Near Koloa, Kauai: The last portion of our epic family vacation started early this morning. Lenny drove out to Holey Grail Donuts to fetch Lisa’s favorite honey-dipped taro donut with sea salt. The donuts were still warm when he returned with an assortment and this was a sweet start to our day.
We were organized, packed and checked-out of the rental house before ten o’clock. Lisa really did a great job finding this house. It was just perfect for the six of us and they provided every sort of beach equipment you could desire, plus had bikes/helmets and most importantly - a washer/dryer.
Our personal tour operator not only can secure the finest accommodations, she can also find interesting activities to occupy our day before being able to check-into our next hotel. We had reservations for the 11a boat tour up the Wailua River to hike/walk up to the Fern Grotto in Wailua State Park, with Smith Family Tours. This was fun, as the Smith Family sing, dance hula, and entertains passengers on the way up to the grotto.
At one point, they ask passengers to stand up and do the hula to the Hukilau song… which just so happens to be the only Hawaiian song I know.
After docking two miles up the river in the state park, we all walked up a (maybe?) quarter-mile paved path to the fern grotto.
Back in the day, wedding ceremonies were held in the cave behind the waterfall, but as there is always water falling, sometimes chunks of the hillside would also tumble off the cliff edge. Too dangerous, so now we all have to stay on a wooden deck in front of the grotto.
But don’t you worry, we were all married during a ceremony on the deck, complete with the famed Hawaiian Wedding Song and hula.
On the return trip, there was no dancing nor singing, but a very interesting narrative on the history of the area and the river. While 21 miles long, only 2 miles are navigable. The area receives 400 inches of rain annually (so believable after our experience the past few days). The hills are filled with Spanish goats, feral pigs, blacktail deer - and zillions and zillions of chickens.
After returning to our rental van, we continued south to Koloa for lunch at the famed Musubi Truck. They vend Spam musubi, ahi katsu musubi, chicken katsu musubi, poke, many combinations of the above, and tater tots. Musubi is the Hawaiian version of Japanese onigiri - rice wrapped in nori (seaweed). Of course, Hawaiians add Spam.
We all tried a variety: ahi katsu musubi, chicken katsu musubi, poke bowls with/without spicy mayo, tater tots and DT had the original Spam musubi ($3).
After checking into our hotel, we met Lisa’s college friend, Jaime, for dinner in the hotel. She is staying at a near-by hotel with her family. The girls had not seen each other in several years (but you would never guess that!). We had a fun time reliving the past. Jaime went to Las Vegas with us to celebrate Lisa’s 21st birthday… and I had forgotten some of those tales. How fun to see Jaime again - and Dave and I met her husband and kids for the first time.
No kidding, more sushi for dinner and then the kids went for a ride down the lazy river at the hotel pool and we didn’t see them again for an hour. The adults had a nightcap outside (no rain tonight) and then we called it a night.
Until my next update, I remain, your hula-girl correspondent.