Busy Days!

Hi, everyone!

Now that Joe-san is here and we’re in our last week, we’ve been having lots of adventures! Last Sunday, when we went to the beach, there were sea turtles and a monk seal!

Thomas gave Joe-san a Puka Dog t-shirt for Christmas, too! So everybody put on their Puka Dog shirts and went to Puka Dog to get lunch! We got three free lemonades with three Kauai Specials! Then we went across the street to the beach to eat them. I think we were at the same table where all the cousins ate Puka Dogs two years ago!

When we finished eating, we checked the turtles again. There were even more arriving! Then we went back to our resort unit and watched the Super Bowl. There was a pretty sunset!

On Monday, there were turtles on the beach, but no monk seals! Joe-san met my favorite monk seal protectors. They didn’t need to use any of their signs that day! I had to be a Hawaiian cardinal protector at lunch time!

Monday afternoon, we drove into Lihue. I had a date at the Kauai Museum with my friend, Elvrine-san! She was teaching a lei making class there, and Grandma and I visited with her after class. She planned to make me a haku (head wreath), but she and Grandma got talking. Elvrine-san ended up making it too long for my head, so I got a neck lei, instead!

I made sure to thank Elvrine-san for my lei! Then I helped her clean up the extra flowers and put them back in her bag. Before we left the museum, I looked at some of the exhibits. I liked the Niihau shell leis and the king’s feathered cape!

Since we were in Lihue, we went to the Kauai Quilt Show at Kukui Grove shopping center. The quilts were very pretty! I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to vote for as my favorite!

We watched sunset from our lanai again, then we went to dinner at Brennecke’s Beach Broiler. I was happy to show off my lei! The dessert was a big coffee flavored ice cream pie! On the way back from Brennecke’s we stopped to see the sea turtles on the beach. The protectors only use red light so they aren’t disturbed. There were 64 turtles there, according to the protectors!

Grandma said she wanted to go to Kalalau Valley overlook and Waimea Canyon if there was a good weather day to go. When we woke up Tuesday, there were no clouds in the sky at all! That’s the perfect sort of day to go! Grandpa knows to drive all the way up to the Kalalau Valley overlook, before the clouds move in. Last year, the road to the upper overlook was very bumpy and rutted. This year, that road was closed completely! We were happy with the view from the main overlook.

Headed back downhill, we stopped at the Pu’u Hinahina overlook to Waimea Canyon next. We looked down into the canyon, then we went to the Niihau overlook. It was a bit hazy, but we could see Niihau and Lehua islands off shore.

Our last stop was at the main Waimea Canyon overlook! It’s been dry, so we couldn’t see any water coming over Waipo’o Falls.

The road down the canyon ridge is all downhill, so our car reported we were getting lots of miles per gallon of gas used. Joe-san had used up all his Aunty Lilikoi syrups and butters, so we stopped in Waimea for him to get more. That gave me a chance to see my friend Lynn-san!

Grandpa had made a pre-order at Dim N Den Sum for us to pick up on our trip back from Waimea. He got Spam musubi for me! Grandma says that’s a uniquely Hawaiian mash-up of a traditional Japanese preparation with a canned meat product popular in Hawaii. When we checked out the beach, there were turtles arriving. The same monk seal came back for another nap.

The day we had rain and a big windstorm overnight, one of the porch umbrella covers got unfastened. The wind tore the cover apart. Grandpa could see how to replace the cover, so he ordered a new one to be delivered to the resort office. It arrived Tuesday afternoon. I helped Grandma and Grandpa attach it to the frame. Now we have two porch umbrellas again! We had another cloudless sunset.

The weather yesterday was a repeat of Tuesday. There were no clouds anywhere in the morning! That was good, because we had reservations to go back to Kilauea Point! When we were there two weeks ago, we had trouble finding our church friends’ dedication brick. It was so dark we almost couldn’t read it. So yesterday we took along a brush and some water, so we could clean it. That’s the first thing Grandma and I did! Then we watched for whales. Grandma spotted them off the side of the lighthouse and came to tell us we were looking in the wrong direction! The whales were breaching and fin slapping. That was fun to see!

Before we left, I looked for the nesting nene. She was still taking good care of her eggs! Then I went back to see how our friends’ brick had dried. It’s easier to read now! As we were leaving, I watched the boobies’ nesting slope. Two nenes flew right overhead! There were two more nenes in the parking lot and a whole family crossing the road outside the refuge.

When we got back from Kilauea, there were sea turtles on the beach but no monk seals. One of the sea turtles had a broken shell! We watched sunset again from our lanai. That was three cloudless sunsets in a row!

We went to Keoki’s Paradise for our final dinner out on this trip. Grandma let me wear my lei. We got a hula pie with four sporks for dessert. It was yummy!

Love,

Lion-san