Anniversary Trip Day 2

My husband started off my day with a early anniversary present! A beautiful emerald turtle!

After breakfast at the hotel (we hadn't been exploring yet), we took a stroll around the grounds of the hotel. The hotel is situated in front Lydgate Beach Park.

 

 There are two protected lagoons at the park. We saw people snorkling here but we didn't get a chance to. Water was a little cold for us!

One of the things you need to know about Kaua'i is there are chickens here! Lots and Lots of chickens! Almost every place we went, you would see chickens! No matter what time, you would hear the roosters crowing (no sense of time), everywhere! Traffic would come to a halt because a chicken (usually a rooster) would cross the road. So, if you see a few chickens in the pictures, that's why!

There are three roosters in this tree!

While we were out, we decided to see what geocaches may be near, so we tracked down the nearest one, very near the hotel and found our first geocache on Kauai!

Doug decides to relax a little while I am arranging for us to go to a luau on our anniversary.

I also took a few pictures around the grounds! They had some beautiful flowers all over!

 I spotted a couple of dragonflies over a little lagoon that was part of the landscaping.

One of the things that we learned about was a series of Ultimate Guide Books. We learned about this series on the Big Island and purchased one for Kauai! It is a great series, giving you places to see, eat and experience that you may not have otherwise thought of! It is referred to on the islands as the "Blue Book". Just a word of caution, read the book thoroughly! Some places are extremely difficult to get to! So with our trusty guide book in hand, we headed out to the north shore of the island.

Before we had gotten very far, we did notice that we had a hitchhiker....

We stopped at a few beaches along the way. It was extremely windy and the waves were very high (at least it seemed so to us).

We stopped by a few attractions along the way. The Kilauea Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge was a nice stopping spot. We spotted quite a few nene here, the state bird of Hawaii. We had first heard about them on the Big Island but they are very elusive there. That didn't seem to be the case on Kauai.

 We even spotted nene and their young.

Here are a few pictures of the view from the lighthouse stop:

The main road on Kauai does not go all the way around the island. So once you reach the end of the road, you have to turn around and go back. Or you could hike through the jungle 14 miles to the west side of the island to reach the end of the road there. At the end of the north shore side are wet and dry caves. It was so crowded there, however, we did not get out and explore. I was able to get a couple of shots of the dry caves that were along the road.

On our way back to the East shore, Doug and I stop at one of the beaches to just sit and enjoy the view!

We drove through some beautiful country. However, there are one lane bridges that you have to wait for oncoming traffic. One of the signs said to allow 5 - 7 cars. There were quite a few drivers that obviously could not read the sign!

One of the trees that grow on Kauai, Moluccan albizia (I had to look this up), is very impressive! They make great shade trees! However, they are very invasive and we later learned that the island is using these trees for fuel to help with the population of the tree. Another beautiful tree that was all over the island was the African Tulip tree.

On our way back down the East coast, Doug and I stopped at this hamburger place that was mentioned in the "Blue Book",  Duane's Ono-Char Burger. While we do admit that the burger was very, very good. You better not be in a hurry to get one if you just drive up to their window (outside seating only). They are so busy making the phone orders they get, it took awhile to get ours. I passed the time taking pictures and just enjoyed being outside.

Plumeria! I love this tree's flowers. There were much more hibiscus on the island than plumeria though.

There is a mountain, Kalalea, (yes, there is more than one, however) that is known for it's profile. You may have seen the movie where this mountain's profile is featured....King Kong? Look at the second peak from the left. (Yes, use your imagination!)

 While it is very common for it to rain on this island (especially this time of year). I found this fact interesting: Mt. Waialeale on Kauai, receives an average of 452 inches of rain a year!! With a record of 683 inches!! I am from Arizona! I can't even fathom that much rain!!
That being said, it started sprinkling off and on that afternoon. But, we decided to see another site before heading back to the hotel. This always ends up more than just go see the sight and leave, however.

ʻŌpaekaʻa Falls is beautiful! It is on one side of the road, while the Wailua River flows on the other side. You have to cross the road to see the river. On the way back, I noticed this sign was missing some letters. It turns out, that it seems to be an epidemic on the island. Quite a few of their signs were missing letters!

We made a couple of more pit stops along the way. But there was one stop where we were looking for a geocache, well, Doug was, I was taking pictures! I was getting back into the jeep and there were these hens by the car. Didn't think much of it since we had seen them every we went, however, when one the hens tried to get in the jeep with me, I drew the line! No, hitchhikers!

We also spotted some wild pigs (not sure how wild, they were in someones pasture). This little fella wondered over to see what I was about. I told him he could stay put, and he listened! They say they are smarted than dogs.... One interesting fact? The wild pig out number the residents on the island and there are over 70,000 of them!

It started to sprinkle a little harder so we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. This is what greeted us when we arrived!

What a perfect way to end the day! Aloha!