Hawaii II - Days 0 and 1

Hawaii, part 2: The returning.

Day 0: airports
===============
Continuing with our tradition of returning to the same foreign/exotic locations, we have returned to Hawaii.

It's been over 7 years since our last trip (Yes, I know the photos are broken. Yes, I will fix this some day), but this time we're splitting our time approximately equally between Kauai and Oahu; The overachieving Dr. T has graciously brought me along on yet another academic conference, so that I might chauffeur her around and serve as photo journalist. This time, we have elected to vacation prior to conferencing, and will head first to Kauai for 5 days before returning to Oahu for another 5.

The trip began as so many do: getting up earlier than I'd prefer, sitting in traffic, enduring the insufferable TSA, and questioning the sanity of fellow travelers who have brought small children on an airplane.

5 hours from Philly to LA, enough time for a (quite good, really) burger, then another 5 hours from LA to Honolulu. Despite leaving the house before 10 AM, it was after 9 PM (local) when we arrived in Hawaii (6 hours behind EDT), which is too late to catch the last flight to Lihue. So, we hitched a ride on the airport shuttle to an extremely adequate, but nearby, airport hotel for an 8-hour stay.

Day 1: The South
================
Still operating somewhat on EDT internally, we were checked out of the hotel at 6:30 AM and headed back to the Honolulu airport, to be subjected once again to the vagaries of the TSA. At least this time, the scenery was nicer.



The inter-island flight was 30 or 40 minutes, after which we picked up our sweet rental car (the woman at the counter decided the guy ahead of us did "not look like a red car kind of guy", but then gave it to me instead).



We also encountered the first of many "do not feed the chickens" signs.



Side note about the chickens: we discussed this intermittently today, and have decided that while we certainly remember seeing wild chickens elsewhere in Hawaii (mostly Maui), there appear to be many, many more of them on Kauai. In fact, I created a game wherein I say "chicken" every time I see one on the side of the road, but gave up within 10 minutes because it had already gotten tiresome. They really are everywhere, and we have heard roosters crowing in the distance at every stop.

We stopped at a restaurant, whose name escapes me, near the airport for a quick lunch, and then headed south to explore.

The first stop was a chance encounter with a local rum distillery (or rather, their tasting room and gift shop).



Conveniently, there was a tasting session commencing shortly after our arrival, and Sabrina insisted that we partake.



Leaving the rum shop, we headed south to the coast and ended up at Poipu Beach Park, where we had fairly-close encounters with a large turtle and an endangered monk seal (and his volunteer attendant) sunning himself ("resting") on the beach.



Next up, we headed a bit west, to see the Spouting Horn. I think this was also the first "Entering Tsunami Hazard Zone" sign, which was comforting.



And then back up to Koloa to get rained on for a few minutes, buy a jug of Pog, and grab a snack. We had heard from some random people at the rum tasting that the Kauai Coffee visitor center was worth a visit, so we rushed over there to get in before 5. (It turned out they have "summer hours" that include staying open until 5:30, of course.)



By the time we left the coffee plantation, we decided it was time to head back east, towards Wailua to check into our accommodations and find some dinner. Along the way, we stopped at the Hanapepe Valley Lookout.



When we finally made it through rush-hour traffic (surprisingly bustling, for such a sparsely-populated location) to Wailua and found the condo (yay, VRBO!). After schlepping our luggage up the stairs to the third floor, we were delighted to discover the view we'll be waking up to for the next 4 mornings.



Once we were somewhat settled in, we ventured out to find something to eat, and then stopped at a grocery store on the way back to the condo. Sabrina wouldn't let me buy any of the donut-waffles.



Tomorrow, there's a vague (at least, for me) plan to watch the sunrise from the balcony, followed by more vague plans to go see the north shore, drive the scenic route, and potentially do some snorkeling. Somewhere.

I think the photos are all shared publicly, but this is the first time I'm using Google Plus/Photos/whatever-it-is-this-month to host the pics, so let me know if something is amiss.