We left Seattle on a gloomy gray morning ...

... and landed in sunshine at about 80 degrees!

Staying at Roger and Sue’s condo in Poipu on the south shore of Kauai (note the solar panels, which are very common on the island due to the year-round sunshine)

The vegetation is lush, colorful, and often fragrant.

The birds are also unusual. Here are a few that I’ve seen around our condo. There are also many chickens which have become naturalized throughout the island

Hawaii has very few endemic (native) animals ... this is not surprising given how far they would have had to travel to get here! For example, there are no endemic reptiles or amphibians (except sea turtles). There are lizards like the one below all over ... and also frogs and toads. We were charmed by the sound of frogs serenading us at night from the pond near the condo ... until we tracked them down with flashlights and identified them as the very invasive (and poisonous) cane toad!

In addition to observing the flora and fauna, we spent some time at a local farmer’s market getting fabulous mangoes, pineapples, bananas, and papayas (but, interestingly, not a lot of variety in vegetables)

A popular drink -- an ice-cold coconut with a hole drilled in the top to drink the coconut juice. Mmmmmm.

Dinner was fabulous -- local mahi mahi and an assortment of veggies and fresh fruit

And of course, we’ve been spending lots of time at the pool and the beach, swimming, snorkeling, watching the sunset, and just relaxing.

(relaxing?!?!?!?! ... not Syl’s style but she’s trying ... )

Ed and Gloria even found time to do a three-way Facetime chat with their kids and grandkids (by holding two iPads together)  :-)