Yea for the birds who beat the roosters at waking me up today. It’s another stunning morning in Hanalei Resort. We’re out the door by 7:35 heading southwest to the Canyon via a stop at Burger King. John wants to see the Canyon which personally I could have skipped. I remembered the colors as being pretty and very different from the one in Yellowstone, but between that one and the Grand Canyon, I've have had enough canyons. But.... on we go there. After Burger King, we detoured to Port Allen to the Red Dirt outlet where John bought a bright green t shirt (go figure) and a red dirt hat.
Next was a stop at Glass Beach. Even though I’m like a crack addict when I get around glass on a beach, I did control myself and only took a little. I kept wanting to see what the surf brought in, but he finally dragged me away. A local said it hadn’t been this good until some stormy waves stirred things up which is why I found a couple nice pieces. Btw, I'm standing on glass, not sand.
On our way to the canyon I noticed Waimea Plantation Cottages and remembered that’s where I really wanted to stay, but after a closer look on the map, I realized the location just would not work for us. We reached the canyon area via Kokee Rd. We stopped at all the look outs with Waimea Canyon Lookout being the first. A guy was there dressed as a Hawaiian warrior blowing a conch shell and explaining what we were looking at. We gave him some money, but I’m not sure he does so well. I think the guy selling fruit at the parking lot does much better.
We bought pineapple and papaya from him. The water fall looked ok but I remembered it being alot better years ago. One story we kept hearing was that we were lucky to see any water as they’ve been diverting it for watering crops down below… genectically altered crops they did not want. Later I wondered if they were speaking of my apple bananas I love so much. Anyhow it rained some so a lot of the views especially the one of Kalalau Valley were closed in.
Ok, I'm not sure if we missed something or not, but I'm not only remembering bigger falls but viewing them from a different vantage point. I'm probably just mistaken.
Almost forgot that we stopped at Kokee Lodge for some soup and wine. I had their specialty portugese bean soup that was delicious, John had clam chowder that was also good and some really nice banana bread. My wine and soup hit the spot as we enjoyed our table by the fireplace. It had turned chilly outside so this really felt nice. I bought the book "Kauai in the Movies" at the museum. They were playing a movie of Hurricane Iniki … Just can’t imagine. It’s bad enough living in Florida when a warning comes, but I can’t imagine living on an island and having one blow through.
Anyhow we left via a much nicer road on Waimea Canyon Drive wishing we had entered that way. Stopped at Waimea Plantation Cottages to ck out those gorgeous grounds. John took some photos for a couple beautiful gals who were attending a wedding right there in an hour or so. Even though I love the feeling here, the beach isn't too great. There's a nice open pool ...nothing fancy it's just that to me it feels good when there's no fence surrounding the area.
Next was a stop at JoJos for Shave Ice. It was good but piled so high it kept spilling out and I didn’t want my clothes stained rasberry blue.
Onto the Spouting Horn which was a nice park area now. I'm remembering it as a smaller parking lot area from 30 years ago and the vendors selling jewelry had tables set up right there, but maybe my mind is bad. After watching the water go off a few times we moved along watching the shoreline until we spotted some turtles down below and a sea lion resting. What a day.. but it gets better.
We headed to the Poipu resort area stopping to have a look at a couple beaches, We had already missed the TA gathering that was taking place at Waipulo Bch Resort but all of a sudden I remembered Janet telling about the Hyatt’s torch lighting ceremony so I quickly cked my I phone to see if the Hyatt was in this area. We lucked out arriving at 545 in plenty of time. We were told to sit anywhere we liked in this beautiful open lounge and that Uncle Larry would be performing in a few minutes.
We chose the comfy sofas inside and ordered food and drinks. Although I say inside it’s really just under cover since the lounge area extends outside overlooking the stunning grounds. So while sitting in we still enjoyed the outside views. I really cant’ describe this gorgeous area.. you’ll have to go see for yourself. While waiting on our pizza and wine, I walked out side and meandered through the mazes of pools and beautiful gardens. Shortly after I returned Uncle Larry started singing and what a joy. He came over to chat a bit on break while waiting for the ceremony to begin. As I looked over the cd’s trying to choose just one, he’s telling me unbelievable interesting stories from the Coco Palm days. After I chose one he autographed it and I took pictures with him. I hope at 81 I’m still doing what I love to do and enjoying life as he is. Oh , I think he said there might be a book coming out about him.. I'll bet it would sure be a great read with all his stories from the Coco Palms.
After the ceremony I thanked Janet for making this delightful event known to us. She did a great job narrating and it’s really a nice thing to attend. I had told Uncle L that we couldn’t stay to long not wanting to drive back to Princeville in the dark, so after he sang my requested song, we started to leave but lingered a bit listening to a couple more songs... I waved so long and we sadly left.
We stopped for fuel on the way home. This key to the restroom cracked me up.. I imagine not many of these get lost
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