Island of Kaua'i-Part Three

This is a rubber raft with a solid bottom that took us out to see the Napali coast line and to go whale watching. We left just as it was getting light. Here is a little about our wild adventure.
The two motors attached at the back, Neal looking at the jagged cliffs above. The captain, Chris, is a whale enthusiast. This gives you an idea of the small size of this boat.The water was so calm that it made looking for whales really great. My hair gets really, really curly on these water adventures.
We had watched whales from land in two spots and from a boat in Maui, but this was a whole different thing! We got so close and could hear the blowing. It is addicting to watch for whales! We never tired of it.This isn't zoomed, we really were this close! There was a professional photographer with us and we got a CD of our trip. Amazing! At one point we were right in the middle of three whales, kind of traveling with them. We lost sight of one of them, and then realized that it was directly under the raft. Several times Chris put on his fins and jumped into the water with his underwater movie camera. He has no fear of literally swimming with the whales.This is the Pioneer Seed Company. Several seed companies grow in Hawaii because they can get three growing seasons per year and thus increase their testing results, etc. We stopped a few miles down the road because we could see people out in a corn field working.
The workers put a sack on each tassel and then one on each ear before it has silk out. This way they control exactly which tassel pollinates the silk. It was a very hot day, it was amazing to see this in operation. We spoke with the manager and she said they would easily finish this 17 acre piece that day with her 35 workers! If the silk is already out, the plant isn't used in the testing.
Did I mention how much Neal loves a jeep? Here we are at the Polihale State Park. The beach ends here and begins the NaPali coastline cliffs.
Proof that we did go to a beach while in Hawaii! I really like this picture :)

And...one last picture of HAWAII in January 2012:

Island of Kaua'i-Part Two

At the overlook of Waimea Canyon. On one of the hikes that day, a lady told us that she had to get a picture for us in our matching "Aloha" shirts!
A very tenacious tree on the rim of the canyon. This has a very steep drop off.
Neal was in jeeper's heaven on the back trails of this island. Here we had to turn around. My head was pounding by the time I talked him into finding some pavement.
Neal on the Waimea Swinging bridge.
The stone lining this road were put here about 300 AD by the first Hawaiians, the Menehune people. They created a ditch lined with these stones and diverted water from the canyons up above to bring it to the valley for irrigation.

The Island of Kaua'i-Part One

Thanks to Jacob, we have a new picture on our blog page. We really like it, so thanks Jake.
Now, on to Kaua'i...Here is Neal at the Kilauea Lighthouse. This is a beautiful point of land and we enjoyed watching the whales from here and seeing all the birds. It is a bird refuge area.
This is Banana Joe's fruit stand. They have a wonderful smoothie made of just frozen bananas and pineapple. You can see the poinsettia plant she plunked into the ground after Christmas, also the produce they sell inside and the little Gazebo to eat in. They came to the island about 15 years ago and have done well. Chickens, chickens everywhere. More than on any of the other islands.
Hanalei Lookout with taro fields in the background. Hey, while I'm thinking of it, is it better for me to leave my glasses on (they go dark in the sun) or take them off for these pictures? Neal thinks it is vain of me to take them off, but I like to see people's eyes when I look at pics.
Warning signs at Ke'e Beach. You would think that everyone would be scared off, but no one is!
Here is a sea cave that is now several hundred feet above the sea level. There were several of these along this road. We encountered a lot of traffic on this road. It goes to this beach and then ends, so everyone has to turn around and head back here. We wanted to hike part of a trail here, but had forgotten our bug spray, so it was out of the question.
These two homes show an interesting phenomenon. We were assuming that the homes were built up to avoid flooding, and maybe that is it in some places, but these homes were high so they could see over the foliage to the ocean.
How to cross a one lane bridge :) Our helicopter over Kaua'i, Jack Harter Helicopters.
A cruise ship in the harbor at Lihue and the beautiful mountains of the east side of the island.
Neal and I are quite sure that we could ride in a helicopter several days a week and not get tired of it. Especially flying over this gorgeous scenery. This is the "oldest" of the main Hawaiian Islands, so it has more valleys. It is the only island with a river big enough for boats to go up...still they are only small boats.
We were interested to see several reservoirs created over the island to capture water for irrigation purposes.These are pics of the "Grand Canyon" of Hawaii, the Waimea Canyon. It was so totally unexpected after seeing the other islands, again showing how much older this one is. All of this is lava rock. There is nothing else on any of the islands. The canyons are formed from erosion over the eons.The NaPali Coastline from above. Later we would get to see it from the ocean.
Mist and sun coming over "The Cathedrals"
Did I mention that this ride was "with the doors off"? What an adventure!