Thursday, January 12, 2012

memories of an Hawaiian vacation

In 2005, 6 couples traveled together to Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.  (like herding cats, the friend who organized the trip said!)
Here I present a few memories from that trip.

scene from a hike--river flowing to the sea

My (much older!) cousin Rick searching for the perfect wave to ride!  Even though the beach said "CLOSED," he strode out into the depths, returning unharmed.  I, on the other hand, while standing in ankle deep water, got knocked down by a rogue wave, loosing my glasses and pulling a muscle in my leg.  This photo is particularly poignant to me because it reminds me of Rick's adventurous spirit and love of life.  Sadly he died a couple years later on his birthday at age 65. 

Kauai, called the Garden Isle, is verdantly lush with abundant waterfalls.  This was taken from a helicopter by my husband.  Sadly, I was chicken to go and soon regretted my decision.  The next year, my husband and I decided to go back to Kauai.  I, dosed with motion sickness medicine, had a blast flying above the beautiful island!

Here I am on the beautiful beach of Ke'e (pronounced kay' ay).  Yes, there were a number of trees with exposed roots like this.  This is the beginning (or end) of the famous Na Pali Coast, cliffs that plunge thousands of feet straight down into the sea.

 Na Pali Coast from Ke'e beach.

 Na Pali Coast (pronounced Nuh Polly) as seen from the helicopter (by me!) the following year.


LINKS:
Kauai  a previous post with photos of the Na Pali Coast & Waimea Canyon
Lush and Lava (Kauai, part 2)  another previous post with more photos and a map of Kauai

SOME FACTS:
☼ Pali means cliffs.  The Na Pali cliffs rise as high as 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above the Pacific Ocean.
☼ It is believed that the Na Pali coastline was the first area of Kauai to be settled by the ancient Hawaiians. 
☼ The numbers:  Kauai is circular and emcompasses about 550 square miles.  There are 113 miles of shoreline, 50 miles of which are sandy beaches.  Almost 3/4 of the island is inaccessible by foot.  97% of the land is used for agriculture and conservation. 
Mt. Wai'ale'ale (3,000 feet high) is the wettest spot on earth!  More than 430 inches of rain pours on its peak each year.  This creates the magnificent abundance of waterfalls on the island below.

Personally fun for me was learning to pronounce the name of the state fish.  It took lots of practice!  Humuhumunukunukuapuaa  Every Letter is pronounced individually in Hawaiian!  This is a trigger fish.  (easier to say, huh?  But not nearly as much fun!)
UPDATE:  I posted about how to pronounce the word HERE!


Alphabe-Thursday is a favorite meme! Come and join in the fun! You will be charmed and perhaps even enlightened! See more entries HERE. This week our letter is "H."



photos by me © 2005 and 2006

21 comments:

  1. Beautiful! My husband and I went to Kauai for our honeymoon and we loved it!

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  2. I love Kauai and you got some terrific shots of it! Nicely done!

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  3. Lovely photos - was in Hawaii a long time ago...1968 when my husband flew from Vietnam on R & R...one of the most memorable and romantic weeks ever...

    Certainly a beautiful place on earth.

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  4. It looks so amazing. Parts of it look fake, like a really good CGI scene in a film. Isn't nature amazing?

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  5. I look at that word and think, probably rudely, "Hummanahummana". ;) Good for you for getting on the helicopter! I don't think I could. My youngest sister and her husband love Hawaii and go as often as they can- they love to dive.

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  6. Oh, lucky you. It looks so lovely. I would love to go with camera in tow. I just not found a way to get there without flying or taking a boat. LOL!

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  7. Beautiful, beautiful photos!
    I gave up on pronouncing the trigger fish!

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  8. oh how beautiful ... how lucky you are to have seen it! and i also gave up on pronouncing trigger fish ... what a long and awkward name ...

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  9. I love Hawaii so much! I have been twice and would love to go back again. I really enjoyed your photo tour. Thanks for sharing your beautiful work and stories with us.

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  10. what great photos! I'd love to go. So glad your brother was able to travel with you to such a beautiful spot before he passed away. {:-D

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  11. Wow, that's an amazing place. Never been to that Island, but it looks like it's well worth it! I kept staring and staring at the first photo!

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  12. Humuhuma-what? LOL I would have given up after just a few tries on that one. You are really brave, too--I could never fly in a helicopter! Kauai looks like a beautiful vacation spot!

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  13. Wow---that is an awesome place. I want to visit Hawaii sometime ---and an area like that is where I want to go... Incredible. Thanks for all of the great pictures...
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  14. What beautiful photos! I love how green the greens are and how blue the water is! My parents have been a few times and I hope to go as well some day!

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  15. Wow, what an incredibly beautiful place! I'm happy that you were able to see it by helicopter. :)

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  16. What beautiful photos! Looks like a couple of wonderful trips.

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  17. Hello.
    Hawaii always seems like such a beautiful place to visit.
    Awesome photos!
    Thanks for sharing.

    Harp Of My Soul

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  18. These are absolutely amazing photographs...

    I'm working on saying the name of the Trigger Fish... wish me luck...

    Thanks for linking up to the letter "H"!

    This was a great post!

    A+

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  19. I'm sorry your cousin is no longer with you, but glad he got to make this trip with all of you. The colors in these photos are incredible!

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