Strange View

 Maybe this type of experience only amuses me, but I will share anyway. I was sitting on the lanai taking in the view when I noticed something different on the far horizon. At first I thought it was just the tops of trees, but the specks on the horizon seemed to be similar and moving. I put a telephone on my camera and I discovered just what I was watching.

Namaste

Guinea Grass

 This is Guinea Grass one of the most concerning invasive species of Kauai. You see it everywhere along roadsides and in open fields. It grows quickly and densely and simply chokes out plants that cannot keep up.

Invasive species are an intense topic in any setting where people want to see things remain as they have been. In the lake country of the north, you constantly hear about Zebra Mussels and Eurasian Milfoil. We are told to carefully check our boats when we take them out of the water to avoid introducing these species to a lake they have yet to populate. I suppose Creeping Charlie or Crab Grass would be examples of an invasive species familiar to anyone with a lawn. An invasive species is different from a mere weed in its ability to in some way out complete traditional plants. In Kauai things just grow bigger and faster because of the climate and perhaps are thus of a greater concern to a location in which so much depends on natural and traditional beauty. 

Golf Cart Sunset Tour

 

We have watched the Golf Cart Tour arrive at the overlook opposite the condo complex in which we stay for years and were bemused. Why would you pay to watch the sunset with a bunch of tourists when we could watch the sunset with a drink from our lanai? 

With Greg and Laura we decided we would give then sunset tour a try and it was pretty interesting. The story of the tour is that people, often non-golfers, asked the course if they could rent a cart just to tour the grounds. The management seeing a revenue opportunity created a self guided tour. Later they added a guide just to prevent the tour from degenerating into bumper cars. Some of these old folks can get pretty wild.

The first thing I noticed about the cart was the fancy tech. A GPS enabled system that tells you where you are, how far to the pin, and other useful info suggestions about the hole you are playing (the elevation drop warrants using one club less than the distance might suggest).

The course itself is like a garden and there was plenty to see just driving about.

Princeville's Makai Golf Club is rated as one of the top 100 courses in the world and is spectacular. 

Our tour guide was the course professional which he explained is different from a professional golfer. Nonetheless, after explaining course designer Robert Trent Jones Jr's notion of course art, he asked if we wanted to watch him hit a shot. We were on the hole shown below on which Jones used the sand traps behind the green to represent the three-break surf pattern in the ocean behind the green. He brought out an 8 iron. His first shot was left and long. He found one more ball in his cart, backed up up about 15 yards in the tee box, and put the next shot on the green. Very impressive. My phone was set to click when I took a photo and after watching pros and galleries on television I did not want to take a shot when he addressed the ball.

There was a sunset. I have more colorful photos, but I selected this one because you can see our condo complex in the left side. Having taking the tour, we will not longer act amused when the crazy golf cart tourists arrive at sunset.

Panoramas

 A panorama is basically just a wide angle photo. This type of photo is well suited to capturing the magnificent vistas that are so common on Kauai. I remember the old days because I am old when you used your digital camera to collect a series of overlapping photos and then set some special software to work stitching them together. You would then crop out the jagged edges and you would have a panorama. The iPhone does all of this automatically and produces spectacular results. If you have a phone and have not explored the options for taking panoramas it is time you learned. 

Panoramas are best viewed on a large monitor. Because they are the combination of multiple photos all the detail is included and it is not possible to appreciate the image on the screen of a phone. I have cut the following images down to a foot in length but some of them were originally intended to be viewed as images over 100 inches wide. If you click on an image it should separate itself from the blog size and enlarge to a larger size depending on the device you are using to view these photos. 

Coffee Time

 Kauai Coffee is the largest coffee farm in the United States and we visit at least once during each trip. Kona coffee on the Big Island is probably more exotic with its very small farms and hand picking, but this place is impressive just because of its size. I have noticed you can sometimes purchase Kauai Coffee in your local Costco, but that must be some kind of blend and the varietals are available here.

COVID has changed the experience. No guided tours. Fewer pots out for sampling. Someone now pours the samples for you. Fewer food items in the  eating area. No bench seating for the informational videos. Still, the visitor center was open and a self-guided walking tour was available. I had read some time ago that the center had been shut down and only mail order access to the coffee was available. The signs that guide the walking tour now have QR codes that provide an expanded version of what appears on the signs.

Coffee harvester - bushes are trimmed so they don't grow too tall

Note the QR code - here is the corresponding link

Two purchases - Kauai peaberry and Kauai (not Jamaican) Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain was $28 for 10 ounces.

I forgot to take any pictures of the coffee plants or the fields. Major error. Perhaps we will go again later.