Hawaii Vaca, Post 23 - Day 8 Part 4 - Shopping, Poipo Beach and More...

After our lovely dip in the former sugarcane plantation irrigation ditches and Wailua Falls, we went on some adventures that were short and somewhat sweet. 

We HAD to get Robby to a beach.  He would revolt and ultimately disassemble if he did not have some water to climb into.  We did some shopping and also hit up the Spouting Horn area... which you will see. 

It was kind of nice to get our "scheduled thing" of the day done early so we could just explore and do things that we thought looked interesting.  It was nice to walk around in some little shopping areas and also fun to (over) hear locals talking with each other and, well...   gossiping. 

Of note, I may have the order of the day messed up a bit as we technically hit the shops twice and frankly, I just don't remember.  

But I SWEAR that we did everything that we have pictures of!  😒  

First the shopping.  Caleb found a buddy and since we were all missing our hound dog, Juno, he got to pet the "dog".

The chickens were taking over Kauai and some locals have found ways to make money off the silly things since you can't eat them!

A mama chicken and her chicks outside of the shops that we're perusing.

So we get to Poipo Beach to lob Robby into the ocean and we see that there are some elephant seals sunning themselves on the beach alongside the humanoids!  It was pretty cool, but being the man I am, I kept a keen eye on them with the thought that if they started moving towards me, I would shove someone smaller than me towards them whilst I hightail it in the opposite direction!  Thankfully, it never came to that.

That little girl has the right idea!  Keep an eye on'em!

I forgot my water shoes and the rocks were not comfortable for a chubby little land-lubber like myself, so I walked back out to the parking lot to get them and guess what I found?  Yep, more chickens.

Sorry everybody, but there are no pictures of Dear ol' Dad at the beach in my speedo so that's about all the pictures that you'll get...

So back in the car we went, listening to the Robby complain that he did not have enough time in the water, but on our way to Spouting Horn.  Happy for us, there were some street (parking lot?) vendors and the boys found the same rings that they liked at Volcanoes National Park only here, they were only $15 dollars instead of $110 - $120!!

This is the lookout point at Spouting Horn.  Basically speaking, the waves come in and find their way thru the old lava flow and it makes a burst of water come up thru the rock.  It was neat, but you didn't have to stay too long.  Once you saw a good "spout", you've seen them all.

This is the shoreline from where the pictures above were taken.

This is the Hanapepe Valley alongside the Kaumualii Highway.  The pictures of this do NOT do it justice!  It is so incredibly beautiful and amazing that there is no way a camera would capture it properly.

Two lovely little varmints!

After arriving back at the Plantation Cottages, we made some dinner and then guess what?!?  Robby wanted to go swimming!   It's not like it was a bad thing.  You can see the ocean in the background of the pictures and watch the sunset at the same time a fella might be watching the kids and enjoying a local carbonated beverage.  That's Robby in the orange shorts and Caleb in the water.   That couple to the right of the boys stayed for a while and I told the boys to give them space and be polite.  When they got ready to leave, we started talking and I asked them where they were from. They replied, "Marshalltown, Iowa.".  "No kidding, we're from Des Moines, well, East of Des Moines... Pleasant Hill.", I said.  The lady added, "We're really from State Center, but nobody knows where that is so we just say Marshalltown".  I laughed and told them that we used to live in Collins, which, if you don't know Iowa, those two towns are about 10 miles apart.

The beach ball...   It was in the pool when we got there and we used it, but I made the boys leave it there when we left.  Of course, the next day when we went back, it was gone.  I went into town and bought another one for $2 and brought it back.  I made them leave that one there as it was our last day on the island and we'd be leaving the next day anyway.  You would have thought that I told Robby to leave his right arm there!!!

That pretty much brings the 8th day in the Hawaiian Islands to a close.