Karen came with 3 knee braces and she loaned me one. Yay! I went on the hike. Two miles in, two out to a stream. 

This is a strenuous hike. A little easier than yesterday, and only half as long but still – it got our attention.

It was sunny, and rainy. Dry, and muddy. Rocky, and slippery. Up hill half the time and downhill the rest. Hunt made a short video…

I found uphill to be much easier than downhill. Certainly it was easier on my knees. And I felt much safer going up because the footing was better.

There are all kinds of warning signs as you approach the stream. The funny thing was that I never saw them on the way down. I was too busy looking at where to put my feet. Truly, one misstep and you could fall to your death. I don't think that happens often but I didn't want to set an example.

This next sign has the count of visitors who have died (82) swimming in the ocean at the end of the stream. 

The stream bed if full of boulders and rocks. We didn't cross the stream but instead followed this path of boulders along side down to the beach.

It was a nice place to rest and have a snack. The ocean was calmer today than I have ever seen it but none of us were willing to risk death by swimming.

And then Hunt got hot and decided to risk it…

Not really. We didn't even wade into that pool of fresh water between us and the ocean.

The views of the coast were spectacular and worth the effort it took to see them. We finished the hike around noon and ate lunch at Ke'e beach. We swam, then headed back to town. We got to see the Aldrine Guerrero and Arron Nakamura (the Ukulele Underground) again. They were great! If you ever get a chance to see them play, do it!

We went on a hike that Steve and I have done several times. We knew in advance that it is slick, muddy, up and down, and in some places down-right crazy. Like this:

Trust me when I tell you that it is worse than it looks. The trail gets your attention going up and I think it is worse going down. Here, the trail up is to the far right…

We were lucky on to see lovely scenery on the way in. This is one reason why this is such a cool hike.

There is boardwalk…

And many, many stairs…

And there was a stream to cross…

And there was an alpine swamp. This is the wettest spot in the world and I should not have been surprised when blue sky turned into a cloud. A rainy, windy drippy cloud that we walked through. I didn't mention it, but it's chilly up here.

The overlook at the end of the trail is spectacular when you can see it. We only saw mist. Too bad, so sad. We walked back. 

Karen and Hunt are theatrical (and musical). Karen decided that she wanted to do a short video ala 'Blair Witch' on the way out. I don't know if you will like it, but we laughed until we cried when we got back and saw it…

Today's hike is 4 miles in and 4 miles out. It took us about 6 hours, including stops to take pictures and have lunch. We did not view this as a race – we took our time. Even with all of that, on the way back my knee let me know that it was not happy. I made it and I can walk but I am not going on tomorrow's hike. I've done the Napali Coast hike before, I hate to miss it, but I would hate it worse if the rescue squad had to carry me out. Instead, I will sit on the beach and think happy thoughts.

On the way back to our condo we stopped at Waimea Canyon, the grand canyon of Hawaii. It is lovely but I've seen both canyons and this is not really a 'Grand Canyon'. it is, however, very spectacular for an island canyon.

We have one more day on Kauai, tomorrow. It should be a lovely day…

I thought today would be rainy and gray and not exactly great. Silly me. 

We drove to Ke'e beach, at the far end of the road that goes north, then west around the NW side of the island. We will go this way again in a couple of days to hike the Napali Coast. Today was a beach day. We got there in time to find a parking space, close. The beach got more crowded as the day wore on, but it was amazing. In addition to people, there were lots of (free range) chickens. And roosters. And baby chickens…

Folks, if you have body issues, you really need to come to the beaches on Hawaii. Yes, there are some lovely bodies. But way more than half of what you see are exactly what you would see if you walked through Walmart and saw everyone in a swimsuit. It's amazing what becomes normal. That said, this guy really needed to pull up his trunks. I joked that he must be a plumber, but plumbers everywhere might disagree that they have been unjustly profiled…

In all seriousness, we women need to let go of what we look like in a bathing suit and just enjoy life. Here's Hunt, in the water at the beach area. In the winter, this beach is way too rough to swim in. Today, there was a protected area that was perfect. Outside of that and you were risking death. 

We walked down the beach, away from here to see what there was to see. When we turned around, this was the spectacular view…

After lunch we headed back toward 'home'. On the way we stopped at Hanalei beach to wave to Lola and Elanor…

We messed around for a while more (Karen and I shopped for earrings) and then we went to see the Ukulele Underground play for happy hour. 2 hours of what turned out to be the most fun EVER!

Aldrine Guerrrero is playing the ukulele, and Aaron Nakamura is on the guitar. They formed Ukulele Underground and have taugh thousands of people how to play the ukulele over the internet. Hunt is one of these folks and he was so very, very happy to be there for a live performance.

I went thinking that it would be 'nice'. I had no idea how much I would enjoy it. I wasn't alone. Everyone was loving it and I could not help but take this photo of the family next to us:

Here are Aldrine and Aaron with Hunt…

They play again Friday night at another place and we four will be there.

PS – Hi, Mom. We're fine. We'll be hiking on Thursday and Friday. I'll post pictures so you can see :-).

Hunt shopped for, and bought, a ukulele! Truth be told, as I was choosing photos for this post I realized that Hunt was in most of them – so let's see today through Hunt's day!

I'm not counting, but this is Hunt's 2nd new uke :-). He is a happy, happy man.

Hunt is also incredibly fond of chickens. Kauai is chicken heaven. We went to Spouting Horn and Hunt became the chicken whisperer…

There are chicken, and roosters, all over Kauai. Look at the mama chicken below. There are chicks around her…

I count 5, or 6. They blend in. I asked Steve is this was chick season and we both thought about it. We think it is always chick season. I'm not sure why we aren't stepping on chickens everywhere we go.

Poipu Beach is usually a great place to swim on Kauai. Flossie had an impact today. There was a small area to swim, but we didn't. This was the adjacent beach…

There was one spot around the bend from Poipu where you can see what sort of waves were out there. Just to the left of this 4 kids were out on boogie boards. Nuts.

We shopped and looked at nature today instead of getting into nature. FYI – The Walmart in Lihue has great hawaiian shirts. Made in Hawaii even. I also bought some earrings in Koloa Town that have a good aura. Or something like that. Not being able to see auras (or chakras) myself, I just like the orange color with the little colorful beads above.

Karen took this photo of Hunt early today. We all agreed that he looked the best in all of the pics today. Every one of me was very delete-able. Steve and Karen too. Tomorrow the rest of us are going to have to work harder :-).

We woke up to a beautiful rainbow outside of our hotel on Maui this morning. We took lots of photos, but I like this one Karen took the best.

As we were driving to the airport Hunt noticed how lovely the West Maui Mountains looked. I stopped the car and got out and looked both ways before carefully crossing the highway to get this picture. It was worth it.

Tropical storm Flossie caused a lot of flight cancellations, but not ours. In fact, I think that most of the inter-island flights were not as affected as flights to and from the mainland. Our flight was uneventful. Either I worried just enough to stave off disaster, or I worried for no reason at all.

The weather service is predicting a couple of days of (possibly heavy) rain – which has already started. So far it is not constantly raining.

We are in a condo outside of Lihue, on the 3rd floor. Our view is nice and the condo is spacious, clean, and comfortable.

Hunt found a great place for dinner on Trip Advisor – Chicken in a Barrel! It's a BBQ shack by the side of the road in Kapa'a. It was so very, very good!

Karen inspired me to find fun settings on my camera… this looks lke the 1950s, don't you think? That's Karen, Hunt, and Steve at the window, ordering.

Hunt took this picture of me. It's funny, I think I can see a bit of my sister, Christy, in my face in this photo. I don't usually see that.

We can't see the ocean from our condo so after eating, we walked to the nearby shore. The waves were up farther out. Here's Hunt, on the rocks, contemplating taking it in.

We're not really sure what we're doing tomorrow. The hikes we had planned are not good on rainy days. We're batting around a variety of ideas and surely by morning, something will rise to the top.

Tropical storm Flossie is headed our way. I am the designated worrier – no need for all of us to worry. I did my job and worried all day yesterday. This morning is blowy, no rain yet. Lots of warnings. We should fly from Maui to Kaui before the storm gets here. Our flight is still on schedule. But I am scanning the sky – and internet – for any signs if trouble. It may be that we get to the airport and then don't go. If we do go I'll continue to do my job and worry us all the way to Kaui.

We went back to Kahekili beach to snorkel yesterday. Karen took some underwater photos. That's Steve, or part of him…

Hunt gave us a scare, but managed to survive…

Karen was very impressed!

We have visitied happy hours, every day. Mai Tai's are very nice.

And we all took pictures, except for Steve. He's mostly enjoying life without feeling the need to do a lot. It's refreshing. He has, however, fed us more than once. What a man!

I have to go pack now, for the flight that I hope does take us to Kauai.