THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18th

LYDGATE/PUIPU/DINNER AT BRENNECKES
LYDGATE

We went snorkeling in the morning, best time to go!

This was a beautiful tree that we wanted to get our pictures by at Lydgate.

Kauai has the most beautiful birds, any guess what kind these are? I need to buy me a bird book.

We passed this sugar mill on our way to Po'ipu. All sugar mills have stopped production as of last year. Sad to see them close down, but Kauai is still well and thriving.
We heard about a secret beach passed the Hyatt, down a long road. We thought we would venture out to discover this little gem. As you can see the road became very narrow and muddy.

We came across a little path leading into some trees, so we went exploring. The path

The moss on the trees were a florescent green, and absolutely spectacular!

If it was dark it would be very scary to walk through this path, but during the day it was awesome.

There were some beautiful bushes with bright red berries, we didn't try them out, we were not that brave.

We finally found the beach!

Not too secret as there were people walking up and down the beach they probably were from the hotel, still it was a fun adventure.

We went back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner at Brennekes

DINNER AT BRENNEKES

On our way into the restaurant a lady at the front desk just got off the phone and told her employees that they just had their first siting of the whales. These hump back whales come in December and stay until spring, but sometimes they can be seen at the end of November. That was kind of exciting to hear. But never expected that I would be lucky enough to see one.

We were seated upstairs in the corner of the restaurant by an open window. We couldn't have asked for better seating. I loved looking out the window, it was a scene you could only see in a magazine.
The food was great, thanks Jay for the suggestion! John had steak & tuna and I had steak and shrimp. We really enjoyed the evening, even the rain that came after dark was delightful.

A GREAT WAY TO END THE DAY !

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17th

WAILUA & OPAEKA'A FALLS

WAILUA FALLS

These falls were filmed in the beginning of the TV show "Fantasy Island." The falls were hard to see and film A close up of the fallsWe could have hiked down to the bottom but chose not to. There were people swimming in the pool, very romantic if there weren't a dozen onlookers gawking at them up above.THE WAILUA RIVER
The mouth of this river has several stones with ancient petroglyphs. You can see this river from the Opaika'a Falls.This village near the Wailua river is a recreation of an ancient village, you can only get to it by boat.OPAIKA'A FALLS

John and Donna at the falls

COCOA PALMS

This hotel was popular to the Hollywood stars until the Hurricane demolished it.

We checked out Brennecke's restaurant,Jays old stomping grounds

Brennecke's Beach looked like a good place to snorkel. This beach is known for it's great turtles.

Back at the Marriott
Early Evening
Our bay had a port near by, it was fun to watch the ships come in and out

A close up of a Norwegen Cruise Liner

I went over to the shops by the port, it was a lot of fun window shopping.
We went hot tubing after my shopping spree.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16th

LYDGATE & SNORKELING/KILAUEA lIGHTHOUSE & WILDLIFE REFUGE/TARO FIELDS & FARMERS MARKET

LYDGATE PARK & BEACH

This little cove was man made, the boulders were put in place to break the waves and leave a quiet and easy place to snorkel. There were two sections, one section was smaller for the little folks. The fish were very colorful and fun to follow. We decided this was our favorite place to snorkel

The boulders breaking the waves

We came to Lydgate often while in Kauai, there were two reasons why we liked Lydgate. The first of course was the snorkeling, the second reason is because we loved seeing our little "Chicken Man." You could here the puttering of his bike as he came up the street, the chickens noticed also as they ran after the bike knowing that he is going to throw out food for them, the scene was very comical to watch.
KILAUEA LIGHTHOUSE & WILDLIFE REFUGE
My senior park pass finally came in handy, we got in free. I guess it doesn't hurt to be old sometimes.

There were hundreds of these Red-footed Boobies nesting on the hillside.

They were in the process of refurbishing the lighthouse

We saw three turtles out by this huge rock, two older turtles and a baby.

A close up of the large rock

HANALEI/ANOTHER WILDLIFE REFUGE

TARO FIELDS NEAR IN THE REFUGE AREA

Kauai's north shore is where the majority of the state's taro is grown. This field, in Hana lei valley, was planted with rice to look like Vietnam in the movie "Uncommon Valor."

HA'ENA BEACH PARK

The beach
The caves

Wai pa's Farmers Market

During the week we visited a couple of these markets

On the way back to the hotel we drove through some beautiful green valley's and mountain sides.

WE ARE STARTING TO BECOME A LITTLE MORE FAMILIAR WITH THE ISLAND AND LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT