Kalapaki Beach

Kalapaki Beach at sunset

We are staying on the east side of the island in the city of Lihue. Across the street from where we were staying, is the best beach on the east side called Kalapaki Beach. This beach is popular because it is surrounded by a bay, which makes it good for swimming, surfing and paddle boarding. The water is very warm, and  the sand is very soft with no rocks. Many people walk their dogs and run along the beach. After swimming, Miriam would go for a run while I did some gymnastics on the sand.  After exercising, we were really hot and would jump into the cool water. This beach has beautiful views and mountains. On one side of the beach, the waves are a little bigger which makes it better for surfing. 


On one side of the beach is a small stream that flows into the ocean. It looked very small and calm and should have been easy to cross. We decided to try to cross it to get to the beach instead of going all around. I was the first to try to get across, but it wasn't as easy as it looked. When I first stepped into the stream, it pulled me in and my shoes flew into the ocean. As I was trying to fish out my shoes, I got all wet. My sisters and mom, didn't learn from my example and had the same thing happened to them. When we finally crossed, all our towels were all wet since we all got pulled in. 


We would spend all day at the beach starting from early morning until it was dark. There were many people paddle boarding, and we decided to try it too. We got one board that would fit 2 people, one adult with one child. Miriam and I took turns going on the board with my mom. We started on our knees until we were able to get our balance. Then I slowly stood up. It was hard at first but then when I got my balance it was easier. One time,  my mom and I tried to stand up at the same time.  The board turned a little sideways, and I fell into the water. Then I got back up onto the board, and we decided to take turns standing up. What made paddle boarding difficult was that the waves would make the board go up and down, and it was hard to stand. Also, the wind would blow the board into the wrong direction. I really liked paddle boarding and maybe I can try it again sometime. 


Kauai has many different beautiful birds.  While we were sitting at the beach, I spotted a Red Crested Cardinal that came over to eat some food that it found. It was my favorite bird on the island. 

Red Crested Cardinal

Do you like to go to the beach?

What do you do there?

Kayaking on the Wailua River

Aloha! Today we went on a long journey on the Wailua River to get to a waterfall called Secret Falls. The Wailua River is located in the Wailua River State Park, on the East Coast of Kauai. The river is 20 miles long, and the only river in the state of Hawaii that can be passed through by motorized boat. The river is fed by two main waterfalls and also by rain from Mount Waialeale, the wettest place in the world. Mount Waialeale gets 480 inches of rain per year! The river is surrounded by a lush green rainforest.

First, we rented 2 kayaks, which held one adult with two children.  Everyone had to paddle except my younger brother and sister. At first, I thought paddling was going to be fun but after we started it was very hard.When we got on the boat the wind was blowing us forward so we didn’t have to paddle as much.  It was a two mile kayak trip.  When we got there, our hands were very tired so we sat down on the rock, rested, and ate lunch before starting our one mile hike to the waterfall. 

                                                                                  

Crossing the river

The hike was not very strenuous and mostly following the river. We had to look down so we didn’t trip on the many roots that stuck out of the ground. After walking for about 20 minutes, the trail ended right at the river and we can see that it restarted at the other side. That meant that we had to cross.  We all had tennis shoes on, instead of water shoes. We had to take off our shoes and walk in the water. The rocks were very slippery and also hurt our feet. When we got across, we noticed we made a big mistake. We should have kept our shoes on because by the time we crossed, we were all wet anyway.  Then we started up hill and walked more.  After we walked about, another mile, we still didn’t see the water fall and didn’t see anyone else on the trail, all we saw were some toads near the trail. We were lost! We continued a little further and then the trail ended. We had to start walking back until we found the right trail. Once we turned onto the right trail the waterfall was only a couple of minutes away. The secret falls was a huge waterfall, and the water was really cold and refreshing. We all went swimming in the waterfall and swam all the way to the falls. When we went near the falls, the water was falling so hard that it hurt and we swam away.

Hiking through the rainforest

Cane toad

Our trip back to our kayak went very smoothly. We didn’t get lost and crossed the river with our shoes on so it didn’t hurt our fee. When we got to our kayak, we were all tired, but we still had to paddle back to the dock where we left our car. In the afternoon the wind started to pick up and we had to paddle the kayak against the wind. We were paddling as fast as we could, but the wind was blowing so hard that we were going backwards and being pushed up against the bushes that grow alongside the river. The bushes were prickly so it hurt a little. We just couldn’t paddle any more. Luckily, we saw there was a dock, and we decided to stop and rest.  The owner of the dock let us rest and had a great idea. He told us to ask someone with a motor boat to take us back to the dock and then we can drive and pick up the kayaks. My mom went to get our van while we stayed behind. While we were waiting for her, we saw a man weaving baskets, hats, fish, and birds from coconut tree leaves. We asked him how he makes them and he showed us. It looked very hard. He said that he has to climb the trees to get the coconut leaves.   After that, he gave all of us a fish on a fishing pole that he wove right in front of us. Finally our mom arrived and we loaded up the kayaks and went to a a restaurant to eat dinner. When we finally got home, we were all very exhausted and went swimming in the pool to cool off. We had a very exciting and adventurous day.

What interesting place have you hiked?

Tropical Fruits from the Farmer's Market

While on vacation on the island of Kauai in Hawaii, we went to the farmers market.Every day there is a farmers market located on a different part of the Island. On Friday, the farmer's market is near where we are staying, on the east side of the Island.  At the farmers market. we saw many different kinds of fruits and vegetables.  We took some of them home and tasted them. Last year, Miriam did a similar post with fruits we found on the Big Island.

Mountain apple

 Mountain apple- This tropical fruit doesn't really tastes like apples, it tastes more like a pear. It is white on the inside, and dark red on the outside. This fruit is very sweet and juicy. It was everyone's favorite. 

Chiku- It has a very hard shell, but on the inside it looks like a grape. It is much sweeter than a grape, and it also has a small black pit. I didn't really like this fruit because it was too sweet. 

Longan- It has a brown skin that you peel before you eat the inside. Longan is extremely sweet and it kind of tastes mushy. In the inside it has a few black oval shape pits. Miriam was the only one who liked this fruit. 

Chiku

Passion fruit- This tropical fruit is very sour. You cut it in half and then you only eat the inside. There are many small seeds inside that you eat.  The seeds are somewhat slimy, but delicious. 

White pineapple- It  looks like a regular pineapple but it is white in the inside instead of yellow. This pineapple is low in acid which makes it extra sweet.

Soursop, This tropical fruit is related to the Cherimoya family. The outside of this fruit it is very prickly, but it has a very sweet and sour taste inside. It doesn't taste like any other fruit I tried.  The inside is also kind of hard to chew because it is high in fiber. 

Longan

Sunrise Papaya,  This papaya is smaller and milder in taste compared to the maradol papaya that is found in California and Mexico.  This fruit is very sweet, and it tastes like a melon. 

Sunrise papaya

 

Soursap

Passion fruit

White pineapple

When we were at the farmers market it was very hot, and one of the farmers was selling coconuts.  He cut out the top and put a straw inside so we could drink the water. It tasted like sweet water, but it wasn't my favorite.











 

Some of the farmers were also selling colorful tropical flowers that were red, yellow, pink and green.

Cooking bananas vs lady finger bananas

At the farmer's market we saw 3 types of banana, apple banana, lady finger banana, and cooking banana. The apple banana looked just like a regular banana except it smaller and fatter. It is also a little more tangy than the regular banana. The lady finger banana are tiny and are also called sugar banana because of their sweet taste. Cooking bananas are also known as plantains. They were really big and thick, but we never tried them to see how they taste. 







Other fruit that we saw at the market were  mangoes, lichee, bitter melon, squash, and jack fruit.

Hannah holding a humongous and heavy squash

Have you tried any of these fruits? 

Which was your favorite?  

Have you tried any other exotic fruits?

Playing Piano with my Little Sister

Hannah and I recently learned a few new songs that we wanted to share with you. They were written in different periods of music. The first song we recorded was played by Hannah. It is called Nocturne by F.Chopin. Frederic Chopin was born on 1810 in Poland, and died in 1849 when he was just 38 years old. He composed music in the early Romantic Period (1820 to 1850).  The music in the Romantic Period had more feelings and emotions to the music. To read more about Chopin, you can visit my earlier post. Another famous composer that lived in this period is Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. My little sister Hannah played some of his pieces.

The next song was played by me. It was called Sonatina Op. 36, No. 2 Movement III by M. Clementi. Muzio Clementi was born on January 24,1752 in Rome. He was an Italian composer and pianist, and was the first to write specifically for the piano.  He was born during the classical period 1750-1820. The classical period composers were the first to write for the piano and are best known for piano music.  Most of the pieces Miriam and  I play are from the classical period.  To learn more about Clementi, you can visit Miriam's blog. Other important classical composers that I play are Beethoven and Haydn. Miriam also plays pieces by Beethoven and Haydn.

The next song was played by Hannah. It is called variations on the Russian theme by  N. Lubarsky. He is a Russian composer, but I couldn't find what year he composed in. In fact, I couldn't find anything about this composer. Can you find any information about him?

Finally, the last song I played together with Hannah is a waltz called "Waves of the Danube" By  I. Ivanovici. "Waves of the Danube" was first published in Bucharest, in 1880.

Here is the video of all the songs we recorded:

Which one was your favorite?

My Spring Orchestra Concert

Recently, I had a Spring Orchestra Concert and this was my second performance. We practiced every Saturday for 3 months and played the following pieces.

•  Medieval Legend by Michael Story.
• Three Pieces of Bach by J.S. Bach
• Sarabande
• Minuet
• Rondo.
• Adagio Cantabile  (from Pathetique Sonata) by Ludwig van Beethoven
• Mozart Alleluia  by W.A. Mozart
• Cellos Ole! by Richard Meyer

The Medieval Legend is very loud and gets everyone's attention. It was the first piece that we played. Can you here how loud it is? Next, we played 3 pieces by Bach. The first movement was quiet and slow. The second sounded like butterflies flying in nature. It was a light song. The third movement was also loud and fast like Medieval Legend. Then we played Mozart Alleluia.  It is similar to Minuet because it has  light bows and has a friendly melody. The final song was Cellos Ole, a song mainly for the cellos. The violins and violas play soft and quiet and but the cellos play very loud. The cellos had a fun time playing this piece. It has many dramatic moments.

 The concert was so long that my mom only had enough room to film the first 3 pieces.

 Which piece did you like best?

My Spring Break

Over Spring Break, we went on a road trip in a recreational vehicle. Over our trip we drove a total of 2,000 miles and through 4 states, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.  We started our trip in Southern California and then drove through Nevada, into Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. We continued north towards Utah, and stopped at Lake Powell located near the border of Arizona and Utah.  After spending a few hours at the lake, we continued into Utah and visited Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.  We then drove west to Nevada and crossed into Death Valley located in California.  From there, we continued west into central California where we made our final stop at the hot springs. After such a long trip, we were all happy to get home to Southern California.  

Here are the posts that Miriam and I wrote about our trip. If you click on the name, you can find out more information about each location.

• Traveling by RV
• Grand Canyon rim 
• Grand Canyon Hike
• Lake Powell
• Zion National Park
• Bryce Canyon
• Death Valley
• Hot Springs

Vote here for your favorite post! 

Get your own Poll!

Have you ever been to any of these States or National Parks?

Which post was your favorite and why?

Death Valley

The dunes

We left the high canyons of Bryce Canyon in Utah,  located at 7,000 feet in elevation, and drove down to the lowest point in North America, Death Valley in the Mohave desert in California. It is located 282 feet below sea level. Mrs. Yollis also went to Death Valley and shared her photos with us. We arrived late at night, and it took us 12 hours to get there. At night, it was extremely windy and we heard the wind howl outside. We were all snuggled in our sleeping bags trying to keep warm.

Palm tress growing in the desert

On average, Death Valley has the highest temperature in the word. July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 116 F. But the temperature on the ground gets even hotter. A ground temperature of 201 F was once recorded. Luckily, while we were there, it was only around 80F. Death Valley gets really hot because it is surrounded by steep mountain ranges that traps the heat inside the valley.  The tall mountains also keep the rain clouds from on the other side of the mountain, leaving death valley very dry.  Even though the desert is dry, there are a few spots with green palm trees grow.

In the morning, we quickly got dressed and hurried out. After we got outside, we noticed that we didn't bring our hats, and it was very hot outside. We didn't want to get burned, so we tied our shirts on our heads to make mini hats. My little sister looked like little red riding hood with her red hat shirt over her head.Even my dad and my mom put on shirt hats. All of us looked very funny in our hats.

On top of a Sand Dune

We then went outside and saw huge sand dunes. They were beautiful, dark yellow sand, and had small patches of green bushes in a few places. The sand was very fine and felt nice and warm. They looked very fun to climb and slide or run down. When we climbed our first sand dune, we rolled down. I got really dizzy sliding down one of the sand dunes, but it was still fun.  My little brother Michael and our driver, Victor, went to the highest sand dune, and my Mom, my little sister Hannah and I went the third highest dune. We were just too tired to follow Michael to the top.  

While standing on top of the sand dunes, we had a competition of who can jump the farthest down the hill. Victor won first place, I jumped second farthest and Michael was third. We had a great time there. When we came back in our car, we were so hot and tired that we wanted to go swimming. Victor had a great idea of going to the hot springs near Bishop, California. 

Climbing up

Rolling down

Have you ever visited the desert? 

What interesting things did you see?