Hi, everyone!
Last Wednesday, we drove north to Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. I always like going there, because I know I’ll see some of my nene friends!
The overlook just outside the refuge has been closed for major work on the slope, and the entire refuge will close for maintenance later this month. I’m glad we got to visit before then!
I saw lots of my nene friends right away!
We saw a whale swimming offshore, just beyond the little island. The boobies were soaring all around us. Some of them were carrying nesting material in their beaks. I got to look at the albatross nesting site through the bird watching telescope. Then I looked right behind the fence on the lawn and saw a nene nest with three eggs!
When we got back to the resort, there was a new fence blocking our path to the greenbelt and the beach. We had to go out of our part of the resort to visit my turtle and monk seal friends. On our way back, Grandma helped me explore some detours to our usual route. I got to see where all the supplies for the roofing project were stored!
We had lilikoi goat cheese and rosemary baguette for afternoon snack. There wasn’t much of a sunset, because a big storm was coming in. There was thunder and lightning overnight, and a heavy rainstorm. Even after the storm was over, it was cloudy with strong wind gusts on Thursday. When we took one of our new routes to the beach, there were big branches down!
Because of the wind, the surf was very heavy at Brennecke’s Beach! I was happy to see my turtle friends safe on shore. There were sixteen of them!
Grandma said a day with heavy surf was a good day to go to Spouting Horn, so that’s what we did next! Some of the waves came right up over the blow-hole! It loooked like there were some new, smaller blow-holes open on the rocky shore. On the way back, we stopped at the Thai produce stand for more apple bananas. We didn’t need a whole bunch, so I helped Grandma separate the ones we wanted.
On Friday, there were twenty-two sea turtles on Poipu Beach! Twenty-one of them were clustered together, but one picked a space apart further up the beach. There was a monk seal, too. She decided to take a nap right in front of the lifeguard tower! It was still windy and the surf was high. Our new detour to the beach let us go back up the driveway, so I got a look at the repaired parking shelter that collapsed last year.
Friday night is Art Night in Hanapepe, so Grandma and Grandpa took me there. We were hoping to eat at Midnight Bear bakery, but they were closed. We shared an Awesome Burger from Kickshaws, instead. After we looked at all the art displays, we had lilkoi cheesecake for dessert. When the sun went down, we could see Venus close to the crescent moon.
On Saturday, when we got up, the roofing crew was already working on Building 8, across the road from us. There were lots of people working, and they took the old tiles off very quickly! We could watch from our lanai!
A Hawaiian cardinal joined us for breakfast and ate all the muffin crumbs off the table. When Grandma and I went to the beach on Saturday morning, I saw three sea turtles. There were no monk seals on the beach, but I did see my favorite monk seal protectors! I watched for whales, but what I saw were native canoes with paddling crews.
In the afternoon, Grandma decided it was sunny enough and calm enough to go snorkeling. Grandpa and I took beach chairs so we could watch for whales while she did. There were lots of people on the beach, and the sea turtles were arriving, too! One of them stopped to do some snacking on seaweed before joining the rest.
After we got back to our unit, I took another look at the roof work on Building 8. They got a lot done in one day! We had a clear sunset for a change — only a few clouds at the horizon!
Today is Ground Hog Day. I definitely saw my shadow this morning. That means six more weeks of winter. Grandma reminded me that my prediction is only true for around here. And winter around here is pretty nice!
Love,
Lion-san
Still cannot click on the little boxes to enlarge the photos even though Bill spent an hour or two trying to trouble shoot the problem. This computer dates back to 2012 so maybe it is just tired. We’ve been saying for sometime we need to get me a new computer. Finally my computer would not boot so Bill used a back up external disc made just before computer was brought to me while I was in Rehab to do a RECOVERY exercise. That worked BUT any work I did between the date of back up and date of the recovery was lost. Fortunately the main things I know that were lost are recreatable without way too much effort. We took that difficulty with my computer as a final warning. Therefore a new computer has been ordered as my Christmas, Birthday, and Valentines present and will arrive next week. Then I’ll just need to get used to it. Likely then the pictures will enlarge. If not, we’ll know the problem is not at our end! I’ll let you know.
You are so lucky to be seeing so much wild life — turtles and seals and nenes. Have a fine time the rest of your vacation.
We went out to dinner tonight and when we exited, we discovered it was snowing. Very different weather from what you are having.
Great Aunt Betsy
It was lovely seeing you, Lion and Joe on Poipu Beach. Best wishes for many more exciting adventures.
Steve and Julie