Kauai, Day #6: Crappy weather, but still… Opaeka’a Falls, Wailua Valley, snorkeling, sunbathing, and a nice dinner at Duke’s

Today was the first day that we woke up without any set plans.  Good thing, too, as we woke up to dark gray skies, rain, and wind.  There wasn’t even a sunrise to speak of!  (Well, there was, of course, a sunrise… but nothing to write home –or a blog – about today.)

This crappy weather is actually good for Tom – Mr. “Hawaii is soooooo much better than Seattle!”  Mr. “If only we were in Hawaii now…”  Mr. “It never rains in Hawaii…”

We had a leisurely breakfast on the lanai, throwing together pretty much all our leftover food in a scramble.  In spite of the downpour, the air was comfortably warm.  (Now that’s the difference between Hawaii and Seattle!)

After breakfast we headed south to Poip’u Beach, stopping at Opaeka’a Falls, ruins of an old Hawaiian temple, and an overlook to the Wailua Valley.

And, of course, chickens!

We arrived at Poip’u Beach in the rain and decided to start the day underwater – at the beach.  Snorkeling.

The fish were teeming!  We were absolutely surrounded! This was my favorite little guy today:

…but we also saw these…

…and these…

And a multitude of other gorgeous fish!

(Again, images stolen from Google Images.)

I decided to document the most unusual (not) occasion of ‘crappy weather in Hawaii” so I could show the pictures to Tom when he gets S.A.D. in Seattle this winter.

But then I just ended up taking more pictures of the cool tombolo and the jetty connected to it. 

I still can’t get over how odd it is to see symmetrically moving waves!

And then there was this guy:

Dream job?

We spent most of the afternoon dodging clouds and raindrops, defiantly reading and relaxing on the beach.  This is our vacation, dammit, and we WILL spend a day relaxing at the beach!

We headed back to the cottage, showered, and headed to a nice dinner at Dukes, named after this cool guy.

Now we’re all packed (thank goodness for expanding luggage!), ready to fly to Oahu early in the morning, where we’ll meet up with two of my dear friends from high school who live there.  After two days of sunshine (we hope) there, we’ll head back to Seattle – where SNOW is in the forecast!