We’re on the road again … well, more the plane again.

For the past week we’ve been vacationing in Hawaii … first stop: Kauai.

We’ve been to Kauai in the past … only for a short time, and it was kind of a screwed up vacation.   I got a sinus infection the first day.   On that trip Kauai had been kind of cool … even cold at night.

Well this trip is somewhat better … no sinus infection, but it wasn’t much warmer.   Mid 70’s during the day, low 60’s at night.

Although we’ve done some fun stuff this trip … I’m not sure I’m all that interested in returning.

We went on a sailing cruise and did a lot of whale & dolphin watching … but it was supposed to be a snorkel cruise, and we didn’t do any snorkeling.   The water was too rough.   Did meet some nice people though.   If you noticed the new header graphic on the blog … that’s from the other day on the cruise.

We found a number of nice places to eat.   On the recommendation of my friend Jon (who had been here 2 weeks earlier) we went to Plantation Gardens Restarant.   We even had the same waiter that he had.   Very good food and we even got to attend a wedding (although we were not officially invited).

I think the highlight of this part of the trip was a concert we attended at the Kauai Community College.   The headliner was Nathan Aweau with hula dancer Kelehua Kawai.   Absolutely wonderful music and the dancer was enchanting.   We purchased two CD’s.   There were some other performers that didn’t impress us that much.

So far we haven’t done any snorkeling … or swimming for that mater.   The water has always been kind of iffy and surf too rough.

We have, however, done a fair bit of exploring and photography.   We’ve even done some Geocaching.   We’ve tried 5 caches, and found 2.   Sadly, we’re not super adventerous when it comes to tromping through bushes.

Of course, each evening I go out to see if the sunset is worth capturing.   At least 3 nights it has been.   The picture at the top of this post is from last night.   As a bonus, there is a guy in a condo down the street that plays his bag pipes at sunset.   Quite moving and poignant.

Our accommodations are pretty good … the condo complex we’re in is nice.   We started out on a first floor unit, but that offered zero privacy.   They moved us to a 2nd floor unit that’s quite nice.   Free internet access is always a plus.

For transportation we’re driving a Ford Escape … which is easy for me to adapt to.   It’s been handy to have with some of the places we went to.

As I mentioned, Jon had been here a few weeks ago … and he left us a bit of a treasure to find.   He gave me clues in the form of pictures.   Unforunatly, the pictures were a bit vauge.   We got close to the spot … and ended up having to call Jon to get final directions.

My biggest problem with this trip is my contact lenses … the prescription is woefully out of date and in serious need of updating … I can only wear them for about 4 or 5 hours before I start getting a headache.   Since I only wear my contacts when I want to wear sunglasses or other, non glasses, face protection I can make a regular lens prescription last 2 or 3 years.   Suffice it to say, I’ll be getting to the opthomologist in the next month or so.

Tomorrow we’re heading to the big island … should be warmer.   I’m hoping for calmer seas too.   I want to get on at least one snorkel trip.   Maybe two.

One of the biggest general problems with a trip to Hawaii is the time change … we end up being totally wasted for the first 2 or 3 days before we adapt to the time zone.   At least we won’t waste the first few days adapting to the time.