Thursday - off to the North Shore

Cloudy, cool day with hope for snorkeling at Ke'e Beach at the end of the road to the north shore.  Good day to travel but not to beach it.  We drove through Kapa'a along the coast and past the mouth of the Wailea River (near where we stayed on our first visit to Kaua'i 20 years ago.  The hotel is under a different name and lots of road work along the way.  First stop was at the Kailuea Lighthouse - one of our favorite spots on the island.  We bought a new senior National Park pass since ours has seemed to disappear (a good investment) and the $10 fee covered the 3 of us.  We saw red footed Boobies, Laysan Albatross Red tailed and white tailed Tropicbirds, Frigates and the national bird of Hawaii the NeeNee.  The scenery is spectacular, lighthouse museum interesting and the sun came out for a bit enhancing the views  There were several Nee Nees both inside and outside of the fences. Albatrosses were both flying above and landing on a grassy field nearby.

Laysan Albatross

Nee Nee

Left the Lighthouse and made a brief stop to see the new St. Regis Hotel...which was the Sheraton Princeville.  Saw very little differences and were unimpressed.  Despite the cloudy weather, we drove to Hanelei (didn't see Puff the Magic Dragon) and walked out on the pier.  Unfortunately there had been some heavy run off from a rain several days before and the water was still a bit brown and uninviting...but it is a lovely bay.  We drove through the town along a narrow road with many one care bridges (signs suggested that local custom allowed 5-7 cars to pass in one direction then alternated same in the other).  We took a lot of pictures and continued to the Dry and Wet caves (stopped to eat our picnic lunch at Tunnels beach).  Then on to Ke'e beach where it was cloudy and cool...so we again took some good pictures and decided to make our way back to Waiohai with a stop at the only Starbucks store to get today's free coffee promotion.

We got back in time for an hour in the sun and another lovely sunset, a light supper and another day closer to leaving this beautiful island.




The drive home was sunny and bright...a nice change for the day.