On the way back from Australia, we stopped in Hawaii for a week of relaxation. We stayed in Princeville on the north shore of the island of Kauai. This area is featured in the movie The Descendants. Most of our time was spent relaxing on the beach or by the pool, but we also made time for some other activities around the island. Here are a few of our pics. You can click on each one to get a bigger version (press the Esc key or click the X in the lower right corner to get back to this page).
Just west of Princeville was Hanalei Bay, shown here in the distance. We went to the beach there a couple of times. Chris and Carrie test the waters at Hanalei Bay.Carrie had a blast on her boogie board.Whee!Chris enjoyed his boogie board too, although he wasn’t quite as fearless as Carrie.Chris spent most of his time at the beach building sand castles.Evidently sand castles take a lot of concentration……and occasionally the help an engineer.Our resort offered a variety of activities, including tennis lessons. Here Carrie shows off her backhand.See the ball…be the ball…you are the ball.While the kids were playing tennis, Dave and Carol relaxed in the shade of a banyan tree.Another resort activity was hula lessons.The dancers after their lesson.While the girls were learning to hula, Dave and Chris went on a walk around Princeville. Here are mountains to the west.And here is the coast and ocean to the east.As we walked we came across a plant Dave remembered from his childhood on Oahu. Commonly called sensitive plant or touch-me-not, it is shown above with the pink flowers and dark green leaves. When you touch the leaves, they fold inward toward the stalk for a few minutes.Here is a blooming Red Ginger flower.And here is a Red Tower Ginger.And the iconic Plumeria.One bit of trivia is that Kauai is infested with thousands of wild chickens. Some people call them “jungle fowl”, which has a slightly more distinguished sound to it. Unfortunately the males tend to crow all day long, not just in the morning.Red-crested Cardinals are also very common on the island.We also sighted the official state bird of Hawaii, the Nene or walking by. The Nene evolved from the Canada Goose and is now the rarest goose with less than 1000 birds in the wild.One evening we went to the Smith Family Garden Luau. Here Kamika Smith tells the guests how the pig (in the dirt-covered pit at his feet) was prepared.Chris and Carrie dressed for the occasion.Peacocks roamed the gardens around the luau. We finally realized the sound made by Kevin the snipe in the move Up is the call of a peafowl.Just before we ate, Chris wandered over to a small lake by the gardens.The meal included Purple Sweet Potatoes…there just isn’t enough blue food!During the meal some of the braver guests got on stage and danced. Carrie was able to show off the moves she learned in fer hula lesson.After the luau, we watched a show featuring traditional dances from Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Philippines, New Zealand, China and Japan. It was too dark to get good pictures of the show, but some of the performers posed for a picture with Chris and Carrie afterwards.Our last big activity was a horseback ride through Silver Falls Ranch. This picture was taken just after Carol got on her horse and is the last time she was seen smiling till she dismounted. Her horse was a bit naughty and kept taking the road less traveled.Here we go toward the Kamookoa Ridge.Carrie seemed to ride like a pro.After about an hour we stopped by a small pool for a break and lunch.Chris didn’t need much prompting to jump in.Carrie, on the other hand, needed to see Chris do it a couple of times before she took a turn.Splash!We couldn’t leave Hawaii without a picture of a Hibiscus.Lunch was a simple pork and rice meal, but very tasty.The lunchtime view was pretty good too.On the way out we passed some pretty purple flowers that contrasted with the red earth and green trees.Happy Chris.On our last day we took this picture of the taro fields and distant mountains.While Dave and Carol were enjoying the view, Chris and Carrie were in their own little world.
