Excursions and More Animal Friends!

Hi, everyone!

Last Tuesday, we had clear skies to the west.  Everybody wanted to go to Waimea to see the secret overlooks Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara found on their bicycle ride last week. We got to the Kalalau Valley overlook at the very end of the road before the clouds moved in!  Everybody was happy to have such a good view in all directions!  Grandpa told James and Thomas the story of the road construction through the swamp where all the heavy machinery sank into the mud.  The project and the trucks and graders all had to be abandoned!

By the time we drove back to the lower Kalalau Valley overlook, the clouds were forming around  us!  We still had a clear view of the coast and the touring boats and helicopters.  The surf on the Na Pali coast was very calm for this time of year!

We didn’t stop at either of the major overlooks for the Waimea Canyon on our way back down.  Instead, Uncle Steven took us to a trail by the side of the road.  We hiked through the woods to reach a ridge along the canyon!  When we reached the ridge, there was a herd of mountain goats grazing along the path!  They moved on ahead of us to an area too steep for people!

We had a very nice view of the canyon from the ridge!  There were no guard rails or fencing, so everybody had to be careful to stay away from the edge!  We stopped at another secret overlook farther down the road.  This one looked out toward the coast.

When we got back to our unit, James put the final pieces in the jigsaw puzzle.  After lunch, Grandma and I went to the beach to look for animal friends.  All the overnight sea turtles were gone, but there was a monk seal napping in the usual monk seal napping spot and another one swimming around near the beach.  A snorkeler got a big surprise when the monk seal came swimming past!  We had another pretty sunset.

Wednesday was a beach day!  In the morning, Grandma and I saw twelve sea turtles — eight on the beach and four on the reef island!  There was another monk seal in the favorite seal spot on the beach.  I think seals like to come there because there aren’t a lot of rocks in the water there and it’s easy to get to shore. That’s also why it’s a favorite spot for snorkelers to enter the water, but they have to find another way in when a seal decides to sleep there!

A little later, Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara took Thomas snorkeling at the beach.  Aunt Kara had fish food, so there were lots of fish for Thomas to see!  Grandma and I went down to watch.  When Thomas was through snorkeling, he made a sand nest for himself.  Then he made one for me!  We enjoyed our nests while Aunt Kara snorkeled.  Then I decided to get some sun on my tummy.  That felt good!

James wasn’t interested in snorkeling, but he did want to go to the resort pool.  It’s not nearly as nice as the one at Koloa Landing Resort, but James and Thomas enjoyed playing there after lunch.  Then Aunt Kara and Thomas flew the kite Aunt Kara brought.  At sunset, we all went down to Brennecke’s Beach to watch!

Thursday was another excursion day.  We started with the last pan of sticky buns that Grandma and I made on Tuesday.  Thomas likes to choose his own, usually from the middle of the batch!

Because of the pandemic, Kilauea Point National Wildlife Preserve is only open Thursday through Saturday.  Thursday was the only possible day for us to go with Uncle Steven’s family, so Grandma got a timed reservation before we even got to Kauai!  It’s a long drive all the way to the north coast of the island, but we got there right on time!  The boobies and albatrosses were soaring overhead. We saw some long-tailed tropic birds, too!  There was one nene on the lawn.  Thomas and I knew not to bother it!

There was a very brief shower as a rain cloud passed over the Point, but then the sun came out again.  We looked for whales, but didn’t see any.

We stopped at the visitors’ center on our way out.  James and Thomas tried the quiz about birds.  I looked at the relief map of the Hawaiian Islands.  Thomas and James both got new animal toy friends.  Thomas named his spotted eagle ray Stingy Rey del Mar after the food truck where we had lunch.  James was trying out different names for his hatchling turtle.

Of course we stopped at Kamalani Playground in Lydgate Park on our way back around the island.  James and Thomas played out an adventure they created in the towers and bridges.

I went down the slide and tried the rope challenge.  It was a warm day, so we all ran out of energy and were ready to go home!

When we got back to our resort, Grandma and I checked the beach for animal friends.  There were still four sea turtles there and a monk seal!

Friday morning it was time for Uncle Steven’s family to leave.  While they were packing up after breakfast, Grandma and I checked the beach for animal friends.  There were four sea turtles and one nervous monk seal.  When the lifeguards opened their tower at 9 a.m., the seal woke up and left the beach.  He swam over into the children’s side of the beach, scaring a little boy who was wading there!  Then he went out beyond the reef.

When Grandma and I got back to our unit, it was almost time for Uncle Steven’s family to leave.  Everybody’s back pack was ready to go.  Uncle Steven and James played one more Switch game before they packed the equipment away.  James and Grandpa watched a video of the latest SpaceX rocket launch.  I got a goodbye hug from Thomas and Stingy.  Aunt Kara told James and Thomas to put on their socks and sneakers, because the next time they would be outside would be back in snowy Rochester!  We all went to the airport to see them off!

Once we were back to just Grandma and Grandpa and me here, Grandma started figuring out how to use up leftover food!  She measured the flour she had left and figured she could make 4/5 of a recipe of goat cheese biscuits.  I helped make them, but I was glad Grandma did all the math!  This morning we ate the almond croissants we got at Midnight Bear Bread before our family joined us.  Grandma had put them in the freezer, and they were as good as freshly baked!

Grandma and I had been disappointed that our two favorite farmers’ markets were closed because of the pandemic.  Grandpa figured out that the Saturday one hadn’t really closed, it had just moved across the street from the community college to a big vacant lot.  So today, we went to the Grove Market.  Not everybody from the other site was there — I missed my friend Elvrine-san and the goat cheese tent — but Midnight Bear Bread and a lot of fruit and flower sellers were there.  The longest lines were for Midnight Bear Bread and a fish seller.

When we got back from the market, Grandma and Grandpa and I all walked over to the beach to see who was there.  There was a nice group of sea turtles and another monk seal friend in his favorite spot.  Grandpa found a place in the shade to look for whales.  He and Grandma both saw some spouts and a breach.  We had our marine trifecta again by 11 a.m.!

Love,

Lion-san