Hawaii - October 13, 2003
In the morning, Chu-Wan, Michelle and I went back to the Coconut Marketplace for breakfast, we ate at Eggbert's Family restaurant and had a decent breakfast.
Since I'd be babysitting in the afternoon while everyone else was on the cruise, I wanted to go to the beach in the morning. Michelle was left with her grandparents and Chu-Wan and I went looking for a beach that was both safe and had a nice wave pool like surf. Chu-Wan is not much of a swimmer, and was really worried about getting caught in the water, so we stopped at a snorkel place to rent a flotation device. For some reason neither of us were willing to tell the snorkel dudes in the store we weren't really going snorkeling but were just going to splash about in the waves. Because of this, we spent some awkward moments telling fibs to the rental people as they asked us questions about where we were going and did we have the right equipment, etc.
The first beach we stopped at Kealia Beach, which, driving past a couple times before looked promising. When we actually stopped at the beach, looked at the treacherous waves battering the shore, saw the boogie boarders getting pummeled by the waves and read the warning signs explaining you'd have to be insane to go in the water, we decided to move on.
Just past Kilahuea Lighthouse, we stopped at Anini Beach. This was a beautiful, sheltered cove set amongst palm trees. The area was a beach paradise, and the road we took to arrive at it was packed with beach houses, many of which were built on stilts some 15 feet high. It didn't take much imagination to figure out why they were raised up so high.
The water itself had almost no waves, or as little as one could imagine in the ocean. Perhaps 100 yards out, you could see the waves crashing against underwater rocks, which protected the cove from their force.
It was almost comical as I tried to get deep enough into the water to splash around. I left my "waterproof" Tevas on because the bottom had visible rocks and I walked further and further out from shore. When I reached 50 yards out, I was still only waist-deep. I had apparently, through no skill or planning on my part, managed to walk in the shallowest part of the cove. As I decided to head back (Waist deep for me was too deep for Chu-Wan and her flotation device) I started to move slightly to one side and suddenly I was neck deep.
I carefully backtracked and walked back in, all the while wondering if sharks liked nice calm water, too.
This was really the nicest place we'd been to on this trip, and we spent some time there. We also looked at many of the beach houses. Most of them had "for rent' signs on them and we decided that if we ever came back, we'd try to rent one of them for our entire trip. (And hope that neither hurricane nor tsunami would come to demonstrate why the house were so far off the ground.)
The boat cruise left from Port Allen, just across from my disastrous soaking at the Salt Ponds. On the way, we stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken and had lunch. I can't remember what it was, but their menu was an expurgated version of the mainland KFCs' and they were missing something important, like Macaroni and Cheese, or something I particularly wanted that day. They just looked at me like I was a nut and suggested mashed potatoes.
I dropped everyone off, checked to make sure I knew when they'd be returning. (Our cell phones worked in towns on Kauai, but dropped off rapidly elsewhere and I didn't want to rely on them calling me when it was time to return.) With all the vital information in hand, Michelle and I headed straight back to Salt Pond Beach Park.
We couldn't go in the water, of course, but we walked around the beach until Michelle decided she wanted to chase a dog who was playing frisbee catch with its owner. I tried to get over to see the salt processing area, but it's blocked off and No Trespassing signs made it obvious they didn't want me to see the salt ponds.
Next we headed west; as far west as you can go on the island: Polihale State Park. As we passed the town of Waimea, the island changed to desert, and continued to get more and more arid as we went. By the time arrived at the end of the paved road, the terrain was indistinguishable from Arizona.
Before we headed down the dirt road, we drove around the strange, almost pointless loops of paved road in the area. There's a military base nearby, and the mountains are riddled with manmade caves filled with munitions. Eventually, each turn of the paved roads would lead to a military forbidden zone and an uneasy feeling that we were being watched despite there being no one around.
We finally headed down the last two miles of dirt road, totally in violation of our rental car contract. The beach at Polihale is 17 long miles of uninterrupted sand, ending only when it reaches the Na'pali cliffs where the rest of my family were heading by boat. There's a road that runs along the back of the beach, but it was getting rougher and sandier all the time, and I wasn't comfortable taking the rental car on it. The cell phone wasn't working here and I didn't want to get stuck with Michelle with no one knowing where we were. (And, anyone we knew was isolated on a boat for several more hours.)
It was too darned hot and arid to enjoy the beach, so we headed back. I hadn't killed nearly enough time, and, I had now essentially driven from end to end of the island. There was nothing new to see. Michelle was getting tired of being strapped in the car (as was I) so I needed to come up with some place she and I could go walking, without me being worried she'd take a plunge in the ocean.
Then the idea came to me, we'd go back up Waimea Canyon to Koke'e Park. It was a beautiful, grassy meadow where she could run all she wanted. There were also some simple nature trails that I thought we might be able to attempt.
I timed the drive up the canyon so I'd have a good guesstimate of when to return to pick everyone up. At the park, Michelle ran and ran and ran. She'd had a nap on the way up and she was charged with energy, until I wanted to go hiking, then she was tired again.
While we were at the park, I needed to use the restroom. This was the first time I'd had to take Michelle with me into a public restroom. Fortunately, the park was deserted and I was able to keep an eye on her. I had been so disconcerted at having to take her in the bathroom with me, I accidentally used the women's restroom (the sign had been knocked down) but again, fortunately, the park was deserted.
I swore Michelle to secrecy, at the time, but here the tale is in print for the whole Internet to read.
After our time in the park, we headed to pick everyone up. My guesstimate was pretty good, and we arrived 10 minutes before the boat was scheduled to return. The boat didn't return on time, so I had to check in the office - it was running 20-30 minutes late.
Port Allen is not the most picturesque part of Kauai, in fact, it's more like the back of a junk yard. All the dirt is covered in oil, and old pieces of metal are everywhere. Michelle had a great knack for picking up every one of them, while at the same time sitting down in the oily dirt.
We went down to the dock and I took a picture of the sunset, our last in Hawaii. For some reason, I hadn't taken any pictures while Michelle and I were out and about.
When everyone came back, they told tales of beautiful cliffs and boats bouncing up and down violently. Everyone agreed I had been right not to take Michelle on the boat. I think my mother-in-law enjoyed the cruise but wasn't too crazy that she'd been on the boat, either. On the way back, they'd eaten, and they'd saved some fruit for Michelle, but I hadn't had anything.
We returned to the hotel, and Chu-Wan, Michelle and I went to get food for me. There was a Subway nearby and a meatball sub sounded really good. Unlike the Subways at home that close at 1:00AM, this one seemed to have closed at 7:00PM, or roughly 2 minutes before we arrived.
We walked around looking for something else, but since I was the only one really hungry, we didn't want to go to anything more than a fast food place. In the end, it started to rain and we ducked into the McDonald's for another lackluster meal.
Chu-Wan tried the Saimin, which was made in much the same fashion as cup o'noodles are. Boiling water from the coffee maker was poured on dried noodles in a styrofoam cup, then a little pink thing was added to make it look Japanese. Despite that, it had potential.
Kauai - Michelle at Eggbert's |
Kauai - Michelle and I at Coconut Marketplace |
Kauai - Our Last Sunset (Port Allen) |
