Grateful in Paradise - new digs

This is our new digs for these last 4 days here. We invite you to check it out at http://www.greenstropicalbeachhouse.com click on the virtual tour and you'll get the full picture. I was lucky enough to find them on craig's list and a studio rental was $65 (total) a night...right by the beach...what a great deal. We felt very blessed when we arrived and found out we had been "up-graded", for the same price, to the upper house instead of a downstairs "studio"! Life is Good indeed. It was sunny all day today and about 80 degrees. The best weather so far. Within minutes of talking to Cindy, the owner, she told us she would be moving back to CA at the end of the summer because her 1st grandbaby is due. She wants to discuss with us a possible "caretakers" situation. Whoa, infinite possibilites as Bonnie would also like us back, in fact, she wanted us for 3 weeks in latter March early April, but we're already booked. This would be a great place to have an entire family together for a week or so! Our grandkids would love it here (our kids, too). Here are the top 10 things I love about Kauai:

1. The Ocean...the gorgeous color and it's warm

2. The flowers...exploding, vibrant color everywhere

3. The "Aloha" of the people...everyone is so friendly

4. Being able to have the windows open all the time so the tradewinds can blow through and keep things cool...not muggy

5. The moisture that keeps your skin soft and plumped up...haven't had to use lotion since I've been here

6. The landscape...ocean, beaches, cliffs, canyons, waterfalls, rivers, farmland and jungle all within a few miles of each other...it's so lush and green everywhere

7. The temperature...usually never warmer than 80 or lower than 68

8. The night sky filled with stars

9. Rainbows

10. There is soooo much to do or you can do nothing and watch the waves and be perfectly content

Kilauea Point Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge

Today we spent a few hours walking around the lighthouse with binoculars watching for whales. As noted in an earlier post, this is where the Humpback Whales come to give birth between Dec-Mar. We didn't see whales but we sure enjoyed the birds and the ocean. Here is a bit of info: Each year, thousands of seabirds use Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge for nesting, feeding, or resting. It is considered one of the best places on the main Hawaiian islands to view Laysan albatrosses, red-footed boobies, brown boobies, red-tailed tropicbirds, wedge-tailed shearwaters, and great frigatebirds. Seabirds nest atop sheer sea cliffs, shearwaters nest along a walking path, and nene (the native Hawaiian goose) are easily seen walking about. A spectacular viewing site from the point gives visitors a chance to see whales and dolphins miles out into the Pacific Ocean. The point itself is the remnant of the former Kilauea volcanic vent that last erupted about 500,000 years ago. Today, only a small U-shaped portion remains, including a spectacular 568-foot ocean bluff. The U.S. government bought the Point in 1909 and completed a lighthouse in 1913. Surrounded by a landscape void of native vegetation and used for cattle, the lighthouse served for 68 years as a navigational aid for trans-Pacific shipping through the Hawaiian archipelago. In 1976 it was replaced by an automatic beacon. By 1979 the lighthouse and the original buildings were designated National Historic Landmarks..
This is the Nene...a Hawaiian goose...quite pretty actually
Looking Northeast from the lighthouse shows the interesting coastline cliffs...look in the grassy area and you'll see all of the white dots...birds actually
What do you do on a beautiful warm afternoon surrounded by the ocean? Watch the waves, of course! We were particularly enthralled with this point that is being pounded continually by the ocean and the alcove that is being formed. This is a progression of a wave...

Now there's some force...and this is with the tide out
This is just off the Northern tip in front of the lighthouse...it's a separate rocky point where birds hang out and right around this area is where you can see the whales and dolphins
Watching the waves on the upper right side of this rocky point
We thought it looked like whipped cream! Amazing how you can get lost in just watching this.
To the Northwest of the lighthouse is this! Everything is shrouded in mist...same time, same place, different direction. This is what has been so cool about being here this time of year.
Finally was able to catch a decent pic of a Laysan Albatross...they were soaring all around us but catching a picture...ahh thank goodness for digital. They are amazing to watch and have a 7-8 foot wing span
Look at this picture closely...he's actually preening in mid-flight! If I were a bird, I would be very happy living here ;-) They get incredible loft with these cliffs.
And this was the end to our day! Simply beautiful. Aloha!

Allerton Estate and National Tropical Botanical Garden on New Year's Eve

This is a stunningly beautiful masterpiece! Not as many flowering plants due to “winter” time but who would know unless you had seen it in summer. We had a simply divine guide named Wendy, who had a very unique gift of combining a wealth of information and humor. With her love of the plants and honor for the earth she was our kind of gal in her entertaining 2.5 hour tour of the estate and gardens. Here is a little info…then a lot of pictures! Some captioned, some not. This is truly something to experience and support if you visit Kauai.
The grounds were the mid-1800s summer cottage of Queen Emma, wife of King Kamehameha IV, and the former home of Robert & John Allerton.A naturally stunning location, the Lawai Valley's tropical beauty was nurtured over the years by its illustrious owners beginning with Queen Emma's addition of deep purple bougainvillea along the cliff walls. In 1937 the Allertons purchased the property and continued the vision of a garden paradise by transforming the grounds into a masterpiece of landscape design.
The Allerton Estate is managed by the adjoining National Tropical Botanical Garden, a non-profit organization that conducts guided tours of the estate. Plants from all over the world grow in this sprawling garden, which is the nations only congressionally chartered tropical botanical garden. The garden has the world's largest collection of native Hawaiian flora, many of them rare and endangered. Ninety percent of all plant and animal species on our planet exist in the tropics -- that warm moist belt that circles the earth. And it is in these regions where the extinction rate is the highest. Species are disappearing faster than anyone knows. They cannot be replaced. The National Tropical Botanical Garden is dedicated to preserving tropical plant diversity and stemming this tide of extinction - through plant exploration, propagation, habitat restoration, scientific research, and education. NTBG's gardens and preserves are safe havens for at-risk species that otherwise might disappear forever.

This is looking down onto the Allerton Estate as we are riding the tram down. He had a vision much like the woman who started the Butchart Gardens in Victoria BC

Queen Emma's purple bougainvillea along the cliff walls
Pathways like this ... oh yea, this one was where that pesky flying dinosaur thing jumped out of the bushes in Jurassic Park...several scenes were done here
I thought this picture was blurry but it isn't...this is a very cool feathery fern on the cliff walls
Sunlight coming through the canopy of the Monkey Pod trees. Mr Allerton planted a lot of Monkey Pod trees for there beautiful symmetrical shape and because the sunlight would penetrate to the plants underneath.
Oh yea, one of my favorites...orchids
Heliconia
There are fountains and statuary tucked away and out in the open. We had 3 days of monsoon rains and all of the waterways look like Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory. Imagine how beautiful when the water is clear...this just gave it a different look ;-)
This trumpet looking flower is highly toxic and was used in the days of piratry (is that a word) they would drug men with it and they would wake up a few days later (maybe) and find out they were now deck hands on the ship or worse!

The fronds on this plant were amazing!

Can you say "dinosaur egg"?
The roots on these type of fig trees don't normally do this but they don't like all the water so they raise up, like they're pulling away, creating a pre-historic look!
Bright red stalks on these palms...WOW

A simply enchanting bamboo forest...
The river winding through the estate toward Mr Allerton's home and the Ocean...now doesn't that look like something you would put on your ice cream?
They did there best to preserve any ancient Hawaiian landscape left...

this is part of once tiered taro farm
looking back the other direction
White ginger!

Some where in there are fish
this was the coolest fountain...it is built tiered in a way that by the time in spills

into this bowl it does it in a pulsing fashion at 60 steady beats a minute!

Very healing and called the Mermaid's Fountain

There is a mermaid at each end of the long fountain...and a bench to sit at

to steady your heart beat to the rythm of the fountain

The full picture



Beautiful statues either shipped in or replicated

chocolate pool
Masterpieces everywhere
Everything is soooo happy and healthy
Wendy says this is area is where houseplants go MAD!

The end to the tour and look whats on the road home
A massive full arched rainbow...I had to pull over and take it in 2 shots it was so close
Kauai is a treasure! Aloha...