Our first day of 2015 was another day of travel and transition but we finally landed at the hotel in Poipu on the Garden Island of Kauai. Before we left yesterday, we were hoping to take in some sights in Honolulu but found that the beautiful Iolani Palace was closed for the holiday, so we had the cab driver take us to a place that we knew would be open — the mall. Now, this was certainly not our first choice of places to visit in the wonderful state of Hawaii, but we only had about an hour to shoot and we needed a few things that would probably be difficult to locate on Kauai, so, we shopped. The Ala Moana mall was pretty upscale and located near the Japanese section of the city. It was abound with Asian people and nearly everything was translated into Japanese. Bill said that, having traveled to Japan, the whole place had a Japanese feel to its design.

Our flight from Honolulu to Lihue was pretty uneventful except for the joy of feeding a few spotted and zebra doves in the airport while waiting for our flight. Like most buildings in Hawaii, parts of the airport were open air and others weren’t, so birds are a common sight everywhere you go. For us northerners, the first time you see a feathered friend in a building is a bit startling but it becomes commonplace pretty quickly.

After renting our car and seeing a beautiful rainbow, we enjoyed seeing more birds along the way to the hotel including many wild chickens and several cattle egrets. The hotel is a huge place and, gratefully, our room is as far away from the commotion of hotel life as it can get. We’re at the end of a very long hallway near a natural area and the public beach. This will be a great place to watch birds, look at the Pacific, and listen to the waves.

I went to bed at about 8:30 last night (still adjusting to the time change) and was awakened at about 12:30 to the sound of jungle foul doing their “cock a doodle doo” call. I slept well but woke up several times and heard them continuing their wooings. Evidently, the critters call out all night long, presumably trying to attract a mate or marking their territory. I’m glad they didn’t keep me awake. The sound of the waves crashing on the beach was truly wonderful and lulled me back to sleep each time I woke.