Jean and I were in Hawaii for eight days. Our flight left Bozeman on Tuesday, April 12 at 7:42 am, but we didn’t get to Lihue until 6 or 7 pm. There is a four-hour time change between Montana and Hawaii, so we were traveling for a really long time. Our second and third flights were late, but on the other hand, all our luggage made it to Lihue at the same time we arrived. It’s been a recurring problem lately in my family, and I was prepared for them to tell us that our luggage was delayed. I’m glad the cycle’s over! That evening we ate at Duke’s, a restaurant at our hotel. We both had the opah, a kind of white fish.
Wednesday, April 13 Jean and I had a play day. She didn’t have to register for her continuing education until Thursday, so we just decided to enjoy ourselves. I woke up to the sound of roosters crowing. Since I just woke up I was a bit confused. After all, I had left Montana (and even where I live we don’t hear roosters). A few moments later I realized that Kauai had free-roaming chickens. We began the day watching the koi get fed at the Marriott, where we’re staying. We ate breakfast at Kukui’s first and then went on with our day.
Jean wanted to see Kilohana Plantation, so that was our first stop. We looked at the Koloa Rum Company and tasted their products. It’s a pretty new company. It’s so new that this company won an international blind contest, but the judges were like, “who they?” when they found out whose product they tasted. The rum isn’t aged since it’s so new, and this batch that they currently have uses the last sugar cane that was harvested on the island. Sugar cane is so water-hungry and produces so little sugar that the island isn’t going to grow it in the future. After tasting the rum fudge, Jean and I were convinced that it needed to be put on ice cream when we get back to Montana.
We took the train ride that the plantation offers. The ride has a tour guide who very quickly explains the vegetation at the farm. Kauai has both domestic and wild goats and boars, and they had both animals at this plantation. It was funny watching the goats running toward the train for a snack. We stopped briefly to see the boars.
Back at the plantation building Jean and I ate lunch at their restaurant which uses the fruits and vegetables that they grow there. I had their fish and chips, and Jean had the grilled fish. It was our first time trying mahi mahi, and we both liked it.
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| A family of boars rest at Kilohana Plantation. |
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| Jean pets the donkeys at Kilohana plantation. |
Our next stop was at Kauai Coffee Company. Getting there was kind of funny because the speed limits on these roads sometimes seem random. At one point I was driving 50 mph and had to slow down to 30 mph. I told Jean it looked like a great place for a speed trap. No sooner had I said that then I saw a cop car just past the 30 mph sign past a small hill. It’s a good thing I pay attention to the road signs because all the tourists rent cars—new cars. Locals generally don’t have new cars. We would have been picked out so quickly!
At the Kauai Coffee Company, we toured the facility and sampled their coffee. We learned how they make coffee from the seed in a greenhouse to the package on the store shelf. Jean and I treated ourselves to iced lattes afterward and took pictures of the plantation.
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| The coffee cherries are the green berries on this bush. |
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| This is a harvester for coffee. |
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| A macadamia flower at Kauai Coffee Plantation |
We drove along the south shore and then went back to Lihue, where we had dinner at Kauai Pasta. We were just starting to have fun!
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