Day: May 13, 2016

Spring Outings 2016

We saw this guy take off and fly on the slope near Kealia beach. He had no trouble taking off, with the steady tradewind blowing up the hill, but he really struggled to get any altitude. I guess the wind was flat just above. We watched him take off and then fly for about 15 minutes, and he never got any higher than this.

There were some large tides and we happened to be near Fuji beach in Kapaa, so we went for a walk on the rocks that are usually under water, and found some tide pool inhabitants:


The dogs still pull on their leashes, so Sonja cut this palm frond into a dog-reminder: we can shake it at them when they start pulling and whack them gently if they don’t stop pulling:

Watch out for the trolls on the Kapaa bike path bridges:

The dog park at the Kauai Humane Society in Puhi has some pretty trees:

This orchid-like flower was just by the liquor store along Rice Street:

Two dogs waiting (im)patiently in the car:

There are still some wild places to be found (but not named online):


Another walk down to Kealia beach and the bike path to Kumukumu (aka Donkey) beach:


Then a hike on the Nounou West trail, a day after the heavy rains. It was muddy, but the mushrooms were “fruiting” and native hibiscus was blooming:





At the mouth of the Wailua river, by the boat ramp.

At Home, Spring 16



We saw the eclipse. Leilani found out that by putting 3-5 pairs of sun glasses on top of each other one could really look at the sun, and we photographed the cool sickle shadows.

Also during the eclipse. I had never heard about that effect before or have any explanation… but it’s sure cool.

We use the solar cooker a lot for sun tea, black and herbal. The herbal tea from the yard is really tasty, mint, basil lemongrass, sometimes a bit oregano…

Sierra came for a sleepover

Leilani counted and photographed her money, before rolling the coins and depositing it into her savings account.



Sunrise papaya

Our prisms cast rainbows on walls and ceilings

Our Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree was absolutely beautiful through mid February.

But then started to slowly decline. This is the last photo I took in March.

A few days later we burned the tree in a beautiful bonfire at the beach.

Later Winter 2016, Outings

A neighbor found this kite and gave it to Leilani. She loves it and likes to go fly it on the beach, here South Lydgate beach. When there isn’t enough wind, she just runs with it on the beach with all that energy she has:


One day, we went to hike at Ho’opi’i falls, but it started to rain so we turned around quickly. But the sun was still shining while it kept on raining, and one of the brightest rainbows we’ve ever seen appeared.

The rain was coming from the west and we drove down to the bike path in Kapaa where the same rainbow appeared over the ocean:



Click this and the other panoramics in this post to view the high-res image (best viewed full screen).

Technical note: our little camera, a Panasonic Lumix TS5, takes great images, but its panorama feature doesn’t work well (low res). But Andy got a (used) iPhone 5 for Christmas and it takes excellent panoramas–so expect to see more of them. Actually the iPhone 5 takes great photos too, which is really handy (that’s a pun for German speakers) for those dog walks when we don’t bother to take the camera, but see something beautiful.

Like this sunset at the dog park :

This was the first (or second) of several beach fires. It seems like we don’t do any for years, and then we had several in a few months:

The girls were off playing and showed us what they made: a little town with houses and roads made out of driftwood.

Another out of the way place we hadn’t been in a long time, but then ended up visiting several times recently:

This is seaweed of several sorts growing on a rock underwater, very colorful:

Down a non-descript dirt road, a nice little beach off the beaten path. Not deserted however, the photos don’t show the homeless camp in the trees nearby.

The Other Kauai

Andy likes to take pictures of everything, the good and the bad. It’s all interesting, just not the usual stuff you see about Kaua’i. Sonja thought we should still post it, so people get a more complete picture.

Trolls aren’t the only ones living under the Kapa’a bike path bridges:

Remote deserted beach with rusting car. This must’ve been here for 30-40 years. And just think of the pollution from the gas and oil:

In places with less coverage (Haena, Kee) there are still working pay phones, and I’ve used them more than once, and I’ve been grateful for them. But no one has used this one in downtown Lihue for years, and no one has thought to remove it:

Stairwell and boarded up basement behind a derelict buiding. I don’t know if people just throw trash in here, or more likely it just blows in from the park nearby and keeps on accumulating:

Other side of the derelict building, all boarded up and fenced off. This is an old building belonging to the State. I wonder if it was once the main state building on Kaua’i. I’ll have to look into its history. But now, it’s just a graffitti magnet and run-down eyesore–including the old sign by the road.




Another state building, but this one is actually being renovated and still under construction:

Rice Street, the main street in Lihue, the island’s main town. Before we moved to Kaua’i, we had heard or read that most of the utility wires were put underground after being knocked down by Hurricane Iniki in 1992. This is not true at all, there are ugly powerlines everywhere:

An old and almost forgotten cemetary. Some of the tombstones are merely weathered yet well-tended:

But others were totally abandoned and taken over by the forest (before being reclaimed but not fixed):

Cars rotting on someone’s property, in plain sight of the street, and not that bad a neighborhood. You know there’s a problem when you see this and think: at least they are nice cars and not totally stripped and rusting.

Another ugly side of Kauai: we got rear ended in a hit-and-run accident, probably a junk car with no registration or insurance–you see them around, not sure why the police can’t see them just as easily and get them off the road. $1000 worth of damage, loss of sense of security, but fortunately no permanent injuries:


A ray of hope: for Earth Day, we removed 2 electric-car-loads of trash from one of our favorite dog-walking beaches:

But there is plenty more trash on the beaches, and even more in the ocean waiting to wash ashore…