Hi, everyone!
We’re still having rainy days, but that doesn’t keep me from seeing my friends! When I went to the beach on Saturday, I took along our cans to recycle. There are special containers in the park where we can leave them! On Saturday, there were three turtles and two monk seals at the beach. There was a cloudburst just as Grandma and I were headed back to the resort. Grandma zipped me into her rain jacket and I stayed nice and dry!
The weather cleared enough for us to watch sunset at the beach on Saturday evening. Then, on Sunday morning, there was a rainbow!
I found lots of sea turtle friends on the beach Sunday morning, but no monk seals. Some outrigger canoe paddlers were getting ready to go out. I made friends with one of the canoes! Then I stopped to see my friends at Puka Dog. Even though it wasn’t quite 10 a.m., they already had customers! Grandma went back to Puka Dogs later to get our lunch, and the line to order was half an hour long! When she left with our lunch, the waiting line was out the door and up the street!
After lunch, Grandma and Grandpa took me to see my friend Elvrine-san of Heavenly Hakus! She was making hakus on the lanai at Dark Horse coffee shop during a social event and book signing. She is one of my favorite people on Kauai and I was happy to see her! She made me a haku for my paw! Do you suppose that should be called a pawku?
Sunday night we had another pretty sunset!
Monday, when I went to the beach, there were no sea turtles at all! There was a monk seal way down at the west end of the beach. I made friends with another outrigger canoe on my way to see the seal. And there was a new lost shoe on the stone by the park entrance. It was a child’s blue water shoe. James lost one last summer, but that was in Sodus Bay, so I’m sure it wasn’t his!
My shell ginger friends seem to be enjoying all the rain! When I wrote Moose-san about all the rain we’d been having, he replied that the waterfalls must be really full! Grandma and Grandpa took me to Wailua Falls. Moose-san was right! The falls usually have two separate streams, but on Monday the water was overflowing! The color reminded me of the root beer James and Thomas have been brewing!
It started raining again while we were at Wailua Falls. It stopped when we went to Costco to buy more breakfast muffins, but it was raining again when we came out. By sunset time, the sky was completely clouded over and the rain was steady.
Tuesday morning, I could see the effect of all the rain! The resort retention pond was full, there were puddles on the sidewalks, and the road flooding by the beach park was the worst I’ve ever seen.
The overnight rain didn’t seem to discourage the sea turtles and monk seals! There were five turtles and two monk seals when I got to the beach. Another turtle came in while I was there. I guess it was so cloudy the turtle thought it was dusk already!
At lunchtime, I got to see another of my favorite Kauai people, Lynell-san! She was back at Dim ‘N’ Den Sum food truck! We were happy to see each other! Our order was in my name! We got a tempura crab roll and it was yummy!
Tuesday stayed cloudy all day and there was no sunset to watch. Today there were breaks in the clouds for sunrise and the table on our lanai was dry — so no overnight rain for once! When Grandma and I went to the beach, I could see that the water level in the retention pond had dropped quite a bit. It’s still windy, so the surf is high!
Today I had six sea turtle friends and three monk seal friends on the beach! I was surprised the monk seals were napping all together. The volunteer told me they had been playing in the water together before they settled down to nap. The oldest seal wanted the beach all to himself but the two younger seals wouldn’t move. On my way back from the beach, I saw a flock of Java sparrows. We didn’t know what kind of birds they were the first time we saw them, but a church friend identified them from a photo Grandma took. The internet says they are an endangered species!
We got another lunch from Dim ‘N’ Den Sum, so I had a chance to see Lynell-san again! Later in the afternoon, we stopped at Makahuena Point to watch for whales. The surf was heavy enough that we couldn’t spot any!
We were out of fresh pineapple, so we drove to the Wednesday market at Kukui’ula. I made friends with the statue made of sea trash! There was a long line for sweet pineapples! Lucky for us, the farmers brought a lot of them! It started raining just as we were leaving the market!
Sunset was clouded over again tonight, so we didn’t go to the beach to watch. I think Grandma and I will break down our new pineapple after dinner!
Love,
Lion-san
Lion-San,
You are making us miss Kauai soooo much this February-March. Normally we would be there now, too. Instead, Terry was chipping ice off our driveway yesterday and I am enjoying our gas fireplace each evening.
Whenever I buy a pineapple, I “unscrew” the stem from the body of the pineapple and then turn the fruit upside down and put it in a bowl in refrigerator to let sweetest juices run down whole pineapple. I like to slice the pineapple in half and then in quarters lengthwise. Then I run a knife along under the flesh next to the hard outside shell lengthwise of a piece and then slice each section crosswise into slices. I serve a whole section (a fourth or an eight of the pineapple) thus sliced onto a plate. After we eat the little pieces with a fork, we squeeze the juice from the remaining shell. Is that how you do it Jeanne?
No, but I’ll have to try your way!