Hawaii Diary: Double Feature

This post will combine Friday and Saturday on Kauai, so then I can say I'm finally done. Yay!

Photo: Fire Horse Leo

Friday

Friday morning we went to Tunnels Beach to do some more snorkeling. The beach is a snorkeler's paradise, known for its varied and well-protected reefs that run right up to the edge of the shore. The scenery is fantastic and the underwater landscape didn't disappoint. I spent over two straight hours face down in the water, managing only a mild sunburn. In addition to scores and scores of colorful reef fish, I believe I saw a barracuda, although it was not very large.

In the afternoon we went back to Limahuli Garden, which is one of several gardens and preserves in Hawaii operated by the National Tropical Botanical Garden. The organization is dedicated to preserving rare and endangered plants on the islands, as well as the historical sites where they are located. The Limahuli Preserve area is believed to be one of the earliest settlements by the Polynesians on Kauai, with some terrace walls dated to at least 700 years ago. The Garden features a self-guided tour with a very informative booklet, and winds through the historical taro terraces used in ancient times, a "plantation-era" garden with plants introduced in the last 250 years, a native forest, and a landscaped area with views up and down the valley. By the time we arrived, the afternoon had turned very gloomy. We managed to get through most of the tour before it started raining, but the light was very annoying for photography.

We then stalled for a while in Hanalei Town, doing a little shopping and grabbing a beer while watching the Red Sox lose in the ALDS. We had reservations for the Mediterranean Gourmet at the Hanalei Colony Resort, and were hoping it would clear up in time for some good sunset views during dinner. Didn't happen. The meal was pretty good but certainly not in the same league as Merriman's, and we felt we liked the Lighthouse Bistro (Sunday night) better, even though Frommer's gave the Lighthouse Bistro one star to the Mediterranean's two. Different tastes, I guess.

Saturday

We had to be out of our condo by 10AM, but our flight didn't leave until 9PM. There is basically no way to get back to the East Coast without taking one red-eye flight, so we decided we may as well do it on Saturday night and get the extra day in Hawaii. We wanted to play some golf on our vacation.

Golf is known for being an expensive sport, and resort golf even more so. There are only a handful of courses on Kaua`i, and several were closed for renovation when we were there, so the top ones that were still open were asking for almost $200 per round in the mornings and $125 in the afternoons. Throw in $50 for club rental (surely not a coincidence that this is also the round-trip cost for your extra bag on the plane), and you are talking some serious green. Not the putting kind.

The Princeville Golf Club, just down the road from our condo, is known for being a world-class design, but comments on the web made it sound like it was in terrible condition (for the price), insanely hard for mid-to-high handicappers and nearly impossible for amateur women (due to long tee shots), so we looked for alternatives. The Poipu Bay Golf Course has a similar pedigree (even hosting an off-season PGA event for many years, until Tiger won it four or five years in a row, and presumably made off with all the island's women), and was purportedly much more playable, so we thought we'd go there instead. Problem: it's back in Poipu, on the other side of the island. Our clever plan was to play on Saturday before we left, since the airport is down that way anyways. We are so smrt!

This plan backfired and so the day was almost a total bust.

On our way to the course, it started pouring rain again, and on top of that (or because of that) the traffic was awful awful awful, taking at least 30 minutes longer than expected to get 2/3 of the way there. We had a 12:30 tee time, and it was already 11:30 when we had about 15 minutes left to our destination, and we had to sign in, get clubs, and hope it's not raining in Poipu. We decided, sadly, that this had too good a chance to be a bad way to spend $350, and called to cancel the tee time. No problem for them, but no golf for us.

We ended up in Poipu anyways because Edith really REALLY wanted to try a Puka Dog, which is much tastier than it sounds. Remember that Puka means "hole" in Hawaiian, so it's basically a giant hot dog stuffed inside a bun via a hole in the end, along with some tasty sauce of your choice. There was also a big craft fair going on in town that afternoon, so we picked up a few Christmas presents, but we still had 6 or 7 hours to burn before we had to get to the airport.

Next stop: The Kauai Museum in Lihue, which was interesting enough to pass the time (I like museums, I read EVERYTHING, much to my family's chagrin) but not very large. There were two rotating exhibits, one on life during WWII for the Japanese-Americans on the island, and one on the history of Kauai's sugar plantations. They also had some permanent exhibits featuring local art, textiles, and ancient hawaiian artifacts, and other miscellany. In the OTHER BUILDING, which did not become evident to us until 30 minutes before they closed (at 4PM), was a substantial exhibit on the geography, natural and political history of the island. We only got to run through this room before they kicked us out. Boo!

Now with a little over 3.5 hours left to kill, we went back to the beach in Wailua and watched some kids play in the surf for a while. Then we saw something nearby on the map labeled "Keahua Arboretum" and drove up there. We got to what looked like the entrance, but a stream crossing was flooding the road, so we had to stop there. It started raining again and we finally just gave up and went to the bar for dinner. It was packed with University of Hawaii fans, watching the Warriors get trounced by Fresno State in a football game.

So, Saturday was kind of a failure, but at least our plane trip back was completely uneventful. We had a wonderful time and would desperately like to go back sometime, maybe staying in Poipu instead, and maybe with the grandparents so we can get some free babysitting. :) And play some golf with Grandpa Fisk.