The day started out with
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the_child's surfing lesson. The instructors were running on island time, but it all worked out just fine. She had a ball, though later commented that surfing wasn't really for her.
the_child surfing
Dad surfing
She managed to spend about three hours doing that. At one point a torrential rain swept across the beach. I was about 100 yards from cover, so I just hung out and got soaked. Eventually we broke for shower and a change of clothes — after that we zipped about buying a few souvenirs and getting a rather excellent lunch from a taco wagon, before driving over to Port Allen to catch our boat.
A feral rooster eyes me suspiciously as I eat my taco
The view on the way to Port Allen
We were on the Na Pali coast cruise operated by Blue Dolphin Charters.
It was a big motorized catamaran, with about twenty-five tourists aboard and three crew. We set out from Port Allen, at which point my hat promptly got swept overboard by the wind. Captain Chris put us about and the hat was retrieved, much to my simultaneous embarrassment and gratitude.
Cruising on up the west side of Kauai was a lot of fun.
But it got intense when we started encountering marine wildlife. We saw Pacific bottlenose dolphins, Hawaiian spinner dolphins, and a humpback whale mother and calf.
the_child got a good photo of the calf breaching.
And the scenery up there was mind boggling.
The rainbow was amazing. I've never seen one that appeared to go down in to the water.
The photo doesn't do it justice — the arc of the rainbow was about 220 degrees, with both ends in the water
On the way back, we saw a double bow with the spectra reversed. Unfortunately, the camera really couldn't pick it up.
And, of course, sunset.
Today we'll either be hiking or snorkeling, depending on what
the_child feels like doing when she wakes up. Plus some general island tourism by car.Tomorrow, we head home again.
Photos © 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and B. Lake.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
