Adventures in Paradise.....Day 1

Many of you know we went to Kaua'i last Friday and got back on Wednesday. We were going for our thirty fifth wedding anniversary which was February twentieth, but with the Money Man's schedule last Friday was the first day we could get away. Kaua'i is the third island we have visited in the Hawaiian chain and very different then the rest. It was five days of relaxing and unwinding from a very busy few months.

First of all let me say if you are going to Kaua'i, Oahu, Maui or the Big Island you need to invest in Wizard Publications guidebooks. One of the Money Man's clients gave us the Kaua'i guidebook when he found out we were going. It was invaluable. The maps are very accurate, it was all we used to get around. The information in the book includes: restaurants, beaches, activities, hiking, sight-seeing, golfing, grocery stores, adventures, hotels, car rentals and almost any thing else we needed to know about Kaua'i. I read it cover to cover and marked things as I went along. I like to have a plan. You can get the book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It will be the best  $20.00 you spend for your trip. For more information you can find their website at: http://www.wizardpub.com

We flew Hawaiian Air to get there. They are a really great, friendly airline. The service has always been good. After reading the guidebook I decided to use a local car rental agency, one of the little guys. Seemed reasonable to support the locals. We rented from Kaua'i Rent A Car. When I called to make the reservation I wanted something like a Jeep. They had a Jeep Cherokee at about $100.00 less than the big guys were for a compact car. So I rented it. A transplant from the Mainland named Pete owns the company and he and his wife work the business. She was very good about telling me that this was not a new Jeep and it had almost 100,000 miles on it, but it runs good she said. Perfect we will look like the locals. Pete made picking it up and dropping it off very easy as they are off site in Kapa'a. Well, it was a was wonderful adventure in our old Jeep. It made it everywhere we needed to go even though it wasn't much to look at. If you would like to rent from Pete on a visit you can find them at: (808) 246-1881.

Our trustee rented Jeep

 We stayed in a condo in Princeville. We like to rent houses when we travel and I use homeaway.com to find them. Well I stumbled on a gem of a place for our stay. We stayed at a studio condo at Pali Ke Kua. It is in one of the quietest areas of the island. It is a long way off the Highway so there is no traffic noise. The Highway in Kaua'i can be quite busy. The condo has an ocean view with a beautiful view of the setting sun over the Na Pali coast. Pali Ke Kua also has it's own private access to a beautiful beach. The condo is great for two people as it is a studio. It has a kitchenette which has a two burner stove, sink, small frig, microwave, coffee pot and toaster. It is also fully stocked with pots/pans and dinnerware. It was perfect. The people that own it live in Paradise, CA part of the time and in the paradise of Kaua'i the rest of the time. The best part is that it was  $99.00 a night. If you stay for a week it's $89.00 a night. The one downside for some might be that there is no washer/dryer. I didn't have a problem with that. I had taken enough clothes and the one time I did have to wash something out I did it in the sink and hung it in the shower to dry. The one thing I loved, beside the ocean view was the Jalousie windows. I am trying to figure out where I can put those in my house. If your thinking about a trip to Kaua'i check out Jeri Bills website for the condo at:
http://www.vrbo.com/22715

Front door and kitchenette. I was making pan-seared salmon, rice pilaf and steamed asparagus our first night.

The bathroom

Shower

Great room area

HDTV for watching the Giants play baseball. That's part of relaxing for the Money Man.

The other thing that is really nice about the condo is that there is a Foodland grocery store back out on the Highway about 5 minutes away. It's a great store, just make sure you ask for a Makai card. It is their savings card. They have great fresh vegetables and I didn't think the prices were all that bad. A great place to get papaya and pineapple is at Moloa'a Sunrise Fruit Stand at the 17 mile marker heading back toward Kapa'a. We ate lots of papaya and pineapple. We only ate out twice. Dinner with our own ocean view...priceless.

We would sit and watch the whales spout and surface.

In the morning I would take my coffee outside to just sit. I was greeted every morning by the most wonderful coffee companions. It was the delight of the morning. You are asked not to feed them. So they didn't come to be fed, they just came to see me for the morning. That's what I told myself anyway. I need to find out what there names are. The only ones are know are the Nene.

He looked like a Myna bird

Hawaii's State bird- Hawaiian Nene

I don't know what he is, but he hopped on my table twice.

Let me just say that if you want night life, Kaua'i is not the place for you to go. Everything closes here by seven except the grocery stores and restaurants. Some of the parks even close earlier than that. But, if you want to go relax, do some hiking and enjoy the beauty that only God can create, then this is the place for you. Kaua'i is full of some of the most beautiful scenery you see no place else on earth. I hope you get a sense of some of that as I continue to post.