Saturday, November 29, 2014

Ten days in Kauai.



Location, At Home

Of course we didn’t stay home!

We just got back yesterday from 10 days on Kauai, HI with our friends Cindy and Gary. They once again invited us to share their condo at Poipu for which we thank them very much.

We flew over on Tuesday the 18th and came home late Thanksgiving day on a “red eye” flight. Getting out of town now is not as easy as it used to be with the withdrawal of American Airlines locally. We got up at 3 AM and caught the Airbus to LAX. We had about a 3 ½ hour wait until we boarded the plane. Luckily we had an empty seat between us both ways on this trip which helps. We did land about 1 PM and a cab had been ordered by the Point at Poipu to pick us up. The driver gave us lei’s as a welcome and drove us to the condo. How nice!
Arriving at condo.


Our room is on left one story down overlooking the pool.

 Pool with pool bar in the background.


Kauai chicken looking for a handout.


 Nothing from me so she goes to Gary while still watching me.

The beach park at Anahole with sleeping woman mountain in the background.

We did do another trip by catamaran up the Napoli coast which was great as we had no wind so the sea was flat with large swells. We saw spinner dolphins, regular dolphins, sea turtles, and fish near the boat when we stopped for people to snorkel. Some people spotted a whale but I did not. The whales are just now arriving to their winter feeding grounds near the islands.

We did a lot of pool time and game playing.

It was all good.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Good Bye Death Valley!



Location, At Home

Good Bye Death Valley until next year.

I had a great trip to the desert this year. I left home on Saturday morning the 18th of October and met 2 of my fellow travelers at the Boron Rest Area East of Mojave. We drove to Boron for lunch at Domingo’s, a great Mexican restaurant and then on to Baker, CA where we camped back of the Mad Greek restaurant overnight. The fourth member of our group joined us there.

On Sunday we drove to a BLM area near Tecopa, CA where we circled the wagons in our usual spot. Later we drove to China Ranch which is in a canyon South of Tecopa. They raise dates and have great date shakes which we all partook of.

While at the BLM area we did day trips and hikes into the southern end of Death Valley. We did a hike into a canyon which is called Kaleidoscope Canyon by others who have visited it. It really is a stunning canyon of contrasting colors.


 Rhoads cabin, one of many such miners cabins in Death Valley
 Coyote looking for a handout.

After a week we moved to Furnace Creek in Death Valley for the remainder of our trip. Here again we did 4x4 trips and hikes the entire time we were there. I was a great trip and very rewarding in that we saw things we had only heard of and found out information which will be put to use for next year. Speaking of which, we already have our pre-trip schedule to Tecopa already planned.

Skull rock.
 Miners signature on a rock.
 A "slot" canyon.

A herd of 21 Big Horn sheep. Largest herd I have ever seen in Death Valley.
 Herd Ram standing guard.