Trip Report 8/31-9/8

I have sorted this report by category to make things a bit more organized and a bit shorter as I didn%26#39;t comment on everything we did all day long.

Flight –

Hawaiian Air out of Oakland. We left an hour late due to Hawaiian trying to accommodate a cancelled flight out of San Jose due to mechanical issues (yeah right). Our flight was not full to start with but was once we added the San Jose group. This caused us to miss our connection in Honolulu. They had already changed our flight to the next flight out which departed an hour after our original. Arrived in Lihue at 2pm but all of our luggage did not. We had to wait for the next flight to arrive to claim the rest of our luggage. Not exactly how I wanted to start our trip but we are flexible.

Flight back to the mainland was uneventful and left on time.

Car –

We rented from Alamo and booked directly through their reservations. Had coupons for four free days so we paid just a little over $100 for 8 days. We had a G5 coupe and it got decent gas mileage and was a perfect size for just the two of us. When we returned the car, the agent asked how the car was and I mentioned to the agent that the windows were dirty inside and out. She continued to process the paperwork and then told me that she took off $20 for the inconvenience. How nice was that?

Lodging –

We own a timeshare at Banyan Harbor in Lihue. We stayed in unit I-106 (not our normal unit because it wasn’t our normal week). We were close enough to the office to sit on the lanai and make use of the wireless internet connection. That was a bonus.

Food/Restaurants –

Ate breakfast in the condo every day. Next time, we need to try Wake Up for the french toast.

Duke’s – dinner - had coconut shrimp for an appetizer, DH had ribs and I had Kushiyaki (steak and chix skewers) – very ONO! We took leftovers back to the condo for later.

TCs (Coconut Marketplace) - lunch – we shared a Chinese Chix salad and Teriyaki Burger – good but not excellent.

Da Imu Hut – dinner with 3chihuahuas and her DH - I had Kalua Pork (ono!) and DH had fried teriyaki chix (ono) and a hamburger patty (hamburger not so good per DH) – yummy and fairly priced

Brick Oven Pizza – lunch with 3chihuahuas and her DH - good pizza but the highest price we have even paid for a pizza ($38 for a large 3 topping) – don’t think we will go back

Subway – quick food for the TA picnic as we were running late. Typical Subway…decent price with ok food

Kalapaki Joe’s – lunch – I had shrimp tacos and DH had quesadillas. Food was ok and service was quite slow. We waited for quite some time after finishing our meal for the check.

Tidepools – dinner – DH was not at all impressed with the menu. He is a bit of a picky eater and there wasn’t much for him on the menu. He ended up having a salad as his entrée and I had a seafood combo with Mahi, scallops and shrimp. We both ordered dessert. DH had bread pudding which he remarked that is was the best he’s ever had. I had a triple chocolate cherry bomb and it was the bomb! – Not overly impressed with the meal for the price.

Kalapaki Beach Hut – lunch- DH had a burger and I had a teri chix sandwich. Both were good as were the fries. Lemonade, not so much.

Keoki’s – dined with 3chihuahuas and DH. I had the steak and garlic shrimp and DH had the ribs. Both were very yummy!

Kalaheo Café – lunch – I had mac nut/pineapple French toast and DH had an egg sandwich. His was short on the bacon (one piece on the entire sandwich). Mine was wonderful but could have used a bit more pineapple.

Kauai Pasta (Lihue) – dinner final night on the island – let me start by saying, we will go there earlier in our trip next time as there was so much really good food. DH had chix parm with a side of pasta with pesto sauce. I had fettuccini with grilled shrimp and there was so much that I could have had another meal. The best meal we had on our trip and reasonably priced.

Shopping –

Coconut Marketplace – bought some gifts and my first pair of Crocs (Capri sandals) at Elephant Walk.

Spouting Horn – we got there as the vendors were closing up for the day (5:30pm). I did find my stuffed turtle though. Wish we would have gone back to do more shopping but not enough time.

Kmart – had to buy suntan lotion as we lost ours at the golf course. I found a really neat wooden turtle bowl and a few other gifts.

ABC (Kapa’a) – always find gift for family here and wasn’t disappointed.

Hilo Hatties – we always go to HH. This year we were not impressed with anything and actually only bought two 2009 calendars.

Walmart – stopped for a few items but not much shopping done there. I did notice that there was a good sized area of souvenirs but we already had what we needed.

Golf –

Puakea (18 holes) – very nice course with afternoon rates of $79 including a driving cart

Kukuiolono (9 holes) – nice course with awesome views for less than $30 for two players with a driving cart

Wailua (18 holes)- nice muni course with some great ocean views. Green fees with driving cart for two was $82

Activities –

Kilauea Lighthouse – unfortunately we were there on Labor Day so the lighthouse was not open. Saw quite a few birds but not much else from the lookout.

Salt Pond – sunset (almost too cloudy for a good sunset) but nice overall

TA Picnic at Lydgate Park – great to meet new friends and talk story

Fixed wing flight with Wings Over Kauai – awesome, awesome, awesome. Bruce and Ellen are such nice people. DH even got to fly the plane! The weather was perfect and we got to do the entire route.

Waimea Canyon – drove up and stopped at a few lookouts

Misc –

Did our rocery shopping at Long’s and Star Market. The only one real surprise was the $7.50 gallon of milk. Most everything else was close to CA prices.

Gas at Costco was about 10 cents cheaper than the lcoal gas stations.

We spent some time looking at condos and homes for the future. We were quite surprised that the prices are comparable to where we live now (actually a bit cheaper). Our favorite place that we looked was Kalaheo. We looked at two homes that had ocean views (can%26#39;t afford ocean front).

It was a bit more humid than we are used to. Not much himidity in the San Francisco Bay Area or when we normally go in April so it was a bit uncomfortable at times. One of our golf partners at Wailua, a local, said that sweating was good for you!

I think this was the best trip to Kauai. I asked DH the night before we headed home what his favorite part of the trip was and he said meeting new friends. His second favorite thing was flying with Wings Over Kauai. I think I%26#39;d have to agree.

Trip Report 8/31-9/8

This is the link to someof my pictures. I%26#39;ll be adding more very soon.

http://community.webshots.com/user/beth_fitz

Trip Report 8/31-9/8

I%26#39;m re-living our time there just reading you report and viewing photos! Loved the photos (especially my Lava Flow). It was so great meeting you and DH and spending time together!

Mahalo,

3Chihuahuas (Dorcee)

Is Keoki’s in the Poipu Shopping Village? We%26#39;re looking for some place to have dinner our first night on Kauai. Granted we%26#39;re only hopping over from Maui, but we%26#39;ll still have a few things to get take care of our first day there (grocery shop, launday-from the first week on maui, etc). We%26#39;re staying at Poipu Kai. If I remember right the Shopping Village is just up the road.

We will mostly eat at the condo. Mainly BBQ fish and chicken. We rally like Roy%26#39;s in the Village and will be making reservations for 10/21 (30th anniversary).

Keoki%26#39;s is right across the parking lot from Roy%26#39;s. It sits right on the corner of the entrance. We have been there twice and both times the food was really good.

Very nice, succinct report. It was fun to read the different places you guys went. Just puts more on our to-do list (at least for eats, we%26#39;re not golfers). I won%26#39;t be able to check out your photos until later, but I%26#39;m excited to do that.

It%26#39;s nice that we can all vacation vicariously through the reviews and posts in this forum!

JPWhite

I forgot to ask. Do you need a reservation? We can probably stop on our way to the resort to put our name on the list.

Mahalo

I%26#39;d suggest making a reservation at Keoki%26#39;s. We made one for 7:30pm earlier in the day and the place was very busy when we arrived. We even waited for about 15 minutes past our reservation time to be seated.

Aloha from Kaua%26#39;i!

Keoki%26#39;s Paradise is located at the Po%26#39;ipu Shopping Village right on Po%26#39;ipu Road - can%26#39;t miss it as it has large signs and tiki torches lit at night.

It is actually part of a chain (but a good one) that also owns Duke%26#39;s both here and in Waikiki and a couple of restaurants on Maui (Leilani%26#39;s on the Beach and Kimo%26#39;s) as well as a couple Southern Calif. restaurants and one at Sunnyside at Lake Tahoe, CA.

Their bar menu is also great if you want a comparatively inexpensive and quick meal - their fish tacos are some of the most reasonably priced and filling around! Definitely make reservations as it is a spot that visitors as well as locals frequent.

Malama Pono,

Janet