Sept 3-8 trip report

September 3-8

I am doing this without my blue book, so please pardon my misspellings.

Beaches- We specifically chose early September hoping for calm seas in the North. It wasn’t as bad as the last time we were here (Nov. 2006) but it was still fairly rough for snorkeling. We ventured in anyway at Tunnels and saw lots of fish, but the viability was poor and the current strong. We were stupid and didn’t plan where we were going to exit and wound up getting stranded on the shallow rocks along the beach towards Ke’e. We were quite irritated at ourselves for this. Be aware of your surroundings!

South Shore- Completely unsnorkelable, but we saw some awesome surfing and probably 20 turtles feeding along the coast throughout the stay. It was great.

Food-

Kalapaki Joes was great- food and atmosphere both (we were sad when they closed the kitchen the last night we were there, so we couldn’t have a last meal there.)

Hukilau Lanai- Great food, Great service. We love this place.

Beach House- Great food, great service- husband had the wasabi encrusted fish and loved it!

Hamuras- Yum, and cheap! Make sure to try the Lilikoi Pie

Fish Express- Poke was great and decently priced

Costco Pizza- Gotta love it! But make sure you don’t go to close to closing- they ran out of food long before they ran out of people.

Waimea Brewery- We loved the Kalua Pork Nachos. We also had a feline friend here- we think they keep her around to scare the chickens away from the patio.

Kilauea Bakery- yummy Panini bit slow on the service, but nothing horrible

Wishing Well Shave Ice- Divine. Abrupt service is part of the charm

Village Bakery (I think) Kuiki Grove shopping center- the cinnamon rolls were amazing and my husband loved his malsadas. We also had a donut hole looking item made from coconut milk and sugar that was fantastic.

Farmer’s Markets- I think we hit 3 or 4 farmers markets. We love apple bananas and passion fruit and it made us wish we had a condo this time.

Favorite spots-

Spouting Horn- we actually went twice this visit. The waves were sending the spout 20-30 ft in the air at times and both times we saw 4-6 turtles feeding just

off the shore.

Kauai Coffee- I don%26#39;t drink coffee, but it smells great here and my husband loves it. Whoever does their merchandising is great! Super cute shirts, bags, jackets, etc.

Hotel: We got a deal on a timeshare preview (we just had to go to the presentation) and stayed at the Kalapaki Marriot. This was a nice hotel with great grounds, though a bit fancy for us. We had an oceanfront room that had a great view of the bay and the surrounding mountains. What a landscape! We like being the somewhat central location of Lihue and the beach made a great place for sitting watching the sunset and listening to the water. They are starting to renovate the hotel floor by floor, which is a good thing as it is a bit dated in the rooms.

As before, we%26#39;re already planning on coming back in another two years or so and this time we%26#39;ll be brining our family and getting a condo.

Sept 3-8 trip report

Thanks for the report. Sounds like my kind of vacation, eating and going to beaches! :-)

Sept 3-8 trip report

Always a pleasure to read a trip report and yours is no exception. It sounds like a great time. Thanks for sharing with those of us waiting for our turn. But you are correct. You start planning your next trip before the sand is our of your shoes.

';Wishing Well Shave Ice- Divine. Abrupt service is part of the charm';

This cracked me up. I know just what you mean.

Sounds like you had a great time. I was there exactly the same days. Except the morning of the 8th the weather was fabulous. It was getting a bit rough up north and the trades were blowing too.

Remember Bali Hai is calling.

You were right across the street from us. We were at Banyan Harbor from 8/31-9/8. We too like the central location.

So glad you enjoyed your trip. We most certainly did and I need to get my thoughts together and get my trip report done.

Yes, I am smiling about Wishing Well too. Though my first trip we were frequent customers . . . and when I told them that we had been sampling shave ice over the entire island and thought theirs was the best, they did beam a bit. They were great with my kids! Man - I would love one today - the Hanalei sunset . . . with guava, etc. Yum!

Enjoyed your report - it%26#39;ll be fun to hear about the family trip! :)

';Hukilau Lanai- Great food, Great service. We love this place.';

Always heard great things about this place! We just got married on Friday Sept 5th and had our reception there Manda the coordinator was wonderful! We are still here till the 17th, love it!

It sounds like you all ';did it right'; and enjoyed a lot of good food! Thank you. I just got back and am also booked for October 2009.

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