Wednesday, July 29

Kilauea Lighthouse The state bird: Nene


The north coast Waillua Falls

The beach at Kauai Sands

We arrived at Li'ue airport in Kauai at 5:35 a.m. or somewhere close to that. Not sure any of us were awake enough to see what time it really was. We picked up our rental car, Sharon said the lady said to pick a car from the center row, which we did, a nice Malibu and it wasn't until we were pulling off the lot that we saw a sign that said mid-size. We were supposed to have an economy so I guess we got a free upgrade! We headed north towards Ka'apa as the sun was coming up. Stopped at McDonald's of all places for breakfast, mostly because it is fast and it was there! Our plan was to hit the Kilauea Wildlife Refuge and lighthouse on the way up but it didn't open until 10 and we were there at 8:30. After logging several "life" birds we decided to keep going to Hanalei and stop at the lighthouse on the way back. It was just the most beautiful drive you could ever imagine. We went all the way north until the road ended at Kee Beach State Park. It rained several times for brief periods, usually when we were out of the car. Of course the upside of the rain was the beautiful rainbows that followed! We stopped at several beaches as we made our way back to the lighthouse. While we were there we saw the Great Frigate bird, red-tailed tropic birds, wedge-tailed shearwaters, the state bird the Nene (a goose) and the Laysan albatross all birds that I had not seen. After checking into the hotel, the Kauai Sands, we drove around to several of the waterfalls that were in the area. We topped off our day with Brick Oven Pizza and Lappert's ice cream.