The Decompression of a Boomer

Sunrise!!

January 13, 6:55 AM

Over Princeville, Kauai.

Every 7am the five of us walked the golf course,

January 16, 8 am

which is currently closed for repairs. On one section of the course we curve around the entrance to Anini Beach…

Black hole that leads down to Anini Beach

On previous years David, Eric and I would head into this black hole that takes you down about 150 vertical feet to Anini beach – you know, for a cardio workout and ‘fun’. Climbing back up is a killer. Eric and I just flat out refused to do it this year. Hey, this is supposed to be a vacation! David did it the first couple of days we were here this year, you know, to prove he could. No one volunteered to go with him.

I blogged about this black hole to Anini Beach last year and posted photos of us climbing back up:

David and Eric hiking back up from Anini Beach last year – you call this a vacation?

I also posted a photo of the sign by the Anini Beach entrance in my blog last year. Here it is:

David last January – starting down

Well, here’s the sign this year:

It’s further degenerated to include the word ‘pis.’ Haha. (No. We’re not angry.)

I captured a lot of photos along the golf course of the tropical foliage and birds. For example, who doesn’t love the ‘Bird of Paradise’

It’s a bird, right?

Or the Hibiscus, the Hawaiian state flower:

The Ginger blossom below comes in a variety of colors

orange ginger

I’m not sure what this next flower is

a Great Uncle to the Queen Emma lily? (pictured below):

Fancy bouffant hairdo!

otherwise known as the ‘Giant Spider Lily.’

Not to be confused with … giant spiders:

Web large enough to trap a human?

Eric is terrified of spiders and I freak out over webs so we assigned David the lead on morning hikes – especially since he towers over us by a good six inches. Carry a big stick to knock down webs before they encase your face and upper torso!

What you are seeing is the common Kauai garden spider. They’re all over the place. They spin a broad classic round orb web, usually with a zigzag band of silk running through the center. Here you see a closeup of a female, with yellow and black stripes.

Kauai’s common garden spider – ‘Argiope aurantia’

And now a special bonus for you spider lovers…

Two garden spiders. Can you find them?:

There’s (at least?) two garden spiders in this photo

Hint: Look on opposite sides of the picture. The one on the left – you can see the zigzag band of silk running through the center of its web.

Doesn’t that just make your day?

We always see Nene geese, the Kauai State Bird (an endangered species) near the golf course

Yay, babies!

And mating Albatross,

Two more early evening photos of the Princeville golf course,

Jan 12, 6:19 PM

Driving past the Princeville fountain now…

January 2016

To shop at the the local grocery store, Foodland.

David and Steph entering Foodland

Headed back to our car now with groceries. Not even 20 feet from the front door, on the walkway to the store’s entrance, we see this hen

with her clutch of tiny chicks.

And inside the store they charge 8 dollars a dozen for free range eggs?

Yeah, well you just try to catch a chicken, or find their nest …

Tags: Anini beach. Princeville, chickens in Kauai, flowers of Kauai, Nene Geese

This entry was posted on February 4, 2016 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Kauai. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.