DAY 12 .. OUR LAST DAY ON KAUAI!!

October 13 .. our last day on Kauai!!  This would be a lonnnnngggg day for us for we had to be out of our Beach House by 10:00 am and would not be flying out until 10:00 PM!!  We had a lot of  hours to fill!!  Thank Goodness there is a lot to see and do on the Islands!!! 

 

My  last picture of the Ocean, the Beach and the River from our front deck!!

Ken brought me this beautiful flower  from the bush by the front steps ..

Of course I had to take a picture of the bush also!! 

And here's our favorite Rooster .. 

Goodbye Rasta!!!  Although we complained about the crowing of you and your friends I think we are going to miss it when we get back to our homes on the mainland!!! 

 The views from our bedroom on our last morning  ..

 

 

Waiting for the ladies to get in gear and get their luggage out to be carried down to the van!! 

 

No room for these in the trunk .. they will go in the passenger area of the van .. YIKES!!

We were always sure we had made it to the turn for our beach house .. this old bus sitting along the side of the road was our guide!!!

Yep the empty area down the middle of the van is no longer empty!!  Thank Goodness we figured out how to slide the middle row seats forward so the backseat passengers could get out without lifting all the bags outside the van!!!  Thanks Sylvia!!! 

And we're off to cruise around the coast stopping at little towns along the way!!

 

Our first stop was at this Kauai Products Fair ..



Remember the "STOOPID CHIKEN" shirt Rich had on in a picture the other day???  Ken wanted one of those shirts and Sylvia and Pat had discovered those shirts and bought them at one of the shops at this Fair!!!  So we were here on a mission to find Ken a "STOOPID CHIKEN" shirt!!!  Sad to say the shop where they had found the shirts was not open yet when we got there!!!  Soooooo ... let's find a good place for Breakfast and come back later!!! 

We asked a lady at the Fair where would be a good place for Breakfast and she suggested the Kountry Kitchen ..

The place was packed but taking names so we gave them our names  .. discovered we had a half hour to wait so we did a bit of sight seeing while we waited!!! 

As you can see they have fun with their Roosters and Chickens .. LOL!!

Our half hour is up and we finally get seated .. the shelf on the wall is reminscent of home for I have advertising tins on top of the kitchen cabinets!!!  

It's a small restaurant but very popular!!!

 





I found the front of their menu very interesting!!! 

 

 



 







 

 

 

I also found the bottom  choice on the menu interesting ..



Spam is very popular on the Island and is one of your choices of meat on the Breakfast menu!!!  

 

Look at that Pancake!!!  

Our Breakfast was very plentiful and very very tasty!!! 

Back to the Kauai Products Fair ..

We were happy to find the shop we wanted to shop in was OPEN at last!!!  Ken got his shirt .. 

and we all did some shopping around and found last minute souvenirs!!!

We journied on to Hannape'pe .. a sign at the edge of town proclaims it to be "The Biggest Little Town in Kauai"!!  

You see why we didn't have room for ALL our luggage in the trunk?????

 

Next stop .. Kauai Coffee Company!!! 

 





 

 

 

AH HA .. AT LAST ... a penny smashing machine!!!  The one thing my daughter Madonna asked for from our trip to Hawaii was a smashed penny!!!  She collects them from every place they go!!!  We had been watching for one of these machines and had given up on every finding one .. and surprise surprise .. here it is!!!! 

I'm working on your penny Madonna!!  It was so much fun I cranked out another one .. LOL!!

Carl and Sylvia decided they needed a few too!!! 

The sign on the handle says this is the first coffee grinder!!! 

http://www.kauaicoffee.com/  For more on the Kauai Coffee Company click on this link!!

Leaving Kauai Coffee!!

Another visit to Poi 'pu Beach .. 

The first thing we saw as we walked onto the beach area was this gentleman and a couple of his friends walking through with stringers of Fish!!!  This one was happy to stop and let us take a picture!! 

This is the beach where we saw the 70 year old Sea Turtle and Monk Sea Lion the other day .. once again there is a Sea Turtle but it is under the water at the edge of the beach .. you can see the dark "lump" in the water a short ways from the sand.

We wondered if it was the same Sea Turtle from the other day but there was soon people all around it and it took off deeper into the water instead of coming onto the beach.

This end of the beach is not very pretty .. full of lava rock!! 

Mama Chicken and her little Chicks!!  

Some lucky little girl is having her birthday party on the beach!!!

 



Off to Old Koloa Town ..

and then to Naiwilliwilli!!!

To watch some more surfers .. 

We had driven around before going to watch the surfers to find where we might like to have our last meal in Kauai .. it was decided to go to JJ's  Broiler ..

And YES .. they had their very own Rooster .. LOL!!  

And of course we had to have a LAST Ice Cream Cone on Kauai!!  Mine was a Peanut Butter Explosion!!!  Full of mini Peanut Butter Cups .. YUMMMMM!!!  Actually it was GELATO not Ice Cream .. but it tasted like Ice Cream to me!!! 

One lonely little star up there in the sky!!!

At last it was almost 8:00 and time to go to the Lihu airport ..

This wonderfully friendly and helpful gentleman caught us as soon as we climbed out of the van and offered to load everything on his baggage cart!!  We took him up on it!!!  Can you believe all that luggage ... LOL LOL LOL!!!  The red bag with the big white flowers was my purchase from the Kauai Products Fair .. it would be my carry on personal item .. purse, books, junk to eat, you name it .. it was in there .. and I think it weighed at least 20 pounds .. LOL!! 

Our wonderfully friendly helper wheeled all this stuff through every place we had to go .. all the check points .. weigh points .. everywhere.  He unloaded all the small stuff to take the bigger stow-away luggage to the Agriculture check point .. then came back and weighed our stow-aways for us .. that white plastic bag sitting in front of everything was Ken's "STOOPID CHIKIN" shirt and other souvenirs bought at the Kauai Fair and needed to be put in one of our bags!!  We took our BIG stow-away bag (the one with the bright yellow duct tape on it) and opened it and put the items inside .. our friend then told us that since we had opened it he would have to take it back to the Argriculture checkpoint and have it checked again!!  Boy did we feel stupid .. Duhhhhh!!!  He made our job of getting everything in place here soooo much easier .. bless his heart!!  We all put money together and gave him a generous tip .. hopefully he felt it was worth it!!! 

After a two hour wait .. we boarded our plane for the trip to Phoenix and were soon off into the wild blue yonder .. it was 10:00 Hawaiian time and DARK when we took off from Lihu Airport so no pics .. it is now approximately 6 lonnnnngggg hours later and we are coming to Phoenix ..

It's 6:45 am Phoenix time and the sun is rising!!! 

Two hours later .. we are on US Airways plane again and headed for St. Louis ..

Notice the date change on the pictures .. it is now October 14th!!!

We made the trip safely .. Thank You Lord!!  After 10 hours of sightseeing, shopping and playing .. 4 hours of waiting in airports and 9 hours of flying we were all  totally worn out but we just had a wonderful vacation in a beautiful paradise and made it back to our home state safe and sound and still speaking to each other .. WE ARE BLESSED!!! 

We left Kauai the day before my birthday so I was only 69 .. we arrived in Phoenix on my birthday .. I aged a year while flying over the Pacific Ocean .. I am now 70 years old!!  What a way to celebrate the day of your birth!!!  Thank You Ken and our Bread Company friends .. Pat, Rich, Sylvia and Carl .. it's a birthday I will never forget!!! 

We arrived at Lambert Airport at 1:45 PM .. after getting our luggage from the Luggage Carousel and catching the La Quinta shuttle bus to our cars in the La Quinta parking lot Ken and I set off for the nearest Krispy Kreme!!!  Our first big date was on my birthday last year .. he took me to Starbucks .. then the movies .. then someplace to eat .. YIKES .. hate to say it but I've forgotten where we ate .. then to Krispy Kreme for a Caramel Iced Custard filled roll .. then to his house where he placed a candle on the Krispy Kreme and sang "Happy Birthday" .. of course we had to do that this year too!!! 



I chose the orange Jack-O-Lantern one to eat while we were there .. and the Pumpkin Cheesecake to take home for my "birthday cake"!! 

 

Thank You Ken .. I would much rather have ONE candle than SEVENTY!!!! 

 



And a special Thank You for the very beautiful card and everything on it and the beautiful heart pendant necklace!!  This was a beautiful ending to a wonderful 12 days adventure in Paradise with our friends!!!   You are an exceptionally wonderful and good man and I Thank the good Lord every day that He put the two of us together!!!