KAUAI ADVENTURE

After Maui, I flew home to Kauai on Saturday,
.... and on Sunday...
my dear friend Joanne flew into Kauai to visit me, a side trip on her journey to Japan.
Joanne and I had a ball.
On Monday we went to Opaeka Falls, and then Ahi wraps and lemonades at Mermaids cafe for lunch. Then we took the boat ride to the Fern Grotto.

Opaeka Falls

 

Dancing the hula on the way to the fern grotto

Torch Ginger

The Fern Grotto.  it drips water.

We finished our touring with a yummy shave ice in Kapaa.

Then we went back to the Marriott for a swim and dip in the hot tub and a fabulous meal highlighted with Lava drinks (fruity rum as Joanne calls it)

this is the pool outside Joanne's hotel room in Lihue.  There are 5 hot tubs, they are under the octagon shaped roofs.

Friuty rum.  DELISH!

The next morning we went to the Hindu monastery - which was gorgeous. I've seen the monastery before, but it was a first for Joanne.  We attended the morning temple service at the monastery with all the rituals.

 I had hoped we could attend their weekly tour to the golden temple, but it was not being offered on the day we went.  As fate would have it, a large Indian wedding party was there, and they had arranged for a private tour, and we were allowed to tag along.
Yippee!

this is a flower than blooms once a year....

..a cluster of them....

Oddly, at the Rudraksha Forest (I've posted pictures of this before) all of the thousands of Rudraksha seeds...used as beads in Hindu Malas...... that used to be underneath the trees  - were gone.
I'm  not sure if the monks had gathered them to make beads and sell/give away, or if tourists had stripped the ground clean.  Or perhaps the monks simply wanted the ground beneath the trees clean.

Afterwards we explored another waterfall (Wailua Falls)

and then Joanne came to my house to visit my studio.
We lunched in Kilauea on local Ono fish and then went to Kilauea bakery for dessert.
We returned to the Marriott for a swim and some hot tubbing.

gorgeous fine silver goddess pendant Joanne gifted me with....she makes beautiful jewelry !

Alas, Joanne left early Wed morning for Japan.
It was a MARVELOUS visit!