My Passport’s Travels

After a lovely lie-in, Eve and I went up to Cabanas for breakfast and delivered breakfast for Mom.  Then it was out the door and into a taxi to head back to the airport to pick up our car and off we go! Today we’re taking the Shaka Guide tour of the North Shore.  On our way to the starting point, we stopped at an overlook in Kapa’a.

And while we were there – it was Be Real time!

The first stop on the tour was a view of a mountain – if you look right, it has the profile of King Kong – but more importantly – it’s Mount Snuffalupagus!  The best place for the view, though, was a residential neighborhood that didn’t have a good place to stop. So enjoy these pics! (Thanks Muppet Wiki!)

Next up a lovely beach! We traveled down a dirt road and found the Kahili Beach.  Sadly, just as we got there, the rain started, so we didn’t last long.

Next stop was the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge and lighthouse overlook. We passed lots of Nene (Hawaiian geese) on the way and saw lots of birds in the air. The Refuge was closed today, so we couldn’t visit. The white specks on the cliffs are all birds!

We did skip the next two beaches on the tour – the first, because I missed the turn – which is a shame, it’s the beach where Gilligian’s Island was filmed. The second, because there was no parking currently available, which was also a shame, it’s the beach where Nellie sang “I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair” in the movie version of South Pacific.

I’m not sure where this was, but we did see that the 12-foot skeleton craze has made it to Hawaii.

As we continued on, we learned about one-lane bridges. Everyone going one way gets to finish crossing the bridge, then everyone going the other way gets their turn. (I became proficient at them before the day was over!). After crossing the first one, we were told to turn left to head towards the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge. What he didn’t warn us about is that it is a one-lane road through the middle of taro fields. Thankfully no one came towards us while we were driving through.

We drove a little further on, but soon had to turn back around. All aboard was 4:45 and we did not want to be late.  There were a few more stops along the way back for some more gorgeous views.

The car was safely returned to the rental company and we were safely returned to the ship by the rental company, bringing our time on Kauai to an end.  Sail away was really interesting!  The channel out from port looks like a zig zag, but we moved sideways until we were past the first zig, so all we had to do was zag past a couple of lighthouses and resorts, then we were at sea!

We watched a pretty plane taking off – which started my quest for a SWA plane picture on each island!

After some downtime in the room (mostly because we couldn’t get a booth at the pub because Monday Night football was still on), we moved to the Cadillac Lounge for pre-dinner drinks.  

Dinner was the Animation Magic show in Animator’s Palette – Alberto, our head waiter, knew right away that he was the subject of Mom’s artwork!

 After dinner, as we were leaving the restaurant, we ran into Daisy, who told us about her wonderful day ashore! She and Donald went to the beach, and she made him carry everything – the chairs, the towels, the food and the sunscreen!  After the visit, we made it back to our stateroom and collapsed, stopping just to hang out the breakfast order. Tomorrow’s going to be an early start!