Kauai, second day
December 15, 2017
The tour I took on my second day on Kauai began with a return to ‘Opaeka‘a Falls, since it is near our main stop, and not everybody on this tour saw it yesterday. Again there were the chickens at the nearby park, and again I took even more pictures of and around the falls with the hope of doing it some justice.
We then went to catch our boat ride on the Wailua River to the fern grotto.
The boat ride began with live music and the obligatory hula lessons (fortunately, no pictures).
We passed folks rowing their way as well as great scenery.
The paths to and from the grotto passed beautiful flowers
The grotto itself was nearly destroyed by a hurricane in 1992.
The plant life has recovered to an extent, but it is no longer considered safe to go into the cave.
The musicians and the dancer who had performed on the boat did a show for us at the grotto.
We took a different path back to the boat to see waterfalls and more flowers. The return boat ride had more commentary that pointed out the sights and indicated places where various movies had been filmed and where different actors had stayed. I took more pictures along the way, but nothing different enough to share here.
Our second day on Kauai was a short one, so tours were planned accordingly. We sailed early to give us time to cruise by the scenic northeast coast of the island, which is not easily accessible by land and is especially beautiful when viewed from the sea. Sunset came and gave even more color to the view.
And then as it got dark, it was time to eat dinner and prepare for our last night of the cruise. The nice thing to me about a cruise like this is that the stateroom is my hotel room for seven nights. As we traveled from island to island, we took our hotel rooms with us. I unpacked soon after I first got to my stateroom. This was now home. I like going places, but I don't particularly like to travel or to be away from home. I'm pretty good at making a new place home. Years as a United Methodist pastor taught me that skill.
So now it was time to pack, and I could divide clean clothes from the laundry that I would do in my next home in Honolulu. We could put the bags out in the corridor before bed, and they would handle the luggage for us. Contrary to popular belief, Hawaii is part of the United States and not of Kenya, so there was no hassle with immigration or anything when we got off the ship, just find our bags in the designated area, and we were free to go. A short cab ride took me to the apartment where I would stay the next five nights.