Saturday February 6, 2010

What a dummy! I couldn't remember how to get the pictures to the blog, but now have figured it out. The scenic view is from the top of the road where we are staying (about 5 miles). We went up this morning to take pix as when we went up yesterday it was all fogged in. The views were glorious this morning. On the way up we saw a 200 pound wild pig with huge tusks. He was on the side of the road and then took off into the brush. Unfortunately the camera was in the back seat and we weren't quick enought to snap his picture. The other shot is of our CCC camp (at least the two buildings that we are living in). After breakfast we went up to the look out to take pictures and then took a hike into the woods. It gets quite cold at night - mid 40's and there is no heat in the buildings. My alarm clock has a thermometer and it was 54 in our room this morning! Needlesss to say it was hard getting out of the sleeping bag. By the time we got back from our hike, we were melting and came back to camp to change into shorts. The folks from NC are leaving today so got to say a last goodbye to them. We headed down the mountain (again didn't stop for pictures as the fog and mist had blown in) and by the time we got to town it was 77! We drove to Hanapepe and had lunch there. We then went to Salt Pond Park to dip our feet in the water - chilly, but not bad - definitely swimmable. We walked around for a bit and then came here to the BrewHouse at Waimea Plantation Cottage to use their wireless internet. I will continue to try to get one the blog with the dial up but did not have much luck yesterday. The plan is to do some more exploring this afternoon before we head back to camp. The cell phone does not work at camp so we will use email for the most part.

Friday February 5, 2010

We woke up fairly early this morning - hard bed and strange dreams. We had breakfast at the hotel - toast and fresh pineapple - yum! We packed up the car and headed off to the grocery store in Lihue as we heard that the one in Waimea was smaller. We bought all of the dry goods that we would need for the week and then headed out for Waimea. We went past the town for a while to see what was out near the end. The road actually does end on this side of the island because of the topography, but we didn't make it all the way to the end - we will save that trip for another time. We came back into town past an old sugar mill and stopped at a small local craft fair where we got lots of suggestions for eating from the local women. We ended up eating at a small cafe right next to the grocery store. They were advertising a Furlough Friday special breakfast for teachers as Hawaii has just voted to have no school on Fridays for the rest of the school year as a cost savings measure. Not far from the cafe there were a dozen people protesting the new law - most of them looked like moms who were against the loss of time in the classroom. After lunch we picked up our cold items and fruit and then headed up to camp. The road to camp is 15 serpentine miles! We have never seen so many twists in one road! It goes from sea level to 3600 feet. The views along the way are spectacular, but it was a bit hazy so we didn't stop to take pictures. I can see why they call it the Grand Canyon of the Pacific - very impressive and beautiful. We got up to camp (one of the pictures) and found that we have two buildings. One is a communal kitchen, dining/living room, and library and the other has a computer room (with dial-up) - I still can't figure how to blog on it and bunk rooms. We have a private room with a bunk bed and a single bed. There are another couple from North Carolina and their daughter who have the other two private rooms and then there are two Japenese students with their tutor from Switzerland whom we haven't met yet as they went to town and missed their ride up to camp. The couple from NC said they saw the boys at the beach, but not the translator - so who knows what happened. There is another small cottage behind the office and a couple from Alaska are staying there along with a woman from Oahu who is renting our her house for the winter to make money so is working for the camp for housing. We had soup for dinner as we weren't all that hungry. We then checked email and read for a while before going to sleep.

Thursday February 4, 2010

Amy and Zoe picked us up yesterday afternoon and took us to their house for dinner. We gave hugs to all and then Amy drove us to Warwick where we stayed the night at the Best Western Airport Hotel. (Such a nice thing to do especially since it was her birthday - thank you Amy!). We set the alarm for 3:15 AM, showered and grabbed a quick bite for breakfast before heading to the airport for our 6 AM flight to Cleveland. We had to run to another terminal to catch our next flight to LA, but we made it just as they were boarding - whew! At LAX we had time for a shared sandwich before boarding our flight to Kauai. It looked beautiful from the air, but by the time we collected the luggage and picked up the car it was dark so we will have to wait until tomorrow to see the scenery. It is now 1 AM so we have been up almost 24 hours. Needless to say, this will be a short note. Hope to write more tomorrow. Love to all.