Alsguth Travel Blog

 Today we had a nice easy morning with some beach time before heading out to explore, grab lunch and meet up with a group for a bike ride in Waimea Canyon. In Hanapepe (the town that inspired Lilo & Stitch) we walked across the Singing Bridge.  This bridge was originally built in the early 1900's.  After Hurricane Iniki, it was restored and reinforced.  Gotta say, it is pretty swingy still! We caught up to our biking excursion and started up the Waimea Canyon.   As noted in an earlier blog, the Waimea Canyon is called the "grand canyon of the pacific".  It is magnificent! This viewpoint gives you a glimpse of the Na'Pali Coast (as seen from helicopter and boat) Ready to roll downhill! First, we have to fight off this predator! Hey Carsten - women and children first does not mean that the dinosaur gets to EAT me first .... Super great tour - biking stats - 11.7 miles, high speed (not by me) 41 mph, avg speed 18 mph - mostly downhill! Headed to Honolulu tomorrow for

Hello again! (you see this, I am trying to get out of the "Aloha" habit) We have had some lovely days exploring Kauai - so many beaches and things to see! We started on Saturday with the Kauai Coffee plantation - the largest in the US! A few fun facts - they have 4 million coffee trees, the white blooms (above) come before the "fruit" (coffee), harvest is in the late fall / early winter, they use only hydroelectricity and they water the crops with over 28 million gallons of water (all sustainably captured). Next stop was  Poipu Beach.  We hung out on the beach, snorkeled, ate our lunch and then hit the water again to snorkel (this time with our phone/camera). this Green Turtle was snoozing on the beach around the corner Monk Seals were equally lazy .... I could tell you the name of the fish but really, who cares? WHAT A CATCH!!!!! some coral the black spikey thing (bottom left) is a sea urchin Back to our place - another early night - we are tired at the end of the

 Aloha again - we have traveled over to Kaua'i and are really enjoyed our first few days here! Our final morning in Hilo was amusing as we sat down to breakfast with a couple we had not met - guess where they were from ..... really .... guess ..... Germany & Switzerland!  There were only 3 rooms at this B&B and so many were Germans! LOL We drove across the "saddle" between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on Hawai'i to get back to the Kona airport for our flight.  This is Mauna Kea (a volcano). It was a long day of travel, as our connection to Kaua'i was delayed. Oh well ... we made it to our place - the view from the balcony and a shot of "our" beach. It is quite nice and feels like home.  Some of you know that we have roosters behind our house that crow indiscriminately (i.e., not just at dawn) - well, here on Kaua'i there are so many roosters.  We hear them all day long (and very early in the morning, which is a problem with no A/C requiring the wi