Kauai-hebdo II

We're in our rented studio for the rest of our stay and Susan "loves it!" It's very cute. Our car is not so cute... It's a rent-a-wreck that's supposed to let us blend in with the locals but the color of our skin is still a dead give-away. At least we don't have to worry about a little sand in the trunk! We're probably more tanned than the average Montanan but compared to the average surfer we lack color and tatoos.

Our (so far) trusty transportation.

Oh, did we tell you about the chickens? They are wild, they are protected, and they are everywhere. Roosters have messed up internal clocks and they crow any time of day or night. Apparently it's a $250 fine for hunting or chasing chickens. The word around the island is that they escaped in the 1992 hurricane and have since gone wild. But some have told us that's just a myth. When they go off at 2 am around the campground you wonder what could have prompted Kuaiians to make this their state bird...?!

We made a little stop by the local school in Hanalei. In one building students were practicing their drumming. On the lawn in front of the main building another group was doing some yoga. Seems like a pretty idyllic spot to go to school. You can't quite make it out in the background but there are 3000 foot waterfalls coming down the mountains. If Hawaii ever freezes over, I'm coming back to ice climb!

Houses on the far north shore vary from elaborate villas to total shacks in the woods but most are on posts, some of them really high off the ground. We're thinking it's a combination of "protection against the next tsunami" and "getting above the jungle for ocean views". Either way, they are pretty strange looking. The picture below is of one of the nicer ones.

Yesterday we visited a spot called "Queen's Bath". It's a natural pool in the lava rocks just along the coast. It was pretty neat to check out the fish and the crashing waves in the area. It's a 5 minute hike but the challenging part was finding a parking spot. The beaches are all public but sometimes getting to them can be challenging. For this one there is a 10 car parking lot in the middle of a hoity-toity neighborhood with no-parking signs all around it. We found another mini parking lot a mile down the road and made a longer hike of it.

Yesterday we visited a more secluded beach (Donkey Beach), which we had to ourselves for a good hour before a few more people started showing up. Susan spent a while looking for beach glass and I caught a few waves. In the afternoon we both surfed on a little beach just off the harbor where the giant cruise ships come in. Here's Susan on her way down to Donkey Beach.

That's it for now. 'Till next time!

(No, that's not me; just a local out for a paddle with his dog.)