Occasionally Adventurous: Day Twenty-five: A Long Day!

We were mostly packed up by eight a.m. this morning, helped by the early sunrise streaming through our bedroom window. We ran out of coffee yesterday, so headed out for breakfast at Java Kai in Hanalei. We got out of the car into a light rain which turned into a downpour just after we got inside. This place is almost like fast food - limited menu, but they bring it to your table. Tables are outside on a wide wrap-around porch or picnic tables out front. We got lucky and got a table on the porch. By the time food came, the rain had stopped. We went outside to finish our coffee at a picnic table, which had mostly dried off.

Back at the condo, we sat outside for awhile, then Pat packed the car and found someone who was glad to get the remaining stock of Longboard Lager. Our plan was to simply kick around the area north of Lihue until our ten p.m. flight. I had looked into alternatives for storing our luggage during the day, but the only possibility I found was a late checkout for half the daily rate for the condo. We decided it wasn't worth the money (though we had a couple of hours mid-afternoon when we wondered...).

We stopped first at the Hanalei Valley overlook, just at the turn off to our condo. Next stop was Anini Beach, where we spent an hour watching snorkelers and a wind surfer. We drove up a couple of back roads and got some nice valley and mountain views northwest of Kapa'a. At the south end of Lihue, we stopped for shave ice, this time with ice cream at the bottom. I really wish someone around here would start a Hawaiian shave ice shop, maybe with some other Hawaiian food options. We only had shave ice twice, but both times really enjoyed it.

By now it was 3:30, and we had lots of time to kill. We drove to the beach park on Kalapaki Bay. This small bay is nice, but we found the park to be run down and not very inviting. The sea wall looked like it could fall into the water any time, and the access road was just big rocks that looked like they could kill the suspension of the car. We parked a few feet in and sat for awhile, looking over at the Kauai Marriott at the center of the bay. Finally I called the Marriott and was assured that we could leave car and luggage safely with a bellhop.

Relieved of luggage worries, we headed to Duke's Barefoot Bar for happy hour - $6 mai tais and decent local music made us feel much better! We had a drink, then ordered food. Pat had another mai tai, then coffee with dessert. I switched to iced tea. Duke's signature dessert is Hula Pie: a huge (4 inches tall) slice of vanilla ice cream on a thick oreo crust, with hot fudge and macadamia nuts on top and underneath, and a big dollop of whipped cream. We split one, and were glad we still had a few hours before we had to get on a plane. Happy hour and music both ended at six, and shortly after that we rolled away from the table. We walked the beach walk and through the courtyard garden, checked out the pool, and otherwise behaved like registered guests. Around seven we claimed our car, filled it with gas, and went to the airport.

Our flights were uneventful. The longer one, to Phoenix, was overnight and pretty quiet after the baby near us settled down. I took a sleeping pill and got about four hours of sleep in small bits. Pat was wide awake the entire time. He read by someone else's light for awhile, but didn't want to reach over his seat mate to turn his own light on. We were on opposite sides of the aisle in the same row. I had tried to change seats but couldn't find two together. We had breakfast at a sports bar at the Phoenix airport, and finally arrived in Detroit at four p.m. (ten a.m. in Hawaii). Josh and Katie picked us up. We came home to a very happy dog, and a completely cleaned house. Josh had even done all of our laundry, including the sheets and towels he had used.

We had dinner with Josh and Katie at our favorite local tavern, Brady's. Their mai tais aren't nearly as good!