Aloha

I'm sitting at the desk in our room at the Hilton Kauai Beach Resort where the WiFi works like a charm (we should be so lucky on the rest of the trip), the torch lighting ceremony is going on outside our window around the pool, and some very romantic Don Ho type music is being played and sung. A cast of thousands (well only about ten actually, but it seems a lot more) has just performed what I understand to be a nightly ceremony--lots of drum beating, hula dancing, racing around the pool lighting the torches--and all the while eliciting squeals of delight from the children and provoking grown-ups to make fools of themselves when "volunteered" for hula lessons. One of the little girls, part of the show and a fledgling hula performer, was introduced as Maile (one of our granddaughters as you know). The name Maile is derived from the vine of the same name indigenous to the highest elevations of Hawaii and used to make very expensive wedding leis which evidently are highly coveted at Hawaiian weddings.

Today we took our rented car and drove up the east coast of Kauaii to the end of the line, where Bali Hai stands as a rugged outcropping of stone cliffs. Lots of movies have been made here because of the gorgeous scenery--Raiders of the Lost Ark, Elvis' Blue Hawaii, and Jurassic Park among others.

On the way back we stopped at the Hanalei lighthouse, which overlooks a magnificent vista of sea and rock. The twenty or so visitors were treated to a performance by a pod of whales who seemed to be performing for our benefit right in front of us. Only one jumped clear out of the water, but there were many many others teasing us with dorsal fins and rounded backs and those familiar whale's tails. They are mating and spawning and "making nurseries" according to one of the informational posters and February and March are the months when you are most likely to see them. During all of this time, the males don't eat. Make of that what you will.

I confess to being a bit of a bird nut and I'm quite delighted with the most mundane of birds, but am literally thrilled with unusual birds. Above you will see two feathered friends that we met today--one is obviously an egret. I know, I know, we have them in Dallas and everywhere else, but this one was up close and personal and didn't fly away. We had a moment. The other is the endangered Hawaiian nene (pronounced nay-nay), which all you crossword puzzle addicts will recognize.

A bird that you can't see is the red-footed booby (whoever named that bird had a mean streak), who are covering the outcropping pictured above. You can't see them in the picture but thousands of them were roosting there and looked so beautiful in all their multitudes. Driving back to the hotel, we passed a bird about the size of a cardinal with a red head, a white band around its neck and the rest of it was blue! No one at the hotel knew what it was but if anyone out there has a bird book look it up for me please. More tomorrow after our whale watching boat trip.