MONDAY - ... NO PROMISES TO KEEP ... WAIMEA CANYON

Chickens of Kauai:

We met this young chap at one of the lookouts near Waimea Canyon.

Tuesday morning we got up and drove across the island to Waimea Canyon.

On the way we ate Lapperts icecream.

I am kind of an icecream snob. I am not tempted by off brands. This icecream was so smooth and creamy and cold... oh, so delish! We looked at the view as we drove and ate our icecream:

This picture is for my mom. It is a wall that was made by ancient Hawaiians. How many times in my childhood did I hear, "Look kids, there's an ancient wall made by the indians!"

Much like my mom can spot a wall a mile away, Larry finds caves. You can see why he delighted in this section of the road!

In Hanapepe there is this statue of the notorious Captain James Cook.

According to our kayak guide (still to come) the first time Cook came to Hawaii he wiped out 75% of the population with the white man diseases. The second time he killed off 1/3 of the 25% that survived his first landing with more disease. The natives showed their love for him by eating him.

So we drove up Waimea Canyon and we did the hikes to the lookouts.

We viewed Niihau and promised to visit her and her little friend, the rock Lehua, the next day.

When we got to Puu Hinahina lookout - wow! What a scene!

As we drove all the way to the end of the road we were enveloped in clouds.

At first it wasn't bad but then we really got into it:

Clouds are wet and cold. What is the difference between fog and clouds? I don't know, but these were clouds because we could see them and they blew across the trail and came back in.

Clouds make it so you can't see the other side of the canyon - or the sides right below you.

It was a little disconcerting, not being able to see, but the clouds so thick they looked solid.

We hiked down a trail that looked like this for about half an hour.

Here's another shot of what the "trail" looked like.

With Tracy around we didn't only hike.

Tif and Charmaine on the trail.

I caught Larry and Tracy behaving!

On the way back down the mountain and around the island we saw this cool little stopping point:

To be truthful, it was hard to miss what with the seventeen rental cars all pulled off to the sort-of side of the road and all the people climbing around.

I think it was worth the wait.

Those purple Keens will forever be slightly orange on the stitching. I wish I had gotten a red dirt t-shirt. Did you know that the Red Dirt t-shirt company uses only one gallon of red dirt mud to dye 500 shirts?!

We hustled back to the resort for scuba lessons.

It was super fun and our teacher was like a mini-me Jim Carey, his facial expressions and jokes. We were cracking up.

Like I really believe that Bacto crap kills off all the germs in the masks? I am sure that I will get an unidentified lip fungus from that situation. Or swine flu.

Another pretty flower for your viewing pleasure.