Until I moved to California, I went to the local county fair in Illinois with my dad every year for as long as I can remember, and my favorite thing was always the animal barns. My dad jokes about taking a deep breath before entering the swine barn and trying to hold it until we were out, but I just couldn’t get enough. To me, a county fair is synonymous with farm animals.

Back when I was a child, it seemed like access to the animals was much easier and I would pet the pigs, pat the cows’ hindquarters, and look soulfully into the goats’ eyes. Oh, the goats. How I loved the goats. Going back as far as I can remember, probably back to that first trip to the county fair when I was a toddler, I have always wanted to have a goat.

These days, walking through the animal barns is very much an arm’s distance affair.  The individual corrals have high fences to keep hands out and there are people around to discourage passersby from petting the animals. I understand why – imagine the stress on the animals having hundreds of what are basically American Tourists intruding on their space all day, not to mention the possibility of spreading diseases. But it can be hard to resist when a goat comes up to the fence, stands on the bottom rung and pushes its head towards you.

Fortunately, there is often a petting zoo set-up at the local fairs so people can get up close and personal without man-handling the animals in the barns.  Unfortunately, it is usually a madhouse, extremely crowded with people. For the last few years, we have decided to walk by rather than stand in line in the hot sun for 10 minutes only to get in and find every animal occupied with someone, or find a potential friend only to have a young child run up to it. Because you have to yield to the child.

This year, the fair didn’t seem to be crowded at all and the petting zoo only had a few people in it.  This was our chance for some quality time.  All of the goats can be a bit pushy when it comes to the food, but there are usually a few who are incredibly persistent, pushing their way through, around, and over the other animals to get to the feeding hand. As you can see, this black and tan goat was a very pushy beast.

I quickly had a crowd surrounding me and I was happy as a clam.

Even when I was out of food, I was able to find a friend willing to accept a scratch instead.

I love the goats, but pigs are decent, too.

And this burro loved having his nose rubbed.

Loving the beard on this guy! As I told Steve as I was giving this guy a firm chin rubbing, if you’re going to pet the animals, really get in there and pet the animals. You’re going to have to wash your hands either way.

Yes, it is true, I love the goats. My dad often tells me there is nothing going on in their heads, pointing out that their skulls provide very little space for their brains. This year I really took a look past their eyes and noticed that, indeed, just over their eye ridges, there is a rather precipitous drop in their skulls where a larger brain might otherwise go. But I just don’t care. I choose to gaze into their eyes instead and see a sweet soul that just wants a scratch and a place to rest its head.

It remains my dream to someday have a house with a proper amount of land so we can have a large raccoon foster care enclosure, an attached outdoor cat run, a couple of hound dogs, and a pen of 2-3 goats. Steve desperately wants a duck pond.  Here is our current “love duck” and I am sorely tempted this time. She is undoubtedly the most beautiful duck I’ve ever seen. 

 We totally need to move to the country.

On a side note, we also took in a bit of the judging. I get a kick out of watching this for a little while, but all I can think is “for the love of god, would you please milk that cow!” 

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She had been found alone with an empty belly in a parking lot a few days earlier, and had spent a couple of days with a veterinarian before being transferred to us. All in all, she was in pretty good physical shape, and she was destined to be transferred to another rehab organization that has more experience raising fox kits. But she required a few days in quarantine before she could be transferred to the other rehabber who would merge her into an existing group of kits. 

Being in a cage at WildCare can have risks for distemper-prone species. Although we maintain quarantine, if another animal with distemper comes to the center, there is a risk, no matter how slight, of contagion. In addition, this was a depressed, high-stress little critter who didn’t need the worrying activity of people entering a Ward several times a day.

Long story short, since our foster care cage was currently unoccupied, we got to take her home!

 We had her from that Sunday to the following Saturday when we drove her up to another rehabber in Sonoma. We weighed her a few times during the week to be sure she was gaining weight (which she was – I make a damn fine omnivore diet and always raise healthy little bowling ball raccoons).

We don’t get very many foxes at WildCare, and they are usually adults – in our 7 and a half years at WildCare, this is the first kit Steve and I have seen – so this may well have been a once in a lifetime experience. Although, another fox kit made it to WildCare a couple of weeks ago, so maybe we’ll get another chance sometime. After all, we’re the new (self-dubbed) Fox Team Leaders.  : )

As we were driving up the mountain, we came to an overlook of the bay that was really cool and pretty much shows what happens to San Francisco in Summer. That’s not snow down below, but a vast thick swath of fog flowing over the bay and into southern Marin and the City through the Golden Gate.

Actually, I do regret one thing: not getting started a bit earlier. We didn’t know the weather was going to be so awesome, so we didn’t plan on going on a hike. We just decided late in the morning. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite take into account the driving time to our chosen hike. Since we had an appointment at 4pm that afternoon, we had to abbreviate the distance of our hike a bit, but we did make it to Cataract Falls on Mount Tam and ate lunch next to the rushing water. It was marvelous.

As I snuck closer to get better pictures, a third turkey vulture flew overhead and landed next to the other 2. 

This was obviously prime real estate: a great place to catch the sun as well as having a fantastic vantage point of the field in front of them.

This was the direction we had to hike to get back to our car, so we were going to have to disturb them eventually. I crept ever closer, taking more pictures every few feet.

One of the vultures took off when I was about 15 feet away. 

The other 2 left as I got within 10 feet.

Perhaps not quite as cool as if there had been a line of hawks perched on the fence, or a mountain lion lounging under a tree, but pretty neat nonetheless.  Respect the Turkey Vulture!

After taking a few pictures of the seal, we set-up our beach mats and umbrella and considered heading into the water.  Once again, the wind was quite brisk and it was rather chilly.  In fact, after sitting on the beach for a few minutes, we watched a rather menacing cloud come toward us.  Within minutes, we were huddled together under the beach umbrella during a heavy, but mercifully short, downpour.

Cold though it was, I really wanted to snorkel again, so I summoned warm thoughts and started into the water, taking my time getting acclimated.  Once I was submerged, I found that, although the water was a bit choppy and cloudy, there were a whole lot of fish swimming around me, including this cool trumpet fish that I followed around for a while.

I stayed in the water for about an hour before my teeth finally started chattering and I decided I’d had enough.  I knew I had been having trouble getting fish in the frame of the camera (I blame the cloudy water and my hands shaking from the cold), but it was really ridiculous when I started looking at the pictures later.  I took many, many pictures, and ended up with many, many pictures of rocks.  Most of the below photos have been suitably cropped to feature the intended target.

And that’s it. We leave for home tomorrow and go back to work on Friday.  It’s been a fantastic trip and I’ve been able to check several activities off of my list.  Thankfully, I think there just might be enough left for another vacation in the future.

There has been another trailhead that has called to me during our previous trips to Kauai, but we have never ventured onto it until today.  This morning we drove to the end of the road on the North Shore to hike the first portion of the Kalalau Trail. 

When we first got to the Ke’e Beach area and found parking, we were approached by a slightly timid puppy that was standing in the road.  We called to it and it came over happily, gratefully accepting our attention. Thinking it probably belonged to someone at the beach, we continued to gather our hiking gear and the puppy wandered away.  As we started walking to the trail, a young couple was walking toward us and the woman had another puppy in her arms.  Apparently, they had just been up on the trail and this little dog was up there and almost fell off the cliff.  They brought is down and asked the lifeguard if he knew whose dog it was; he said there were 3 or 4 puppies that had shown up a few days earlier and he thought someone had dumped them. This wonderful couple had decided they wanted to try and adopt this puppy and fly it home with them; there plan was to take it to the island’s humane society to see what they needed to do.

Now, Steve and I have been in this situation ourselves. On our first trip to Hawaii together, we rescued a stray cat, and picked up a dog that had been hit by a car the same night.  This is a long story that I’ve told before on this web site; ask me if you’re interested. Long story short, we warned this couple to find out what the humane society’s policies were regarding strays before they turned the dog over to them.  We also told them about the other puppy that had approached us.  This couple was so much like us in their concern for the animals, it was really nice to meet them, however briefly. 

I thought about the puppy that had come to us throughout the hike and, at the end, asked Steve if he thought we should call the humane society and see about bringing it in, too.  We did not see the dog again and Steve suggested the other couple had taken it with them, too.  I certainly think that is possible and I choose to believe that is the case.

As we have driven around the island, we have seen signs in places advising us not to feed the chickens and feral cats. I know what damage feral cats can do to the local bird population in Hawaii, but the first thing we do when we get to Hawaii is buy a bag of cat food that we keep in the trunk of the rental car in case we find some stray cats, which we always do.  When we had our first encounter with the stray cat and dog population on that fateful trip in 2000, I discovered that, while the population gets out of control very quickly due to the temperate climate, the genesis of the problem lies in the attitudes that many people on the islands have toward their animals. I’ll make the people of Hawaii a deal.  If they can start treating their pets responsibly, get them spayed and neutered, and not toss them out on their ear if they get pregnant, I’ll stop going around feeding every cat I see. 

Anyway, off my soap box now, and onto the trail. The wind has really been fierce these last few days and today was no exception.  In fact, all of the beaches along the North Shore were closed today because the tide is so high.  I don’t know if this was a contributing factor, but there were an incredible number of people heading onto the trail when we got there.

The Kalalau Trail is an 11-mile coastal trail that leads from Ke’e Beach to Kalalau Beach.  Hiking the whole of it is an all day event which requires a permit, and people usually camp overnight in Kalalau Valley to make the 11-mile return the next day.  Honestly, there’s very little chance that Steve and I will ever hike the whole trail. But, we could do the first 2 miles which does not require a permit.  So, up we began to climb.  The trail rises about 400 feet in the first quarter mile.  I had no idea what that really meant until we started the ascent.  These pictures were taken on our way back down, but they give you an idea of the angle of the trail, which was a pretty consistent for that first leg. 

At the top of this initial ascent was a beautiful outlook back over Ke’e Beach.  You can see how heavy the surf was in the area.

We continued on, with the trail rising another 200 feet over the next quarter mile.  After that, it leveled out a bit before beginning to descend to the first beach and the end of the first 2 miles.  Really, it is a beautiful trail and I’m so glad we finally got out onto it. As we were heading back off the trail, I told Steve the good part about going on the hike was that, now that we’d done it, I wouldn’t be pestering him about it on future trips.  I wonder if that’s a promise I’ll be able to keep. . .

We have gone on a horseback ride each time we’ve gone to Hawaii.  I always love them, but my knees started hurting a lot earlier on this one, so we’ll just have to wait and see if there is another in our future.

Once again, the winds were whipping in to the island from the east, making ridge trails unwise and the seas quite choppy.  Our original plan had been to go to Po’ipu Beach Park to snorkel after the ride, but it was clear once we got there that even these calm waters were being affected by the winds.  However, we were in for a treat after all.  As we sat on the beach eating lunch, Steve noticed that an area out toward the water was cordoned off.  He guessed, and was correct, that there was another monk seal out there.  We walked out and took several pictures.  This one was tagged V20.

After taking our fill of seal photos, we headed back up the beach to leave the area.  As we were just about to leave the water and head to the parking area, I saw an enormous green sea turtle in the shallow water.  I pointed and stopped Steve and he got out the camera just as it became clear the turtle was coming up to sun itself.

At that point the lifeguard made an announcement that the sea turtle was coming ashore and people should be careful not to disturb it.  Now I don’t know if his intention was to let the tourists know the sea turtle was there for a photo-op, or to really tell people not to disturb it, or both.  But the only effect was to have everyone on the beach converge on the spot.  Steve and I were a respectful 20 feet from the turtle taking our initial photos, but as the bloated mass of humanity swarmed, the circle tightened around the turtle.  There was one slack-jawed git who looked amazed and bemused at the “stupid” turtle who I’m sure he thought he would be able to sit on.  I did tell this guy to back off, but I was becoming a bit tense at the mob scene that was developing with no authority figure on the beach to maintain a distance.

I felt an almost palpable sense of relief when the lifeguard made another announcement calling for volunteers to go get the rope and cones to cordon off the turtle.  Steve and I, who had been on opposite sides of the circle, both took off to the get the rope.

We hustled back to set up the barrier, shooing some of the closer people back as we went.  Of course, as we were setting up the perimeter, the turtle scooted its way another 3 feet up the shore.  As I told Steve, I didn’t think this turtle was going to respect our boundary.  So the rope circle ended up being a little closer to the turtle than perhaps it should have, but at least there was a clear demarcation alerting the less-alert among us not to go pet the turtle on the head.

Eventually, most of the tourists lost interest in the turtle that was now just lying there sunbathing and started to drift away.  Steve and I sat down and took several more pictures before deciding to go ourselves.

Now, the fact that we came upon 2 monk seals and an enormous green sea turtle when we had to veer from our plans for the day is probably some sort of lesson about going with the flow and not planning the death march vacations in quite so much detail.  Serendipity is good to keep in mind, but I don’t imagine that’s a lesson I’ll apply too strictly.  : )

Unfortunately, as the car climbed the 4,000 foot elevation, the clouds got lower and lower and the wind got gustier.  By the time we reached the trailhead, we were basically sitting in fog.  It was just over 50 degrees and the wind was whipping around us.  Now, I know that the weather in the Kalalau Valley is changeable and often if you give it 15 minutes, it can clear up.  So, Steve and I ate lunch in the car and hoped for the best.  The weather was just as crappy when we’d finished lunch as it had been before.  If I’d been able to see any blue sky when facing inland, I would have said let’s go for it, but there was nothing but fog and mist as far as the eye could see.  It wasn’t until we had descended back down several hundred feet in elevation that the blue sky returned.  Even then, the wind was coming in like crazy, blowing dust and dirt into our eyes as we tried to take pictures of the canyon.

I was pretty bummed that we were finally going to go on this particular hike only to have it called off due to the weather.  But it was quite clear that we would be cold and miserable and wouldn’t have a good time.  More to the point, this hike is supposed to have gorgeous views into the Kalalau Valley and off to the North Shore; with the fog obscuring the valley so much, there just didn’t seem to be much point in forging ahead.

Interestingly though, I did discover that Steve thinks I’m obsessive to the point of being crazy.  Apparently, he thought I was so focused on taking this hike that I would pursue it come hell or high water.  I was amazed at how amazed he was that I called it off.

Since we still had the whole afternoon ahead of us, we did go ahead and stop at the canyon overlooks on our way down the mountain.  Our last trips to Kauai were both in the October-November timeframe.  Even though the islands are having a bit of a drought right now, the canyon was visibly greener than on our previous trips.

Waipo’o Falls was also flowing heavier than I’d remembered it in the past.

This is just a random stream that runs-off down the mountain, but I’ve always loved taking pictures at this spot because the contrast of the blue sky and the red dirt, along with what little green there is, is just amazing.

After leaving Waimea Canyon, we turned right and headed west to the end of the road.  We had never driven west of the canyon before and wanted to see what there was to see.  The answer, it turns out, is not much.  Oh, there are lots of beaches if you turn off the main highway, and apparently the view of Ni’ihau from the Naval Missile Facility can be fantastic on a clear day (which this was not), but otherwise, there’s just not all that much reason to go out in that direction.

Coming back around, we decided to stop at the Glass Beach.  This is a small beach near the garbage dump on south Kauai.  I know that sounds charming, but over the years, glass has washed out into the ocean and small, smooth pieces come back to mingle with the sand, creating a multi-colored, sparkly surface.  The amount of glass on the beach can vary with the tide.  I think we were probably at about a mid-point in sparkliness.  Visible and pretty glass pieces in the sand, but not as nice as it could have been.

But we did find one very nice surprise on the beach: a Hawaiian Monk Seal had beached herself for a little snooze in the sun.  It was the first time we had seen a monk seal in Hawaii and we were quite pleased and excited by the opportunity. She was designated “K12″.