Day 236

It was time to say farewell to Kauai. Thank you for the pleasant accommodations at the Kauai Marriott Resort and Beach Club (thank you to the Chens for trading with us!).

One more breakfast stop at Kalapaki Beach Hut (aka Kalapaki Burgers). Ron had the delicious breakfast sandwich with Portuguese sausage, fried egg, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, mayo.

I had the pancake sandwich. Not much of a sandwich, just 2 pancakes, bacon, 2 eggs. I should have ordered the special which was just 1 pancake, 1 egg, bacon or sausage + coffee for $5. The pancakes were nice and fluffy and piping hot but I could only eat one…

We had trouble again last night checking into our flight so I ended up calling customer service to find out why. It seems like interisland flights on Hawaiian do not have assigned seats until you check-in at the counter so you are not allowed to check-in online. Seems inconvenient considering if you travel on to the mainland, you are likely to check bags and the fee with web check-in is $23 per person for the 1st bag but $25 per person at the counter. Most of us want to save money when we can. But the customer service person helped me by putting a notation that they should only charge me $23 per bag since the web check-in wouldn’t work for me. When we got to the counter at the airport though, she was going to charge me $25 so I had to ask her to look thoroughly in the notes to find it. Kind of a hassle but it all worked out and we got safely from Kauai to Oahu then from Oahu to SF. Here is Simon waiting for take-off from Honolulu.

Next time, no more connecting flights. It’s worth it for a non-stop flight with a baby. Poor guy gets bored in the plane and got a little fussy. He slept on the short flight from Kauai to Honolulu for about 30 minutes then almost 2 hours on the flight to SF but got really bored the last 2 hours of the flight. I went to the back of the plane for a bit to keep him entertained but the last 30 minutes, we ended up letting him watch a Baby Einstein video on Ron’s iPad.

Good to be back home. Back to work tomorrow.

Day 235

We went today to check out Spouting Horn, a natural wonder that occurs when water rushes under the lava shelf and bursts through a small opening at the surface. A pretty cool site, complete with sound effects (from a nearby blowhole) and we saw some sea turtles nearby.

We went to find ourselves breakfast and ended up at Poipu Tropical Burgers. Bad choice. We should have read Yelp before eating here. Their menu sounded good and the service started out well but we were disappointed and irritated by the end of the meal. We ordered the cornflake crusted French toast with guava sauce with 2 eggs and Portuguese sausage. This is what we got for >$10.

There is about half a banana there for Simon to eat but he ended up not wanting to eat it. Instead he spent the meal squirming and wanted to get out of the stroller.

A few things were bad at this restaurant. The quality was bad, look at that soggy French toast. The value was terrible, >$10 for that little food. The service was not friendly nor helpful. I had asked if I could have half a banana for Simon since he started to eat bananas yesterday and I wanted him to have some breakfast. At first, the waitress said no, they can’t do it but when I asked again, she said she would ask the chef. At first I was happy when we got the banana for Simon, until we saw the bill. They charged $1.50 for those few slices of banana but she hadn’t even come to inform us before putting it on the plate and charging us for it. At the very least, I think she should have come to tell us how much it would cost so that we could choose to get it or not. I would’ve just tried to feed Simon some jarred baby food instead if that was the case. $1.50 for half a banana?! Probably wasn’t even half.

After breakfast, we went to check out the beach near the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club. Very warm and pretty.

It’s almost time to say Aloha to Kauai.

Another stop during the day was to the Kauai Coffee Company Visitor Center. They have a nice little walking tour that takes about 20-30 minutes (lots of signs to read).

Simon next to some coffee plants.

Back at the visitor center, they have a lot of coffee out to taste and some interesting memorabilia. It was a good to be able to try their coffee and although they were very fragrant, I wasn’t a fan of the flavor of the coffees. Most left a strange aftertaste to me and were more bitter than I like. I usually like my coffee dark with a touch of cream and without sugar but couldn’t handle these beans.

We did some shopping around town before heading back to the hotel. We stopped by Costco which is just like any other Costco except that they carry some Hawaiian products and apparently make a great ahi poke (but didn’t get to try it). When we go to Hawaii again, I think this should be our first stop for water, milk (they sell it by 1 gallon instead of 2), snacks, etc for the week. You end up spending a lot at this small grocery chains and ABC, etc. After we got back from shopping around town, Simon did his stretches with daddy.

Then since he didn’t seem tired, we down to the pool again in the early evening. He got a little bored and started sucking on the octopus tentacle.

Although we did this yesterday, I didn’t make a video until today. Simon got “dunked” into the water. Yesterday, Ron dunked him straight down while covering his nose (so water wouldn’t go up inside) but today, another dad recommended that you make Simon “dive” head first so that the water will just pass the top of his nose rather than run the risk of going up inside. Does that not make sense? Well, check out the video to see. Simon didn’t seem to mind much and he held his breath automatically. Still makes me nervous though.

Ron also started to put Simon horizontally to mimic actual swimming and at first, Simon didn’t do anything, just kept looking around and smiling and giggling but then he started to really get into it by flapping his arms and kicking his feet a little bit. It was so adorable and people around us kept on smiling and laughing with Simon. You can see a bit in this video with his arms doggy paddling and his feet slightly moving. He’s on his way to becoming a water baby!

With all that exercise, he was understandably tired so we couldn’t go out to dinner since he went to sleep early. Ron instead went across the street for takeout from Kalapaki Joe’s. Here are their fish tacos with onions rings. The tacos were very refreshing and delicious slaw. Onion rings nice and crunchy even for takeout.

The nachos with kalua pork. Also yummy but could do with some more sauce or something (like more sour cream or guac…).

Tomorrow it’s time to head back to the bay area!

Day 234

Comfortably sleeping.

We decided to check out some waterfalls today. Here is Wailua Falls on East Shore.

We also went to Lydgate State Park. There is a playground there that is good for kids (probably older than Simon). Ron took Simon down on a few slides.

Then we went on the swings. Simon didn’t know what to make of it.

At the beach nearby, we found a hen and her little chicks relaxing underneath the shade.

We got Simon changed into his swimming trunks and rash guard and let him check out the water. The park has a protected alcove that is great for kids since it is surrounded by rocks so the waves don’t hit the shore full force.

Simon and daddy splashing in the water.

For lunch, we went to Duane’s Ono Char Burger.

Although it was a bit of a wait, their burgers are really good. Great fillings, not really special beef. This is the Duane’s Special (thousand island, pickles, onions, sprouts, cheddar & swiss cheese). I love it that they cut the burger in half for you, easier to eat.

This is the Local Boy (teriyaki sauce, pineapple, cheddar cheese). Sweet and savory. The beef isn’t marinated though, just slathered with sauce.

Deliciously crunchy onion rings and their special salt seasoning.

Then we stopped by Opaeka’a Falls.

and the Wailua River.

Simon seems to like the warm weather so that he doesn’t have to wear clothes, just a diaper.

But also keep warm bundled up in his blankie from home.

We went to the pool in the early evening to let Simon have some more splash time. He still doesn’t seem too sure about the floater.

After the pool, we walked down the beach to Duke’s Canoe Club which is right next to our hotel. We were seated downstairs near the koi pond. Even though we were seated in the bar area, the full restaurant menu is available (which is upstairs) including the salad bar.

Our drinks for the night.

Fried calamari with guava ketchup. Cooked well, not tough, and great sauce.

Macadamia nut pesto seafood fettucine. Yummy but couldn’t finish it all. I liked the pesto with macadamia nuts instead of pine nuts.

Ron had the half huli huli chicken and half rack of ribs. We weren’t sure what huli huli chicken was but it wasn’t bad but also did not seem unique.

As we left dinner, it started drizzling a bit but we were able to avoid getting soaked since our hotel was right next door. We spent the rest of the evening inside our room, entertained by Simon. Simon has somehow learned how to shake his head side to side, like saying “no” and he mimics us (sometimes) when we shake our head side to side. We tried to teach him “yes” by shaking up and down but he just laughs at us and shakes side to side.

In order to tire him out some more before bedtime, we were throwing his jingle ball back and forth and having him “kick” at it. For some reason, he loved it and was laughing like crazy.