"Puff the magic dragon, lives by the sea. And frolicks in the autumn mist, in the land called Hanalei..."

So, in hindsight, arriving on Kauai over President's Day weekend threw a couple of wrenches in our gears, for example, there were no rental cars available when we got here. Also, the camping permit offices were closed. BUT we managed to rent a new wreck: a blue minivan, AND we went covert camping on Ke'e beach two nights ago and got lucky, because no rangers woke us up at 6 am.

Yesterday we visited one of my favorite spots on the planet: The Blue Room

The Blue Room is a wet cave near the Napali Coast trailhead here on Kauai. It's very close to the road, literally a three minute walk, but I get the feeling not many people know about it, because it's easy to get the place to yourself. Mikey, Amy, Tim, and I had it to ourselves yesterday.

So you walk up a short hill, and you get to the base of a cliff. It all looks very Indiana Jones, with vines hanging down over the cave opening. The mouth is very wide, and the ceiling of the cave is full of nature's graffiti, crazy designs in all sorts of colors.

We hiked down the loose dirt hill into the cave mouth. As soon as you get into the shadows of the cave a little bit, you can see the lake at the bottom. They call it the Blue Room because of the color of the water... this stoney pale blue, just crystal clear. The water makes tinker-bell like lights all over the top of the cave.

We swam. The water is very cold. Amy and I did some singing in the back rooms of the cave. The acoustics are amazing.

Pictures soon to come. Happy Wednesday everyone, we're off to the Waimea Canyon!