We were up early to enjoy our last morning of the view of the Pacific Ocean, the Napoli Coast mountain (with permanent cloud) and the company of our visiting Nenes. Got a visual of this peaceful scene? Let me blow it out of the water for ya. Imbeciles upstairs had their tv blaring yet again, having a loud conversation (and Bob said I missed an argument before I got up), making phone calls out on their balcony (she didn’t pick up her prescription and he was calling the Safeway pharmacy to see if they’d transfer it here – yeah, like we needed to know that. He even called them bad ass when they said they could do it. I kid you not. Ya just can’t make this stuff up.). What. The. Bloody. Hell. Crazy I tell you.
What do we do to escape the madness? My man had been itching to take a “little” walk around the golf course. He hasn’t gotten enough excercise these last two weeks. So that’s what we did. We took a “little” walk – over two miles later …
By the time we got back, showered, packed the car and grabbed some Acia bowls for breakfast at the little cafe down the street it was about 10:00 when we hit the road. The only thing we found to eat up a few extra minutes was to go by the Kileau Lighthouse again and see if the light was any different/better. I don’t know if it was or not, but took some more pictures. Such a beautiful place. There was a ton of those cattle egrets (much smaller than what we’re used to seeing at home) all over the cliffs across from the lighthouse. I took a couple of pics but not sure if you can really see all those little white dots scattered all over. They’re all birds. Amazing.
We were are the airport, car returned, luggage checked and through security a little after noon. This terminal of the Lihue airport is pretty small. Smaller than Norfolk. Right around the corner was a little shop – with shirts. Bob found his chicken shirt!! We grabbed a snack and settled in to wait. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:25. There was a delay so we didn’t get in the air until closer to 3:30. Pilot says he’s going to make that up and we’ll land close to on time which is 11:30 LA time. We’ll have and hour or so to kill before the next flight to Charlotte. I guess we’ll pick our Top 5 from this trip. Maybe. I’ll probably have to go back and read the highlights just to remember all of what we’ve done.
Top 5 6 in no particular order:
- Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center
- Pearl Harbor
- Helicopter Ride over Kaua’i
- Waimea Canyon
- Snorkeling at Ke’e Beach
- Garden Island Chocolate Farm
We got into LA pretty about 11:45 – not too shabby. LA airport is huge!!! I was amazed. I know, doesn’t take much. Rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and boring. Landed a little after 10am in Norfolk. It was about noon by the time we got home (stopped and grabbed some lunch) and we both crashed. We’d been up about 24 hours at this point. Still getting our bearings today (Saturday).
Thoughts – Observations:
Great trip! We stayed on the go and busy for much of these two weeks, which is normal for us when going somewhere we’ve never been before. The only way we’re going to have a laid back, chill vacation is to go back to a place more than once (or a cruise – love my cruises). Both islands of Hawaii we visited (Oahu and Kaua’i) are beautiful in their own way. Wasn’t impressed with Waikiki simply because we aren’t city people, but loved the things we did while there (Makapu Lighthouse, Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head). The North Shore is quieter and a much slower pace place. Kaua’i is a much more laid back, garden island. Even the most commercial end area down south is nothing like Waikiki. It’s much more our speed. It’s gorgeous island, called The Garden Island for a reason.
Two things that surprised me were the beaches (not what I expected) and the level of neglect of living spaces for typical residents. Beaches – when I pictured a Hawaii beach in my head (before going) it was an image of a beautiful, wide, sandy beach with that gorgeous turquoise water. Not so with most of the beaches on these islands. Lots of beaches here are more for surfing than swimming or snorkeling. They’re rocky and the beaches are very narrow, providing very little beach (if any) during high tides. The sand here is very coarse, more like fine gravel than the powdery sand I had in my head. I guess I was expecting a Caribbean beach. Now I know better. The few beaches that are good for swimming and/or snorkeling are very crowded (even on off peak September) because there are so few of them.
Island living – lots of the islands in the Caribbean are poor, so touring those islands the living accommodations reflect that. I didn’t expect to see that kind of neglect on the Hawaiian islands. From what I gathered, it’s just the island life-style. The resorts and high end housing, of course, are well manicured and loved. The rest? Not so much. I mean, the “yards” (and I use that term loosely) are all overgrown and out of control. I guess they don’t believe in cutting grass or weeds. The homes themselves look as if they are simply lived in until they fall down. Maintenance is not something that appears to be in their vocabulary or lifestyle. The certainly don’t worry about “keeping up with the Jone’s” so to speak. LOL
Another observation … Never have I ever taken a two week vacation and not needed a blow dryer, curling iron or makeup. Most useless items I packed. We now call that the “island look.”
Going out and spending the night in San Jose to break up the flight was much easier than flying straight back. Next time we’ll do that both ways.
That’s a wrap on another fabulous trip!!
Sunset and sunrise from the plane …
It's a Wonderful Life! 