HAWAIIAN ISLANDS CRUISE: Two Days in Kauai; Museum, Airplane Excursion; Botanical Garden

Thursday and Friday we were in Kauai. 

The first day there Mark, Michelle, Sam and Kathy had planned a kayak excursion. 

Mike, Lorene, Andy, Amanda and Nani wanted to spend some time that morning at the beach. Glen and I headed out walking inland, enjoying the view of our cruise ship from a distance.

NO!!! I will never get tired of palm trees!! Loved them for the three years we lived in California and still love them whenever we visit places where palm trees grow.

While walking through a residential area, we saw some tethered roosters. After all the free-roaming feral roosters we had seen throughout the week, these were the first captive ones we had seen.

We reached our destination--the Kuwai Museum.

It was enjoyable walking through the museum and learning about the island culture.

I shocked myself when I finally consented to go on an airplane excursion around the island that afternoon. 

Mike, Lorene, Mark and Michelle went in a little larger plane than the one Glen, Nani and I were in. 

It was a super windy day (notice my bangs...), but the two 21-year-old pilots were very confident about flying our two groups that day despite the crazy wind.

The first thing our pilot said was he was going to "throw us" into the airplane. I got "thrown in" first--behind the pilot seat. Next up was Glen who was "thrown in" next to me.

Nani got "thrown in" the front and was our co-pilot for the flight.

Once all the others in our group were "thrown in" their plane, both pilots took off. Both planes flew together the whole excursion. 

We saw some beautiful scenery as we flew and I was thrilled when we landed safely back where we started.

The dining room food presentations were fun to see every night.

Glen ordered lamb this evening.

After dinner I took some photographs of Mark and Michelle. My photos are much cheaper (free) than the photos that are offered from the ship's photographers.

The next morning, our second day in Kauai, we woke up early and decided to take a walk around the ship. The bonus was we got to see the sunrise. We saw Nani out walking as well.

Andy had arranged for a driver that day to tour the island for anyone from our group who wanted to do that. Glen and I opted out and decided to do our own thing that day in Kauai.

We got a Lyft driver and drove quite a ways to the Botanical Garden. Unfortunately, there were no available tours we could take that would allow us to get back to our ship on time. 

We just wandered around a little bit.

Then we walked down to the beach to see the blowhole or spouting horn that was caused by the water coming up through the holes in the rock.

As we were looking at the spouting horn, we were shocked with great surprise to see the carload of our family members getting out of their vehicle. 

We couldn't believe how random it was that they had made a stop at the exact same place as us at the exact same time. Funny coincidence!

Amanda told us they had seen turtles down on the beach and so we headed off walking away from the spouting horn to see if we could see the turtles.

We walked and walked and walked and never saw any of the big turtles. 

It took a while for us to get a ride back to the ship, but we eventually made it back to our floating home.

That evening it was so fun to see the new shirt Mike had bought for himself and one of the beautiful dresses Lorene had bought. She was also wearing the lei she had received on our first day. She had been able to keep it looking as fresh as when she got it.

Since it was our last dinner on the ship, some of us decided to get more than one dinner and definitely more than one dessert. 

It was sad thinking about our vacation coming to an end the next day. We had all had a great time together and have the photos to prove it.