Day 5

L: We got out the door this morning by 9am and headed to the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Poipu for the breakfast buffet. As we were leaving the Inn we saw the cutest small black bunny along the side of the driveway. I asked D to pull up to it so I could take a picture of it. I thought for sure it was going to run away, but it just kept eating and looked at us. If I could I would take it back home with us. It was that cute. But that dog we saw the other was really cute, too. Hmm.....

D: The buffet was awesome. The Grand Hyatt was awesome. I don't know what I was rambling on about yesterday when I was talking about resorts and tourists and all that stuff. It must've been something in that fresh island air as it cleaned out the smog in my head. We sat in a large high ceiling dining room with large floor to ceiling doors that opened up to the outside overlooking the landscaped grounds of the Hyatt and the Pacific Ocean. Simply amazing.

The food was great, too. We had a variety of fruits, eggs, seafood hash, potatoes, juices, coffee cakes and danishes, bacon, etc. It was ridiculous and difficult to know where to start. I did have to laugh at one point though. As I was in line filling my plate, there was a lady behind me distraught at the fact that they weren't offering hash browns. She mumbled in disbelief to herself for a few moments. I pointed out the thick cut potatoes with onions and peppers to her and she was uninterested. Just then someone else she was with showed up and she proceeded to tell them about the the lack of hash browns. I was in awe. Here is this woman in a beautiful resort in an exotic locale with as much gourmet food as she could eat at her finger tips and all she can do is go on about them not offering hash browns. Simply amazing. At that moment, I felt bad for the people that worked at the Hyatt. The fact that they had to deal with these sorts of people on a day to day basis is a tough one to swallow. I don't know how they do it, because all I wanted to do was throw scrambled eggs at the lady.

I relayed this little experience to L when I sat down. Her take on it was that the thick cut potatoes that were offered probably seemed too much like a real vegetable to the lady. It made me laugh, because she was probably right. Scary.

After we ate, we walked around the Hyatt grounds for a bit to check it out. Pretty amazing stuff. There's was a man-made lagoon that you could kayak in. The place was landscaped with all manners of tropical plants with walking paths everywhere. The pool had a waterslide at one end. There were some restaurants on the lagoon. All of this was flanked by the rooms and suites that they offered. I realized that a resorts like this have their place. There's nothing wrong with dropping some dough and letting yourself get spoiled every once and a while. Live like a king, just don't forget there's a world out there. It all comes down to balance.

L: After breakfast and our self guided tour of the Hyatt we drove to Mahaulepu Beach. It was within 10 minutes of the hotel. Part of the drive there was on an unpaved bumpy road, but not nearly as bumpy as the drive to Polihale Beach. The part of the beach we walked to was secluded and beautiful. It was quite windy and the waves higher than we'd seen so far. The area reminded us of central California's coast.

We took some short videos of ourselves. D is holding an umbrella in one. It was my sun shade at Polihale Beach and today at Mahaulepu Beach. The sun is strong here and I wilt easily in the heat.

D: On the way back we stopped off at a small roadside produce stand we'd stopped at before. L got some papaya and some apple-bananas (small bananas). We made our way back to the room to get our stuff ready to go swimming. Which is exactly what we did, right after we woke up from our food-coma-nap. Now that's what a vacation is all about, being able to live like a two year old again. Eat. Play. Sleep. Etc.

We finally got out there door and on the road. We were heading to a beach on the east coast about 15 miles away called Lydgate Park. On the way we made a couple of sightseeing stops. The first was Wailua Falls. It's a huge waterfall that's famous for being featured in the opening credits of Fantasy Island. We took a couple of pictures and then continued on.

The second stop was another waterfall called Opaeka'a Falls. This was a smaller waterfall and the vantage point was farther away. I guess it didn't make too much of an impression on us because we didn't even break out the camera for it. Still nice to see and only a few minutes out of the way.

It was around 2:30pm and we finally made our way to the beach to swim. Lydgate Park proved to be very large and very popular, especially with picnicking families and other festive large groups. L suggested that we go check out the swimming area before we got all of our stuff out of the car. The weather wasn't quite holding up the way we were hoping. It was a bit overcast and pretty windy.

Not many people where in the water, but there were a few. One was a chubby kid who was attempting to ride his boogie board standing up at the water's edge. He wiped out a couple of times to our amusement. He finally found success when he altered his technique to lying on his stomach instead of standing. And for what it's worth, his tall skinny friend was trying the same thing and kept wiping out. Husky kids unite.

After testing the water and staring at it for a little bit, we decided to forego swimming for the day and take a walk instead. Lydgate Park was a pretty large public park that stretched along the shore for at least a mile or so. It had a paved path that ran along the beach as well as around the various sports fields and play areas. We walked along and took some random pictures while enjoying our surroundings. After a while we headed back to the car and began planning our next food excursion. We browsed thru our guide books in search of our next prey.

L: We had read about Duane's Ono-Char Burger in a couple of books and it was mentioned in a local paper's list of Best Burgers in Kauai. This could have been all marketing, but if a place is mentioned as being popular with locals we'll check it out. I really wanted Hawaiian food, but most places were closed on Sunday that I wanted to visit. Duane's would have to do. We passed it as we drove up to Anahola. It's address is "on the highway" in Anahola. Luckily D noticed it and we turned around. It was a small red shack and as we pulled up there was a clown at the window ordering. A real clown in a costume. It was a funny site. We tried not to stare so he wouldn't feel self conscious. D did however take a picture of him while he wasn't looking. We ordered cheese burgers w/ onion rings. The burgers were good. They had a charbroiled flavor from grilling. Onion rings were huge and crispy-not soggy. High marks for the little shack.

We sat under a table w/ an umbrella while it rained and watched various animals-chickens, cats, ducks "foraging" for the fries and onion rings people left behind. It seemed so unnatural for them to being eating fried food! For the record, we did not feed them. The onion ring getting mauled in the video is from someone else.

D: On our way home we stopped off at the Kapa'a branch of Java Kai to grab a cup of coffee for the ride home. We also made a quick stop at a supermarket to pick up a couple of things to snack on later as well as tomorrow. Food. Food. Food. It's necessary for life.

We got back to our room earlier than we had in the previous days. We cleaned up, checked emails, updated the blog and read thru our guide books to figure out the game plan for our last day tomorrow.

I also watched some more of "Cosmos War of the Planets". I can't tell if the trouble I'm having understanding the film is because it's a cheap hack of a film wrought with bad editing or if it actually defining a new level avant garde and I'm too stupid to comprehend it's genius. L doesn't seem to have an opinion one way or the other. She justs laughs at the funny sound effects every now and then while she's reading thru the guide books and listening.

We topped off the night with a slice of chewy chocolate mac nut pie from the Camp House Grill. A little bit of vanilla ice cream to keep it company and I am now officially a glutenous pig. And now my friends, I am two years old again and ready for night night time.