A taste of Hawaii

Saturday we were given some tickets from Heather's mum for the Polynesian festival that was going on that weekend.

It was interesting to watch and you can't really go to Hawaii and not see a bit of this, that's like going to Scotland and not seeing some men in kilts with bagpipes. So it is kind of touristy and you don't really see it unless it's put on for you.

The little kids were funny as they tried to keep in sync with the adults.

We walked along the beachfront in front of the Marriot hotel and they had a funny sign which tries to sum up island life.

Coming from New York you especially notice that the speed of life here is generally much slower. As a tourist this is fine and normal but it is quite noticeable while waiting for any food to arrive in your hand.
As always, there's also the lack of blasting car horns but I think that's a reasonably unique (problem) to Manhattan.
Another thing was getting reacquainted with store and restaurant closing times. You quickly get used to places being open past 6pm or 7pm and not being closed on a Sunday or Monday!

One feature I forgot to mention was that the whole island is overrun with chickens.
Yup, apparently they have been out and about in the wild for so long now that it's illegal to kill them. The hens, cocks and cute little chicks appear everywhere!! Cock-a-doodle-doo-ing in the morning and popping up roadside, beachside, shop-side and even in the bushes during hikes.

NYC to Hawaii

May 23rd we left for Hawaii via Chicago then LA to Lihue.

Some pretty cool views from the airplane. Unfortunately American Airlines doesn't have tv's in the back of the seats so I have no idea where we were at these points and more importantly there was no movie choice etc AND no free food whatsoever. Kind of surprising especially on the way home when the flights are over 5 hours.

We picked up Steve from the Jessiman condo (see below for the nice view from their balcony), he'd arrived a few days before Anne & Murdo for whatever reason!

This was our first proper day there so we just did a little drive up the coast. I hadn't studied Kauai in any way beforehand so everything was a surprise and it was indeed a surprise to see the map afterwards to find we'd driven right up the east coast and halfway along the north shore and back already.

Probably the feature you notice most is the large and very green mountains which you can see from anywhere on the island.

Our guide (Heather) pointed out the Taro fields. Kinda like a potato I think, although I only got to try the Taro crisps during this trip.

We stopped off at Hanalei pier. We'd be back here later on the holiday. It was a bay with a reef offshore so the water was a little shallower and the water was so much calmer than elsewhere. Plus the pier was ripe for jumping off into the water.

The garden island indeed.