Busy Times in Kauai!

Hi, everyone!

First Uncle David was here, and now Uncle Steven and his family are here. There’s been lots going on!

While Uncle David was here, Grandma and I made a lasagna! I helped boil the noodles and make the cheese mixture. Then I helped Grandma keep track of what to add next for each layer! We made three complete layers, starting and ending with red sauce! After it was baked, we served it for dinner on the lanai!

On Friday, Grandma and I took Uncle David on a hike! We made a loop from the Greenway to the Makahuena path along the coast. We stopped at the turtle cove first. On our way to Makahuena Point, Grandma said we were at a good place to see whales. Guess what? We saw a pod of whales spouting and splashing just after she said that! I needed a rest by the time we got to Makahuena Point, but then we showed Uncle David the sea arch.

We decided to hike all the way to Poipu Beach! The night before, after my bedtime, Grandma and Uncle David went to the beach after dark to see the sea turtles. There were 34 of them there! One of the sea turtles had its head propped up on a rock to sleep. That turtle was the only one left on the beach when we got there on our hike! I was happy there were monk seals on the beach for Uncle David to see, too! After our hike, we picked up lunch from Dim ‘N Den Sum. Lynelle-san made pork belly bao and spam musubi for us!

Saturday was Uncle David’s last day with us, but he wasn’t leaving until after dinner. We did morning beach patrol and saw two turtles. On our way back, we saw two roosters fighting! I had never seen that happen before. Grandma told me that all the chickens around were descended from ones that got loose during hurricane Iniki, in 1992. Some of those chickens were raised to fight each other. Everybody had some screen time, then we had lunch at Midnight Bear Bakery. By lunch time, almost all the bread and pastry had been sold out, except what they use to make sandwiches. We asked for pesto on our grilled cheese sandwiches and they were yummy!

By the time we took Uncle David to the airport after dinner, it was raining hard! Hawaii public works announced a winter storm emergency for all the Hawaiian Islands. In Hawaii, the only places it snows in winter are on top of the high mountains on the big island and Maui. There were strong winds and flooding on all the islands except Kauai, and lots of trees down and power outages. We stayed inside all day Sunday and watched the Super Bowl. Monday, we still had gusty winds and heavy surf. It rained on and off, but Grandma and I did get to the beach to see the turtles. Then we got more apple bananas at the Koloa Fruit Stand. The owners are Thai, so Grandma always thanks them in Thai.

Uncle Steven’s family was coming on Tuesday afternoon, so Grandma and I made overnight sticky buns to bake on Wednesday morning. There’s no rolling pin in our unit kitchen, but a red wine bottle worked nicely. When we went on beach patrol, we had another day of gusty wind and heavy surf. A lot of the overnight turtles decided to stay on the beach for the day!

Because of the time zone difference, Uncle Steven’s family woke up very early on Wednesday. They took a dawn walk to the beach, then came back to bake the first batch of sticky buns. I did my beach patrol while Thomas and James and Aunt Kara took a walk to find coconuts. Thomas likes to open them. He also found a lot of hardware that must have fallen when the roof was replaced last year, so he made a garden of screws and nails.

Wednesday afternoon is Culinary Market at Kuki’ula, and Grandpa wanted one of the special low-acid pineapples from the sellers there. Uncle Steven, Aunt Kara, Grandma and I went over early to make sure we could get one before they all sold out. We were even earlier than we planned, because we thought the market opened at 3, but it was actually 3:30 p.m. We were the first people in line, but lots of people joined us before the market opened. The sellers recognized me from last year! I watched them set up as the line went all the way around the planter and back down the walk! We bought some pre-cut pineapple as well as a whole one, so we didn’t have to break down the whole one until Thursday morning.

Thursday morning was Uncle Steven’s family’s surf lesson at Kauai Surf School. Grandma and I went along to take pictures! There was one rain shower while the family was doing their dry land practice, but it stopped before they entered the water. Everybody got up — Thomas and Uncle Steven did on their first tries! Aunt Kara had the most wipeouts, but she said she had fun, anyway.

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I didn’t do beach patrol until afternoon because of the surf lesson. By then, the sea turtles were starting to come up for the night. There were 24 turtles and 4 monk seals on the beach! Thomas finished opening one coconut and started on another one. We watched sunset from Brennecke’s Beach, but the sun set into clouds.

Friday, Grandma and I recycled all our plastic and cardboard when we went on beach patrol after breakfast. There were turtles and seals. Uncle Steven, James, and Thomas played a Switch game of Mario Kart.

Then we drove to Kilauea Point to the National Wildlife Refuge. We had some rain on the way there and just as we were leaving. In between it was cloudy and dry. We couldn’t spot any whales, but the boobies were soaring overhead. The lighthouse is being restored, so there were workers on a gantry and protective panels around the light. I helped Grandma clean the brick from our church friends. Thomas tried to make friends with the nenes. Thomas decided it was easier to make friends with a stuffed toy nene and bought one to keep his eagle ray company.

We had another sunset into the clouds before dinner.

Today is Valentines Day! Uncle Steven’s family got up early to go zip-lining. Aunt Kara left chocolate by everybody’s plate for breakfast. When Grandma and I went on beach patrol, we heard different languages being spoken. The guide for a bicycle tour was talking about the turtles in German. On the way to the monk seal on the other end of the beach, we heard French. The monk seal came in just as we got there. My favorite monk seal protectors, Julie-san and Steve-san, were just putting up the signs and keep-away rope.

The baby seal is doing better, too! Julie-san told me that it had gone out to feed last night before returning to the rocks for the day. That’s good news!

Love,

Lion-san