Well we didn’t want to return. No surprise, after spending a week there, and looking at the local economy and prices. Plus the lure of living on the islands… But reality kicked in. The idea of living there is nice, but I think that leaving one paradise (Napa Valley) for another (The Island of Kauai) is silly. We’ll just have to come up with more ways to pay for vacations in the future. But enough with the “some day we’ll return” blather. Click Read More for the update.
I had last posted late Tuesday (I have since fixed the post) and since then the days ran WAY too quickly. We didn’t want each one to end. Wednesday it rained just as we we’re about to head out, so we kicked back and relaxed (We had gone swimming earlier that day at the pool so it was no hardship. The rain was interesting, as it had rained numerous times over the days. But instead of a quick couple minute shower and almost immediate dry this one lasted a couple hours. So I had to go outside and prove to myself how warm it was.
After the rain stopped we decided to go out and eat (There are MANY restaurants in the area) and then we went to Poi’pu beach to go snorkling. I have to say that I loved it, the beach was nice and all, but the clear waters and how easy it was to snorkle out and see tons of fish…. I still am seeing them… ok I’m not but damn it was nice. I didn’t take any underwater pictures until Friday, but as soon as I get them developed I’ll upload them.
Thursday saw Ane, Joseph, Cadance and I went and took a drive down towards the west coast. Our first stop was the Hannepepe… which is a small downtown bypassed by a highway… and it’s conversion into a center of Art Galleries, Artists Studios and a bridge. The “Famous” Hannepepe swinging bridge. This wood and cable stayed bridge looks like it used to connect two sides of a town seperated by a river. Not a very wide bridge, it is only wide enough to maybe have 2 people walk side by side… and even though it looked somewhat recently refurbished, I can’t imagine it was able to handle much traffic at once.
On our way to Fort Elisabeth I ran acrossed the Gay & Robinson Sugar Plantation. They had a nice Visitor’s Room filled with Antiques they had from the many years in operation. It wasn’t a day of tours, but my son had great fun playing with an antique typewriter and I was enjoying looking at all the different old tools. They also had lots of pictures of the history, the making and the different info on sugar.
We then went to Fort Elisabeth. This fort originally built by the Russians to help protect the Russian/American sandlewood trade was abandoned by the Russians in 1815 to be taken over by the royal Hawaiin military for about 50 years before they decided to demolish it. And they did a pretty good job of it. All that is left was a low outer wall, and a few stones marking positions of different buildings. This wasn’t like Fort Ross in Northern California… this was nothing. I didn’t even bother my wife to get herself and the kids out of the car. They look like they where refurbishing the area… but I’m not sure what they could do with this.
On our way back “to go to the pool and go swimming” as my son kept asking for us to do, I ran acrossed a sign about a Coffee Plantation having a Visitor’s Center. So I did a quick turn off and ran acrossed the very polished and well set up Visitor Center for the
Kauai Coffee Company.
I got the wife and kids happy with some ice cream and then I started taste testing. I have to say that I’m not a huge coffee drinker… but that was some good stuff. Not sure if it was the freshness… but it just tasted good enough I actually bought a couple bags of the beans, even though I don’t own a coffee grinder. I also had to pick up some Maui Gold Cane Sugar (I have no idea why in all my wandering I didn’t see any containers of Kauai Cane Sugar. My guess is that that’s where the nearest processing plant is.)
Thursday after the running around the adults got ready and we had a babysitter come in, and then we went to a Luau. We where given an option of 3 Luau’s in the area (with a nice buy one get one free coupon the Embassy set us up with) and decided on the Hyatt’s which was right next door in walking distance. Once we walked in we were greeted with a Lei and a drink of choice (Mai Tai’s or punch) and went and found a seat. This was the best service we had had on the island. As soon as a drink got low a server was dropping a new one off and taking any empty glasses.
They had good entertainment with a versitile band that was doing somewhat modern beach music as the sun slowly set and the emcee explained what the schedule was going to be like. Soon you where wrapped into a great evening with a variety of Hawaiin and other Polynesian Dances and also numerous types of music all put together as well as any musical or musical review. They also had a huge spread with a variety of standard Hawaiin fare and a lot of other odds of ends that left you more then full.
And then of course what Hawaiin Luau would be complete without a dance to Pelé the goddess of fire/volcanos. There was two sets of dances… the first involved a couple female dancers and lit poi balls… which was very pretty but not as impressive as the guy. The guy was insane… eating fire… ok I know that trick. But balancing a lit end on bare skin… he did that a few times. Plus he was swirling that all over… and dropped it a few times. But all in all a VERY good show.
Friday saw us lounging most the day… with more snorkling, more swimming at the pool, and lunch at the poolside grill. It’s funny that I had my best burgers at the closest place…. ie grill at resort. but irony… I will say the burgers at the Barefoot burgers in Waiemea Monday where good… it just tasted really good at the grill. and the wife and I ended the evening by taking a quiet walk around the grounds ending up on a swinging bench facing the ocean. It’s so hard to say good bye to such a great place.
Saturday… the day that never ended. It seriously sounded like a great idea on paper. Take the 7am flight from Lihue, Kauai, fly into Honolulu, Oahu and spend the day at Pearl Harbor and relaxing and then hit the midnight flight home. Honolulu is like Oakland or another run down city… but with bad organization. At least that’s the way it feels. Pearl Harbor was crowded… but solumn for Memorial Day Weekend. We first visited the Arizona Exhibit, once we found it… lots of signs where there directing us… but the turn off signs must of been missing, but the Navy guards where VERY helpful. We spent a couple hours at teh exhibit and I have to say it was one of the most mving things I have ever seen.
And then while Doug and Diana rested in the van the rest of us went to the Bowfin Submarine exhibit and Joseph had great fun on all the different interactive pieces. But food called and we left in search for the Hard Rock Cafe. Which called for us to get lost for the second time this day. Once we found it it was the search for a Walmart. Now this is where we got lost the next 20 times…. Seriously we asked WAY TOO MANY people… and got way too many directions. Now I wasn’t driving… but I heard the directions… and it just didn’t work sometimes. It was in all this driving that we realized that the area is off. They have a high rise surrounded by residential housing. Junk businesses right next to popular beaches… and hotels sqeezed in everywhere… with rat trap apartment buildings intersperced. Can you tell we were not liking Honolulu & Wiakiki? We did find Diamondhead Crater… but a 2 hour hike wasn’t in the cards with 2 tired kids and 3 other adults not up to it
(I was willing to go… but by myself… no.) We finally did find it, and from there we started a drive around the island, before wimping out and heading to the airport early to relax and take a nap. It’s amazing though… how little sleep is needed to but mobile. After we got back it’s been do one thing after another and I am glad to hear that I don’t work tommorrow. So I’ll play some Battlefield 2: Armoured Force, straighten up a little and BBQ a bit in the evening. In otherwords… as little as possible.
Tags: Interesting, Photographs, Vacation
Next time, get pics of real boobies, not hairy man boobies.
(2nd pic in post)