Lost Pleiad Observatory: Anniversary time

Finally, the long awaited anniversary post and trip report! Not only did the New Year mark 15 years of marriage between Beth and I, but it also marked the one year anniversary of this blog. For those of you that follow it, thanks! It has been fun to maintain, although I wish I had more time to write up my astronomical adventures. Regardless, on to the main topic...

To celebrate the best 15 years of our lives, Beth and I decided to take a trip to Kauai, Hawaii for our anniversary- and it lived up to all of our expectations. The only other Hawaiian Island we had visited was Maui, and as it turned out, Kauai was in a league of it's own. It is referred to as the 'garden island' and that moniker is well deserved. Many movies and TV shows with tropical settings have been filmed there from Jurassic Park, to the remake of King Kong, and the television series Lost. There is simply no way in writing or even in pictures to capture the remarkable beauty of the island. We arrived on Kauai on Dec. 21st which was the Winter Solstice- I had been up all night prior to our trip as it was a total lunar eclipse- the picture at left is looking west from our balcony just prior to sunrise on Dec. 22.

One of the reasons that I did not get this post up sooner was feeling somewhat overwhelmed with all that I wanted to write about. I have decided that I will actually write very little, the trip was after all about sharing our love for each other- if you want to details, email me or take me out for a drink! At the bottom of the post, is a slideshow of some of our photos and if you click on it, it will take you to the album itself where you can look more closely at the images. One of the things you will notice throughout the pictures is the lack of people. Christmas and New Years are two of the busiest weeks in Hawaii, and despite that we often had large swaths of beaches and trails entirely to ourselves. At right is a picture of my beautiful wife hiking along a cliff top as we explored a series of beaches in the Maha'ulepu area. This was a stunning area, accessible by dirt road, that was composed of three distinct beaches with fascinating cliffs separating them.

I had a good time seeking out the numerous blow holes in the cliffs that would expel air and/or water as the waves and currents surged below. The image at left gives you an idea of the power behind these, as Beth is perched over a dry blow hole on a cliff that is easily 40 feet above the ocean...that is not a trendy Hawaiian hairstyle, it is the air being expelled from the hole in the cliff top.

The week we spent in Kauai was amazing- probably like most folks that visit we decided that we are going to move to Hawaii and maybe we can make it happen. As wonderful as the island was, the time we spent together was a strong reminder of why we decided to get married 15 years ago. For a trip that was about celebrating love and commitment, Kauai was the perfect background.