A Beauty Beyond Question...

I took this picture in the garden of Marriott Waiohai when we were babysitting our grand kids. We took them to the playground and as we walked along the path on our way back to our hotel room, this flower really captured my very eyes. It's truly beautiful and I wonder if this plant will still be there next time we go on our vacation.

This was some kind of a water hyacinth and was growing on a big vase. I wish I could grow this in front of our house but may be the frost will kill it on winter time.

Walking on Trail....

It's always our practice when in the island to find a trail where we could go for a walk. We've been to the Sleeping Giant on our first trip few years back and we did not want to do it anymore. We wanted to try some new places that's just very close to our hotel. We finally was able to get a list of all the trails in Poipu. The one we picked was just few minutes away from where we stayed. Our whole group decided to go in the car passing The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa and all the way down to Makawehi & Pa'a Dunes. We were able to find a park and started the hike from there.

As we walked, we passed by the Shipwreck Beach and some historical war ruins. At first, we thought we were lost but there were also few hikers who happened to know the history of the place but just was not sure if she was heading the right way. We continued and the trail was just fascinating that every scenery we passed by was amazingly beautiful. We were walking along the coast seeing all the picturesque nature and enjoying its magical sound that we hardly noticed its distance.

We had so much fun and we got back not feeling stressed. We thought that may be we could go there each time we visit the island. It was a proposal.

Sunset Dinner at the Beach House

It is always part of our plan to spare one night to dine at one of our favorite seaside restaurant. The Beach House Restaurant is not only good for its food but the location itself lures people to come. It's the lovely sunset and the romantic ambiance of the place that makes a person come again.

I did not take to many pictures this year. I did not know why but I just wanted to really feel what it felt being there with my loved one. Besides, it's not just hubby and I but we came as a family. I did not even take a picture of our plates. It was my moment to just hang in there, relax and be lazy.

Just a Few of the Fun...

Going to Kauai is just like seeing the Philippines again with all the green vegetation and the occasional rain shower. The ornamental plants are very similar and it's really very tropical. The only thing that I notice is the cooler temperature, although warmer compared to what we have in the US of A except when there is a heat wave.

Here are some of the evidences of the few fun we had:

It's me.... Hubby was able to catch me almost stumbling while running away from the big wave that was coming. I was glad he was no longer holding the camera when the successive waves rolled me to the shore. We were just laughing.

Almost every morning, we went for Koi Fish feeding at the front of the hotel. The person in charge distributes the fish food to the people, particularly kids who are willing to do the feeding at the scheduled time.

These pictures were taken at the children's playground by the hotel on the same day we went for the Polynesian show. We had so much fun with our grand kids. Brianna was always in charge of making the list of the things we needed to do for a day.

Every time we woke up in the morning, we went out by the porch and fed the chicks and chickens with the leftover food we had. Sometimes we did it with bread crumbs. It's really amazing how domesticated those chickens are that hubby was able to feed them in his palm.

As I said, these were just few of the activities that made us occupied while in the island.

Hawaiian Monk Seals

It's been our forth visit in Kauai and been to Poipu Beach many times. But this year we were stunned to see the Hawaiian Monk Seal on the beach where there were a lot of people. When we first saw it, we thought it was dead but after seeing and reading what the note says, we found out that it was alive. We then learned that it's been there for quite sometime already almost every afternoon... seemed like it was doing its siesta. So the Beach Guard put a rope around the area just to enclose the monk to make sure nobody touched him. Like a celebrity, that mammal was surrounded with curious spectators and we were one of them.

Beautiful!

Despite all the noise around, he seemed like a kid truly tired from his day activity that he just opened his eyes and closed again. We watched him until he was fully awake then he rolled back to the water. At first we saw him swimming around but later on he disappeared from our sight.

It was really an awesome experience having been able to come close to that kind of sea creature. We could almost touched him if we wanted to break the rule. He was just really a foot away from us. And then the following day, he was there again. There was even a day that there were two of them resting on the same spot but we no longer go there to see. We just watch the sea turtles on the other side of the sea. We hope to see them again next year.