Beach Bums

One of our favorite activities on the island was "beach hopping" Kauai has so many beaches and the highway runs right next to the ocean. We drove the whole island because it is so small you could really do it in a day. We stopped at many different beaches and collected a small baggy of sand at each one. I thought that a sand collection would be really fun to start, and maybe an excuse to see some more beaches. I am going to find some little glass bottles to put the sand in.

This is the view from the lighthouse that we visited, there is a bird refuge there and is also a great look out point to see humpback whales. We did not see any whales from here but it was breathtaking. Even I look like an awesome photographer, what can I say I don't think you could find an ugly spot on the island.

The lighthouse was built in 1913, and is still working today. We were able to see it at night too.

We happened to see another Walking Tree, so here is a better view of the whole tree. This one is small.

Many birds live here at the refuge on this hill, I am not much of a bird watcher so I could not tell what kind they were but apparently they are endangered. I thought that it was very neat to learn that the helicopter tour companies left this part of the island alone so as not to disturb the birds (or crash).

This tree looks like a pineapple tree but I was suprised to learn that it was really called a false pineapple tree or another name was the Walking Tree and the female trees had the fruit and the male trees did not. The fruit that looks like a pineapple are actually seeds and they can float and be carried away by the ocean to other lands.

Here is a mother and baby Monk seal snoozing on the beach.Here is a field in Hanalei that was planted with taro. Just above it is a huge waterfall.Ty and I decided this could definately be a new career for us. Beach Bums. As you can see the beaches are not crowded and you really can have a private beach to yourself. On several occasions we were the only ones out there.

This is not a great shot of the mom and baby Monk seals but it gives you a perspective of just how close you can get. I was sitting just four feet away from the pair when I took this picture. I actually decided to back up when the mom was getting irritated with the baby because he was trying to coax his mother into returning to the water after sunset and she was not done sleeping. She barked at him several times. One time she heard my camera phone click and she opened one eye to see me then check on the baby with the other eye and went back to sleep.

Another perfect ending to a perfect day on the island of Kauai.