daydreamin

sistahlou.....loved your Trip Report! Mahalo!

We stopped by the Living Room the 4th of July too! Small world!

iamq

I certainly hope that sistah isn't done here! I'm like Pavlov's dog waiting for more! ((&)) Get those digits moving sissy!

-Bill

iceeu2

come on sistah......back to it.....

and, bbq, you were wondering this am why makai called you a dog????? Maybe, because you slobber!!!???

More more more more

sistahlou

Well my on my, mahalo for your many kind kudos everyone.

Billyboy, hate to say this but the roosters are acting all tame. It's as if word is out on the success of Kal's Rooster Jerkey...Darwin, survival of the fittest. Even during the full moon they were quiet....strange times indeed.

Menehune are real little people native to the islands that work all night and sleep all day. Some say they are legend like leprochauns that play mischivious tricks on humans, but I know better. There real, just a little shorter than the tall hawaiins of years gone by.

Auntie, isnt Ken the best!!! And very sauve with the hugs and risque jokes with that twinkle in his eye. It was so wonderful to see an old friend right off the bat!

Kal, burning your industrial strength Speedo may be against fire regulations. We don't want the Pavilion to catch on fire!

Ok then, the next day we went to Walmart, Borders, stopped by Na Aina Kai Gardens, but their tours were booked up for the rest of our stay, as were all Napali boat tours from the northshore....oh well, just ganna have to make due chillin and grillin....and heading to town for whatever entertainment we can find.

Polihale is as amazing as ever. Spending an entire day there is soooo easy! Inbetween sunning and swimming and watching the boats go by, and the military copters doing manuevers in the distance to the eventual arrival of crushed kayakers like bluefan...well time just flies. It blows my mind that we only spent one day in this heavenly spot, but all I can say is we made the best of it! The surf was perfect!

Tried to go to JoJOs for shaveice, but this sistah doesnt wait in a line like that for nothin! Anyway, can they possibly be as good as Wishing Well???

Dined that night at Baraccuda. Love the stylized room, which was a hole that needed filling in this laid back town of million dollar properties. But the food just didn't wow me. I hope they do better, and kick up the menu a bit more. And hello??
When you sit at the chefs counter, shouldnt the chef check in with you later in the meal? We had a lobster risotto, which although very good, there's no way it had lobster in it....languostinos perhaps...since he never returned to us, we never did find out, even though I asked an assistant chef that said it was a lobster that doesnt have claws??? Anyone understand that?

sistahlou

Watching the Farmer Market open on Saturday is hysterical...everyone lined up and then bamm, running and pushing and throwing dollars around. Good produce too!

Now I never thought Id be doing a luau again, but we were lucky enough to be living in Hanalei when the canoo club has their fundraiser luau. It was such great local fun, a true Kauain experience filled to the brim with locals and volunteers. Good food, good entertainment, and all a short walk from the Cottage.

Oh and this is also the same night there was a big wedding next door at that historic plantation house. I asked security, since we were neighbors could we stop over for cake....now why didn't he laugh?!! Well they boogiede into the night which would have been hell, but the band was actually very good, so we just sucked it up and made the best of it.

Speakin of weddings...daydreamin, did you see the killer wedding at Pvill on the 4th? Gorgeous couple. Excellent hawaiin trio.. Too bad they missed the
sunset. You werent with the fat tourist that barreled past our lanai table to cut our view while he took many pictures of sunset....stupid haole tourists that dont even by a cocktail or soda to pay the price of admission, and then act like they own the place.......I hate when that happens......need to make that bug repellant!!

sistahlou

Help me out everyone....

Seeing as Im into trashing selfish tourists right now, can someone pleeze explain this phenomenon that continually happens to me.....

You hike down to Secret Beach...it is a very big beach, which thanks to the Blue Book not many people stay at since they are too busy trying to find the new pools that those humble authors "discovered"...

Anyhoo, you plop yourself down, set up the chairs, the mats and get good and comfortable. Your closest neighbors are a hundred yards away....

Why oh why does the bottled blonde texan mom with the big white straw cowboy hat decide to drop her brood and stuff....and I am truly not exagerating here....10 feet next to us????????

It happens so much to me, and everytime, bruddahlou rolls his eyes since he knows my threshold for this is 10 minutes max before we are moving all our stuff far enough away to not smell their suntan lotion....

Is it just me???

iamq

Ahhh...Thanks. That came just in time!

Are they still selling bunches of orchids for $5 at the Farmer's Market?
I love that place.

I hate to break this to you, but there are lobsters without claws. I know it sounds blasphemous to a New Englander like you, but the Caribbean lobsters we supped on in St. John were sans claws! They are called Spiny Lobsters. Go figure.

more?

-Bill

iamq

It happens to us all the time. Not even's Martin's "stink eye" can keep them away. I bet if you flashed your ta-tas to the young boys in that group it would have gotten rid of them!
We boys can't do that.
-Bill

curiousgeo

sistahlou, same thing as going to a nearly empty movie theater and having the next group of people come in and sit directly in front of you.

daydreamin

sistalou...no, thankfully the fat, rude tourist wasn't with us! But we had a similar experience at the luau. A certain "gentleman" hogged the front of the stage to get his pictures...not even bothering to kneel down! Went on throughout the entire show. Don't understand some people. But other than that, we thankfully didn't encounter any other rude tourists.

And sadly no, didn't see that wedding either.

Pilates

I'm glad you mentioned BarAcuda. It is a really neat looking restaurant with great service. I too would have liked a bigger selection from their menu. Being a vegetarian, the pickings were few. However, my husband LOVED their chicken main dish. And we both LOVED their mojitos made with vodka.

Did you try Neide's? It's the Brazilian/Mexican food around the corner from BarAcuda. She had a DELICIOUS vege quesadilla. No doubt these veges came from the farmers market. Very fresh.

The other thing I must mention is the "Aloha Bar" at Java Kai for desert. My favorite thing to eat in Hanalei!

seetheworld

Oh sistahlou, a hearty welcome to ya!

No, it's not just YOU! On the beach in Portugal, the same thing happened to us, so we moved -- 3 times. It seems the tobacco industry is alive and well in Europe and we could not only smell suntan lotion but kept getting a good whiff of second-hand smoke.

Nice report!

sistahlou

Billy!!! I know Spiny lobie and this wasnt it...tasted like shrimp?! And you boys get to flash your tata's at all the beaches, while I have to wait to go to Red Sands in Hana!!!!

Seethworld! Good to be seen!

Pilates, let's hope they pull things together. Never had an Aloha Bar, been to a bar with lots of Aloha though!

Kal

Sistah...try kids, smokin' AND that darn cell phone/walkie talkie that sounds like a cricket.
Big Momma was letting the kids call probably other people that were with them on the island.
They had the whole darn beach right there at the Islander but they sit close enuff for me so see her hairy legs.

Pilates

You guys make me laugh. I have to add the following:

We were there in June. It was our last day in Hanalei and it was late afternoon, about 5 pm. The beach was basically empty. We walked away from the pavilion (is that the place near the speed bump on Weke Rd?) about 40 yeards and parked our buns near the water.

A short time later, I was taking a short stroll and then turned to head back, when I saw my husband walking toward me with our towels. When we caught up with each other he said, "You're never gonna believe this,....." He proceeded to tell me that a man, his wife and kid started walking toward where he was sitting with our stuff. He could see them approaching. He said he could not believe his eyes when they dropped their towels RIGHT NEXT TO HIM! He said that after a minute, the husband decided he didn't like the angle of his towel so he got up, shook off his towel and moved it EVEN CLOSER! My husband said, "So now, instead of being 3 feet away, he was ONE foot away!" Richie said, "I'm telling you, I could reach out and touch him....and I have a short arm!"

He was incredulous. My husband was sure they were dropped into Hanalei from outer space. It really was bizarre.

Sistah, Re: BarAcuda, It's a shame that you had lackluster service. We sat outside the two times we went there and the two different waitresses were very attentive. They were busy but I thought they'd be even busier with a bigger tapas menu. I think my husband got that chicken main dish both times though. He loved it.

lvk

Ah, Sistahlou. This K9 groupie is glad to have you back, talking story like only a 'lou can do. ~gt;

I'm leaving in the morning for Germany & Italy (at least I'm not defecting to some other island, like some k9'ers), but just had to stop in here to say Aloha and Maholo for the report!

Oh, and I had the same beach crowder experience just last week in Redondo Beach, only it was a Korean family of 15, from Grandma on down to the cute little toddler who ran over our towels at least a 1/2 dozen times.

lcuy

Enjoying your report, but could you maybe, uhhm, be careful about throwing around racial slurs? Many of us, who are haoles, can't help but cringe in a major way when we hear the word used as you did.

As my friend from a very old Kamaaina family says about hearing haole used as a negative adjective (rather that a simple description), "Them's fighting words"

The term "mainland tourist" or "foreign tourist" will get the same point across without being a racial thing.

Again, not trying to be weird, but it may keep you out of trouble!

sistahlou

Aloha Icuy!

Please understand that no racial slur was intended and I will truly consider your comments. I myself am a selfrespecting haole and understand that it is simply the term the hawaiins used to describe the white man, when Cook showed up with his pine trees.

I try hard to read and understand the history of the islands, how the president of our country stole their sacred aina, how the missionaries sucked the culture dry as they tried to christianize the hawaiin people, how because of the white man, hawaiins like the native american indian died of disease, how the lepers were banned to Molokai and forgotten, how our militery used the islands for testing grounds, causing cancer and deformation,how the homestead act came to pass and then virtually fail the hawaiin people. I understand the reasons for resentment. I beleive in healing as the culture continues to restore. Haole is a both positive and negative word, appropriate in context. I mean no disrespect and I never have. Surely the opposite if you knew me better.

Anyway, thank you...it is food for thought. While in Kauai it was so nice to see people finally getting their homes after being on the waiting list for 5 decades. Forward motion.

Aloha to one and all.

lcuy

No offense taken or assumed!
Just one of those little things that sometimes are lost in translation. I knew by your sense of humor and writing style that you meant no harm.

with aloha,

Lucy

sistahlou

Well then, back at the ranch, lest my leftcoast bruddahs wake up blurried eyed with nothing to wreak havok on their day........

Another Sunday in Kauai is surely a wonderful thing. Off to Oly Cafe for bfast.....oh one does try to negotiate the pancakes to no avail! So a full order of ban/mac's that really makes you GET what all the hype is all about. That and a side of bacon or sausage or ham would have still left a half a plate if Bruddahlou and I shared. But silly tourists that we are....he ordered and omelett and left 3/4 there while happily helping me eat 1/2 of the scrumpdeli-icious cakes...his half with maple, mine with coconut syrup. Oh, and soccer was on, and the view of the ocean just barely compared to people watching on the other side....if ya know what I mean.

I knew if I looked hard enough, I would find mac nuts. It took Longs to come thru for me. Hawaiin Host macs rule! Only ones to beat them are 50th state brand.....so sad the tourists are inundated with the brand they can get home cheaper.......

And then another miserable day at Secrets researching! 4 out of 5 groups head to the right to explore the rocks...in search of "the newly discovered...."

Properly toasted we headed out to Anini to do yet another truly Kauain event....Polo! What a fun thing to do, to make you feel like part of the community....just as cool as watching Little League in Hana!

After a quick cleanup back at the Cottage, we headed up to Pville. Stopped by the newer Plantation Condos, an open house listed for $725? Nice property. Then off to our third time visit to the Livingroom for Sunday authentic Hula. Well, it was the same 3 women as last year and very similar. The first time we saw this presentation, there was a strong hawaiin man who shared the power of Pele and the current underwater volcanos building islands. The original presentation just cant be beat. But that said, the sushi at Pvill cant be beat either. The best maguro and unagi ever, time and time again!

Oh yeah, and as our time was getting short, after Polo I stopped by to see our friends at the Fire Rescue station, pick up some tshirts to support these brave and friendly people. And what a treat it was since the youngest member of the company always seems to get to deal with us tourists. So handsome, so friendly, and loved talking story and knowing that one of the shirts was going to my NYC firefighting cousin.

On a side note, if you like the BarAcuda moquito...try this make a simple syrup 1partwater 1part sugar on the stove, once dissolved soak mint in it for an hour...use this to make a vodka, lime martini....ooohlala from No9Park in Boston, its called a Palermo. Kal, you could use Effin Vodka!
Good times indeed!