five days in kauai

June 30, 2007

DISCLAIMER: While i try to write in an entertaining way, i am thorough in my histories so as to have detailed reminders the next time i travel or complete memoirs for posterity, etc. Since I am publishing this as a blog, I do strive to make it an enjoyable account and guard against a tedious account whenever possible.

I awoke to the alarm I set for 5:20 am on June 29. Our trusty friend, John accompanied us to the BART station in Pleasanton so he could drive the car back. Our vacation had begun at the end of a busy week of remodelling, and one week after I had gotten run-down and sick from sleeplessness, stress, and sermon preparation. I've still got a phlegmy cough as I write this, on day 9 or 10 of a virus I initially thought was allergies. allergies in stockton at the beginning of summer seem for grace and me like the onset of a cold.
Even after giving my sermon and putting that behind me, sleeping was still restless and crowded out by remodelling errands and discussions. God's grace really does carry us newlyweds - He sent us our competent and confident friend, John to do the work cheaply, thoroughly, efficiently, and graciously. It's been nice having him around as a friend even after five or so weeks. He's low-maintenance and sensitive to his friends.
Our granite countertop contractor seems to be another Godsend (though he happens to follow on the heels of our craigslist wedding photographer debacle (see "the story of us" for details)). God helped us with our decisions as we negotiated the unfamiliar territory of kitchen countertop construction this week by narrowing our choices with smooth progression and unexpected blessings along the way.

Commenting on how God continually blesses our indadequate selves right after a well-timed phone call from our contractor, I described us to grace as bumbling idiots who walk around like video game characters like the modifiable players in Monkey Ball for WII. we make one of two sounds: "bonk" when we bump into things (symbolizing our cluelessness), and "pook" when, well, whenever we feel like (it's usually just our greeting to one another, though)


anyway, a busy week before our departure for the island of kauai (affordable package trip through AMEX) meant no time to prepare before we landed and got to our hotel room. Narrowing down our options and scheduling them was a bit of a hassle, but then, we are on vacation, so i'm thinking it's a bit arrogant to call anything a "hassle."

my brunch on air travel day was a turkey wrap from a place in SFO. it made me sick on the plane and about six hours later at the Hertz office in Kauai's airport, I decided to end my misery by leaning over their toilet and subtracting a meal from the day's history. come to think of it, though, maybe it had red peppers. the red peppers at dominick's in chicago made me vomit on two different occasions. hm.

i believe the woman at the counter upgraded us to a ford fusion, but we ended up paying more for a full tank than we would've if the toyota corolla she initially set us up with didn't have its "maintenance required" light on. at any rate, we depleted the tank driving around the island (if only inefficiently) every day.

our first night, we ate at one of fodor's recommended budget eats, Hamura Saimin, an interesting take on the diner,


off the tourist path, and loved it. order the special, a bowl of noodles, dumplings, fishcake, and egg.



day two: lines on maps are so hard to translate into hours hiking.


we decided on a 6.5 mile hike for our first full day on the island.
however, because of poor estimation, we ended up hiking for about 13 miles. now, we're all about burning calories and indulging our pride, but the problem stood that we hadn't scheduled accordingly, and because we began our trek at 12:40, we hiked the last two or three miles in the dark. i carried a big stick to whack anything furry that might come at us (we both like furry things, but figured anything furry that comes out of the forest at night because of us only wants to eat us).

we started the day off great, though, sleeping in, and having a nice, big, tasty breakfast. we even had some coconut banana pancakes saved for the hike. shoulda started earlier, though. oh, well. live and learn. "bonk… bonk…"

still, the views were spectacular.





we got to our car under a full moon at 8:40 or 9:40, and drove a cruelly long and winding road back to town on an empty stomach, already lowering our standards for restaurants, just hoping that something was open and near.

we've never been so excited to see McDonalds.


day three: the road to becoming a charismatic

i'm not sure i can cite a greater blessing on this trip than the sunday morning service at Kapaa Missionary Church, a stone's throw from our hotel.

more to come...