Kauai Day 3 July 25, 2009

Yesterday we slept in late for our bodies, but nice and early according to local time. We headed down to Poipu Beach, one of the beaches closest to our condo. We took our books, some snacks, and planned to relax next to the water. We were surprised by the color of the sand. It was very orange. We headed out into the water. Right away, we saw a crab as big as Phil’s hand. He caught it, and we got some good video. It was a very red crab, which surprised us-not very camouflaged. As we walked around, different fish swam around our feet. We saw some tiger fish, angel fish, and a lovely orange, striped fish.

Then we walked over to the tombolo, which is a sandbar that separates the two parts of the beach. Near the beach, it is narrow and sandy, but as we walked out, the lava rock emerged and was quite wide, revealing all kinds of tide pools to explore. We saw a spotted eel, which was much more snake-like than I had imagined (eww!), sea cucumbers, many small fish, and lots of urchins. We headed back to shore to read and eat some snacks. It was very relaxing, and just as we were headed out, a monk seal swam up near the tombolo. He was very big, and everyone on the beach was focused on him. He was gone before we could get a picture.

After enjoying our time at the beach, we headed back to the condo to rest and have lunch (whew…laying on a beach is tiring work!). We then headed out on an adventure. We decided we wanted to find a less populated beach, so we headed down a dirt road to see what we could find. After lots of potholes, ruts, mud, and rocks (remember….there was a huge rainstorm just the day before), we found a gorgeous open beach called Gillin’s Beach, where we will venture today.

Once we made it back to pavement, we headed up to Kapa’a to enjoy dinner at Scotty’s Restaurant. The owners are good friends with friends of ours back home. Our friends arranged for us to have the best table in the house and blessed us with a gift certificate. The food was amazing, service was good, and the view was beautiful.

The restaurant is on the second story, and is open air. The back of the building has garage doors instead of walls, and they were open while we were there.