Day 13 - Our Lucky Day

I have to make this a bit more brief and without pictures tonight because our Internet access evidently expired, so I'm typing this post on my iPhone. Last night, we decided to try the north shore beaches one more time, which meant getting early to get there early enough to get a parking spot at Ke'e Beach (that means before 9:00 AM).

Our reward was a beautiful morning drive followed by great teaching snorkeling in very clear, warm water. We stayed in until we got chilled. When we came out, we decided to walk south down the beach to find some sun, as it was still very shady and cool where we "set up camp". Much to our surprise and delight, we came upon a monk seal on the beach sunning itself. The guidebooks tell you that it is rare to see one of these critters in a stay on Kauai, and this was the third we'd seen in our time here. We felt so fortunate and blessed!

By the time we meandered back to our spot, the surf was kicking up. The predicted increase in surf was beginning and when Di asked, the lifeguard said they would shutting the beach to swimming and snorkeling as soon as the signs were delivered. We packed our gear and headed south, but not before an awesome Americano and muffin at Java Kai.

We drove south, stopping briefly at Lyndgate State Park to check on conditions there. Lyndgate has a man-made "reef" made of huge lava rocks that form two swimming areas. One is very shallow, meant keikeis (children). The other one is about 5 feet deep. Nice, but not what we were looking for, so headed on down to Poipu Beach.

We spent the rest of the afternoon there enjoying very clear snorkeling conditions and mild surf. We finally got to see the Hawaiian state fish! You'll have to look up the name - there's no way I'm going to try to spell it. We also got see yet another monk seal! This one swam into the area people were snorkeling in, looked around for bit, then hauled itself onto a smal islet!

Well, that's it for today's excitement. My next post will be from an airport.

Aloha!