Happy Marine Corps Birthday!!!

Yes, for those who are not in the know, today is the Marine Corps' 242nd birthday! Started in 1775, on November 10. So when you're thanking the Veterans, thank the Marines too! OOOOOH-RAH!!!

Perhaps in honor of the birthday, I saw 5 octopuses today. (Hey, we don't know that they wouldn't know what day it is...they are very bright!) Two in the deeper part, two in the Kiddie Pond and one in-between. Yes, the one that made its den in the middle of the rocks between the deep and the shallower pond was still there.  And s/he ducked down when I appeared. I think it was quite surprised to see me. I'll bet, especially when the waves are pounding and conflicting with each other in that area, not many people hang out to get their tails whipped, as mine was. Didn't stop me, though. 

You can just see the white of the siphon. And truth to tell, I'm not sure which octopus this was....but I enjoyed them all the same.

 Male Trunk Fish.

 3 young Rock Mover wrasse

 Rain on the water.

 I think the one above and below was from the in-between rocky area...didn't catch a lot of the octopus..but you can see how well dug in it was..

 Surfer and rainbow. You can see the surfer on the left.

 Yellow Cigar Wrasse. Very cool and very quick, sliding around the rocks.

Today's leaf fish.

If you look carefully, you can see the animal oozing out... The white and brown speckled bit...This is a Triton shell, so I can only assume the animal is that color when out of the shell. You can also see the operculum, which in this case is a hard, brownish bit. Has the same purpose (keeping out predators), but in my mind, the white ones I usually spot seem better: they are really hard like a rock and you can snap the lid on quickly.

The shell was empty of its normal occupant, but not empty of crab. Note the hole near the bottom on the photo to the left.  That tells me perhaps an octopus ate the original animal. But I wasn't there and wouldn't want to falsely accuse anyone!

 Eye stalks, antenna, and several legs...in the one below, you can see the feeder legs below the eye stalks which my Marine tells me will help funnel food into its mouth.

Another octopus.

Nice Cone shell. Buried in the sand. It's tempting to pick them up, as they are an easy "catch", but don't! They have poisonous venom.

Below is the rainbow I was hoping for. I got the addition of the Mom and the kid on the surfboard. With the waves the way they were, I wouldn't have done that! But then, I don't have kids and I don't surf and I'm just generally cautious about the water. Well, other than the fact that I swim alone usually. It's my favorite way, because I don't have to watch out for anyone in my path.

 Storm out at sea.

 Same area, about 10 minutes later. You could hardly tell it had been raining.

Very nice start to the long weekend. Thanks, God! And thanks also for the safety. And the nice walk after the swim with my Poipu pal. And tonight, Kauai Beer Company to celebrate the Marine Birthday. 

Hawaii isn't always postcard pix!

I took the opportunity today to get out early and take some pictures.

Rain offshore.  Nice waves, too.

It occurred to me to mention: not all of the scenery in Hawaii is that perfect, sunny, postcard beauty!  There are these other kinds of beauty too.

The clouds are pretty all the time, though.  It is so nice to live 5 minutes from this lovely scene! It is in Lihue, near the airport.  It's called Ahukini Landing and early in the morning, no one but the chickens are about, so you can get nice pix.  Although, one still fights with the telephone lines!

Helicopters take off nearby.  But today, the only air machine I saw was the Hawaiian Airlines plane, bound for who knows where:

It was quite loud! And reminded me of my tears when, years ago, we had to leave Kauai.  Needless to say, I didn't really want to depart, but we were going onward with schooling for my sweetheart and that was the way to go.

The plane becomes a small speck.  I'm not sure if they got turbulence, with that storm going out at sea.  But I'm sure they are accustomed to dealing with lots of rain.  We have had quite a few trop storms coming by us this year already!  I will continue to pray that they miss us....

This is the view up toward Kapaa.  You'll think it's silly, but since we've been back, we haven't found a need to go this far....ha.  Far is so relative!  We used to drive all day when we were in Texas and think nothing of it.  But now, even an extra half hour seems like a big distance and obstacle. We will eventually go up....this time of year, the good snorkeling is on the North shore, so I do see Hanalei or Haena in our future.




I do find it fascinating how different the skies, waves and fog are every day.  One never knows what awaits!

Maybe just chickens and chicks:

I don't care who you are, the little peeps are so cute.  That's the only reason I knew they were there, since my head was in the clouds.  God is amazing.