There’s a saying here. You’re supposed to “let Hawaii happen”. What that means to me is that you have no plans, no time constraints, no real needs. This is a difficult thing for me to accomplish because I so much want to do as much as I can. Our plan has been to set out our plans one day at a time. With that in mind, on Monday, we turned to the south coast with the sole purpose of going to the westernmost bookstore in the US. That’s right, our plans were to go to a bookstore.
We headed out around 8:15 or so to begin the very long drive towards Hanapepe. By distance, it’s not really that far, maybe 45 miles. But, by time, wowzers. On the way, we decided to stop by the Kauai Coffee Company. They have a self-guided tour of part of the grounds where you can learn more about coffee from plant to pot (came up with that gem just now). A fun fact or two-dark roast coffee beans have less caffeine and they have 4 million coffee trees on site. Enough learning. A big benefit of going to the plantation is the ability to try every single one of their varieties. We tried several, purchased a few, and then hopped up on caffeine we ran to Hanapepe (actually we drove).
Hanapepe is a neat little town between Kalaheo and Waimea. The old main street was actually the basis for the town in Lilo and Stich. We made it our bookstore, Talk Story, and met the owners. We bought several books that are more or less local. It took us longer to get here than the actual time spent in the store, but that was never the point. It was about the trip. After placing the books in the car, we walked through town, visited some shops, walked out on the Hanapepe Swinging Bridge, and grabbed an ono pop (popsicle). Margeuax grabbed a avocado sandwich and we drove to Salt Pond Beach for her to eat. Hanapepe is known for its salt production-just beside the beach is where they farm(?) the salt, hence the name-Salt Pond.
By now, we pointed the car back the other direction. I stopped to grab some lunch. Just a bit of advice to the restaurant. If I place my order, and point to the requested item, and you mess up the order, it is generally poor form to bring out a bill for the difference. Good customer service would dictate that you just lose the 3 bucks. Anyways, glad to have something in my stomach, we drove back to Lihue.
Another fun little stop was at the Koloa Rum Store. We signed up for one of the tasting sessions and kicked around the store while we waited. It was a good session. They allowed us to sample light, dark, spiced, and coconut rums. Margeaux and the others in attendance even had rum cake. All of us were taught the proper way to make a mai tai. So don’t worry local friends, I’ll be glad to show you how at our next get together. Great little stop and maybe one to stop back at later in the week.
Margeaux wanted to get a chair for the beach, so we stopped in Kapaa to do that and then tried to find a beach where she could use it. We ended up at Anini Beach. A long beach with small crowds, this would suffice for the time being. The ocean bottom was full of dead coral, so walking the in the water was painful. Also, the water was cold. But we were able to see some turtles and she was able to sit in her chair. By now, after driving, for what seemed like days, I was fairly spent and was sort of ready to head home. A quick dip into the Foodland for some spinach and we went home.
We thought about trying to hike to a nearby beach, but when the option was to ford a stream or balance your way across a fallen tree, we thought it best to turn back. I didn’t want to have to call the girls and start out with “remember your mom??? Well, we thought a hike sounded fun…Back in the room we sautéed the spinach, threw in some day old bacon, sliced the pineapple, and made mac and cheese. Honestly, eating this on the lanai with a drink in hand was a great way to top off what became a busy day. We went 1 for 3 on beaches but hit home runs everywhere else. I’ll edit this post later to add pictures (I forgot the cable in the car to upload the photos) Aloha until next time.