A Second Visit to Waikiki Beach

After a 3 night stay at Kauai, Ray and Traci travelled to Honolulu so Ray could attend the 2008 Pediatric Academic Societies national meeting held at the Honolulu convention center. With 10,000 pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists invading paradise, Waikiki became an especially busy location. The flight from Kauai was not even 30 minutes in length, and this time Hertz had a Subaru Impreza waiting – a car Ray was much happier with. Using the invaluable Garmin Nuvi, Ray and Traci found their way to the Hyatt Regency Waikiki – kind of far from the convention center, but since they already stayed 3 nights at the Kauai Hyatt, he got a special package price which included an upgrade to an ocean view “club room.”
A Second Visit to Waikiki Beach

After a 3 night stay at Kauai, Ray and Traci travelled to Honolulu so Ray could attend the 2008 Pediatric Academic Societies national meeting held at the Honolulu convention center. With 10,000 pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists invading paradise, Waikiki became an especially busy location. The flight from Kauai was not even 30 minutes in length, and this time Hertz had a Subaru Impreza waiting – a car Ray was much happier with. Using the invaluable Garmin Nuvi, Ray and Traci found their way to the Hyatt Regency Waikiki – kind of far from the convention center, but since they already stayed 3 nights at the Kauai Hyatt, he got a special package price which included an upgrade to an ocean view “club room.”
Hanuma Bay is a very famous snorkeling spot created in an old volcano crater with a largely protected reef. Despite being a very windy day, snorkeling inside the bay was fairly easy. The wind made the ambient temperatures seem quite low and both Ray and Traci became cold after looking at fish. Ray thought fish were less abundant than a previous visit, although this visit occurred at low tide. He did come face to face with a 6 foot eel. Hanauma Bay is no Molokini (the offshore reef on Maui where a 1 hour boat ride gets you up close and personal with schools of fish) but it is much more convenient – beware, the park is closed on Tuesdays and the parking lots fill up quite fast, so if you want to go – go early or late in the day. The whole process of viewing the safety film, renting snorkeling equipment and getting into the water is very efficient. Hanauma Bay is a great place to look at fish without much effort. After snorkeling, Ray and Traci stopped at a famous local plate lunch place called Rainbow Drive-In. Ray had a Shoyu chicken plate lunch which was excellent and Traci had a Pork Long Rice special lunch, equally as good. Rainbow Drive-In is another take out place where they give you lunch in a cardboard box and the entrée is served on a bed of noodles. Prices were very cheap $6-8, and many of the diners were buying more than one plate lunch. After a morning of snorkeling and eating, Ray had to leave for the convention center for a long afternoon at the meetings.

Tuesday was the last full day in paradise. Ray had a few hours of meetings, and then Ray and Traci went to the Ala Moana Mall so Traci could check out the new and very chic Nordstrom which recently opened. While at the very impressive store, Ray and Traci tried the Nordstrom Gelato bar and had what tasted more like strawberry ice cream than gelato (but was still delicious). They then went to the food court at the ala moana mall where Ray had a noodle dish with shrimp tempera, while Traci had a manapua (humbow) – both were good for fast food fare. After exploring more of the mall including the Shirokiya (large department store) they left for the hotel. Ray and Traci had dinner at Sansei Restaurant – one of their favorite eateries on Maui, where Traci enjoyed mango crab rolls and miso butterfish while Ray had a shrimp and steak combination. They finished the night by enjoying some free samples at the Honolulu Cookie Company. The cookie company makes shortbread cookies with various fillers and dipped in different coatings all in the shape of a pineapple. The store is located in the Hyatt. While Ray and Traci didn’t buy any cookies that night, they ended up purchasing 3 boxes before leaving town.

Ray and Traci left the Hyatt the next morning and travelled home on Alaska Airlines non-stop Honolulu to Seattle service. Alaska has announced non-stop service to Maui starting in the summer which will be a welcome option for Seattle to Hawaii travel.

A Brief Visit to the Garden Isle

Ray was traveling to the national pediatric research meetings in Honolulu, so Ray and Traci decided to make a quick pre-meeting visit to Kauai, Hawaii’s famed garden isle. Fortunately, Alaska Airlines recently started flying non-stop from Seattle to Kauai, making the island even more convenient to Seattle natives.

A quick tip for travelers who like great adventures – purchase a hand held GPS device for navigating unfamiliar roads. We found our Garmin Nuvi invaluable at finding our way on Kauai with its unlit and largely unsigned roads. Especially with a night time arrival, finding our way to the Hyatt would have been a much more difficult chore.

We arrived at the Grand Hyatt Kauai after an uneventful trip. Ray was unhappy that Hertz “upgraded” his desired compact auto into a white Mercury Grand Marquis – clearly the car is rented because nobody wants to buy the large, bulky and gas guzzling boat car especially when gas on Kauai was $3.93 a gallon. The Grand Hyatt turned out to be an excellent place to stay while visiting Kauai. The rooms were spacious and well maintained, our “mountain” view room mostly looked over a grass field and road but it earned its 5 diamond AAA rating. Arriving with a 3 hour time change made the travelers quite tired and after picking up some provisions (drinks and comfort food) at a local grocer, sleep came quite fast.

During the first day to Kauai, Ray and Traci headed up to the Kilauea Lighthouse located on the north part of the island.
While the lighthouse has been retired, a nature park surrounds the authentic lighthouse. Visitors have amazing coastal views, birdwatchers have many species to marvel at, and enthusiasts get to see a picturesque lighthouse. Traci also wanted to visit a fruit stand called Banana Joes where legendary smoothies are found. Unfortunately, Joe was on vacation until late May so the travelers headed back to the Hyatt. On the way, a strip mall had a Jamba Juice which Traci had to settle for. Hungry for lunch, Ray and Traci used their Garmin GPS to find a plate lunch locale called Mark’s Place. The plate lunch restaurant is located in an industrial park which would be very hard to find without electronic assistance – it is an incredibly busy but efficient take out only lunch place where many of the local workers order their meals in bulk. Ray had a beef teriyaki plate lunch complete with a large amount of rice and delicious macaroni salad. Traci tried the Chicken Katsu, and both were quite impressed – it pays to find out where the locals eat (especially when looking for a Hawaiian plate lunch).

The afternoon was spent enjoying the spacious grounds of the Grand Hyatt – it has an extensive network of pools and a very large salt water lagoon where guests can kayak or as in Ray’s case, just float around undisturbed by ocean waves. The hotel has a single waterslide which is nothing to write home about – the whole feel of the pool area is like the Grand Wailea on Maui with a lot of the fun parts taken away. People who haven’t been to the Grand Wailea probably would be quite impressed with the Kauai Grand Hyatt’s great pools but because of Ray’s frequent visits to the Grand Wailea he was disappointed. The hotel is located on the ocean, and has a nice beachfront. Unfortunately, Kauai being the most exposed of the major Hawaiian islands has quite rough surf and is probably not the best place for play in the surf. Another main attraction is the wildlife inhabiting the grounds of the hotel – black and white swans, multicolored carp, parrots and other animals are found throughout the grounds. Near the front entrance to the hotel is a small pond guarded by black swans who almost act as sentries – expecting a bribe of food to let visitors pass unmolested. While the wildlife is quite extensive, it isn’t quite the Grand Hyatt on Maui. Either Maui hotels copied many of the Kauai Grand Hyatt’s best features and improved on them, or Kauai’s Grand Hyatt took many of the best ideas from Maui and tried to implement them in a limited fashion.

After a fun day at the pool, Ray and Traci tried another local spot for dinner – Brick House Pizza. Traci had tomatoes and Canadian bacon on her half of the medium pizza while Ray ordered Portuguese sausage on his – The wheat crusted pizza with garlic butter was well prepared, crisp and tasty. Going to another local hotspot also had the side benefit of very reasonable prices, which is a good thing since there aren’t many bargain room rates at the Kauai Grand Hyatt.

The next day started with Ray running the 1.1 miles from the hotel to Kauai’s famous Poipu beach – this beach was supposed to be a favorite for off the beach snorkeling, but the surf looked quite hazardous that morning and snorkeling plans were abandoned. Traci wanted to go to another Kauai park, called Spouting Horn where old lava tubes resulted in nature’s version of the “Fountains of Bellagio” (minus the Celine Dion soundtrack). Various sounds which might resemble something produced by the Blue Man Group accompany a geyser like plume of water when waves rush in.
In addition to the spouting horn, beautiful views and tourist stands (naturally) one finds a plethora of roosters cock a doodling around. Some old story about a farm burning down resulting in the scattering of chickens is used to explain the many animals scattered around Kauai – but roosters are seen in the wild on other islands. KFC must not have tapped these animals for the many restaurants in Hawaii.

For lunch, Ray and Traci went to another local plate lunch place – Kauai Fish Market. Unfortunately, Ray found the menu a little too authentic without his favorite Terriyaki or Kalbi Rib options, so Ray and Traci had lunch at the Grand Hyatt’s outdoor restaurant. Traci ordered the fruit plate and surprisingly found some of the fruits subpar – pineapple and yellow watermelon weren’t as tasty as the fruit plates purchased at Seattle’s Costco. Ray had his favorite lunch, Chicken Caesar, which was par (albeit overpriced). A single white swan floated from side to side in the pond which abutted the outdoor restaurant. Other than an attempt to find food in a neighboring patron’s purse while she wasn’t paying attention, the swan just floated side to side almost in a mechanical fashion.
The rest of the afternoon was spent at the pool. For dinner, Ray and Traci tried the Hyatt’s Tide Pools restaurant which had a very striking resemblance to the Grand Wailea’s Humus restaurant. Humus is a floating restaurant in a lagoon with hungry carp masquerading as piranhas when eaters throw bread into their midst. Tide Pools isn’t floating but a lagoon surrounds many of the outdoor tables. Ray had a Prime Rib dinner which actually wasn’t bad – the quality of the meat was certainly not what you would find in a high end Seattle Restaurant like Daniels, but it was tasty. Traci had a dinner of a Garden Isle salad (Baby Lettuce, Hawaiian Hearts of Palm, Carrots and Cucumbers,
Dressed in Homemade Papaya Seed Dressing, and Toasted Macadamia Nuts) and steamed Hawaiian sea bass – she felt the flavor was good but the fish wasn’t prepared well – over cooked and firm instead of moist and flakey. Dessert was very good, a chocolate lava cake with ice cream and complementary due to the subpar sea bass.

With the conclusion of the 3rd night in Kauai, it was time to fly to Honolulu for Ray’s meeting. Kauai is a very beautiful island, and the coastal scenery is breathtaking. Many tourist activities abound including hiking to waterfalls, river kayaking, snorkeling adventures and something called ziplining – traveling downhill in harnesses fastened to wires strung thru Kauai’s forests. The area has a much more rural and untouched flavor than Maui, or especially Honolulu (Tiffany’s shoppers beware). Visitors also have to be aware of the frequent rain found on the island. While conditions may vary, the island beaches near Poipu seem to be a bit more turbulent than Wailea Beach in Maui or Waikiki in Honolulu – families with small children take note.