Black and White - group 2

Embiggen to enhance your viewing pleasure!

Tay (you've seen her all over my blog)

 Sea birds (central California coast)

Even the homeless wear nice socks in Kyoto

Tokyo Station Platform 

Poipu Beach, Kauai 

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Skyward -- Kauai

One more Kauai post after this one. I'm starting to get behind on other things. We got back from a little roadie to an awesome campground in the Cuyamaca mountains last week, so I have some photos from that and now we're leaving on another one in two days to the Santa Ynez Mountains. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one little bit!


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Poipu Beach -- Kauai

I'm trying to post this using an unsecured internet signal that isn't worth a darn. I hope I can get it finished before it goes away. We're at a camp ground on top of a mountain overlooking the Anza-Borrego Desert. Just about as different from the photos below as possible.
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If you look at any list of "The World's Best Beaches," Poipu Beach is sure to be on it. In some surveys it's rated as the best all around beach anywhere. It has two crescent shaped beachs separated by a small sandbar and protected by a barrier reef.  It was the most crowded place we saw on Kauai, but "crowded" is a relative term, because there really weren't very many people there. Somehow, I got there without my good camera and had to use my p&s. I think you can still see the beauty of the place.

View to the right

View to the left

View to the middle

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Derelict Japanese Cemetery - Kauai

Only a couple more posts from our trip to Kauai. In a couple of hours we'll be hitting the road again. This time not so far. We'll be RV camping (that may be an oxymoron) on top of a mountain about 100 miles from where we live. It's not nearly as scenic as Kauai, but I'm still hoping to get some good photos. I'm not sure if we'll have Internet or not.  In the meantime, here are some photos of an old abandoned Japanese cemetery. We found it off of another old dirt road in the area of the hidden glass beach.  A friend told us about both places. They aren't my best work, but I hope you'll find them interesting.

Looking back down the road that took us up to the cemetery.

Once again, we were reminded of the violent volcanic origins of Kauai.

Some of the grave stones were too buried in brush to get to.

We'll be trying to get some translations from my MIL.

Most of them seem to be from the 1800's

enlarge this one!

This one isn't Japanese, but the heart shaped tomb stone caught my eye.

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Koloa Town-- Kauai

Koloa was the town closest to where we stayed in Kauai. It's very small and there is really nothing new there. At one time a local sugar mill was the primary employer. These days, there is no sugar cane at all growing in the area and without tourists, the town would probably be gone. Of course, there are many chickens...

This is the main drag in Koloa. Almost all the businesses were on the other side of the street. I only posted this pic because I liked the tree.

Ditto for this tree. It's really pretty (enlarge to prove me right).

One of the few non-tourist related businesses in town is the Koloa Fish Market. It's been there for many years and is known as serving some of the best food in the entire state. No credit cards accepted and the doors close at 6:00 P.M.

Around the corner from the fish market, on a side street, was my favorite meal on the island. The Chalupas food truck served GREAT Mexican food. The owner, cook and only employee is a guy named Miguel. He's from Vera Cruz, Mexico, via Sacramento, California. Some day, he hopes to open his own restaurant on the island. Based on how delicious his food is, I hope his dream comes true. In case you were wondering, I know his name because most conversations I have with strangers, end up sounding like an interview.  He was a good guy and I hope he makes it big.

Here is the sugar mill that employed most of the folks around Koloa. We were surprised to find out that this town was first settled by Japanese. This sugar mill and a good portion of the island was owned (much still is) by the McBryde family. In another of the amazing coincidences that make up my life. The receptionist at our dentist is one of the great nieces of the man who owned it all.

The mill isn't open for tourists so we had to do some snooping around. I really wish I could have gotten onto the property. We saw three of these huge sugar mills (all wrecked) on different parts of the island.

enlarge this one to see the "gardener" behind the gate.

Savage Shrimp! Although we didn't eat there, this truck is also a long time famous place to eat. It may not look too good, but there are positive reviews all over the Internet.

Sorry, but I just had to include at least one more photo of our friend "Roosty." He was such a handsome boy!  Enlarge this one to fully enjoy his good looks...

I'll finish the Kauai posts up soon. We're going on a road trip this week, so new material is on it's way.

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The Beach at Tunnels Reef -- Kauai

Although Kauai isn't the biggest of the Hawaiian Islands, it has by far, the most sand beaches. What makes it very nice is that there aren't very many people on those beaches.  We didn't have time to see them all, but the beach at Tunnels Reef was one of the nicest. There was no where to park except on the side of the road.

feel free to embiggen, the photos are large

The beach at Tunnels Reef is the last area you can get to before the road ends. This portion of the road (on the way there) is called the "Tree Tunnel." No relation to Tunnels Reef, but just as beautiful.

This is an indication of how few people there are on this island. This one lane bridge is part of the main road of the island.  We only had to wait about a minute.

It doesn't matter if you are at the edge of a town in the desert or on the most remote island in the world, your vehicle breaks down, you just leave it in the yard.

We drove past some Taro fields. Taro is a very valuable plant. Most people only associate it with "poi" and think it's pretty nasty. If you've ever had it, you know why.  I didn't think it was bad at all, but I've been known to eat just about anything.

The view to the left

The view to the right. One of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. Just amazing!

There's a house under those palm trees. I'm thinking I could live there. Only one issue, for the last twenty years all the houses have to be built on 18 foot high stilts. Yep, tsunamis...

A few more posts from Kauai and I'll be done. Thanks for hanging in there!

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Kilauea Point -- Kauai

Not only is Kilauea Point a beautiful place for a lighthouse, it's also a National Wildlife Refuge. The point is the northernmost piece of land in the Hawaiian Islands.

These are all large photos, so enlarge for optimum viewing

When I saw this, it was another one of those catch your breath moments.

The lighthouse was closed for repairs, but it was well worth the two bucks just to take in the views.

Red Tailed Tropic Bird (to see the tail, enlarge)

Great Frigate Birds (you gotta enlarge this one)

Hawaiian Goose

Wedge Tailed Shearwater nestlings

The view to the right.

Ditto

The view to the left (Princeville). Awesome coastline.

A little islet is just off the point.

I don't know why. I just had to. This place is so green that you can almost hear everything growing.

We ate at his fish market in the little town of Kilauea. I had Ono tacos. Oh man, they were so good. That's my wife in the white (with hat on). She's sitting with her sister and BIL.

Just me, thinking that a few wisps of grass are as awesome as the scenery.

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Mahaulepu Beach -- Kauai

A zip line guide (yeah, we did) told us about a beach that was located on private property. We had to drive about five miles on a dirt road to get there, but we were so happy that we did. Not only was the isolated beach amazing, we also found a trail there that led us to a huge and wildly barren landscape.

Don't take the time to enlarge all of these things, but a few of them are worth it

After driving a few miles down this road,

we arrived at the this gate. It was very nice that the owners of this giant farm let people have access to the coast, but they were very clear about the rules. From here we had to drive a few more miles on a VERY rough red dirt road (hey, we were in a rental car, no problem!).  The road ended at a tree line. We parked and walked through the trees.

To the right we saw this.

To the left we saw this. We started hiking over these rocks following the coast line. Around that far point we found another beach.

Part of it was very calm and shaded by pine trees.

I'm going to shut up now and just post a few of the photos I took as we hiked.

 what the heck? I can't get this to orient properly

The trail ended on a point that jutted out into this huge natural bay. As far as we could see in any direction there was not a single sign of civilization. Not a building, a boat, a car, a power line, or even another human. We saw many great sights during our time on the island. To me, this was the best thing I saw. It was like we just discovered something that nobody else had ever seen. Of course, that isn't true, but it was that desolate.

More Kauai posts to come...

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