Today was a free day!! Woohoo!!! No place to go at any specific time. It was a nice relaxing morning just drinking coffee, watching the sky change colors and watching football. Yup, you read that right. The Redskins-Cowboys game was the 1:00 game at home. That’s 7am here. The local game we found was 49ers and Panthers but Cari updated us with scores and Bob watched the play by play update on his iPad. What a great game to be able to watch! (Better for me than Bob and Cari since the Cowboys won 27-23.) I’ll take that.
With nowhere to go but, hmmmmm, maybe a beach, we packed up and headed to Anini Beach about 6 miles away. But wait, that was after we tried to walk down to the beach underneath this cliff we’re on. Holy flippin’ cow. Neither one of us made it all the way down and we weren’t carrying anything but a camera. I can’t imagine carrying beach stuff that far, then climbing back up that steep trail. So we just drove to a beach down the street.
Anini beach is one of the nicer beaches on the north shore, apparently. We stopped and looked at it on the way in the other day. Not overly impressed but our choices are limited here if you can imagine that. We found a spot and planted on this narrow, rocky beach. The water is clear and if we could’ve snorkeled (although other people were) I’m sure we would’ve been able to see stuff. But it was just too rough for snorkeling, even though it was the calmest beach we’ve seen since we arrived. Most people coming in from snorkeling said they didn’t see much. We opted to just sit and enjoy the breeze, sunshine and view.
At some point during the afternoon a couple of wind surfers showed up and gave us something to watch. It must be a rush to ride that board and let the wind carry you over the waves. Video
While we were sunning, Bob shared some trivia he came across this morning on the name of the beach. Anini. The man has some issues pronouncing unfamiliar words. These Hawaiian words are not easy. I’m starting to get into the groove a little better but it is like a different language. Anyway, I told him to think of it like a Panini without the “P.” Then he goes and tells me he read the name of the beach used to be Wanini but during a hurricane in 1992 the “W” fell off and they never replaced it so it became permanently known as Anini Beach. LOL Go figure. After researching this a little more it seems it happened way before 1992 but can’t find exactly when. No matter when it happened that’s how it got the name Anini. Too funny.
You know I have to talk about the bloody roosters again. And yes we heard them before 5:30am again. My curiosity got the better of me so I googled the chickens on Kaua’i. Apparently, Hurricane Iniki, back in 1992, destroyed a lot of chicken enclosures so they got loose and the rest is history. They’re now considered feral chickens with no natural predators. Talk about organic chicken! Or wait, you could get wild caught chicken on Kaua’i!!! Wonder how long it’ll take for someone to realize that and start a money maker. It’s not like they’re a protected animal or anything. And yes, we’re still on the hunt for a rooster shirt for Bob. Here’s one on the beach. We have seagulls, Kaua’i has chickens. SMH.
There’s an 11 mile hike on the Napoli Coast we’d love to do but it’s not gonna happen, so we plan to walk part of the way and see what views we can photograph. There’s also a beach (Ke’e) right by the beginning of the hike we wanted to check out, so we drove to the end of the road before heading back home. We were also thinking maybe we’d find a different beach to go to Monday or Tuesday instead of Anini. They’re all pretty rough and most of them are narrow. Not sure what we’ll decide to do.
We stopped by the market on the way home and got some ingredients for a simple salad for dinner. We haven’t had many salads since we left. We’re in dt’s. After a brewsky, we cleaned up and enjoyed that salad with a glass of wine while watching the sunset. Nice peaceful way to end a relaxing day.
We love our visitors every day. These geese so pretty laid back and very tame. Although there is a sign saying “Please don’t feed the birds,” they act like they’re used to being fed. This bird, called the Nene (pronounced Nay Nay) is the Hawaiian state bird. They’re only found on the islands of Hawaii, Maui and Kaua’i. They’ve been an endangered species for years but are finally making a come back and according to the article I found, there are around 800 now. Knowing this makes them even more special when they come calling at sunrise and sunset.
Chocolate farm tour tomorrow!!
It's a Wonderful Life! 