Sunday, March 29, 2020

January 4, 2020 – Nawiliwili, Kauai – Mostly Cloudy – 78F

We did not hear the thrusters last night.

However, the ride in the middle of the night was just north of medium rock and roll – enough to make it difficult to sleep.

I was in Horizon Court at 5:45 AM so I could help them “open” the buffet.  I had my usual good breakfast and was still back in the room by 6:20 AM.

I took a picture of our sail in from our stateroom window.


I helped with dispatch in the Princess Theater and then had a coffee in New Grounds.  We both had a late breakfast (bagels and lox) in Horizon Court before joining our tour – “Waimea Canyon” at 11:05 AM on the pier.

It was dark and cloudy in the port.


Lisa was our guide and she is from Texas via Central California. I always get nervous when our guide is also our driver (especially when we are in a big bus with 53 passengers).  She cracked a lot of jokes but was also very informative.

We drove through Nawiliwili, a small town with all of the requisite fast food places and some shops, then through Lihue, the main city on this island and the location of the airport.  We then proceeded through the countryside.


The weather improved as we made our way along this major (and only) highway. Our first stop was a photo stop at Hanapepe Valley - the bus covered the 19 miles or so in about a half hour. This is where Jurassic Park was filmed – we saw the gorge where the helicopter experienced turbulence in one of the early scenes.  I could see why Steven Spielberg picked this location for the movie.  I took a lot of pictures of the valley (including panoramas) and even caught a rainbow stretching across the valley.








We made a comfort stop at a store in Hanapepe Town where I tried Kauai Coffee (couldn’t tell Kona from Kauai or from my coffee back home).  Hanapepe has a population of 2630; Hanapepe means "crushed bay" perhaps referring to the landslides in the area.

Our main stop was Waimea Canyon, the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”.  


The canyon can reach depths of about 3500 feet and features an array of colors and rock formations.  Two special treats on today’s visit. First, the visibility was perfect – you could see across the whole canyon and even view the two waterfalls on the far side. 






Second, the mist rolled in and a nice rainbow connected two locations on the far side. All of this was captured in photos and panoramas.  


Two other attractions at the Canyon – bullet holes (of various caliber) in the metal signs 


and a lot of chickens.

Our final stop was at “Spouting Horn”.  In the past, the horn has spouted quietly but today, the giant lizard trapped under the lava rock also roared.




As we started our trip back to the port, Lisa told us that there had been a car fire on the only road back to Nawiliwili and that we would encounter traffic.  Indeed, we were stopped for almost a half hour with no movement – then traffic started moving from the other direction and only one lane was open at a time. Eventually, we did start moving.  We were the last bus to come back – about 30 minutes late and past the all aboard time - getting to be a habit.  We were in the last group to board the ship and while we were going to the cabin, the Captain indicated that everyone was here and we would be departing.

Dinner was later than usual in the Michelangelo Dining Room.  We were assigned Table 50 but, while the service at this table was very good, we will not sit here again as there was as there was too much traffic passing by the table.  Dinner was excellent – garden salad with ranch, pasta with pesto and potatoes and green beans (the last two items did not contribute to the taste), Pan Fried Orange Roughy (excellent except for the fennel it was sitting on) and tempura veggies (soggy but OK). Ellen had the Baked Potato Soup, Cesar Salad and the Roughy.  A sundae finished it off.

After dinner, we found seats outside the Explorers Lounge and did some reading.  I started a new book, “Liar, Liar” by Lisa Jackson.  A few pages into it, I realized I didn’t like her writing style and the subject matter – in fact, I had no idea what was actually going on in the story.  I returned the book to the Library and started “Unseen” by Karin Slaughter.  I chose this book because Will Trent, an unusual FBI agent, was the main character and I like the last Will Trent book. So far, so good.

At 8:00 PM, we went to the Crooners Lounge to hear guitar vocalist, Michael Kneafsey.  After a couple of songs we decided he was not our type of singer and the volume was a little high so we retreated to our previous seats. 

Our evening became an early one because we were assigned to an early excursion tomorrow morning so we headed back to the cabin to just settle down.

Seas are smooth.

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