Kauai Retrospective

It's been far too long, my peeps, since the last entry, but the boss is back with some travel stories, recommendations and lots of pictures to make it up to you. I've got some catching up to do, so I'll start with the highlights of Kauai. If ever you find yourself of the Garden Island, here is my list of "must dos" to light the path for your good time adventure.

First and foremost, you must go to at least one waterfall while here. This island is just erupting with streams and with the winter rains there are new waterfalls cropping up every day. I personally loved Kipu Falls on the southeast end of the island (directions here). It's really close to Lihue and a short walk from the road through some seriously tall cane grass, whch makes it feel like an adventure when you arrive even though its really only about a 5 minute walk. The falls are beautiful and come complete with a rope swing from a gigantic banyan tree and a deep pool at the bottom perfect for making the 30 foot jump of death from the top. (Note: I did jump, but it took me a while to screw up my courage...too long in fact to continue calling myself a bad-ass.)

I also recommend going to a really cool cave on the north shore of the island. If you take the highway up the coast, past Princeville and Hanalei, you'll dead-end into Ke'e State Park and right after the first parking lot is a little trail up a hill that takes you to a magnificent cave with a huge pool of bright blue water. Locals call it the Blue Room. The first time I went there was at night...with no headlamp and no moon. It's a miracle that I'm alive to tell the tale. We headed up the rocky trail (of course with no shoes), somehow descended down into the cave in the pitch black and then proceded to swim around in the darkness, singing and yelling in a feeble attempt at sonar to keep ourselves from head-butting the cave wall. And, man, does that cave have some good acoustics. An impromptu Queen revival commenced, with all of us feeling more comfortable belting at the top of our lungs since darkness of course means anonimity. After that harrowing adventure, we ambled down the road to the beach, ate an apple pie on the sand, played the ukulele for a bit and stared at the perfect stars. Oh, what a night.

And you must go camping while here. There are both state and county sites for your camping pleasures, all of which are right on the beach, have very clean facilities, grills and electricity and are $3 per night. Yes you read that correctly: waterfront, clean camping on a tropical island for the low-low price of three measly dollars. It's amazing. I stayed at Salt Ponds Park, Anini Beach and Anahole Beach Park. Anini was by far the most beautiful and quiet. There really is no reason to stay at a hostel or cheap hotel when there are such beautiful parks. Plus you get to wake up just steps from the water each day.

Of course there must be a food recommendation and here's the one shining gem of cuisine that I found on the island: a roach coach in Hanapepe called Mele's Kusina. Kate, Jess and I were wandering around the south shore near our camp grounds at Salt Ponds Park, playing on the swinging bridge and enjoying the totally darling little strip of downtown, when we walked past a sign that made all of us stop in our tracks: "Fried Ice Cream Fridays." Oh, the mouths started to salivate and, despite the fact that we had just eaten mere hours before, we all became ravenously hungry. Of course we couldn't just order dessert, and so decided to try two of the mix plates and a cheeseburger for good measure...that's how my posse rolls. Now, I want to insert a word here about cheeseburgers: I've had me some good ones, some great ones and some unforgettable ones and the $3 cheeseburger at this mobile food stand will go down in the annals of my life as one of the best. It was so good that we drove around the entire town of Hanapepe the next day inquiring after the whereabouts of this food cart. I still think about it and a single tear rolls down my cheek...sigh. But back to the main attaction--the fried ice cream. It was cooked to perfection with a light and fluffy coating and perfect, creamy vanilla in the middle. It reminded me of one of my favorite child-hood memories: sopapillas. When I was just a young lass, my mother waited tables at one of the only Mexican restaurants in Ohio, Three Gringos. As the name implies, there was not a whole lot of authenticity to this cuisine. Most of it was downright inedible. But the shining star of their menu was the sopapillas: fried dough with ice cream, chocolate syrup and whipped cream. To this day I fondly remember playing Miss Packman on the tabletop video game machine and eating sopapillas while my mom was finishing up her shift at work. This dish of fried ice cream brought back all those wonderful smells and tastes. It was dream ice cream. If you go to Kauai, look up Mele's Kusina. It moves around, but this is the information age after all and you can follow its path on Twitter or get a general idea of its whereabouts from reviews on Urban Spoon.

And while we're on the subject of culinary delights, let me tell you about the Locavore Food Festival in Lihue. It exclusively featured produce, pastured animals and culinary creations from the island and it was fantastic! There must have been at least 20 different booths, all full of little tasty bites of this and that, prepared by local restuarants. There was Hawaiian coffee, delicious Kauai beef tacos, banana ice cream, well-appointed mini sliders and tons of other creations that I've already forgotten. I got there late, but made up for lost time by collecting a sample from every booth that still had food and then chowing down to the most impressive spread of tasty treats I'd had in a long time. I binged like a champ, and it was totally worth every uncomfortable step on the way back home.

Oh, Kauai, how I miss you!