Day Seventeen - Big Island to Kauai

Yesterday was long but good.  We packed up our last lodging on the Big Island and had time to kill, so drove a mile to Volcano Village.  First stop was the post office, to mail home a stack of books and two pairs of shoes, among other things.  Love those flat rate boxes!  Fifteen dollars to lighten the load and make sure we don't go over our suitcase weight limit.  Next we drove to Volcano Garden Arts, a gallery which represents 80 local artists.  It's in an old house, and has rooms full of wonderful paintings, jewelry, pottery and every other kind of art.  We wandered around, met the owner, Ira Ono, decided we might want to purchase a couple of things, and then sat down in the Ono Cafe for a vegetarian lunch.  One of the best meals of our trip:  soup (vegetable for Pat, mushroom for me), crustless spinach quiche, and salad.  And some wonderful iced tea.  Then we bought sea turtle coasters for the den (Josh's old bedroom) and a tiny carved stone box to add to my box collection.

From there we drove to the Hilo airport, turned in the Ford Explorer, and had quite a wait.  Getting through security was hilarious.  My new hip always sets off the  metal detector.  While I was being patted down, Pat dealt with an inspection of the backpack holding the stone coasters.  We may have to ship those babies home before the next flight!  The whole security process took about 15 minutes, but fortunately we were the only "customers" so didn't hold anyone up.  We sat in the almost deserted departures lounge for an hour, reading local newspapers.  All the chairs are wood frames with thick cushions.  Tables are nice wood and have carved detailing on the ends.

We flew first to Honolulu, where we saw the Waikiki coastline and Diamond Head from the air.  A very short  layover, and we got on the same plane to fly to Lihue, Kauai.  Our upgrade rental car here is a Jeep Compass, which is in between the Wrangler and the Explorer for comfort.  It's the least expensive, at only $10 a day more than the mid size sedan we reserved.  We've found that on every island it's been an advantage to have a vehicle which sits higher on the road, so we can see over guard rails and roadside vegetation (sometimes, at least).

Our condo is nice, with a good view over the ocean.  We sit high on a cliff, with a perilous path to a miniscule beach (I've seen photos).  Don't think we'll try the path.  We had dinner in Princeville, at CJ's Steakhouse.  One of our best food days yet, and we've had quite a few!

We have our own dedicated and password protected internet here, for the first time.  It's fast enough, so photos shouldn't be a problem.  Unless the computer problems we've been experiencing get worse.  We now can't use Firefox at all and have resorted to Internet Explorer.  It seems like the operating system has been damaged.  Not sure what the problem is, and the system backup is at home.  And to top that off, looks like my kindle has sustained screen damage, making it impossible for me to read the books I bought for the trip.  Haven't wanted to spend time reading anyway, so not a problem.  But I'm annoyed about all the tech problems.  First the camera, then the computer, now the kindle.  I'm blaming the kindle problem on the TSA inspection of the bag it was in, but that may be unfair.  It was fine a week ago, and I just tried to read today so sometime in the last week something happened.  It was securely packed in my electronics backpack, which has a padded area for the computer.  Anyway....

No pictures today at all - I didn't take any.