More on Kaua'i

The first thing one notices about this rather small island in Hawaii shortly after touching down is that there are these damn roosters, chickens, and chicks running all over the place. This made for endless status update jokes on FaceBook, thanks to my 12-year-old humor, but we read in one of our guidebooks that there's actually a reason why the cocks run amok on Kaua'i. It was hurricane Iniki in '92, that took out a lot of chicken coops and the fowl ran for cover inland. The surviving birds then turned wild and they've been breeding that way ever since. And when I say they are all over the place, I mean it. They hang out in front of your local neighborhood Starbucks, on the beach in the sand, and of course, they lurk in the bushes next to your dinner table.

I guess people get used to it, but our first night there was spent fairly restless, not just from the four hour time difference, but because the rooster calls were non stop. We thereby donned our first hotel in Liheu near the airport "Roosterville" and opted out of it on the way back. I wonder who eventually is allowed to catch and cook these birds? I suppose there are some local laws that handle the situation but I kept forgetting to ask.

Driving up to the north shore of Hanalei, where we spent a week, was as mesmerizing in beauty as I pictured. There were a lot of remote beaches that escaped the tourist scene if you looked, but the windward side is plagued with a lot of strong currents, so you had to be careful if you went in the water. It's a surfer's, wind-surfer's and paraglider's haven so we spent some time relaxing on the beach watching those activities, and also did some body board surfing ourselves.

After a week on the north shore, we said goodbye to SV's parents and enjoyed another three days on our own. We drove south down to Poipu on the leeward end to escape some of the wind and rainy weather. The seas were much calmer there, but not calm exactly. We wanted to go SCUBA diving a couple days but it was pretty rough, so we just went once. But we enjoyed two nice dives through lava tubes and turtle-cleaning stations.

Up on the boat, after the first dive, I was pretty sea sick. I was just about ready to puke when Kaua'i reminded me that I was still in Paradise. I looked behind the boat to see a double rainbow and a pod of dolphins following us to a cove where the opening scenes of Fantasy Island were shot. It was good enough distraction that I ended up not hurling during my surface interval.

Ah... then there were peaceful sunsets with soft ocean breezes and Mai Tais to top off the day. I might get addicted to these kind of vacations instead of freezing my ass off on some mountainside. But I don't think I'm done with that yet, so I made sure I enjoyed my warm, sunny beach vacation to its fullest.