place to rest.  There were kite surfers out beyond the reef, and they were zipping along!

Thursday night was our last chance to watch sunset! It was another pretty one!

Friday morning, Grandma got a message that our Saturday morning flight from Chicago to Rochester had been canceled.  We were rebooked on a Saturday afternoon flight, instead.  That didn’t change our earlier flights!  After we packed and checked out of our unit, we had time to go back to the beach.  So I got one more chance to see my turtle and monk seal friends.  It was nice to see friends I’d made before!

The last working sugar mill on Kauai was close to Poipu.  It has been abandoned for a long time and Grandpa was curious to see what was left.  We had time before lunch, so we stopped to take a look.  The buildings haven’t fallen down, but a lot of plants have grown up around them! Even the truck has plants growing on it!

We stopped at Taco Libre for a burrito bowl and had to wait for a brief rain shower before we picked it up to eat there.  I was afraid Lynell-san would be mad at me for ordering food from another food truck, but she said it was OK.  Then we headed to the airport.  By the time we reached Los Angeles from Lihue, it was already dark!

The flight from Los Angeles to Chicago started way after my bedtime and arrived just as dawn was showing in the sky.  A flight attendant gave me a new set of United junior pilot wings to wear!

We had six hours to wait in Chicago before our final flight to get home.  Grandma and Grandpa had passes for the United Club, so we had a comfortable place to wait!  There was a very nice breakfast buffet, then a very nice lunch with yummy soup!  I got a chance to work on my blog.  I made friends with the bussing robot!  It moved around the lounge from place to place, collecting used dishes.

Our flight from Chicago to Rochester was completely full because of the earlier flight cancelation!  The GPS display didn’t even label Rochester until we were almost there!  Uncle Steven and Thomas picked us up while James and Aunt Kara were at a regional Odyssey of the Mind competition.  When we got home there was slushy snow melting all over!  Katie’s lion told me about the weather while I was gone.  I missed an ice storm and some more snow!  I told Katie’s lion about my adventures.  He thought they were mane-raising!  Best of all, we heard that James’ team won first place at Odyssey of the Mind!

Love,

Lion-san