Last Crew

Son Todd and family have arrived and had to ignore the time change to make their helicopter flight this morning. This is the final group to share our place and then we will all return to Minnesota. 

 

Cockroaches in paradise

 One of the negatives experts on social media bring up is that what people post on social media is not an accurate representation of their real lives. The constant bombardment of cool stuff can make others see themselves in a negative way because they see their experiences and themselves as not measuring up. 

Just to explain our situation. We are not wealthy. We are retired and both had good jobs. We also inherited some money that allows us to do things. Travel is a priority over what others might value such as having big homes and fancy cars. We are also spending money that might go to our kids as an inheritance although we do try to involve them in our adventures. We know we are lucky and as long as our health and the stock market hold on we will continue to travel.

About the cockroaches. No, I am not going to include pictures, but critters do get in your housing when you spend time in Hawaii. So far we have removed or exterminated three. There were also a couple of small lizards. I hope this focus on the negative somehow balances the pictures of the most excellent scenery. This is not the worst cockroach experience we have had. When Cindy and I were in grad school, Cindy worked in the Iowa State University residence halls doing training for the individuals who were hired as head residents. Her job came with housing and we had a suite in a residence hall that had previously been used by the house mother. It was nice, but located near the steam tunnels that brought the heat necessary for the very large complex. The warm and humid tunnels shared certain characteristic that I now recognize as similar to the weather in Hawaii. Our suite was on the bottom floor and ever once in a while the exterminators would come after the roaches and the insecticide would drive the bugs out of the tunnels. One of Cindy's favorite stories includes a great image of the roaches crawling down the curtains in our living room. 

Anyway, there are cockroaches in paradise.

Na Pali Coast

Kauai is a small island with one main road that runs around the perimeter with side roads going inland as far as is practical. The exception is the Na Pali Coast which is mountainous and not practical for a road. You can helicopter there, hike to some parts, or visit by boat. The northern shore this time of year involves rough seas, but some days allow a visit. Even so the trip is rough enough that sea sickness visits those who are influenced by motion sickness. The following image of the island shows the area that does not contain the ring road.

We took a boat trip for four hours with the Tanners (Lynn's family) that visited the Na Pali Coast. 

Here are some examples of the views from the boat.

A video containing additional scenes.

 

Whales

We took a boat trip today with the Tanners to see the Na Pali Coast. It was fairly rough ride, but I was able to take many nice photos. I decided to divide the images across two sets to reduce the scrolling required. The following are some of the whale photos. We saw multiple whales with a couple of mom and baby combos that seem to be teaching and learning. The best shot had the camera focused at the wrong distance, but you get the idea.

Cindy was taking video with her iPhone and captured multiple whales breaching.

 

Favorite photo