Hawai'i pt. 2: my kingdom for a burrito

We've come to the sad conclusion that Hawaii is no place for people who like to eat; at least those of us who like to eat and don't want to spend $30 per entree. We had several mediocre meals on Maui, but these were averaged out by stellar fish and chips (so great we went back 3 times) -- but now that we're on Kauai, we've seen the real underbelly of island food. We made the mistake of not getting a condo here, and we're paying for it with a string of utterly forgettable yet overpriced meals at island restaurants. Things have been so bad here that we've eaten at Panda Express not once, not twice but three times -- and this is a place that I'd keep at least a mile distance away from at home. All of my food snobbery has melted away in a sea of desperation.

The only bright light in all of this was that yesterday we drove to the north coast of Kauai, which has the Na Pali coast, an absolutely beautiful section of cliffs that drop vertically into the ocean. We spent the morning on Hanalei Bay, which must be one of the loveliest in the Hawaiian islands -- a huge crescent ringed by sandy beaches -- and later in the afternoon stumbled onto a farmer's market. We had been searching for one ever since we got here. Maui has loads of roadside fruit stands, but we hadn't seen a single one here yet, so we were thrilled to see that Princeville was having a market that afternoon. It turned out to be a terrific one, full of tropical fruit like papaya, pineapple and such including a guy selling mangosteens (at $4 each), rambutan and other really exotic fruit (I've never seen mangosteen outside of Thailand, and I thought I had read an article about some plant virus which made the FDA ban its importation -- so I was amazed to see it here). There was a man selling coconuts out of the back of his pickup truck, and Walt and I had the best coconut of our lives. After we drank the juice, he split the coconut and carved out the meat, so it was practically a full meal. Devon was asleep during the market, but he recommended husking a coconut so we could open it for her to drink later. He husked it so expertly that Walt was able to open a hole for juice with his pocketknife. Walt got a great photo of Devon drinking the juice from it, which she loves.

The Na Pali coast is truly lovely, and I think if we return to Kauai, we'd want to stay there. It's much more beautiful and dramatic than any other part of the island, and it has a more laid-back, relaxed atmosphere than other towns we've been in (including the central part of the island, where we're staying). There are sections where lush jungle cliffs plunge straight down to meet the ocean, and it's just spectacular. We weren't able to do a boat or helicopter trip since we were traveling with Devon, but I can imagine that it's a wonderful way to see everything in this part of Kauai; much of it is only accessible via foot, so by driving we only saw a tiny portion of the scenery. It made me understand why Kauai calls itself the "garden island," and why many visitors gush about its beauty. The central part of the island is very pretty but far from spectacular -- when we got to the north coast, I realized that this geography is significantly different from the rest of the island (and really makes the other parts look nice but ho hum by comparison).

We had a great time on the beach, though, and it was surprisingly calm water. The north coast of Kauai generally has rough water in the winter, so I was worried that we wouldn't be able to swim at all, but it definitely wasn't the case. By the time the water got to our section of the beach, the big waves had petered out. One bonus from the high waves on the bay was that there was some spectacular surfing happening on big breaks out in the bay. We saw some surfers riding enormous waves, and even as far away as we were, it was exciting to watch (I really wished that I had brought binoculars).

We've been spending every morning here on the beach, both because Devon loves it and it has the bonus effect of tiring her out (so we get a good nap later); and then in the afternoon we'll go to the pool or do something else that not specifically beach-like. The hotel where we're staying has great pools but a poor beach for kids -- since we've been here, they've had the red beach flag out (the "Danger, Will Robinson!" marker for the ocean) and the waves have been very rugged -- so it's not something that Devon can go to easily (unlike the place on Maui, which had a terrific stretch of beach for kids with nice water and very little wave action).

Last night we got in late and just decided to eat in since we had a long drive, and we caught the end of a little Hawaiian culture show at the hotel. We saw the tail end of a man spinning a pole with fire on each end but saw the entire hula show. At one point during the show the dancers invited people in the audience to come up and try the hula, so Devon and I went up to do it. I think the invitation has the dual intent of teaching hula basics as well as creating an appreciation for the difficulty of doing the hula in the first place -- it's not easy. Devon just loved the dancing, and after the show was over, she went up to the stage like a hula groupie to take a closer look at the dancers. I was sorry that we hadn't investigated this earlier so we could have watched the full show; it never occurred to me that she'd like something like that. We'll have to keep it in mind for the future.