Kaui check list

And finally the other mandatory Kaui activities.

Watching the sun set...check

 Pictures of unusual trees...check

Hawaiian monk seal sunning on the beach...check

Calvin sunning on a deserted beach...check

Visiting one of the rainiest spots on earth when it wasn't raining....check

We had a great week in Kaui, but there must be a little more adventure in our future.  My fortune cookie said so and fortune cookies never lie.

Hiking Kaui

Kaui is a great place to hike and we had a few great hikes. Calvin chose our first two hikes and I should have gotten a hint by the name of our first hike.  We did the Canyon hike in Waimea Canyon.  The nature of a canyon is downhill and uphill, and that pretty much explains the hike.

This is the view from the trail head. Notice that bare spot across the way, in the mid left of the photo.

 This is pretty much my view of the trail, that blur at the top is Calvin.

After hiking down our side of the canyon and up the other side we reached the bald spot and took our picture.

Just around the corner was supposedly an 800 foot waterfall. It might have been spectacular, but we only saw the stream at the top. We couldn't see the waterfall from any angle.

We did brave a very cold smaller waterfall around the corner.

Canyon hike: 1.8 miles down and 1.8 miles up.

The next day we hiked the first section of the Kalalau Trail along the Napali coast. You can only get to this section of the coast by boat or foot. The full trail is 11 miles long, but we just went in 2 miles.

This is the view back to the beach from a quarter mile up the trail. 

This is our sweaty selves at half a mile up the trail.

And this is what the Napali coastline looks like from here.

This is me hiking down the final hill to our destination beach.

Unfortunately the "beach" was a boulder field.  The sand washes away in the winter and it had not come back yet. So we ate our lunch and went back.

Kalalau Trail: 2 miles up and 2 miles down.

The next day I chose the hike, a lovely paved coastline trail, pretty much a flat stroll. 

 The Ke Ala Hele Makalae trail is one of the top 10 things to do in Kaui, and the views are great, but it really doesn't compare with the Napali Coast.

Kaui 2016 The Spouting Horn

We spent last week in Kaui, a place we have not visited for  a while.  Plane connections getting there are a pain, but once arrived it was just beautiful.  We did a lot of the touristy things, so our first stop was the Spouting Horn, which did a very respectable spout because the surf was high.

Spouting as advertised

Happy Easter

I've been hoping to see a few pictures of grandkids dressed up for Easter, but since I haven't seen any I'll just have to share a few oldies but goodies.

Easter pictures were a tradition in my family, but I didn't seem to keep it up.

Easter 1956 Lewiston, Idaho with our dog Choo Choo

Easter 1958 Caldwell Idaho

Easter 1983 in Tucson

 And I believe these are the last Easter pictures taken of the Smith kids in Easter outfits 1987

Some traditions just don't last.

James Martin Wright on his blessing day

Just one more Wright family post.  The purpose of our last visit to Santa Barbara was to participate in Jimmy's blessing day.  It was a beautiful day and Jimmy performed admirably for the crowds that came to celebrate. Jimmy wore a gown that his great grandfather wore when he was blessed.

He joined this club of handsome men as the most recent to wear the gown.

Three generations.

Cute toes

Rosie and Jimmy

Jay and Jimmy

Just Jimmy

Rosie and Jimmy 2

A Rosie Jay and Jimmy

The full Wright Family

It is hard to keep smiling after all of those pictures.

Black light adventures in Santa Barbara

What do you do on a rainy day in Santa Barbara? Go to the aquarium.  There is a fairly small aquarium on Stern's wharf that is just the place for fairly small people.

They were featuring an exhibit of jellies that were best viewed with black light. Amazingly the phone pics were pretty good.

After the aquarium we headed to the Santa Barbara Natural History museum.  It was a really fascinating place but most interesting to me were these rocks.

Which are interesting enough by themselves, but add a little black light...

Makes you think you should always carry a little black light with you to see what else you have overlooked in this world.

And while we were enjoying being inside, Alice was out playing in the rain.

The road to Santa Barbara

Thirteen years ago when Rosie and I made our first trip to Santa Barbara we used a map to plot our route.  On the map this road looked like a good short cut, but after driving for a while I decided it looked like a good bike path not necessarily a good car road. I thought Calvin might like it.  A few years ago I talked him in to trying it out and he did like it.  Last weekend we had time on our trip to Santa Barbara for him to try it out again.

He was riding the Solvang Century on Saturday, so he decided a few more training miles would be a good idea.

When we arrived in Santa Barbara we met up with Rosie, Alice and Jimmy and spent some time at Goleta Beach or the airplane beach according to Alice.  We had time to play at the playground and stroll along the pier before we met up with Jay for dinner. I dragged my camera along to try and capture the afternoon. 
Alice is always in motion, so it is hard to get her in focus, but I love the way she rushes headlong into life.

Jimmy is handicapped by not being able to run yet, so he is easier to get a picture that is in focus. Or two or three.

By the time Alice had run to the end of the pier she was starting to slow down a little.

But she still had enough energy for a group hug picture.

A great way to spend an afternoon.