Kaua'i Part 3 North Shore

Okay, I'm wishing I was back in beautiful, warm Hawaii, so here's one more round of piccies from my recent (too short) stay on Kaua'i.

These shots are from the north shore of the island and its famous Hanalei Bay. There were "dangerous surf" advisories the day we visited, but is that not the most gorgeous water you've ever seen?!?!




And here's a piccie to show you what Kaua'i is called "the garden isle." And if the mountains in the background look familiar, these are part of the Napali coast, made famous by those aerial shots in the movie Jurassic Park!

Finally, one more shot of the beautiful water and sky... That tiny little building on the very end of the bluff is the Kilauea Lighthouse. It was built in 1913 and is said to be on the northern most point of the island. It was being refurbished (no doubt for its 100 year anniversary next year) and the road was also undergoing construction, so this was as close as we chose to go.

I can't imagine what life was like for the original inhabitants so far away from everything.

Would you like to live in such an isolated area? Aunty will take a pass on this one -- too far into town for pizza and Pepsi!

Kaua'i Part 2 -- Waimea Canyon

One of the chief tourist attractions on the island of Kaua'i is Waimea Canyon, also called the Little Grand Canyon. Though not as big as its namesake, Waimea is another of those fantastic wonders of wind and water erosion. And unlike its namesake, Waimea is green!

These pics were shot from the main overlook and only give a taste of the real scope and grandeur of this place. Not as much green as usual, according to the locals because Kaua'i is experiencing a two year drought. 

When the DH and I were here on the cruise in January, it was raining and we couldn't see anything. We definitely picked the right day to visit the canyon on this trip. Of all the days we spent, this one happened to be the most sunny and clear!

We were also lucky enough to arrive at the same time two native Hawaiians were chanting, dancing and playing a gourd drum as part of a ceremony for the canyon. Unfortunately, my pictures were too far away to see the figures, but it was fascinating to watch.

Another major attraction on Kaua'i are its waterfalls, which are still going in spite of the drought. Here's a photo of one of the more accessible one, Wailua Falls. The trail to the top of the falls was closed so we had to settle with standing at the overlook. However, you can kayak up the Wailua River for a closer look, and two couples had done just that the morning we were here. You can just see the pool at the base of the falls on the far right. One brave guy left his kayak and swam right up behind the falling water. I can only guess at how spectacular that must have been!

What are some of your favorite natural wonders?

Kaua'i Part 1

Just returned home from a week long stay on the island of Kaua'i, called The Garden Isle and for good reason. It is loaded with lots of lush vegetation and some of the most wonderful fruit I've ever tasted!

We spent a few hours on Kaua'i back in January when we cruised around all the Hawaiian islands, but it was raining that day and we were disappointed at not being able to enjoy the scenery. We had no such problems on this trip! The weather was great.

One of the first places we visited was a place we stopped at in January. We were very impressed with "the Spouting Horn" as they call this very unusual blow hole on the southern shore of the island.

As you can see from the piccie, the shore in this area is filled with black lava formations instead of sand. Erosion has formed a shelf and holes near and below the water level. A couple of the holes are tunnels, and one in particular "blows" like a geyser when the waves send water through it. It also makes a deep sound when the air rushes back through when the water subsides, hence the name "Spouting Horn."

Of course there's plenty of the beautiful turquoise waters, too. Sea turtles also frequent this area, and the day we were there, we saw three of them in the clear water on the other side of the horn.

We also went to nearby Po'ipu beach for a little picnic. As you can see from the palm trees, the wind was quite brisk, and the water outside this little protected lagoon was pretty rough. Not enough to discourage a few local surfers, however. We had a very relaxing lunch and stayed in the shade.

I'll post more piccies in a few days, but for now I'll let you dream about tropical beaches. Maybe you have a few favorites? If so, please share where they are.

My Sister the Goat Herder

I just returned from a trip to visit my sister, who lives near Claremore, Oklahoma. Though we talk on the phone at least once a week, we hadn't seen each other face-to-face in almost three years. Last time we saw each other, she came to "home" to California, so I haven't been to her home in Oklahoma in over 5 years!

Since I'd last visited, my sister and brother-in-law moved to a one acre parcel and acquired several animals, all given to them by neighbors or co-workers. First someone gave them eight chickens, so my sister and her DH got busy and built an enclosed pen and bought a shed and equipped it with nests.

The chickens were no sooner housed than a co-worker asked them to take his African Pygmy goat, who was about the size of a German Shepherd but a lot shaggier. I remember my sister telling me all about him on the phone. He was quite tame and seemed to act more like a dog. However, he was an adult male goat, and thus, she named him Stinky. The chickens' enclosure got enlarged and Stinky got his own personal shed/barn. But not for long.

A couple of months later, another co-worker mentioned, "I heard you have a goat. Will you take mine too?" Honey was a Pygmy/Nubian cross and she and Stinky got along just fine. So fine in fact, that five years later, my sister now has TEN goats with at least one or two more on the way. My sister no longer works at an outside job, but stays home to tend her growing herd of "babies."

Here's my sister, Beth with 2 month old Peanut, who is just about the same size as my Pug-Wa-Wa Autumn (15 lbs.). Peanut and his brother Popcorn, who is even smaller, are quite spoiled and seem to believe they are puppies. Notice he is about to crawl into my sister's lap. That's his mama Ace watching from the sidelines. She's about the size of a smallish Golden Retriever.

These little critters are so cute I'm not the least bit surprised that my sister and her DH spoil them and treat them like pets. I'm sure I would too! But I gotta admit, all those years ago when Beth and I were growing up, I never in my wildest dreams pictured my sister as a goatherder!

So here we all are, my sister, her DH (my brother-in-law the "goat boss") and me. If I had been driving instead of flying home, I'd have been very tempted to bring Peanut or Popcorn home with me! I'm sure my dogs would have been quite upset, so I suppose it's just as well.

What about you? Did you have any unusual pets growing up? What about now?

Dream vacations

By Trish Milburn, guest blogger

Here I am again, high-jacking Aunty Cindy's blog while she's out plying the blue waters of the Caribbean. Actually, her trip got me to thinking about vacations. There's probably not a one of us who wouldn't go on vacation at the drop of a hat if money wasn't an option. So that's my question to you today -- if you didn't have to worry about the money, what would be your dream vacation?

For me, it would be a huge, extended driving tour of the United States and Canada -- including the trek along the remote Alcan Highway to Alaska. That's a stretch of the highway in winter below, the section between Fort Nelson, British Colombia and Watson Lake, Yukon.















There is so much I've not seen and other places I've visited but had to rush through because of limited vacation time and funds. I'd love to be able to take the trip at a leisurely pace, taking months to see it all. One of my big goals is to visit all the U.S. national parks, so I'd definitely make visits to all of those along the way. One of the parks I've not visited yet is the Grand Canyon, a place that's awe-inspiring in pictures but which I understand can't be done justice with mere photographs.
















One of the parks I've been to more than once, but always for too little time, is Yellowstone National Park. My sister worked there for a year, and I've visited three times now. I envy my sister's time there, time in which she could explore the first national park established in this country. It's one of my favorite places, and I'd love to have at least a month of staying inside the park at the hotels at Mammoth Hot Springs, Old Faithful and Yellowstone Lake so I could explore some new facet of the park every day. That's Grand Prismatic Spring below. It's huge! I'm not sure you can see them in this picture, but there are a few tiny people on that boardwalk to give this picture perspective.














And being a writer, I could do a fun travelogue blog along the way, complete with photos. Now, if one of those Powerball tickets would just pan out.

So, let me hear about your dream vacations! And while you're in a good mood dreaming about vacations to wonderful locales, take a moment to zip over to the Romantic Times site where my manuscript, OUT OF SIGHT, is a finalist in the American Title competition -- a writing competition modeled on American Idol. I'd appreciate your vote very much.