Kauai, Day 5: Waimea Canyon (we think), a surprise waterfall, more chickens, shave ice, tropical flowers, and a spectacular sunset

There.  It’s all in the title.  Let’s just go right to the photos, shall we? I’ll narrate only as necessary/interesting (which probably actually means that I’ll be my normal blabby self).

As we approached Waimea Canyon, we came upon this bizarre scene.  If we didn’t know better, we’d say we’d happened upon Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain country!

We saw lots of – you guessed it – chickens and roosters.  I swear, everywhere you look on this island there are chickens and roosters!

This guy seriously contemplated hopping into the car and joining us!

Waimea Canyon was socked in with fog.  At the lower look-outs, we could see some of the canyon…

Waimea Canyon, Kauai

…but as we got higher, we were greeted by more fog.

This guy offered us a glimpse of what we should have been seeing:

This:

Sigh!

Then he started selling glimpses of his phone to hopeful tourists:

(Not really!)

Dejected, we left…

We thought – erroneously – that maybe if we drive (through the rain?!)…

to the highest look-out (we’d given up the idea of hiking at this point), the sky would be clearer.  What were we thinking?!

Apparently, we were just a (relative) stone’s throw from the wettest place on earth.  Ya think?!

Non Napali Coast view!

So we decided to give up all hope of seeing the really amazing view of the Napali Coast from either of the top look-outs.  As we headed back down the mountain, Tom darted back into the parking lot of the previous look-out and ran up the path to see whether the fog had cleared at all.  He ran back to the car, urging me to get the camera – and quick!

The fog cleared just long enough to capture this…

…which gave Tom enough hope to dart back up the mountain in hopes of a clear view from the tippy-top look-out.

Nada.

So we sat in the car and had lunch, waiting for the skies to clear.

They didn’t.  (Duh.)

So we headed back down the canyon, Tom pretending our rented Hyundai was a motorcycle, chasing this guy:

He quite amused himself.

And was rewarded thusly:

We decided to head back to Poipu in hopes of catching the sunset – even though we hadn’t seen the sun all day!  We killed some time and sipped some coffee at this very-Poipu mall…

I decided to take photos of a few of the tropical flowers at the mall…

Suddenly, the sky turned a dozen shades of pinks and purples and I could see bright purple light rays emanating above the buildings.  We got in the car and high-tailed it to the beach, missing the light rays, but catching this:

Tomorrow is an unplanned day, so who knows what I’ll post!  On Friday morning, we’ll leave for Oahu, where we’ll meet two of my dear friends from high school who now live there.  Our hotel (a real one this time) in Waikiki is beachfront, so should have a great view.  Stand by!