Hawaii, part 2

[mellymell]

Seriously, I didn't forget. I know it's been over a month, we've just been very busy and it's been hard to find time to sit down and finish my write up. We've even gone on another trip since then that I need to write about. So I've just got to finish this one now and get it out of the way. Otherwise, I'm going to forget what all we did.

Chris' parents had volunteered to keep Jonah for the day so we could do whatever we wanted to celebrate our anniversary. Chris spent the morning planning a hike while I researched restaurants to have a nice dinner. We got ready, Chris called to make a reservation at the restaurant we chose and my father-in-law drove us back down to Ke'e Beach for another hike. There was a 2 mile hike to a hidden beach and another 2 miles after that to a waterfall. This was fairly rugged trail, up and down steep ridges along the coast line. There were lots of people making the trek totally unprepared. Of course we had plenty of water, snacks and our hiking boots on, but most people were armed only with maybe a 20 oz. bottle of water and a pair of flip flops and a tote bag or something. Chris made a comment about how this trail proves that just because you're skinny doesn't mean you're in shape. All these tiny girls were trying to scramble over rocks and huffing and puffing and telling their guys to slow down and such. Meanwhile, we just kept pace and worked our way steadily up the hills, stopping occasionally for a spectacular view here or there. Even though neither of us has been running in a while, we've both been able to get our heart rates up and keep them up for a fair amount of time.

There was an amazing amount of gorgeous flowers on this hike. We were pretty much in and out of the jungle. We saw some orchids growing on some ledges. I've since tried to identify them, but my orchid book doesn't have very many pacific island species described. Perhaps they're not cultivated often. We also saw some impatiens growing wild along a creek. I thought that was crazy! They were the same color I planted in the front yard last year. We made our way back to the hidden beach, passing some signs that warned not to go into the water here and how many people had been killed by rough surf and a safe point to retreat to should you see the water recede (tidal waves). Needless to say, we didn't swim there. It actually started raining while we were resting and snacking at the beach. For a secluded place, it certainly was busy. Chris wanted to keep going to the waterfall, hoping most people wouldn't make the 8 mile loop and would just cut their trips short at the beach. I wasn't game for it, knowing we had a nice night ahead of us and I didn't want to be exhausted for the rest of the evening. We had to be back to Ke'e Beach at a certain time too, so Chris' dad could pick us up. We didn't get cell phone service past Hanalei, so we couldn't just call when we were done.

Instead, I convinced him to walk back and walk down to Tunnels Beach and do some snorkeling, then walk back up to Ke'e to meet back up with his dad. He reluctantly agreed and we started back. We stopped for a moment at a lovely overlook and he pulled out this stunning amber pendant and said, "happy anniversary." All along his plan had been to give it to me at the waterfall, but I ruined it. That doesn't make the moment any less special. I was giddy, even if it didn't go as he planned.

We finished the walk back, then followed the road up to Tunnels Beach. It was much less crowded than the lifeguarded city beach nearby. We found a nice shady spot to stash our gear and spent a really long time it seemed drifting around in the reefs there. The waters were nice and calm and there were lots of fish to see. Some new ones and some we had seen at Hideaways. Once we had our fill and time was running out, we decided to walk back to Ke'e along the coastline. It took a little longer and was harder work, but it was really nice. We met up with Chris' dad near Ke'e and headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.

The restaurant was in this gorgeous elaborate hotel not far from our condo. I've never seen a lobby so huge. It was one of the only places we went that was air conditioned. We were seated at a lovely table on the balcony overlooking Hanalei Bay and what was soon to be the sunset. The balcony had an almost Mediterranean feel to it. We always get a little frustrated when we go to fine restaurants and they not only have very little of a beer selection, but the servers know nothing about the few offerings they have. I could have asked her about any of the wines I bet, but she didn't even know what kind of a beer their Fire Rock was (it was a pale ale, she described it as being dark). That aside, we ordered some of the best crab cakes I've ever had as an appetizer. For an entree, I got the seared duck which was cooked just beautifully rare and served on top of mashed purple sweet potatoes and steamed vegetables. Chris got the beef tenderloin with prawns, served with mashed potatoes and veggies. For dessert, we had some fantastic french pressed coffee and a Tahitian vanilla brûlée in a chocolate crust. It was such a lovely dinner, though Chris made fun of me for taking pictures of the sunset at the table. We didn't want to spoil the mood, so we decided to walk back to the condo instead of calling Chris' dad to come pick us up.

Once we got back, we decided to go spend some time in the hot tub. The pool area was so neat! There was a shallow end with sand like a mini beach for the little ones, then a little lava rock divider and some steps down to the regular pool. The floor of the pool was elaborately tiled with figures of mermaids, manatees, turtles and dolphins. The hot tub was set back into a garden area and built out of lava rocks. Everything seemed very natural. It started to rain just a bit as we finished our beers and took a quick dip in the pool after being in the hot tub for a few minutes. We probably were only at the pool for about a half hour or so then called it a night. Quite a fantastic day!

This morning's breakfast was a little different. Chris and I wanted to go find somewhere neat to have breakfast. Our book suggested that was a great way to try some of the fancier restaurants on a budget. My mother-in-law had been quite disappointed up until now that Chris' dad didn't ever want to go out and have a nice meal, so she wanted to come with us. We left Jonah with Chris' dad and the three of us went out to find a nice place to go. The first place we went had been closed since November. So, we drove to Hanalei to check out a coffee shop there which supposedly had great Belgian waffles. Indeed they did, topped with all kinds of fruit and berries. After breakfast we headed back to plan the day's activities.

The morning's planning session resulted in Chris' parents wanting to do a waterfall tour. Chris and I weren't enthusiastic about it, so we had them drop us off at Moloa'a Bay (which is where some filming for Gilligan's Island was done apparently, in fact there was a Movie Tour bus there when we showed up). We were going to play at the beach for a while and wait for them to come back by. Chris and I took turns exploring the reefs with our snorkel gear while the other one of us would either sit in the shade and play with Jonah in the sand or help him explore the very shallow reefs where he could stand. We had a nice couple of hours there to play when they showed back up. We decided we'd go get some lunch, then head up to Tunnels Beach again to finish off the day.

For lunch we stopped in Hanalei at Tropical Taco. We were excited to try their fish tacos that had been well reviewed in our book. We were a bit disappointed. They were good, but nothing to write home about. I think Baja Burrito in town has much better fish tacos. After lunch we headed to Tunnels Beach to swim and snorkel for a few hours. This time, it was very windy and the waters were quite choppy. It was difficult to just float and watch fish, I felt like I was fighting waves the whole time. I'd be trying to watch some fish fairly close to the surface of the water and the waves would just bounce me up and down. We got pretty brave this time and tried to really get out there, kind of on the back side of this one ridge in a section of deeper water. But we saw this huge fish, just off in the distance in somewhat murky waters. All I could think was that where there are fish that big, there are bigger fish that might actually want to take a bite out of me, so I kind of watched him for a second, then headed back to clearer waters. We came in and by then, I think it was time to head back. The sun was starting to go down and we had some swordfish and shrimp to cook for dinner. We also had flights to catch the next afternoon and needed to be out of the condo by 10am.

This morning we got up and got packed. It was quite tight in the car with all our luggage. We had to hold quite a bit of it in our laps (at least our carry on bags anyway). We had to return the snorkel gear so we stopped off in Kapa'a and dropped that off, then headed toward Lihue and the airport area. We had heard that we should arrive to the airport three hours early, so we stopped by there to check in and see how long of a wait we could really expect (knowing there would be an extra agricultural scan to go through). As we picked up our boarding passes and had our bags checked in, we asked how long and the attendant said if we showed up an hour or so before boarding, we should be fine.

With that in mind, we went to find some lunch. We decided to go back to the fish market and see if their grill was open that day. It sure was and boy were we happy it was. That was some of the best food we had all week! Chris got ahi tuna in some sort of cream sauce with rice and an interesting macaroni/potato salad that seemed to be pretty standard in lunch spots. I had swordfish in a passion fruit and orange sauce with the same sides. It was quite a lot of food. Two fish fillets, a big scoop of rice and a big scoop of macaroni/potato salad. We found a spot at a bay (looking at a map I'd have to say it was probably Hanama'ulu Bay) where there were picnic tables to eat. The surfers hanging out here were a bit different. They almost sounded like they were speaking another language. It was a mix of Caribbean islands slang (like mon), Hawaiian words and English surfer slang. But occasionally amidst the jibberish, you'd suddenly here "oxycontin" or "vicodin" followed by, "ja mon, take da pain away". Chris and I had a good laugh.

Once we were done there, it was back to the airport to get through security and sit and wait for boarding. On the way back to San Francisco, they showed the movie Jumper, which I watched, unfortunately. It was just a really thin premise I think. A good idea for a plot line, but terribly executed. So many questions were raised. Why were they able to bend time and space and "jump" from place to place? Why was there an organization bent on killing them for doing so? Some history would have been nice, or just some why and how. And I hate movies that don't have an ending and just sort of stop somewhere. I don't necessarily have to have closure, but at least a logical end to a sequence of events would be nice rather than just stopping somewhere. We split a surprisingly good salad on the plane, too.

We got into SFO really late. Luckily there was a shuttle to our hotel, but we still got in at like 11:30pm or something (of course it was only like 8:30 to us). We were starving, having not eaten any dinner and just snacked on whatever we thought to take on the plane and the salad we split. Jonah was still fairly wide awake and as soon as we mentioned ordering a pizza, he perked up and said, "mmmm!" rubbing his belly. I think we finally got to eat at like 1am or so.

Comments

[lordofhaladin.livejournal.com]

hallp belated aniversery!

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

Thanks!