Aloha Kauai

Aloha Kauai

It’s our third evening on the garden island… the end of our third day…

We are finally beginning to relax… starting to wind down to vacation mode…

Not all vacations are relaxing… sometimes the goal is to travel and see. This vacation is about escape… seeing, but not seeing to the exclusion of relaxing… There is a tendency when on vacation to need to do all that the destination offers… This can be exhausting… I am guilty of this in some cases… but not this time.

We arrived well before noon Saturday… the time changes working in our favor… The flight arrived at the very small Lihue airport about 10:00… We had our luggage and rental car well before 11:00…

Our first stop was Hamura Saimin… a well known local noodle house… I had found it on a previous trip… with the help of a friend of a friend… That time I was the only Haole in the joint… but welcomed by the locals… this time T and I were the first of the folks to make it over from the airport… Some of the other had been here before, others drawn by reviews on Trip Advisor and various printed guide books… Some expected more than a local noodle house… Based on on line reviews, those who expect a local noodle house are very happy… those who don’t understand that it is a noodle house catering to the local population are less pleased…

We had a wonderful quick lunch…

Then off to the north shore… We had all day, so we took our time… Along the way we found the Kauai version of “Occupy Wall Street”… we found and successfully ignored tee-shirt stores and such… we bought a couple of bottles of wine… And eventually we found our B&B well before check in time, (across the double silver bridge, find the 7 mile marker after a short hill, then two 10ths of a mile, turn left, it’s the 2^nd house on the left… it was much easier to find than the directions suggested) so continued to the end of the road at Haena Beach Park and its wet and dry caves…

Having seen the caves, we retreated back down the road to our B&B, the Hale Ho’o Maha Bread & Breakfast… a building high on stilts, tree house like, with 4 rooms (plus the owner’s (Toby and Kirby) suite… Downstairs we found 4 cats and a beautiful parrot with a bad reputation… There were also chickens… and rosters… and baby chickens… In truth, some of the cats get to come inside, to share the owner’s suite… they are just not allowed to mingle with the guests…The chickens stay out side…

Kauai is the island of the chicken… at least since hurricane Iniki in 1992… now they are everywhere… they are the unofficial mascot of the island… this is an island in search of a good chicken recipe… We would see more chickens… and more chickens… but this is a travel blog and not a seminar on poultry…

There was a note at the bottom of the stairs welcoming us… we gathered our bags and made our way upstairs… We noted that the cats were excluded… the area upstairs was pleasantly devoid of chickens but did feature a collection of stuffed dragons... we were confused…

We found the information about local restaurants and started making plans for dinner…

The closest place, The Mediterranean Gourmet, was within walking distance, and had a good reputation, and an ocean view… We later found it was a favorite of Pierce Brosnan, but unfortunately he was no where to be seen… Dinner was nice… we walked on the beach… we started to slip into vacation mode…

We were in bed early… I was up early before dawn, walking on the beach and taking pictures… Tina slept in… We had breakfast with the other guests… then climbed into the car and headed south along the coast… no destination planned… We turned inland in search of water falls… We found water falls…We stopped and Hilo Hattie’s, a well known island souvenir stand with ample bus parking… nothing called our names… We continued southward ending up at Waimea Canyon… On the climb up we found a bazaar red dirt landscape…truly Disney-esk… (but had nothing to do with Disney) We reached the canyon overlook… we overlooked… we (I) took pictures… we retreated down the hill in search of lunch… I found an abandoned sugar mill and took photos…

This was Sunday, and apparently, much of Kauai still celebrates the Sabbath… many restaurants and shops were closed… we found a former brew pub, which does not brew beer (any more) but did have chickens wandering among the outdoor tables… We had a wonderful lunch, then headed back north…

We tried to be tourists, stopping at a couple of tacky shops but our hearts were just not in it… We walked the beach at Hanalei, but at least found somewhere to eat that evening…

Back to the B&B… Tina napped… then after a appropriate interval, back to Hanelei to Bar acuda… a tapas bar… The wait staff thought that they needed to explain the concept of tapas… small plates… apparently some of the guests who visit, from all over the world… who are in that increasingly smaller percentage of people who believe they can afford to travel… who hopefully are traveling in search of new experiences, who when on the islands chose a tapas bar instead of McDonalds, complain that a restaurant with a “small plates” theme serves small portions…

I ended dinner with the caramel balsamic vinegar ice cream… It was one of the most wonderful, unexpected things I have ever eaten… more of a Mexican dulce de leche than an American burnt sugar caramel, with lots of balsamic flavor…

We returned to the B&B, shared wine with our fellow guests, and went to bed…

Up too early this morning… we had breakfast, said our good byes to our B&B, proprietors and fellow guests and headed back south to our one planned activity… visiting a house museum, the Grove Farm, in Lihue… We were due at 10:00, and while only 40 some miles away, the trip was likely to take more than an hour… It took a full hour and a half… including a couple of stops to find the lovely Tina a early morning Latte…

We found Grove Farm, toured (this is a great house museum… you can feel the presence of the family… but also see the others who lived and worked here… they include the Japanese laundry women’s house… the chickens the gardens and a really nice mid 1960’s Buick Skylark…

Having toured, we went in search of lunch, this time at Poipu beach… then back to Lahie where we found our motel, fueled the rental car, then walked across to a bar overlooking the public beach, had a couple of beers (T had wine) and watched people surf and the sun set (well, not the sunset, as it set somewhere out of site, but instead watched it get dark…)

On the public beach the locals were drinking beer around a couple of pick-ups with an Hawaiian flag flying… a quarter mile away at the Marriott resort tiki torches were lit... With enough beer at least one of the locals got restless and turned over a picnic table… nearby at the resort people were blissfully unaware… The scene is probably more closely related to Occupy Wall Street than many would like to admit.

Oh, about the great variety of stuffed dragons… Tina figured it out… the B&B is located in Hanelei… so…

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee,

So, all makes sense…

Tomorrow we take an early flight to Oahu… to stay for a couple of nights on Waikiki and play tourist…