Archives for posts with tag: Kauai

For someone who spent her childhood and adolescence growing up on the The Garden Island, Na Pali Coast was always just out of reach. Between school, extra curricular activities and family travel funds prioritized for experiences off the island, Na Pali fell through the cracks.

When the opportunity arose to show a Mainland friend around my home island, we made like the smart tourists and booked a water tour of the coast. There are helicopter tours available which provide some incredible aerial views, but our tour included more intimate interactions with the elements, if you’re into that kind of thing.

The Blue Dolphin Charters experience was the perfect finale to our week long visit to Kaua’i. Captain Chad, a native of Kauai’s West side, and his crew kept us entertained, beveraged, and most of all, safe. He also reminded me of one of my club volleyball coaches by the same name, but I digress.

While no pictures, or even the most descriptive adjectives could capture that Sunday afternoon, in lieu of actually being there my best effort to illustrate the day is summarized below:

Na Pali Coast is truly a feast for all of the senses.

IMG_2145

Just LOOK at this.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly five years since my last trip home, June brought me back to Kaua’i for the anticipated (or dreaded for some…most?) high school reunion. My friends and I took our short visit to return to some of our favorite spots. Here, the first in a three-part series on my Garden Island’s must dos.

Wide open spaces at Polihale beach, Kauai.

Wide open spaces at Polihale beach, Kauai.

Polihale, West side

Read the rest of this entry »

Typical breakfast back home; Portugese sausage, eggs and rice.

Typical breakfast back home; Portugese sausage, eggs and rice.

Whether I’m deplaning at Kauai’s airport or Honolulu International, where my sister now lives, homecoming always feels the same and I hope that will never change. It starts with the slow creep of damp air that seeps through my half-day-old travel wear as I wheel my carry-on toward curbside pick-up and ends with a bittersweet sense of appreciation and longing for the islands that raised me.

At Honolulu’s arrival terminal several weeks ago, I smile when I hear it: the familiar island twang of Hawaiian pidgin, which is today a product of the ethnic groups imported to till the sugar cane fields more than 150 years ago. The Filipinos, Chinese, Portuguese and Puerto Ricans did their best to find a cohesive way to communicate with one another and thus, the inverted grammar of the creole vernacular is one of the few remains after the industry collapsed in the ’90s.

The next morning I pop into Brue Bar off Bishop Street in Downtown Honolulu. I’m in a slight daze and need one more cup to activate the brewed drip my brother-in-law made for my sister and I before they both shoved off for work. Blank faced, I placed an order for a Chai latte.

Read the rest of this entry »