Images of Kauai -- July 11, 2009

The theme for Saturday was waterfalls.  Kauai gets a pretty stunning amount of rain every year.  Sometimes that rain gets in the way, but the locals will remind you that without the rain, there would not be the stunning collection of waterfalls that dot the upcountry. When John and I were here in 2006, we took an open doors helecopter flight that took us into a grotto where seven or eight falls had formed.  Many falls are hard to get to by car, but since having a toddler means that even simple hikes are complicated (and few trains in Kauai are the sort that have good surfaces and hand rails), we opted to take a look at a couple that we could get to with wheels instead of feel.  Wailua Falls is one of the more famous falls on the island, but I thought Opaekaa Falls was the more interesting to look at and to photograph (the angles I had for photographing Wailua Falls weren't all that great for the main overlook -- I suspect it's much better if you hike to the bottom of the falls). 

Most of the morning was cloudy and rainy (in fact, we got caught in something of a downpour at Opaekaa Falls) but the afternoon, as per usual, turned beautiful once we got back to the beach house and put Z down for her nap.  It was a picture perfect afternoon on the shores of Anini Beach.