Hawaii - The Russians are Coming! Well ... they actually left a long time ago

We landed in Kauai, the Garden Isle of Hawaii last night

(Hey man, I captured this picture above as the plane was landing at sunset ... ! )

     This is an actual vacation - like spending time with family and friends and staying in one place, more or less.  What a concept!
     We are with our daughter Beka and her husband Jake, and their two kids, Yoppie and Gabby.  We will be in Hawaii for a couple weeks and plan to visit our good friends Jeff and Debbie on the Big Island next week.

     For now, we are staying in a house, shown below, in the small town of Kekaha, on the the westernmost island of Kauai, which is known as the Garden Isle, for good reason.  It's incredibly green and lush here, and not terribly crowded.  
     In fact, it rains a lot, pretty much every day.  And they say there's a hurricane coming this way, but we're not going to worry about it (until it happens).  As I write this blog post, it's about 9:00 at night and there is a torrential rain coming down  ...  

     So today we went to the beach, in Poipu.  I won't bother to give pronunciation tips, you can probably figure it out.  
     It's a cool beach, very kid friendly.  We went snorkeling and swimming and other things.  Really hot and humid, kinda tropical, which makes a lot of sense. 

     We have been to Hawaii before, but it's been a while.  The island of Kauai has changed and there are a few more people here, but still less than the other islands.  There are some really nice beaches.  This should not be a surprise, as it is one of the primary reasons people come to Hawaii.  
     The picture below was captured of me by Jake underwater.  I don't know if it's slightly creepy or not, but I decided to include it.  The water was murky from sand and waves.

One the way home we passed an old Russian Fort

     At one point in time, the Russian came to Hawaii and established a fort here.  It's in ruins now, but it was built in 1817 and they had a foothold in Kauai and were planning to take over the place.  Only things didn't work out for them and they eventually left with their tails between their legs (that's an editorial comment by me) when the kingdom of Hawaii had a resurgence and ran them out. 

     So the ruins stand on the beach shores of the Pacific.  They are not particularly inspiring, but they are intact.  The spot is not far from the actual point where Captain Cook first set foot on this island chain in 1778.  A lot of history here.  Maybe more on that later. 

     We will be here in Kauai for about a week then move on to the big island (which is a actually called "Hawaii", the same as the state).  
     
     We envision a variety of activities.   Generally this means we will be running around like maniacs, getting in trouble, getting lost, possibly getting arrested, and discovering things that were better left alone. 

A couple more miscellaneous pictures

     Below we see Gabby our granddaughter standing on the stump of a coconut palm tree.  Her brother Yoppie, was standing on the same tree moments before.  She tries to copy everything he does. 

     

   
     And this picture was taken at a view point with a huge drop off to the canyon below.  When I see this kind of thing ... well, I take it as a challenge.