Archive for the ‘Port Keys’ Category

A day trip to the ‘friendly island’

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Today we got up early and headed to the harbor. We found a $5/day lot to park the car, but it’s really a scam 😉 It’s $5/day until 5pm. Since the ferry comes in at 5:45pm, we had to purchase another $5 pass that was good until 11:59pm. Oh well, it was still $2 cheaper than all the other lots.

The day’s agenda was to take a day trip to Moloka’i. We booked an all day guided tour. The island of Moloka’i is the 5th largest of the Hawaiian islands. Our tour was booked through the Moloka’i Ferry company. The tour included round trip transportation, a personal guide and lunch.

The tour included the following sites:

  • Pala’au State Park and Kalaupapa Overlook
  • Coffees of Hawaii
  • Purdy’s Macadamia Nut Farm
  • Father Damien Church
  • Kaunakakai Town with an afternoon stop for lunch.

We boarded the ferry and decided to sit on the top deck. The ride over was a bit rough and wet. The worse part of the trip was that some sort of soot or grease was being kicked out from the engines and got onto everything on the top deck. It basically ruined my favorite pair of shorts. I am not sure if any laundry chemicals at home will get it out. 🙁 “I will try writing them a letter to see if they will do anything about it, but I doubt it.”

Angie says: They have these t-shirts in the stores that say, “I survived the road to Hana.”  Forget that – they need shirts that say “I survived the ferry to Moloka’i.”  If you get sea sick, make sure you take some medication before you leave.  Luckily, Angie doesn’t get seasick and it was not too bad so I didn’t get sick either.

The ferry ride to Moloka’i took about an hour and forty-five minutes. We disembarked and met our tour guide Rudy. Rudy was a great guide. He loves to talk and share the history about his island. He has been a tour guide for 17 years and has seen the highs and lows of tourism on the island.

We boarded his Van and headed on our tour. Our first stop was at: Pala’au State Park. We were able to see the Kalaupapa Overlook that looks down upon the old leper colony. The view was breathtaking. From our guide, we learned that they do not allow anyone on the peninsula without a guide and limit the number of visitors to 100. They also have mule rides down the mountain, but because of the timing for the ferries, they can’t offer day trips. You would have to spend the night on Moloka’i then go in the morning. Perhaps a future trip we might do that.

In the same park they have the Phallic rock. This was a spiritual rock that is said to give fertility to many woman who have gone to it. Our guide says that many people have become pregnant after visiting the rock. I think it’s probably a legend, but hey, better safe than sorry (Angie and I are keeping our distance). The rock looks more like a turtle to me.

The area has signs asking visitors not to leave any money or tokens on the rock. Apparently all sorts of bizarre items have been left by people. We chose not to tempt fate and left after taking a picture. After a quick bathroom stop, Rudy gave us some more history about Father Damien and the leper colony. I also learned that the most populous tree on the island is the Norfolk Pine. I really like them and will be researching if they can be grown in San Diego.  They would like nice to the right and left of our property.

We loaded back up into the bus and headed to our next stop. We visited a Hawaiian owned macadamia nut farm. Purdy’s Macadamia Nut Farm is a very small 5 acre farm that he runs with his family. The Macadamia nut farm has trees that are about 90 years old. We learned that it takes about 4-5 years for a tree to start bearing it’s nuts. The most interesting things about a Macadamia nut tree is that it bears nuts all year round. A single tree can contain every life-cycle stage of a nut.

Several trees had each stage in them, it was pretty neat to see that. As we looked at the nuts on the ground, he told us that the only way to tell if a nut is ripe is to remove the husk after it falls from the tree and the shell will be a nice shiny brown. Only nuts that fall to the ground are harvested. It’s sort of like BBQ, it’s ready when it’s ready.

Once the nuts are harvested and husks removed, they are soaked in water then slightly roasted. This prevents the nut from cracking during roasting while the roasting shrinks the nut a little so that it doesn’t stick to the shell when cracking it. We got to crack the nuts with a hammer and a piece of U-shaped leather to keep the nut in place. We ate the nut after cracking it and it tasted good, not like the nuts you buy in a can. They had a more natural flavor to them. After cracking the nuts ourselves, we had a chance to sample lightly roasted nuts. Again, they tasted good, but more natural then the store bought. I guess that is what happens when no oils or preservatives have been added to the product.

After leaving the Nut Farm (pun intended) we drove to the Coffees of Hawaii. We were able to sample their coffees. Although I have stopped drinking coffee, I really like their toasted coconut coffee. I liked it enough I bought a bag. We also bought some sweets and a tropical smoothie that hit the spot.

After visiting the coffee plantation, we drove to the only remaining hotel on the island. We arrived at the Hotel Molokai & Hula Shores. We sat down for lunch. It was pretty good for hotel food. We sat along the water front and watched the waves roll by. Every few seconds though we would see a coconut floating in the water and float by. At one point it seemed like a long stream of coconuts were migrating along our shoreline. I wonder if those are harvested and eaten by anyone? It seems pretty nice to just have them show up at your feet.

After lunch we toured more of the island. We drove out to see one of the last remaining and un-expanded churches built by Father Damien. This church still holds services, but is too small for many other functions. Outside the church a full height statute of Father Damien has been erected. Our guide told us the story of Father Damien‘s saint-hood and how his body was buried, then dug up and shipped back to Belgium, to be dug up again, then shipped back to Hawaii. It should be noted that many sites state that he died of Leprosy. It is now known that you do not die of the disease, but of other diseases because your body is unable to fight of those diseases. Pneumonia was the ultimate cause of his death. It’s funny that even sites like Wikipedia get it wrong. Goes to show you why you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet. You should always double and triple check the references.

Our last stop of the day was to the famous fish ponds of Moloka’i. A fish pond is basically a protected U-shaped area that blocks the ocean, starting from beach and ending at the beach. It is used to capture fish by having them swim into the pond when the tide is going out and trap them with gates. It is a very interesting way of capturing and breeding fish. The more I read about it, the more it makes sense to use natural behaviors and processes for fishing.

We headed back to the main part of town, which is basically a couple blocks long. It’s the home of the only stop signs on the island. We walked around the town and checked out the local shops. We purchased some postcards and ice cream. Most of the shops were closed because it was later in the afternoon. Many shops appear to be under remodel or closed altogether. We returned to the ferry landing and said our goodbyes. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend you take this tour and ask for Rudy as your tour guide. If you go, might I suggest taking a spare T-shirt, as he seems to like shirts from all over the world.

We boarded the ferry for the rough ride back to Maui. It wasn’t all that bad, and I was able to get some sleep on the trip back. Since we had parked in the all day lot, we decided to eat dinner in Lahaina. I had heard a few people talking about the BBQ place there so I thought I would give it a try. The place is Famous Dave’s and I know it’s a chain, but since I had never eaten there, we would give it a try. The overall verdict is the price was reasonable, the portions large, but the BBQ itself was not all that great. The brisket rates a C+ on my scale. Angie didn’t like it at all as she said it had a really weird taste. I think the taste was due to the rub or sauce they used. I thought it was too dry and chewy. Not the best on my scale. The pork ribs rated a B+. They would have been a lot higher, but they left the outer membrane on the ribs. This is an absolute no-no in my book and just shows that they are lazy or too busy to prep the ribs properly. All in all though, for a commercial BBQ joint that has places in multiple states, I would recommend eating there if you are craving BBQ, just don’t order the Brisket.

After dinner we walked back to the car. Angie wanted shave ice again for dessert, so we drove back to Local Boys Shave Ice for some shave ice. We then drove back to the hotel and relaxed in the spa and then headed to bed.

A Maui Sunrise

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

This was our crazy insane day. Yes we woke up at 1:45am this morning, before anyone else was up. The only people awake are the hotel cleaning crew, other tourists as crazy as us and people coming home from the bars.

I have been wanting to do two things since our last trip here 20 years ago. The Na Pali coast and see the sunrise over Mount Haleakala. This trip we made a point of booking the trip early. I choose the company Bike it Maui because of all the tours out there they seemed to be the most organized and reasonably priced.

The shuttle driver picked us up at 2:10am and we stopped at one other hotel in our area. He then drove down to Wailea to two more hotels to pick up the remaining guests. After the van was loaded, we drove back to the central part of Maui and picked up one of the other tour guides and  had a quick stop for restrooms, coffee and snacks. We loaded back up and headed on to pick up the bikes. Once the bike trailer was loaded up, we headed up the mountain. The ride up the mountain was dark, so you don’t get to see anything exciting.

Just outside the National Park, we dropped off the trailer with the bikes and we were given windbreakers, gloves, hats and pants. After the trailer was unhitched and the cloths passed out we continued on up the mountain. The rest of the ride up you started to see more cars. A little further up the mountain we reached the parking lot and it seemed pretty full. Fortunately, all of the tour buses have their own place to park so we pulled in and unloaded.

It was about 30 minutes before sunrise, so we had some time to walk around and find a good spot. The temperature was pretty cold and I was glad I had gloves and a hat. The wind was blowing as well, but there were enough people around that they were a windbreak for us. The skyline was amazing. We were above the cloud line, so you could not see much of the crater, but it led to some amazing colors as the sun got closer to the horizon. We started to see a little red line on the horizon, in the distance as it slowly grew brighter.

All of a sudden, a little arc appeared above the horizon as the sun started to rise. It grew larger as the outline of the sun could now be seen and it slowly ascended in the sky. The colors started to brighten up the sky as the sun rose higher. The sun finally crested the horizon and was now a complete sphere of light. The landscape was almost surreal and reminded me of a lunar landscape. The clouds made it even more eerie. I would like to come back here sometime and just spend the entire day hiking the rim.

 

We loaded up the van and headed back down the hill to the visitors center. This was used as a bathroom break, as the one at the top of the mountain was very crowded and this one had nobody. Just before we reloaded the van, the park ranger came out to raise the flag. It clearly wasn’t something he did everyday because he started to put the state flag on the pole before the US flag. I was about to say something before he finally realized it was wrong and fixed it.

We traveled back down to where we dropped off the trailer. We unloaded and they took the bikes out of the trailer. Once everyone had their own bike we started riding down the mountain. It was a pretty slow pace as most people were on their brakes for the entire time. I could smell the brakes from the other riders. The ride was about 15.26 miles. My GPS said at one point we reached 40mph, but I am not sure I believe that.We descended about 5000′ through a number of curves and 180 degree turns. The scenery was beautiful. The landscape changed from scrub-brush landscape at the top to forest-like in the middle to farmland towards the bottom. We stopped a few times for photos and a clothing break. Once we got down about half way, the temperature warmed up so that we didn’t need our jackets and pants. It started to rain just before the end of the ride, so we had to stop. This particular company does not allow its tour to ride in wet weather. While we are on mountain bikes with wide tires, it would be fine for most, but the one person that crashes would probably not be good for tourism.

We loaded the bikes back up into the van and then traveled down to drop off our guide. We then stopped at the Dunes at Maui Lani Golf Course for breakfast. The breakfast was pretty good and the portions were large. The only odd things was Coffee was included, but hot tea was $3 extra. After breakfast, we dropped off our guests in the reverse order we picked them up in. We returned to our Hotel about noon. We promptly headed up to the room and went to sleep.

After a few good hours of sleep we decided to go get some dinner. We went to Hula Grill & Barefoot Bar to watch the sunset and eat dinner. After dinner, I spent some time in the spa relaxing and helping my body recover and then off to bed.

A semi-rest day

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Today was a day of resting after our long day in Hana yesterday. We got up and drive into Lahaina. There was not a lot of parking available but we found a free three hour lot and after circling for a little while found a spot.

We walked a little ways down the street and found a breakfast place that served crepes. The Maui Swiss Cafe is a little out of the way place that serves made from scratch food. Angie and I ordered crepes, I kept with the Hawaiian tradition and ordered mine with ham and pineapple. We walked around Front street and check out the many shops there. There are a few chain restaurants, but a number of local shops.

We headed over to the ferry station to book our transportation to Lana’i later in the week. There are a lot of local artists that setup booth in the area around the library. There is a large banyan tree there they sit under and sell their stuff. We stopped into a shave ice place called: Local Boys Shave Ice. I think the best shave ice places have the metal machines and not the plastic ones. They seem to do a much better job. The shop was a bit crowded, but was worth the wait.

After sitting and eating our shave ice, we drove back to hotel. We went out to the pool and relaxed. We swam in pool and under the waterfalls. Afterwards, we sat under the palm trees and rested, read and sipped on drinks.

We decided to eat dinner in Lahaina since we had the Entertainment book. We picked a Japanese restaurant called Kobe. It’s pretty much the same place as Bennihana. Dinner was good, but I think chicken and shrimp is the way to go and not beef. After dinner we drove back to the hotel as we had to get to bed early for our 1:45 wake up call.

The Road to Hana

Sunday, August 7th, 2011

Today we went to O’heo Gulch. This is the location of the Seven Sacred Pools. Our ultimate goal was to hike to the Waimoku Falls at the end of a 2 mile (or so) trail.

Before we can get there though we have to drive the long and winding road, known as the Hana Highway. For those that are unfamiliar with this road, it’s an experience not to be missed. The road is only about 60 miles or so long but takes about 3 hours to reach your destination. The road has over 600 curves and about 60 bridges, some of which are one lane. We made a quick stop at the local Safeway and picked up food and water for the trip.

The road didn’t seem like we remembered it. This could be because of the hurricanes, road construction over 20 years, or just plain bad memories. The views are gorgeous as we traveled through this part of the island. Having a convertible allows you to see a lot more than if you are stuck inside a car with just a side window to look out of. If you only get a convertible because of this drive, do it.

We stopped at a rest stop and stretched our legs. Across the highway was a little picnic area that had a nice waterfall. It appears that it had rained pretty recently as the area was quite muddy. We wandered around for a few minutes and then headed back to the car to continue our journey down the highway.

We reached the town of Hana, it has sure grown. They still don’t have a street light, but there are many more homes and buildings now, even a police and fire station. We got a little lost as I had not consulted the GPS for which direction to turn out of Hana to continue to the pools. Once I found how the GPS spelled the national park, it was about another 10 miles outside of town.

We reached the national park and paid our $10 to park. We paid a quick stop to the visitor station to get our national park stamp and check on the trails. Everything was open, but because the water level was so high, they discouraged people from swimming in the lower pools. We loaded up our backpack with our lunch supplies and water and headed to the trail head. The trek is about 2 miles according to the ranger (but I swear it’s more than that).

As you can see from the sign, the trail goes along the river and there are several points at which there are overlooks to take pictures. The ranger says the trip is 2 hours round trip. It’s a lie, it was a lie 20 years ago and it’s a lie now 😉 Plan to take about 2 hours just to get to the falls. Do not be discouraged by your progress if it takes you longer. The end result is worth all the pain and struggle to get there.

We headed along the trail and passed the first overlook about half a mile in. Most people just stop here as they think this is the main falls. Don’t be fooled by this, and learn to read a map as a half mile is not 2 miles 😉 There is a little metal swing gate that many people think is locked or closed. It is not, push it open and continue through.

After climbing up a lot of rock steps we reached an incredible banyan tree. This is one of the largest trees I have ever seen. After a little while we came across two bridges over the gorge. They offered some nice views of the river and falls, but this is still not the prize at the end of the trail.

This is a great place to stop and drink water and enjoy the view. There are a few good sets of stairs to climb up after the bridges, but once you are up them, it’s on to the bamboo forest. The forest is amazing. It starts out pretty open and airy, and then gets pretty closed and dark. It reminded me of the forbidden forest in Harry Potter.

The trail is well maintained through the forest and in many places there are wood walkways that are like mini boardwalks. Even though there is a walkway, it does get slippery from the rain and mud, so be careful to watch where you are walking.

Once we exited the bamboo forest, we walked along the trail until we were in site of the final falls. We still had to cross the river twice at the end. It’s interesting because the ranger basically told us not to cross the river, but it’s not possible to even get to the falls without crossing here.

Finally, we reached our destination. It is just as incredible as we remembered it. I am sure that my pictures can not do it justice. Realize this was shot with a 18mm wide angle, so you can get an idea how big this area is. The water fall is over 400 feet high.

We sat on the rocks and broke out our lunch. The entire area is nice and cool, it is amazing to sit in front of this natural wonder and realize how small we are. There are other waterfalls in the world that are bigger and stronger, but something about this one holds you in awe.

While we ate, we had a visit from our token squirrel/ground rodent (I think it was actually a mongoose). We have not been on a vacation yet where some sort of squirrel has not come to visit us. After we finished eating, we took some photos. I would post them here, but they are on Angie’s camera and I do not have a way to read her memory stick as we didn’t bring her cable.

We met one guy who had told his wife that he would be back in an hour (hah!) There is no phone service here, so I am sure she was waiting for him anxiously. We took his picture so that his wife knew he made it.

We packed up our lunch and trash and started our hike back down. There are definitely less steps going upwards on the way back. The hike took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes with a 30 minute stop for lunch. On the way back down we passed many people with young babies on their way up. I am sure they would only get to the first half mile as the rest of the trail is pretty rough to hike with a baby slung over the shoulder. One group had three of them, babies that is!

We decided to take the back road home. Many of the guide brochures have warnings all over the place about voiding your rental car insurance, but nowhere in the contracts is this talked about. I think they do this to scare people away from it because the road is a pretty rough road, and about 5 miles of it was dirt. The road wasn’t as bad as I expected, but if you are not used to 1 lane roads and dirt road driving, this road is not for you. We did get back in half the time though and saw the back side of the crater. This is where all the lava flows from 200+ years ago were. It’s generally used for cattle now and there is almost no green there.

We stopped at panda express for dinner (take-out) because we knew we would be too tired to go forage for food. We returned to the hotel and ate our dinner. Afterwards we went down to the spa to soak. My feet really needed it. Although I had decent shoes on, my feet could still feel every rock I stepped on. I wish I would have brought my hiking boots.

While in the spa, we met lots of people from California. Some people were from  from Tustin, a group from the bay area and another from Coronado. The folks from Tustin went to Hana but didn’t go past the metal gate because they thought it was closed. I felt bad for them to have come all this way and missed the falls. After a good soak in the spa, we  returned to the room for some much needed rest.

Aloha Kauai – Aloha Maui

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Today we slept in late. This was our last day on Kauai. We checked out of the hotel. 
I am very glad we found a place to park a lot closer to the hotel room. We didn’t have to trek through the hotel and maneuver stairs and escalators.
 We drove up to Kappa for a late breakfast/early lunch. We drove up to the Opaekaa Falls overlook and took some photos from a distance. The only way to see these falls up close is to take a tour or kayak up the river. (perhaps next trip in 20 more years). There are no trails or ground access to them.

We went to the Smith’s Fern Grotto Wailua River Cruise and purchased our tickets. Be aware that all the times listed in the brochures were wrong. The web site does appear to have the correct times, but I recommend you contact them to confirm before you drive out there and miss the times like we did the previous day. The pier has both boats and kayaks here. So those that would like to try their hands at paddling up the river can do so.

While we waited for our cruise to start we had some cold drinks and a piece of chocolate cream pie at the local restaurant. It was yummy and there was a nice cool breeze. The place appears to seat a lot of people. From what I could tell, this was a tour that caters to the cruise ships and they must serve them a buffet. 
We boarded our boat for the river cruise and headed up the Wailua river. We had live Hawaiian music on board. Apparently, one of the ukulele players was in the movie Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley – we’ll have to check it out when we get home.
We reached our destination up river and disembarked. We had a short hike through the forest and reached the Fern Grotto. The place was pretty amazing. They used to have weddings inside the cave before the last big hurricane. Afterwards, the park stopped allowing it because of dangers of rocks falling. They still do weddings, but it is only on the platform, about 100 yards in front of the grotto.

We boarded our boat for the journey back to the pier. The boat captain gave us a lot of history about the river. The most interesting was that the king didn’t allow any of the common folk in the valley because he thought it was bad luck. He would only allow them in with permission to perform laborious tasks for him. (e.g. build huts, canoes, plant crops, etc..)

We headed back to the airport and returned our rental car. We had about an hour wait for our plane, after about a 25 minute wait for the airline attendant to show up to check us in. Apparently, they only have one of two guys that work there. We boarded our flight (a turbo prop DHC-8). Our flight took about one hour to reach Maui. We disembarked and retrieved our luggage. Then off to the rental car company to pick up our car (another Ford Mustang convertible). The mustang must be the convertible of choice for the islands. Last time we were here, it was the Pontiac Sunbird. We had about a 30 minute drive to get to our hotel. The one significant thing you notice about Maui that is different than Kauai is that it’s more flat and less green. There are lots of farms on Maui and the sides of the hills are dotted with lights (staples of a rural city). The speed limit on Maui is about 20 miles faster than on Kauai and the roads are twice as wide.

We reached our hotel and checked in. Apparently our reservation was not booked as a guaranteed reservation. This is something I am always adamant about when I book a hotel room, especially since we were arriving late. Well, my agent didn’t make sure this was the case, so they didn’t have a room with a queen or king bed. They gave us a room with two double beds. I tried to explain this was unacceptable, but the person checking me in didn’t seem to care. All he kept saying is we can switch your room in the morning “if” something comes available. Exasperated, I just took the room they had and went to unpack. Our room was all the way at the end of the building, closest to the road and parking lot. This became a problem the next morning. After unpacking, we went to look for dinner and settled on one of the hotel restaurants. This turned out to be a disaster. The food was not very good. I had the seared ahi salad and the lettuce was extra bitter and the ahi was tough on the outside and like tar-tar on the inside. When we sat down, it took them almost 20 minutes to come take our drink order, and then after it was taken it was filled wrong. We had to send them back for the correct ones. The only thing redeeming about the meal was the dessert (chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce).

We walked around the property and checked out the separate pools. We found the place we needed to go in the morning to talk about out excursions. We then went upstairs for bed. The beds were so small that I had to take off all the covers and my feet hung over the edge. I don’t think I have slept on a double bed since I was 8 years old. Throughout the night, I was woken up every time kids got off the elevator, then around 4am car alarms in the parking lot were going off. After finally getting back to sleep housekeeping started their rounds at 7am and of course they were right across from us. So every bang and bump was echoed in our room. It was maddening.

I finally got up and dressed. There was a message on the phone stating that they had a new room for us. Angie tried calling them but the front desk phone rang and rang (over 20 times). So she went downstairs to get the message, she waited in line for them to just tell her “oh, you have to come back between 1 and 3pm.” Sheeze, why could they have not just said that on the message?

We headed out for breakfast. We stopped at the Lahaina Cannery Mall for breakfast and ate at Lu Lu’s. The food was pretty good and hearty. We drove back toward the hotel and further up the highway. We saw the hotel that used to be the Embassy Suites from our previous visit. All along the highway are a slew of new condos and homes. I do not recall there being this many buildings the last time we were here. I guess as all the plantations started shutting down, they sold the land off to condo developers.

We drove back down to Lahaina along front street. We wanted to get the lay of the land. Some of the places we remember are still there, but lots of chain restaurants are also there now. We returned back to the hotel. We met with the activities person and booked an all day guided tour of Molokai. I felt this was a better trip than to just take the ferry there and rent a car.  We returned to the room so that I could take a nap. I only got about 45 minutes into my nap before a knock on the door. It was housekeeping asking us if we were checking out. This was enough, I headed downstairs to talk to the manager. Finally, after explaining to her that I just want a place I can unpack, a bed I can fit into and not be disturbed for a few hours, she found me a room that was available. I returned to pack our luggage and move to the new room. The new room has a king bed, and also has a nice view of the ocean. I finally was able to get an hour or two of sleep.

We wandered down to the beach and walked along the the shore looking at the places to eat. We settled on Hula Grill & Barefoot Bar where we grabbed a drink and lunch. Angie had a chicken sandwich and I had a goat cheese pizza. The pizza was pretty good, but it should have been called an olive/cheese pizza since the predominant ingredient wasn’t goat cheese. After lunch we walked around the Whalers village looking at all the shops. They had a lot of chain stores so we avoided buying anything there, we will need to find a more local mall with Hawaiian stores. We wandered back to the hotel and changed into our suits to go sit by the pool. It was quite windy out, so laying out under the sun with all the wind lost it’s appeal. I hopped in the spa for a nice hot soak. There were two other couples there on their honeymoon talking about lots of issues with the hotel. From lack of service, to nobody in charge around, to security not being found, to one room having bed-bugs (yeach!). They were talking about how workers at the hotels in Hawaii seem to do half the work for twice the pay as mainlanders. I am not sure that is true, but there are sure a few we have met that would never cut it in California.

After taking as much wind as we could, we headed back up to the room to relax and watch the sunset. With our balcony door open you can hear the music and festival of the hotel luau, which is around the corner. You can also hear the waterfalls from the lagoon, so it’s a lot like our back yard, only louder 🙂 Watching the sunset from our room was very pretty. The sky turned some intense colors before going dark. Listening to the luau music while the sun set added to the “islandness” of the experience. I am not sure what we will do tomorrow. The road to Hana is on the agenda along with a nice 2-3 hour hike at the end. We will see if we are up to it. We will need to pack a picnic lunch and lots of water. Fortunately, our over priced resort fee includes two bottles of water a day.

The Luau music finished and Angie woke up from her nap, we headed down to look for dinner. We will have to go to the grocery store tomorrow as all this eating out is going to kill our budget. We stopped at Cane & Taro Grill and Bar as their menu seemed like the best for us tonight. Angie had the roasted chicken and I had their pork chops. Mine was delicious. I really like what they did with the mushroom reduction sauce. I am going to have to try that myself. The waitress was in training but everything went smoothly. We got a chance to ask her about the southern route to Hana. My GPS wants to send us that way (less miles and time), but where is the fun in that?

After dinner we walked along the hotel walkways to the last hotel on the beach – the Sheraton. This is probably the hotel we will go to for a luau. It’s a much smaller and intimate dinner. We checked out the pool at the Sheraton. Since we have usage rights at the hotel we will have to go over there and use their pools. We turned around and walked back along the beach walkway. They had the sprinklers on and many of them were spraying the walkway, so we got a little wet, but it dried out real quick. We headed back to the room and bed. Tomorrow will be a long driving and hiking day.