Reconnecting!

Hi, everyone!

Grandma and Grandpa have brought me to Kauai so many times now that I have lots of friends here! Whenever we visit, I get to see them all again!

Last time we were here, we watched one sunset from the upper lanai of our resort unit. We did that again Saturday night. It was a pretty sunset and Grandpa saw a green flash!

Everywhere we go, I see plants that are old friends! Some are on the resort grounds and some are along the shore.

There are lots of birds around, too! Some of them live here all year round, but the plover comes from farther away than we did to enjoy the weather here.

When we first got here, Grandma and I noticed that there were some posts stacked at the native royal observatory. The tikis that cast shadows were missing last year and nobody seemed to know why! Sunday morning, Grandma and I took a walk to the heiau to check the posts out. When we got close, we could see a team of volunteers clearing overgrown brush from the heiau site. They had stacked so many big branches near the road that we had to walk in the road to get to the observatory site! The cattle egrets were all over the newly cleared areas, looking for food!

When we got to the corner with the observatory, we saw four carved tikis wrapped in plastic. I couldn’t tell whether they were the original ones that used to stand in the observatory or replacement ones. The places where they used to stand had new concrete footings. I wonder whether the tikis will go back up while we’re here?

We walked down to the beach along the border of the heiau. At the shore end, the fish ponds and wetlands have been cleared. I had a big surprise! There were three nenes at the edge of the fish pond, right next to the recycling center! I’ve never seen nenes anywhere else than around Kilauea Point refuge!

At the beach, there was a monk seal sleeping near the lifeguard tower. There were two turtles asleep on the children’s beach. The turtles must have been there overnight, because there were no footprints in the sand around them at all!

It was too early for lunch, but I stopped to see my friends at Puka Dog! By the time Grandma and I came back to buy lunch, we had to stand in line to order our Puka Dog: Polish sausage, spicy garlic sauce, mango relish and Aunty Lilikoi mustard. We took it back to our resort unit to eat on our lanai. It was yummy!

Sunday was the Super Bowl. In Hawaii time zone, that happened in the afternoon. Grandpa and I watched the game. At half time, we had lilikoi goat cheese on some of our Midnight Bear bread as a snack. Then we watched the rest of the game, including the exciting overtime!

On Monday morning, we walked down to the beach right after breakfast. There weren’t any turtles or monk seals on the beach. Grandpa and I watched for whales, but we didn’t see any spouts. Then we drove to Kalaheo to the Kauai Coffee Company. Grandma and Grandpa wanted to try some of their brews. There were a lot of varieties to choose from!

We decided to take the walking tour. After I saw the sign about the wild pigs, I was hoping I could make a new friend! We didn’t see the pig family, but I did make friends with the trashy statue!

When we got back from Kalaheo, we took another walk. This was our first walk to Makahuena Point on this visit. There were whitecaps on the water, so it was hard to watch for whales! There were lots of turtles in the turtle cove!

After lunch, Grandma and I took another walk to the beach. This time, there were turtles on the beach! One of them had a radio transmitter glued to its shell! On the way back to our unit, we even saw some whale splashes!

Monday evening we went to E Kanikapila Kakou! There were special red decorations for the lunar new year! Because Valentine’s Day is this week, too, the raffle ukulele was red. The featured performer brought along some friends!

Today was the last day before Lent starts. Grandma called it Fat Tuesday, but in French that’s Mardi Gras. When we went to the beach there was another monk seal sleeping. We went across the street to see whether my new nene friends were around. They weren’t, but we saw signs that they are nesting in the heiau! I wanted to help make them welcome, so I picked up some trash!

Today was my first chance to see my friend Lynell-san at Dim ‘N’ Den Sum food truck. In honor of Fat Tuesday, they made a spicy New Orleans dish, jambalaya. I got some and it was yummy!

Love,

Lion-san