Let's 'dive into' some pictures of our vacation in Kauai and Oahu. First, we flew from Seattle to Honolulu, changed planes to an inter-island 717, then onwards to Lihue (the main city of Kauai).

We ended up in a very pleasant oceanfront room in the Marriott on the southern side of the island near Lihue. They began pitching the chance to buy a time-share immediately We enjoyed the very large pool. It was quite a large hotel but didn't seem to be overly crowded.

Kauai is a green mountainous island that is slow-paced and dotted with small towns, coffee, pineapple, and sugar plantations. It is quite "wet" although we had good weather being rained out only once. The beach at our hotel here was quite nice, and relatively calm. There was a cruise ship terminal immediately behind that sailboat.

Here is Sara pretending to be a mountain.

This was our favorite beach, Ke-e beach at the road end past Hanalei on the north end of the island. The waves were big but a reef protected the beach area. Snorkeling was fun & we saw lots of fish and other sea life. Surprisingly neither of us got sunburned although we were certainly out in it a lot.

Here is another shot of Ke-e beach. This part was beyond the reef and was so rough & rocky as to be not very swimmable! This point was where the hiking trail along the uninhabited Na Pali Coast began.

We went for a short hike in the Waimea Canyon which was quite deep and impressive. We were up at 5,000 feet or so, and the canyon was several thousand feet deep. It was very hot and hadn't rained recently, so the streams were more or less dry. There were lots of unusual plants, and a number of Moas, which are wild chickens & roosters running throughout the forest.

Travelling in the car, we snapped a couple pictures with camera at arms-length, then spliced them together.

Well, it's time to say goodbye to Kauai, and move on to Oahu island and our next stop at Waikiki Beach!

We made it! Waikiki Beach was perfect for swimming, and right in the middle of a big city! Very different than Kauai!

Once nice part of a vacation is all the extra sleep you get! We enjoyed our fair share of that, and a big comfy bed!

Our nice newly remodelled room looked out upon the city of Honolulu. We had a balcony looking north out over the Royal Hawaiian. Duke's Restaurant was downstairs in our building.

Here is Sara on the hike to the top of Diamond Head, an WW2-vintage lookout & air defense point. At one point, we walked in the tunnel in near darkness, having ignored the suggestion to bring a flashlight.

Up on top, a sweeping view of Waikiki Beach and points north.

Please send an E-mail if you have any comments or corrections, or know something we don't!