Kauai - Hawaii Trip 2009
March 7 - March 21
Saturday, March 7 - Our day today was pretty much either spent in airports or airplanes, but that's the sacrifice you have to make to get to paradise. We were lucky since we were able to upgrade to first class for the trip between Chicago and Honolulu, which as you can imagine makes a big difference. We were a little delayed in leaving O'Hare due to lightning, but only by about 20 mins or so, most of which was made up in the air, as we landed only a few minutes late in Honolulu. The flight to Honolulu was really nice. It seemed to go by fast, which is really nice since it's 8:30 hours. Of course, the wine we had in first class helped us nap a little. We had an Australian Shiraz, we believe it was called de Borgloni. It wasn't great, but it was decent. Mark had the cheese ravioli and Sue had the grilled chicken. We also watched The Day the Earth Stood Still (kinda lame - but helped pass the time). And a few shows on the laptop.
We had about a 2 hour layover in Honolulu before coming over to Kauai on Hawaiian Airlines. The plane was a 717 and boy did it feel small! We weren't sure if it was because of the fact the plane is actually small or just the difference between coach in a 717 and first class in a 777.
It was raining in both Honolulu and Lihue, but since we didn't arrive in Lihue until after 6:30, it wasn't really a big deal to us. Our luggage beat us to Kauai since there were a couple of earlier flights, so we were able to grab out luggage and head straight to Hertz to pick up our car. We got a Ford Focus. We decided to try to head to Costco to stock up on the necessities (wine), but unfortunately they were closed by the time we got there.
We got to our condo (Lawai Beach Resort) at around 8pm (we also made a quick stop at Big Save) and got a pretty nice unit. Room 2203 in the Banyan building. It has a really nice ocean view, although we heard it, more than saw it tonight. One thing to note is that we can get wi-fi from the lanai pretty well, but inside the unit is pretty touch and go.
We did buy a bottle of wine at Big Save – Eadmeades 2006 Mendocino Zinfandel, on sale for 16.99. We only had 1 glass each, but it was a nice way to end our evening drinking wine, having a little cheese and listening to the ocean.
Sunday, March 08 – Earplugs are amazing. Both of us wore them last night when we went to bed around 10:00pm and when we took them out at 6:30am, my goodness, those birds and roosters were loud, so we sure were glad we had them in.
After some toast with guava jam, we went on a nice long walk (with no short piers in sight – after all this is Hawaii.). We walked from the condo down to Brennecke's and back, walking through the Sheraton, Plantation Colony and the Marriott. Just shy of 2 hours in all.
Then we headed to Lihue for lunch. We had a coupon book from Mark's parents for some dining on the islands, so we were going to Asia Tang in the Harbor Mall. Well, when we got there, it was out of business, so we decided to just go to Mariachi's (also in the Harbor Mall). Mark got the 5 Fish Tacos lunch special with mahi mahi. Sue had the Chile Verde (just to make sure Vince would know what it was like). Mark liked his fish tacos, especially when they remembered to bring out the sauce for them. The Chile Verde was very good, although there was a little more fat than Sue would have liked, the flavor was very nice, with a little heat. There chips and salsa were really good and their house margaritas weren't too bad. (We could have done without the Spanish music videos though.)
After lunch we headed to Costco for our necessities. We purchased tequila and some fish (Ono and Blue Marlin) and of course wine. After stopping briefly at Star market for a few minor items, we headed home to sit by the pool. Of course we had to make some more margaritas first. We tried something a little different. We didn't use Grand Marnier, instead we bought some guava nectar and put that in and it was pretty good. We garnished the margaritas with some fresh pineapple (also yummy). We even had a Big Foot sighting at the pool, alcohol not required. This older lady had really big feet. We swear she could easily wear her husband's shoes (hell, she might even stretch them out.) Mark swears they had to be close to a foot and a half long.
After the pool, it was time to make dinner. We made a meal of which Sandra Lee (from Food Network) would have been proud. We took the ono and pan seared it, then continued to cook it until it was done. Then we mixed marinated artichokes with sundried tomato and olive relish. Pretty good, for a meal made away from home without my pantry, spice rack and utensils. We served that with a 2007 Far Niente Chardonnay, kernel corn and cheesy rice. The wine was very nice and really complimented the meal well. It would definitely be a re-buy if we were back home. While the meal was not gourmet, it certainly was not too bad and definitely cheaper than going out. We ate out on the lanai with whales putting on a minor show until the sun set, with plenty of spouts, a few tail slaps, and even a breach.
After dinner we moved on to the remainder of the Eadmeades from last night and it was actually better than the first night. Held up really well. We had originally thought about going to the Beach House for dinner, until we saw that the same exact bottle on the wine list for $48 and to think Costco had the wine for $13.99!
Monday, March 9 – Well we awoke today to lots of rain. The rain moved out around 7:30, and even though it was still pretty overcast, we took a walk down to Spouting Horn Park. While we were there we saw a couple of whales. It appeared to be a mother and baby whale. It almost seemed like the mom was trying to teach her baby how to breach, because we saw the adult whale breach a few times, then the baby would try, until he finally got it. Unfortunately we were unable to get pictures of it, but it was still really cool to see. After watching the whale show for about 30 mins, we decided to continue our walk and went all the way down the dead end road – which led to what appeared to be the back entrance for the botanical gardens, then back to the condo. We were waking a total of 1:22 mins.
We decided to drive up to Waimea Brewing Company for lunch. We hit a little traffic, but it was due to road constuction, nothing too terrible. We got to Waimea Brewing Company around 11:30. Sue had been wanting a burger, so she ordered the Volcano Burger. Mark wanted fish and ordered the Ale Battered Fish & Chips. After Mark's last experience with the fish there his expectations were really high, expecting something really good. Unfortunately all we got was ordinary. The food wasn't really bad, it was just food. Sue ordered her volcano burger medium and it came out well done, so it wasn't really very juicy. The "special volcano sauce" seemed just like chili hot sauce, it was spicy, but Sue thought it would have been better had it been mixed into the meat, so this summer she's going to experiment with her own volcano burger. Mark's fish was slightly over cooked and lacking something, although it was served with tarter sauce, the tartar sauce was strange as it was really chunky and had little flavor.. We do have to say that their fries were really good. The beer was lacking. Mark had the Na Pali Pale Ale and the Porter (which really should have been called brown water). Sue had the Wai'ale'ale ale and the Leilani light ale. At $5.25 a glass, we'd have been better ordering pop.
After the sun came back out, we took our Lilikoi Margaritas down to the pool. We were there for about an hour when the clouds started rolling in so we headed back to the condo. We wound up being just in time as the rain really started coming down once we got inside.
We decided to cook in tonight, based on a recipe from the food network, altered for being in a strange kitchen. We took a bag of prewashed, precut chop suey vegetables, sautéed them until crisp-tender and added a Papaya Seed dressing we made, but we didn't exactly follow instructions. We took the dry dressing mix added the 1/3 cup white vinegar as directed (shook) , then 1/3 cup olive oil (shook), then 1/3 cup water (shook), then we added about 1 tablespoon or so of honey mustard (one last shake). (The original dressing mix says to add 2/3 cups canola oil, 1/3 at a time). We also pan seared Blue Marlin steaks in olive oil after sprinkling them with salt and pepper. We then drizzled the fish steaks with the Papaya seed dressing. We also had garlic bread and salad. It was a really nice meal. We served it with a French Pouilly-Fume that complemented the meal really well. It was a 2006 Michel Redde La Moyniere Pouilly Fume. It was rather nice. We didn't finish the bottle opting to save some for lunch tomorrow when Mark had leftovers of the fish (one piece was purposely undercooked so we could reheat it). Then we watched an episode of 24 and went to bed early.
Tuesday, March 10 – Another beautiful day, all the rain that's been hitting the island over the last week or so, kinda scared us off, so we decided to walk toward Brennecke's beach and continue on, taking in the lithified cliffs and making it all the way down to and through the Hyatt (which has a pretty awesome pool). We were going to try to find the path to hook up to a few beaches further down, but couldn't so we turned around and headed back the way we came. We were out just shy of 3 hours, so we figure about 9 miles. After that we had a lunch of leftovers, Mark had leftover Marlin and I had leftover Chile Verde from Mariachi's. Both were good and we finished off the bottle of Pouilly-Fume.
We took a ride to Big Save to get some beverages for the pool. We were going to get margarita supplies when we noticed "Mike's Harder Lemonade" – which is basically Mike's Hard Lemonade made stronger. Big Save had both the Lemonade and Cranberry flavors, so we bought some of them and headed to the pool. We went to the Coral pool since it's heated. The Harder lemonades were nice, especially since there were quiet a few kids at this pool today. Good thing we have mp3 players.
We decided to go to Pomodoro's for dinner. Got there right at 5:30, it takes about 15 mins from Lawai Beach Resort, and were seated right away. Mark had the lasagna, Sue had the Chicken Parmesan special, served with farfalle pasta with either marinara or Bolognese sauce. Sue chose the Bolognese sauce and it was really good. Both entrees pretty good, although they were really, really hot when they came out. Mark really like the idea of serving the lasagna in extra sauce, so that gives Sue another "cooking assignment", since Mark actually likes the flavor of Sue's lasagna a little better. Mark asked Geri if she remembered Vince, and she said she did. Even said that Mark resembles his dad, so she either really does remember him, or she got lucky with that comment. The place was really, really hopping when we left (and it was only a Tuesday). The clientele appeared to be a mix of locals and vacationers. The wine list was decently priced also – nothing over $39. We had a Barbara de Asti for $34, and it was decent and went well with both of our meals.
We also decided to bring home dessert – Sue had the chocolate mousse, Mark had the cannoli. Both were good and you could definitely taste a bit of alcohol in the sauce. We noticed when we pulled into the Lawai Beach parking lot that it was really really full. And most of the cars were backed into the spots, which can only mean one thing – Valet Parking. It turns out that Beach House uses the Lawai Beach Resort parking lot for their valet. So if you're in the Makai side of the Banyan building, and go out for dinner, you may have a little walk to your unit once you find parking. It's a little annoying, but at least there are still spots available. We did find out that the money Lawai Beach Resort makes for the valet parking offsets the annual dues, so it's a minor inconvenience and really only impacts those people staying makai in the Banyan building.
We watched another episode of 24, then headed to bed early. We think all that sun did us in.
Wednesday, March 11 – Woke up around 6am again. There was a beautiful almost full moon on display above the palm trees in front of our lanai. We took a picture, but it just really didn't do it justice.
Today we decided to make it a car day. We drove up to the North End of the island to see the sights. We took the by pass road around Kapa'a. We don't really think it was much of a time saver because the speed limit is so low. We drove on through Anahole, Princeville, Hanalei, all the way to the end of the road in Ha'ena. At the end of the road, it's usually pretty crowded, as there's a beach, plus a couple of wet caves and also the Kalalau Trailhead. So if you're going to go hike from there, it's best to leave early to ensure you get good parking. Since it was so crowded, we just turned around and headed back.
Since it was lunchtime, we were getting hungry and decided to go to Bouchon's for lunch. It's in Hanalei upstairs in the Ching Young Shopping Village. It used to be just sushi, under a different name, but they added more of a pacific rim menu and changed their name to Bouchon's. Mark had been craving sushi, so he was hoping to get some there, unfortunately the sushi chef doesn't get there until 3:30, so we just ordered off the regular lunch menu. Mark had the ahi sliders, which had a spicy chimchurri sauce. Sue had the fish tacos. Both meals were really good.
After lunch we headed down to the pool around 2:45 and laid out until about 4:30, then it got pretty cloudy, so we headed indoors and sat on the lanai for a little while, even got to see a whale breech.
We ate in, making filet mignon, scalloped potatoes (embarrassingly from a box, but on vacation you have to make due) and corn. We enjoyed our meal with a Ben Marco Malbec which complemented the meat really well.
We watched a couple more episodes of 24 (we may just finish the 3rd season this trip!) then headed to bed.
Thursday, March 12 - Woke up early made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, portuguese sausage and cheese. Then after that settled we started off for our walk. We decided to try walking to Casablanca to see if we could do that for dinner, it's about a 30 min walk. Right next to the road to Casablancas there's a 'old Hapa Road' Trail, so we decided to see where that took us. It went about 1 ½ in until it came to Hapa Road (the new one apparently). The walk is pretty easy, with just a slight incline. There are really nice mountain views along the walk, as well as a few horses. Towards the end you'll see a gate, but you can easily walk around it. The trail continues only a little further from there until you hit the road. It was nice walk, but nothing spectacular. It's also an out and back walk. Just as we were nearing the gate mentioned above, Sue's fanny pack broke. It's an old one we've been using for years, so I guess it was just a matter of time. We almost turned around until we realized with could just take off the broken plastic pieces and tie the fabric straps around Sue's waist. Not quite MacGyver, but at least we were able to finish the walk. After we exited the trail, we walked through the Plantation Cottages, down to the sea and along the ocean, working our way back to Lawai Beach Resort. We were out a little over 2 hours total.
For lunch we went to Toi's Thai in 'Ele'Ele, a drive that takes about 20 mins, Mark had the Toi's Temptation with Mahi Mahi. This is one of their specialty dishes with strong lemongrass flavor. Sue had the Chicken Satay dish. We both asked for them to be made spicy, since we had a Reisling to drink with them. The dishes were nice & spicy, but not overbearingly so. After lunch we went to the pool for a few hours. It was pretty windy and the clouds kept blowing in, but we still got plenty of sun while there. And we were still able to enjoy our Mike's Harder lemonades.
For dinner we stayed in and had pasta. We purchased a premade tomato sauce with Parmesan and herbs, added Portuguese sausage and mixed that with penne. Added some garlic bread and Marchesi Di Barolo 2003 and it was a very nice meal. The Barolo was very good and complimented the dinner rather nicely. After dinner we finished off the Spanish Rioja we started the night before. It was part of the virtual tasting Sue's been doing on mustlovewine.com. Mark totally nailed the tasting notes. After we tried it and agreed on the notes, we looked it up on Wine Spectator and he was dead on. For a nightcap we had the 2004 Chateau Mont Redon Chateauneuf de Pape. Another very nice wine with bright fruit and a nice finish. The we pretty much passed out after watching a few episodes of 24.
Friday, March 13 – We went out for our walk today. We decided to head down to the Makahuena Light on the Lithified cliffs up Pe'e Road. We must have walked fast because we got there over 5 mins quicker than on Tuesday. On our way there, we stopped to watch 3 monk seals playing in Brennecke's beach. It looked like 2 adults and a pup. When we got to the light, we rested for a few minutes and saw a bunch of whales spouting, there were at least 5 of them. As we headed back to the condo, we came across two adult monk seals sunning themselves on the sand at the Marriott. They looked totally dead to the world. It was cute though how they build little "pillows' out of sand for their head. Unfortunately we hadn't brought the camera, because Mark said, we've already done this walk, what are we going to see? Oh well. At least we still got to see it.
For lunch we drove back up to 'Ele 'ele to Grinds Café. Mark had the Mahi Mahi sandwich, Sue had the Reuben, both of us had the home fries. The sandwiches were quite large and tasty. The home fries were good, making for a nice change of pace from french fries. We were completely full after lunch so we decided to go down to the pool for a little while. After about an hour, it clouded up again, so we headed back to the condo.
For dinner, since the rain stopped, we decided to walk over to Casablanca for dinner. We walked slow and got there in less than 35 mins. It was happy hour (from 2-6 Tuesday-Saturday), so we got some $4 Lime Margaritas. We decided to order some tapas: Tre Bruschetta (one with tapanade, one with roasted garlic, and one with tomato and balsamic), lamb skewers with mint yogurt dressing (probably the best tapa we had), garlic shrimp (the shrimp was overcooked) and Arancini stuffed with mozzarella and fried (this is a rice ball, stuffed with mozzarella, then fried and covered in a tomato sauce). Overall it was decent, but nothing specatacular.
We headed back to the condo to pack and unwind while watching another episode of 24.
Saturday, March 14 – We set the alarm for 5:30am, to make sure we'd make our flight at 8:40, since we still had the last minute stuff to pack, showers to take and to fill up the car, before we got to the airport. We made it in plenty of time, although we were delayed a little at Hertz. We had used points for a free week, but for some reason it wasn't in the system. We were able to clear it up though and we only had to pay $30 for the week. The flight from Kauai to Oahu was pretty uneventful. It was a little bumpy, since it was raining in Oahu. Our flight to Kona got off on time, and landed on time. Because we came in on Hawaiian, the baggage claim is further down and is straight across from the car rental van pick ups. Mark was able to walk straight across and get right on the Hertz van, which then took off right away. Our luggage was within the first 10 that came out on the belt. The plane was due in at 11:58am and we had our luggage by 12:09.
We drove straight to Kona Hawaiian Village. They put a 3 way stop at Ali'i and Lunapule, which makes it nice to come down that way, but can really back traffic up on Ali'i. We got here about 12:30 and were actually able to check in. Even though they're now Wyndham, they still make you go to the concierge to get your parking pass, where of course they want you to go through another timeshare presentation, although they use the terminology "owners update". We agreed, mostly so we can just go check in and to get the $100. We got room 19A, which is a pretty nice unit, it has a nice ocean view.
We went up to Costco to do some shopping, got some wine, water and food.
We then walked to the Kona Brewer's Festival around 2:45. It was about a 40 minute walk. It was pretty crowded, not just for the beer, but also with the food. We wonder if it would be better to show up later, but we're worried that some of the food may be gone. The food is really pretty good. Below is a list of the food we had that we can remember. We didn't keep track of the beers, some were good, but there wasn't anything awesome.
Kona Brewers Festival
Jackie Rey's - Kalua pork quesadilla
Brown's Beach House, Fairmont Orchid – Ahi Tuna Cake
Cater Hawaii – lamb and black bean chili, sausage and homemade mustard
Hilton Waikoloa Village – braised short rib meatballs.
Kailua Candy company – Milk Chocolate and bacon candy
Daniel Thiebault Restaurant – Braised shortribs and wasabi mashed potatoes
The Lotus Café – Gelato – banana coconut and vanilla ginger
Beef tenderloin and with black bean and mushroom sauce - ?
Fried calamari - ?
Café Pesto - Coconut fried shrimp
The three best foods were the lamb and black bean chili, braised shortribs and wasabi mashed potatoes, and the braised shortrib meatballs.
We only stayed about 2 hours. It was really crowded, raining lightly off and on and we were out of beer scrips. We walked back to the condo to watch some tv and relax.
Sunday, March 15 – Mark's back is kind of sore, so we decided to skip our walk. We went up to safeway to get some groceries. We also stopped at Kona Natural Foods because you can buy spices in bulk – well, by the ounce, so we picked up some sesame seeds and Chinese 5 spice powder to use for the mahi mahi we bought.
We decided to go to Kona Brew Pub for lunch. We ordered the Koloko Alfredo pizza and the Pepperoni Ali'i. The Koloko is a fairly new pizza. It's basically a Chicken Alfredo pizza with tomatoes and spinach. The chicken was a little overcooked, but overall the pizza was good. The pepperoni ali'i was good, as always.
We then stopped off quickly at Costco to get some tequila, so we could go down to the pool and relax. While we were there we met a family from Colorado. Ann, Ron and Molly. Molly is actually in grad school at Michigan State. They're a pretty fun family, since they like to drink like we do. J
For dinner we made the mahi mahi with the 5 spice powder and sesame seeds. It was pretty good. Since Mark drank most of the two pitchers of margaritas we had made, he was feeling really good, so we wound up going to bed early.
Monday, March 16 – Today is the day we went to the "owners update". We thought we could walk up there, but you can't, so we had to walk back down to our unit, get the car keys, then drive up to the sales center. The pitch went pretty much like we expected. There were some intriguing aspects to it, but in the end we turned it down and accepted our $100 visa gift card and left.
It was about 11 am by the time we left, so we decided to go to Royal Thai Café to grab some take out lunch. Sue ordered the Pad Thai with Chicken. Mark ordered the Green Curry with Pork. Both were orderd at a level 3 spiciness. We had the Thai food with a German Spatlese, which actually complemented the food pretty well. We also both enjoyed the meals we ordered.
After lunch we went down to the pool. We were out there from about 12:30 to just after 4:00pm. We got some good sun.
After that relaxing afternoon, we made steaks on the grill, with roasted potatoes. We chilled out after dinner, actually finished season 3 of 24. Then went to bed early.
Tuesday, March 17 – Well, we woke up to rain, with a forecast for more rain with a side of rain. So we basically did nothing. We watched tv, including Jerry Springer for about 10 minutes, because it was so darn fascinating that people are so dumb and stupid. Mark was surprised that the unemployment is only 8% nationally.
After lunch we decided to watch a movie – Legends of the Fall – in honor of Darren Walters – it was actually pretty good – but we didn't cry.
For dinner we decided to go up to Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill. We had a $9 off coupon. We went up there for happy hour, but their happy hour is just half priced appetizers. One thing to note is that Wednesday is Wino Wednesday where a part of their wine list is ½ price. They also have early bird specials from 5:00-5:30pm. They also tend to get busy for lunch, so if you don't go at 5:00pm, you'll want to make reservations. Sue had the early bird pork chop special. It was a pork chop smothered in a fresh pesto sauce, with grilled vegetables and purple sweet mashed potatoes. She liked her meal, although the pork chop may have been a little overdone. (it would have been perfect for Art). Mark had the Ahi special, which was pan seared, topped with an Ahi Seviche, served with the purple sweet mashed potatoes and green beans. Mark enjoyed his meal too. For dessert we had the chocolate cake roll for two with a bottle of the Prisoner. The Prisoner is on their wine list for $60, which seems pretty fair.
Afterwards we came back to the condo, and watched tv to relax until we went to bed.
Wednesday, March 18 – Today we decided to try taking a walk, hoping Sue's leg would comply – she's been having some groin/muscular issues. We walked down to Pahoehoe Beach Park, down Ali'i. From Kona Hawaiian Village, it's about 50 mins each way. The view from the park is as beautiful as ever. The water so clear, you can see the fish in the surf. We didn't see any whales or turtles today though.
After breakfast and a shower, we drove up to KTA to pick up some things for lunch, we had decided to make steak tacos for lunch to use up the remaining steak. We served it with hot South Point Salsa, smoked gouda cheese and some lettuce and onions. It was pretty good. Of course we made our margaritas to wash it down with. While eating lunch we were able to see a couple of whales from our Lanai, the first ones so far on Hawaii.
After lunch we headed down to the pool for some sun. It was hot. But the pool was refreshing. When we were up at KTA, we walked over to Kenichi and found out that if you eat in the bar, their sushi rolls are half priced from 5:00pm – 6:00pm, so we decided to finally let Mark have his sushi. When we got there, Kenichi also has some drink specials – large hot sake for $6, select bottled beers for under $4. Mark ordered the Hawaiian roll, the Aspen roll, the spicy tuna roll and the salmon and avocado roll. Mark's favorite was the Aspen roll (it has cream cheese). Sue wasn't much in the mood for sushi, she tried a few of the rolls, but the seeweed was on the outside, and she really doesn't like those, probably a mental thing, you know how she is.
We decided to stop off and buy a bottle of wine, we saw that KTA had 2005 Columbia Crest Two Vines Shiraz on sale for $5.99. It really wasn't bad, especially for the price and it really went well with the light butter popcorn we had.
Thursday, March 19 – Well, the NCAA tournament started today, so we didn't really do much. We had a breakfast of eggs and bacon and once that settled, we went for a walk down just past where the West Hawaii Today offices are on Kuakini, almost to Kona Bay Estates and then of course back again. The weather was mostly overcast making it pretty humid during the walk. We came back cooled off and relaxed. We then had some lunch (sandwiches), served with a Yanbarra 2006 Rose, which was really pretty good. We hung out at the condo watching college basketball. We decided to go down to the pool, but as we were getting ready, the clouds came in and it wouldn't have been worth it, so we just watched more basketball.
We went to La Bourgogne for dinner. We had the 2003 J.Davies Cabernet Sauvignon with dinner. Ron was offering it at $88. After the meal, Mark checked and we could get the 2005 vintage from Schramberg for $75 a bottle plus shipping, so it was a really good deal at Ron's. To eat Sue started with the Salad Lyonaise – a salad of frisee & endive with bacon vinaigrette with a poached egg on top. Mark had the lobster cassoulet, which was served with a flaky pastry crust. For our main meals, Mark had the rack of lamb with the rosemary garlic sauce and Sue had the Osso Bucco. Both meals were really good. For dessert we split the chocolate souffle. By the end of it we were so full. We came back to the condo, watched tv and then went to bed.