Spouting Horn - when you are lucky

Kauai's Spouting Horn results from waves crashing into the beach and forcing water through a tube left as lava cooled. The larger the wave, the higher the water spouts. Tourists show up to take photos and the impressiveness of what they get depends on the waves that happen to be rolling that day. This take your chance seems to apply to several natural phenomena. For example, the trip to view the beautiful Waimea Valley and the distant coastline is available only when the fog and clouds allow. Predicting when the view will be available is difficult and we are 1/3 in making the trip. The element of chance makes saying you have witnessed the view more rewarding.

Waimea Valley (when visible)

Bridge bandits don’t have the Aloha Spirit

Some of the roads we drive on in Kauai have one lane bridges. These roads are heavily traveled so traffic piles up, sometimes for a great distance, on each side of the bridge. There are no traffic lights and not even stop signs. I wrote about the solution last year. A simple sign on each side of the bridge explains that the convention is to take turns with 5-7 cars going across during each turn. I remember wondering how tourists would understand this,  it it seemed to work.

Part way through our visit this year, I saw a change. Some hooligan had spray painted out the original sign and created a crude sign suggesting 20-30 cars could go across. The next time we crossed the bridge the original sign and civility had returned.

Tonight, there was another change. The original sign was still there, but another sign painted carefully to resemble the original offered an alternative rule. I am pleased to report that the anarchy recommended by the self-proclaimed Bridge Bandits had not prevailed. Aloha.

Malasadas

Nearly every culture I encounter has some form of a deep fried dough sprinkled with sugar. On multiple occasions, I have consumed fry bread with Native American colleagues and enjoyed beignets in Louisiana. There must be some universal truth that explains our willingness to create and consume such delights.

While in Honolulu, we were strongly encouraged to visit Leonard’s - home of the Portuguese donut. The fried treat is called a Malasada. It comes sprinkled with sugar or sprinkled and filled. One of these is pretty much all you can handle. We brought a dozen back to Kauai and refrigerated them to control the messy fillings that emerge as you eat. I am thinking a chocolate Malasada and coffee will make a perfect breakfast.

Pearl Harbor Memorial

We made the trip to Honolulu to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial and see some of the other sights. The center piece of the memorial is the submerged Arizona which serves as the tomb for hundreds of sailors and marines. Some of the remaining survivors are still being buried with their comrades. The preview movie from U.S. AND Japanese sources provides a sobering description of the events leading to the U.S. entry into WWII.

Rain

When it decides to really rain in Kauai, it can be quite a show. You have to differentiate the daily misting from serious rains. We had a day last week with more than a foot and today looks similar although the period today when I took this picture was more extreme.