At Honolulu, about to board flight to Phoenix.

At Lihue Airport, checking in for flight to Honolulu and then Phoenix. Aloha, Kauai. Mahalo for a great week!

A surfer takes on a monster wave along Kauai’s west coast Dec. 24. Here are some more waves.

It’s CHRISTMAS!!! Above is a picture of the “hang-loose” Santa Claus whom we saw in eastern Kauai this afternoon, Christmas Eve, riding on horseback along the roadside. (Pardon the reflections in the window.) Below is another “hang-loose” Santa, in this case a statue, that Becky and I saw a few days ago in Honolulu.

Meanwhile, here’s a photo proving that some traditions never change: earlier this evening, I hung my Christmas stocking from a curtain rod in our time-share condo in northern Kauai, and then I placed my stuffed cat, Kitty, inside it. Kitty has spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning inside my stocking every year since being “born in a Christmas stocking” in the late 1980s, and even though I’m five time zones away from home, this year is no exception.

Here in Hawaii, the Christmas Day weather forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and highs 80 to 85. Back home, it’s a different story. Dreams of a White Christmas are going to come true, and then some, with 7 to 14 inches of snow forecast for the Hartford area. Local TV station WFSB is calling it Winter Storm Blake, and they say it may produce “record Christmas snowfall.” Check out the latest radar loop, or view the coverage on CTNow.com, the Hartford Courant’s website. Better yet, here’s a live webcam image of Hartford! (Also check out Connecticut’s traffic cams and the UConn webcam.)

I’m not sure exactly what my parents’ Christmas plans are, but they will apparently include shoveling. :) Hopefully they’ll also include taking some videos of the snow! Out here, we’re planning to attend Christmas Mass at 8:00 AM, then do some more Kauai touring in the late morning and afternoon before heading to a nice Christmas dinner in Kapa’a at 5:30 PM.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

We’re having a great time in Kauai. On Sunday, we took a boat ride up the Wailua River to a place called Fern Grotto, listening all the while to live Hawaiian music; next we toured the south shore of the island a bit, visiting a place called Spouting Horn and doing some impromptu whale watching; and then we frolicked in the giant surf on the east coast. Monday began with a magnificent (if somewhat bumpy) helicopter ride all over the island, followed by a trip to Kilauea Lighthouse (on the northernmost point of land in the inhabited Hawaiian islands), and then several hours of wading, swimming, snorkeling, and sandcastle-building at Tunnels Beach on the north coast. We saw a bunch of beautiful fish swimming all around us, and a yellow-and-blue fish was flirting with my yellow-and-blue underwater camera!

Tomorrow (Tuesday), the plan is to tour the southwest part of the island and maybe Waimea Canyon (though we saw a good deal of that from the helicopter this morning) before going out for a fancy Italian dinner in the evening. Then on Wednesday, Christmas Day, we’ll go to church in the morning and do a bit of early-afternoon touring before heading to a five-star restaurant for another nice dinner. Thursday is the day of our big boat ride — a combined snorkeling and adventure cruise to nearby Ni’ihau — and on Friday, we’re going to a luau. Saturday, we fly home. (Or, in my case, I fly to Arizona, then return home to Connecticut on Monday.)

I’ve already posted lots of pictures at right, but here’s one you haven’t seen yet… our work-in-progress “Christmas tree” in the living room of the timeshare condo we’re staying in. (The Christmas lights are on a short battery-operated string that I brought from home.)

Becky and I pose in front of the lighthouse at Kilauea Point, the northernmost point in the inhabited Hawaiian Islands, on Dec. 23.

A view during our Dec. 23 helicopter ride of Kauai’s rugged Na Pali coast. Here are aerial pictures of a sandy beach and mountains.

Becky smiles for the camera during our helicopter ride over Kauai on the morning of Dec. 23. Here’s a picture of Becky and her mom looking out at Waimea Canyon.

Water erupts from the Spouting Horn, a sort of tidal geyser forged by volcanic rock, on Dec. 22. Here’s a video, with sound, of the Sprouting Horn (244 KB). At the same location, we saw another type of spout — from a whale. Two or more whales, actually — humpbacks, we believe.

Becky cuddles with a stray cat along the Fern Grotto trail on Dec. 22, while Gerry pets it.

Becky’s brother Casey and his fiancee Gerry cuddle during our boat ride Dec. 22 up the Wailua River.

From right: Becky, her father, and her sister Jen enjoy the view on a boat ride Dec. 22 up the Wailua River.

A shot of one of the many chickens and roosters that roam free in Kauai. They were once cooped up, but they were freed when their cages broke during Hurricane Iniki in 1992. We’ve also seen geese, spiders, and red-tailed boobies (that’s a type of bird, you pervert).

Becky looks out on a scenic view in the Wailua River valley Dec. 22.

Shortly after getting leid at the airport on Dec. 21, Becky wears her lei.