December 26-27th - landing and first day of meandering

Her are a couple of quick photos from the night of the 26th:

G at the airport, awaiting D's arrival with the rental car.  (that's my flannel she is wearing, it appears I won't be getting it back)

Carry a flashlight when you walk at night, the giant bullfrogs will sit perfectly still until you nearly step on them.

Our first full day on the island ran at a slow pace.  With the late arrival and late night run to the grocery store, I decided to ignore the overcast sunrise and buried myself back under the covers until about 8:30 local time.  Our property managers left us a fruit basket and a couple bags of coffee, so we munched on fruit and toast while we slowly finished unpacking our bags.  

D and G spent a little coffee time on the porch outside our bedroom, where an opportunistic zebra dove poked around under the table.

I walked down the path near the ocean a bit, but due to the passing rain showers and heavy overcast skies, I did not pull out my big camera.  In fact, I ended up not using it much at all on our first day.

Once we were all settled in with our unpacking and had finished up the coffee, we headed into Kapa'a to seek out an early lunch.  We decided to go to Olympic Cafe, one of our favorite breakfast spots.  I recall not being enthused by their dinners, but we thought it might be worthy of giving it another shot for lunch, and we enjoy the view overlooking the town with the Sleeping Giant mountain in the background.

Sleeping Giant was shrouded in clouds today... I guess he decided to sleep in too?

My lunch: blackened Ono "sandwich" (minus the sandwich part) and papaya instead of fries.  

A lot of Olympic's lunch options are of the deep fried variety, and their burritos are massive so I knew I didn't want one of those.  In spite of my explaining my allergies to the waitress, the kitchen had put a cup of their aioli dressing on my first plate of food, which the papaya ended up in.  The waitress was very quick to get me a fresh plate and fresh fruit, but to be honest the fish was pretty mediocre anyway, a bit tough even for Ono.  We all agreed that Olympic is a terrific breakfast place, but lunch and dinner are best found elsewhere.

After  quick backtrack to pick up a few things we forgot in the room, and a stop at Papaya's - a natural food store across the street - for road snacks, we headed north towards Hanalei.  Our destination was a farmer's market, but along the way we stopped to look at a couple of interesting shops and for G to pick up her first shaved ice of the vacation.

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Mmmm... soo good!

After finishing her shave ice, we got back on the road and continued to the farmer's market.  It had opened at 2 and we arrived at 3:45, but several stands were already prepping to shut down.  The markets here are not like back home, this is not an all day lingering experience.  Local restaurants buy their food at these markets, so you get there when they open if you want selection.  (Last year we saw chefs wander through with huge carts, grabbing produce)  On the other hand, going in near the end can sometimes get you better prices, as the sellers would rather sell their produce than pack it back up

Gayle waits while her fresh coconut is cracked open.

 From the farmer's market we continued along the freeway all the way to the end, at Ke'e Beach.  We had considered checking out the caves, but parking proved to be impossible all along the last mile of road.  It took us quite a while to get to the end just to turn around, and then we only made it out quickly because an ocean rescue vehicle had to get out, so when he flipped on his siren and parted the cars a bunch of us followed the clear path out of the parking mess.  Back in Hanalei we spent a little time poking around at a few shops, then decided to head towards the Dolphin for dinner.

The Dolphin is located right on the Hanalei River.  We were told there would be a 45 minute wait for a table, so I wandered around near the river a bit.

There is a kayak and SUP rental near here, where you can rent gear to paddle up and down the river.

To our great surprise, we'd hardly been sitting outside 10 minutes before we were called back to be seated inside.

I don't know if this 360 image will display properly, but I'm giving it a shot.  The 360 camera is something D picked up for us for Christmas, he has been having a lot of fun playing with it on this trip.

 I sipped my top shelf Mai Tai and munched on edemame while waiting for our dinners.  D had a variety of nigiri and a sushi roll, G actually ordered her own tempura shrimp sushi roll, and I had an order of hamachi nigiri and some simply grilled marlin with veggie kabob as my side.

I ate one piece before I remembered to take a photo.  Their nigiri is amazing, the hamachi melted like butter.

I'm pretty sure this was my first time having marlin.  It was like steak, very filling and sturdy with a nice mild flavor.  

After dinner we headed back to the condo.  D and G battled with the wifi to watch a few shows on Netflix while I backed up my photos and did a bit of editing.  As usual with these trips, I was the first to head to bed.  

It was lovely to have such a slow paced day.  Throughout the day I read passages from several tour books and we talked about some of the things we'd like to do on this trip.  We've now booked a self-guided garden tour for Thursday and an ATV adventure for Friday (which I've figured out how to bring my DSLR on!  though I can't bring *all* the lenses) The rest of the trip is still up in the air, but I'm hopeful we'll be inspired to try another hike with views at some point.