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.
Tags: anniversary, hawaii, kauai, maui, vacation