Kaua'i Day 3

After a yummy breakfast of French Toast and hot chocolate for me...we headed back to the snorkeling beach I mentioned in Day 2. Day 3 weather in Kaua'i was absolutely perfect. Meredith had been telling us about this odd fruit she had the last time she was on Kaua'i. We happened upon a road side stand selling this fruit called rambutan which stands for hairy lychee. Up close picture of a rambutan. This one has been opened. It looks and has the texture of a large peeled grape. You put the entire white fruit in your mouth and then munch around the seed (about the size of an almond). Me with a rambutan. The woman selling the fruit had to give us a lesson on how to open the tough hairy outer covering. Me demonstrating how to eat a rambutan. Sweet and a little tart. Very yummy!

Giant container filled with colorful rambutan. We bought a few to take with us to the beach.

Picture of a nice day at the beach. There was a tiny island just off shore surrounded by lava rock. I ventured out to the island with Niffer; not our most graceful moments of the day. Lots of coral reef on this beach which is why it's good for snorkeling. The reef was full of sea urchins and brightly colored fish. We were able to see a humpback whale off in the distance. He was swimming on his side holding his fin out of the water and then slapping it on the surface. Niffer had binoculars so we could get a good look. Very cool!!!

Just thought this was a nice picture of the beach. I think you may know the bathing beauty on the left if you look hard enough.

This beach was full of wildlife. I mentioned the chickens from the day before...they were still there roaming around between people's beach towels. There were also monk seals up on the beach. They are an endangered species and are only found in the Hawaiian islands. When they beach for sun and rest, the lifeguards put up a rope to keep people at a distance and there are signs posted like the ones above.

There was one seal on the beach when we arrived and a second one came ashore while we were there. I enjoyed seeing him move around on land and roll around in the sand on his own because I was thinking of throwing chex mix at the lazy one to get a rise out of him. Just kidding! I have a video of this seal too. You can find it when I post the waterfall video.

After an afternoon at the beach, we headed over to a different hotel/resort for lunch. There was a lot of lava rock on the beach near the hotel.

One last picturesque view of Lauren by the water. We enjoyed our trip and will surely be going back to Kaua'i before we leave Hawai'i. Special thanks goes out to Niffer and Meredith for being our tour guides and chauffeur.