1 Beautiful weather to start our stay on the north shore - perfectly clear view of Mt. Makana / Bali Hai across Hanalei Bay
2 Lookin' out our back door,can't get enough of this while sipping coffee on the lanai
3 Even the mountain views are beautiful
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5 Finally got a big dose of north shore winter rain only to see that they have the sprinklers going full blast! Wha...??
6 We need to kill some time before the local farmer's market opened, so we stopped by the Kilauea lighthouse and bird sanctuary to soak in the views
7 We were hoping we might spot some migrating humpbacks, but alas no whales to be seen today
8 The pool bar at HBR has live music almost every afternoon (when it's not a deluge). The "aunties" Haunani Kaui and Linda Tani usually play Mondays as Tropical Groove.
9 Mike Keale who is a Kauai treasure with his incredible voice plays Wed afternoons at HBR
10 Big winds and surf coming in for the weekend and it was already starting to build Friday afternoon down at Hanalei Bay
11 Normally Hanalei Bay would be flat. They're predicting 20-25 wave faces by Saturday and 40-60 ft waves by Sunday with 40-50 mph wind gusts!
12 Even during the half hour we were checking out the conditions, we could tell the surf was picking up. The lifeguards were warning all families that currents were increasing by Pavillions and to move body boarding and other water activities rightwards towards the pier where the conditions were calmer.
13 Hanalei Pier
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15 This squirrelfish or soldierfish did not make a successful transition to air-breathing land animal
16 The multi-gazillion dollar beach homes by Hanalei Pier are pretty much in the same state of destruction as they were immediately after the devastating floods a year ago.
17 Fifty foot wave heights by Sunday aren't going to help these homes at all
18 Some video clips of the storm that raged through the island over our first weekend. First is Anini Beach from Sat noon as the surf was just beginning to buld. Anini is usually flat as a bathtub due to its extensive reef and we were seeing 10-15ft waves rolling in. The remainder is of Hanalei Bay taken 11am Sunday during the peak of the storm from the bluffs at our resort overlooking the bay. Hanalei Bay is usually pretty placid as well and it looked like 40-45 ft waves barreling in. i could barely hold the camera in one place as leaves and branches were hitting me in the midst of 50 mph wind gusts. Power was out for 10 hours and cell towers were down for 2 days!
19 It's what's fah dinner when you have a raging 50 mph storm and no power - ahi steaks marinated in shoyu, ginger, and garlic chives and of course weather-appropriate Maui Big Swell IPA
20 Hanalei Bay was looking a whole lot nicer than just 36 hours before
Diving
The road past Hanalei was still closed from the past April's floods, so all diving was again on the south shore. However, visibility was terrific at Koloa…
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