Last Thursday, everybody in Grandma and Grandpa’s family was here for breakfast, but not at the same time! Uncle Steven’s family was still on east coast time, so they got up very early. Uncle Steven baked a pan of sticky buns for them before I even woke up! Aunt Kara was already assembling the kites she brought along when I was ready for breakfast. Uncle David’s family was staying at another resort, so Grandpa and I watched for them to arrive. When they did, we served them breakfast on the lanai!
At lunchtime, Grandma and I took Aunt Kara and Aunt Emi on a garden tour! The South Shore National Tropical Botanical Gardens includes two gardens, the McBryde and the Allerton. I’ve been to each of them before, but now there’s a “Best of Both” tour. That’s the one we took! After Grandma made the reservations, she found out that my friend Elvrine-san was going to be making hakus at the garden visitors’ center at the same time! I was happy to see her again! Elvrine-san was making a haku for Karin that Grandma ordered, but she stopped doing that to make one for me!
The tour started with a bus ride into the Lawai Valley. Our first stop was a place I’d never seen before, Waihulili Falls! We had to walk through a cattle pasture to get there!
After that, we visited the part of McBryde Garden where food plants grow. Our guide told us that most of them aren’t native to Hawaii. Instead, they’re “canoe plants” — plants that the Polynesians who settled Hawaii brought with them. Pineapple, sugar cane and most of the tropical fruit trees are all canoe plants. We tasted some as we walked around!
The last part of the tour was about the “modern exotics”: showy plants that gardeners brought from other parts of the world for decoration. That brought us into the Allerton garden part of the tour. We visited the Thanksgiving Room, an outdoor banquet setting. The guide told us that the pineapple statues at the entrance and the cherubs in the pool were both dislodged during the big flood last year. Luckily, they were all found downstream and put back in place! Of course, we had to visit the famous Moreton Bay fig trees, featured in the movie Jurassic Park! They are very close to the river, but the buttress roots kept them in place during the flood!
At the end of the tour, we took the bus back to the visitors’ center. I got some more views of the Lawai valley as we left! When Grandpa picked us up, we made a stop at Spouting Horn, right across the street. The surf was calm, so Spouting Horn wasn’t very impressive. That’s the first time I’ve ever visited Spouting when there weren’t bus tours there! I guess not enough tourists and cruise ships have come back to Kauai for those tours to run.
Uncle David’s family had dinner reservations, so we had a quiet evening with Uncle Steven’s family. Karin wore her haku to dinner! After sunset, Grandma took me down to Poipu beach to watch the turtles come in for the night. There was almost a full moon, so we had enough light to see them!
Friday morning was beach morning for everyone! When Grandma took me down to Poipu beach to see what animals were napping there, Aunt Kara was already there with James and Thomas! There was a sea turtle asleep, but I didn’t know whether it was one of the sea turtles from last night sleeping late! Around the corner of the beach, I made a monk seal friend!
At the very farthest end of Poipu beach, Bill and Karin were taking a surfing lesson! Grandma and I watched them along with Uncle David and Aunt Emi! Bill stood up on his surfboard and rode it all the way into shore on his first try! Karin had more trouble standing up, but she had fun trying!
Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara were going to take a bicycle tour and ride down the Waimea canyon road on Friday afternoon. Uncle David invited them to drop off James and Thomas at their resort, which has a really nice pool and water slide. Grandma and Grandpa and I had a quiet afternoon until everybody came back for takeout dinner! Bill and James played Nintendo Switch games together, and Uncle David marinated the steaks for our Saturday dinner. We watched sunset from our lanai. When Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara got back, they told us about some spots with great views of Waimea Canyon that their bicycle tour guides showed them.
Uncle David’s family really wanted to see Waimea Canyon, so Uncle Steven was their tour guide on Saturday morning. They had to get an early start to beat the clouds at the Kalalau Valley overlooks! While they were gone, I helped Grandma start another batch of sticky buns. Then we got the potatoes ready for our steak dinner. When they got back at lunchtime, Karin wanted Puka Dogs! We all walked down to Brennecke’s Deli to the new location. There was a line out the door, but it moved fairly quickly. Uncle David and Uncle Steven and Grandma and I stayed in line while everybody else went across the street to Poipu Beach park and found an empty picnic table in a shaded pavillion. We managed to carry ten Puka Dogs and eight lemonades over for our picnic!
Right after lunch, I made friends with two monk seals on the beach. Then we all went back to our place. I helped Grandma make the caramel and shape the sticky buns. Uncle David made a batch of his signature salsa! Uncle David’s family was leaving on Sunday, and they wanted to snorkel before they left. Poipu Beach is the perfect spot for that! Uncle Steven went first, so he could point out the best places to swim. Aunt Kara and I kept watch on the beach. While Uncle David and Aunt Emi snorkeled, Uncle Steven and my cousins waded out to the Poipu Beach island. They came back with hermit crabs they had found! Thomas experimented with how much water to mix with sand for building sand castles!
Before dinner, all my cousins were into electronics again! My uncles were in charge of grilling the steaks. Grandpa went to Lappert’s to get ice cream for dessert. We had a yummy meal, then more games. I helped Aunt Emi and Aunt Kara and Grandma work on the jigsaw puzzle.
Sunday morning, Uncle David’s family came for breakfast before they went to the airport. After they left, Grandma took me to the beach to make friends with two more monk seals.
Uncle David left bracelets for pool admission at his resort that were good until Monday. On Sunday, Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara took James and Thomas back there to swim and enjoy the water slide. While they were gone, I helped Grandma make goat cheese biscuits. Thomas was very happy to have them as a post-swim snack! We had leftovers for dinner and another pretty sunset!
Monday morning we baked the second batch of sticky buns for breakfast, then I helped Grandma break down a pineapple for eating. She brought her good chef’s knife from home, to make sure she had a knife up to the job!
Once that was done, I went back to the beach to see what new friends were there. Grandma and I had a marine trifecta: sea turtle, monk seal and whale sightings all before 10 a.m.!
James and Thomas wanted to go back to the other resort’s pool for the afternoon. They liked it so much that I wanted to go along to see it! Grandma and Aunt Kara and I set up a resting spot between two sections of the pool, but I had to walk around to see everything going on! James and Thomas started out in the whirlpool, then went into the big lagoon with the cave and waterfall.
I was too little for the water slide, but it was really nice! James and Thomas did it several times, and so did Uncle Steven!
Last night after dinner we all walked down to the beach to see the sea turtles come in to sleep. Seven of them were on the beach and asleep before we came home to go to bed, too!
Love,
Lion-san
Looks as though you all had a lot of fun. Glad you saw so many pretty flowers and interesting animals.
One of the pictures label “The buttercup tree was dropping its blossoms!” did not display properly but was a patchwork of colors.