Hawaii - October 14, 2003

The morning was a bit gray and drizzly, but that didn't deter us from making our last outings.

First, we (sans in-laws) went out for breakfast. We stopped at a restaurant that was obviously a converted old Sizzler but was now something more like a Denny's. It was our last breakfast and my first opportunity to try something that I'd seen all over the state: Portuguese Sausage. Portuguese Sausage, whatever it is, is wildly popular in Hawaii and, as far as I can tell, totally unheard of on the mainland.

Given that Hawaii is the Spam Capital of the World, I'm not immediately inclined to think their taste in food reaches epicurean heights; however, I decided to give it a go. Big Surprise: it was really good and goes well for breakfast. It's rather like a spicy summer sausage and I vaguely remember my grandfather eating something like it when I was a kid.

We continued our morning excursion by going to Lydgate Beach Park. So far, we hadn't taken Michelle into the water (except swimming pools) even though we'd bought her a new flotation swimsuit on Hawaii. Lydgate Beach has a manmade water break, making a calm kids pool. We figured that since this was a school day, we'd have it pretty much to ourselves, and, for the most part, we did.

We played for a while, but it was still a bit rough for a one year-old and the rain kept coming and going. The surf everywhere looked pretty rough this morning and it was crashing across the barrier enough to get the pool surging.

Check-in time at the hotel was late, but check-out time was early, so we returned to pack and get out. My Tevas, after yesterday's soaking, cracked down the middle of the sole. I would have thrown them out right then and there except that the tops of my tennis shoes broke open and were completely unwearable. Luckily, the broken sole didn't impair wearing the Tevas, even though the walking resistance from one foot to the next was a bit disconcerting.

We still had plenty of time to kill, though. Our flight from Honolulu to Phoenix was late that evening. We didn't want to rent a car on Oahu to spend the day there, so we opted for a early evening flight off Kauai so we could just continue to explore until it was time to drop off the car.

Having been all around the island, this time we pushed inland, not that there are many roads to do that on. One of those scarce roads led to Wailua Falls. Wailua Falls is just one of those things you're supposed to go see because you've seen it so many times before. It's a classic tropical waterfall that makes the perfect photo opportunity. Anyone who has ever seen Fantasy Island has seen the double falls as they were featured prominently at the beginning of each episode.

Lots of people were there, too, including "native" craft sellers waiting for unsuspecting tourists in the parking lot. One vendor was selling a local woodwind instrument that he'd make in seconds right before your eyes. Someone would buy one and be completely unable to make sound with it. They'd complain it wasn't working and he'd demonstrate that it did. The trick was obviously in how you played it not in the musical quality of the instrument. The tourist would go away, contented, but still with something they'd never get a sound from.

Another touristy vendor was selling coconuts, which he'd crack open and give you a straw to drink the coconut milk out of. The tourists were eating that up. I guess they thought they were living on Gilligan's Island. My family, who seem to regularly drink coconuts anyway, had to buy some.

Our next stop was Hilo Hatties, the ultimate in corporate Hawaiian gift shops. As you walk in, a Hawaiian woman puts a shell lei about you neck. Michelle immediately wanted one and the woman asked us how old she was. When we told her, she asked us to stay put for a moment and she walked away.

She came back with an identical shell lei for Michelle, but she wouldn't put it over her head, she gave it to me to give to Michelle. There was one subtle difference between this lei and the ones the rest of us has received. This one had a sticker on it warning that it presented a choking hazard to children under three, parental supervision required. Ah, lawyers.

In case anyone thought Hawaii was paradise, I can assure you they do have lawyers. (And, while we're on the subject: rats, enormous cockroaches and mosquitoes, too, but no snakes, at least not yet.)

I succumbed to the beauty of the island and purchased a book entitled, So You Want To Live in Hawaii? I figured that I don't really know anyone in Hawaii to get the low-down on what the living conditions are really like. How can anyone live with prices so high? Is there a secret Hawaiian resident discount card that brings grocery prices down to something reasonable, or does everyone make three times as much money as on the mainland?

These were questions I wasn't going to find in a tour book.

It was lunchtime, and we'd all decided to try Hamura's Saimin Stand. It's highly recommended in the tour books and newspapers as the best Hawaii has to offer in saimin. It's cheap, it's been there forever and it was near where we were.

It was a bit difficult to find, being tucked away on a back street in semi-warehouse area, but when we found it it was busy. It's a small place and they've snaked a serving counter in and out to maximize the number of people who can sit and eat. They actually had to move people so we could get four seats in a row, Michelle getting squeezed in between two ordinary seating positions. It's a very unassuming restaurant but the food was really good and inexpensive. We regretted not trying it earlier as we would have eaten there more often during our stay.

After our meal, we drove around with no particular destination in mind. We passed the Kukai Grove Shopping Center and decided to stop. We split up from my in-laws, giving them Chu-Wan's cell phone so we could meet up again later. The "mall" turned out to be rather small and we just kept bumping into them as we wandered around.

Chu-Wan and I walked to an ancillary structure and perused a Borders Bookstore (darn, I could have bought the book cheaper here) and a KMart. The hardest part was walking Michelle and her stroller up and down the 30 steps that help navigate the uneven parking lot at the center.

We exhausted the shopping center and a check of the time showed we still had some time to kill. We returned to Lydgate park, not, as before to go swimming, but because we'd seen an enormous kids playground there. We knew Michelle had a long, boring flight in front of her, and we didn't know if we'd get lucky and be able to use her car seat, or have to hold her in our laps for the flight, so we decided to tire her out.

She had a lot of fun on the playground, and just five minutes before the time we had decided to leave, the rain began again. We figured that was our sign to go and we did.

Later that evening, in Honolulu Airport, Michelle still hadn't run down, and she spent an hour running up and down the long terminal building. We took turns being her escort, swapping off each time she passed where we were sitting. This might have continued longer, if she hadn't encountered another child and started playing with her. They finally wore each other out and she slept on the uneventful flight home.

On to Bibliography ==>

Kauai - Wailua Falls	Kauai - Wailua Falls	Kauai - Wailua Falls	Kauai - Wailua Falls	Kauai - Wailua Falls
Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park	Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park	Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park	Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park	Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park
Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park	Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park	Kauai - Elaborate Playground at Lydgate Beach Park