It is time for the daily theme search.
Is it M&M's visit to church?
Or is it the fresh rain?
Which we rarely disdain
Sitting sheltered on our lanai perch
Washington's birthday was today as best we knew
Though he was actually born Feb 11, 1732
Because of the switch to the Gregorian calendar
There's doubt about just when those dates were
Which is why we use President's Day with no further ado
We were able to catch a bit of a nice sunrise before the morning wind and rain blew in and cancelled our morning tennis plans. Merlin & Merry always like to attend a local church up near Lihue where they're always welcomed back by the congregation so they headed out around 10:00. It's nice to have a community to participate in... They did some local shopping and in a small world coincedence, they ran into Larry Rivera ( http://www.k12.hi.us/~kapaahs/foundation/alumniprofilelr.html ) a famous long time Kauai entertainer who serenaded people for years at the resort Elvis made Blue Hawaii at, The Coco Palms. The resort was devastated by Hurricane Iniki in 1992 and within the last year plans to reopen were cancelled, much to Larry's regret. Merlin & Mary have seen Larry many times and he remembered them and invited all of us to his Wednesday show at the Kauai Beach Hilton.
It's a slow news day so a geography primer may be in order to make sense of some of the places we visit. The island is roughly circular with a diameter of ~30 miles which for those who still remember their circumference calculation (Diameter x Pi ) yields a 90 mile round trip. We situated in the South at Poipu and Koloa and a 30 mile drive West through Waimea puts you at the edge of the 5000 ft NaPali cliffs. This is the dry end of the island averaging only a foot of rain per year. It's very Arizona-like with cacti and it's own version of the Grand Canyon - The 3000 foot deep Waimea Canyon.
head off to the East and you pass through the commercial hub of the island, Lihue on your way to the north shore. The mountain in the center of the island gets ~480 inches of rain per year, enough to feed 5 navigable rivers and numerous waterfalls. As you head north you see the lush end of the island where South Pacific and Jurrasic Park were filmed. Hanalei is reminiscent of the Willamette Valley complete with a laid back community vibe. A few miles further you reach the end of the road and the NaPali coastline where it's a challenging 2 day hike around to the top of the Waimea Canyon through the muddy Alakai Swamp. This geographic and micro-climate diversity make it easy to find someplace on the island to enjoy the beauty.
The weather cleared in the afternoon as we enjoyed a relaxing day at the condo. Turned the TV on for the first time this week to watch the Blazers cruise to a comfortable win over the Clippers and then watched some of the Oscars complete with popcorn. Our penultimate Kauai Sunday ended quietly at 10...
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