Our original plan was to spend the day relaxing at the resort with a quick trip to the Hawaiian Trading Port in Lawa'i. Things did not quite work out that way.
First we had breakfast at the Ilima Terrace, a beautiful, if more formal setting than the Seaview Terrace. Heather had Belgian waffles and guava juice while I had scrambled eggs. The scrambled eggs were not the standard Denny's variety - I had two eggs, roasted fingerling potatoes, a rasher of thick-cut bacon, sauteed asparagus spears, and a broiled tomato half with grated parmesan cheese on top. We topped things off with Kona coffee and a shot glass sized papaya smoothie, which our waitress greeted us with.
In addition to the food, Ilima provides an excellent garden view of koi, swans, Nene's, and an artificial waterfall. And the Pacific Ocean. Pictures of that will come tomorrow - I stupidly did not take the camera to breakfast.
After our feast we gathered the Jeep from the valet (these guys rock), and headed up to the Trading Post. This place makes the other stores we've visited, particularly Hilo Hatties look, like Walmarts for cheap, plastic, tourist-oriented crap. We found just about everything we were looking for, and somethings we weren't, at the Hawaiian Trading Post. If yoy come to Kauai, go there for gifts, particularly jewelry.
Because we had convinced ourselves that it would be a quick trip, we decided to head back to Waimea (again) for lunch at Shrimp Station and then more shaved ice at JoJo's. We ran into a snag along the way - construction on State Road 50. This set us back about twenty minutes, as asphalt wasw laid on the road - despite the states' supposed shortage of the stuff.
We also made the mistake of blowing past the Shrimp Station and heading to Forever Kauai in Kekaha at the state recommended, but poorer route into Waimea Canyon (take Waimea Canyon Road instead - we did). Forever Kauai yielded a few really interesting items, but was decidedly not the T-shirt mecca we had been told it was. Don't go out of your way for this joint.
We headed back along the coast to Shrimp Station and had a pretty good, if pricey ($24), lunch of fried shrimp. This was somewhat delayed by a search for an ATM, which we found a few blocks further into Waimea. After Shrimp Station we went back to JoJo's for shave ice and time on the pier.
JoJo's illustrated some of the problems locals run into when guidebooks tell the world about the best places. In this case, we ran into a hoard of other tourists, and watched a minimum of four local customers head out the door in frustration rather than wait in the very long line. Not having anywhere to be, we chose to wait, enduring the slow service and clueless clientele. I know that we're also here as tourists, but we at least read signs and make room for other customers.
The shave ice and view from the pier were worth it - particularly when we headed back toward Poipu and saw the horde of other tourists sitting outside JoJo's with their shave ice and no view but Waimea's main road. Yes, it is petty, but it made us happy anyway.
More traffic delays ensured that it was 4:00 pm when we got back to our room, which gave us enough time to head to the business center to send a giant box of stuff back to the mainland, but not enough for time hanging out by the water. What can you do? It was better than hauling all that stuff on the airplane, and this way its ensured. It may also get home about the same time we do.
Instead of relaxing by the sea, we had burgers by the docks and looked at the resorts lagoon. Then we headed to the Seaview Terrace for drinks and the Torch Lighting Ceremony, which brings us our only pictures of the day.
This is the welcoming Hula, a traditional Hula, which I prefer to the more modern ones...
And this is gas torches being lit. Gas isn't very traditional, but it still [i]looks[/i] cool.
Our next update will probably be from home in Colorado.