Awake at 6 a.m., breakfast at 7, on the road by 9, and not “off duty” until after 7 p.m.. That about sums up our daily experience during Road Scholar Hawaii. Except for our first and last days on the “Island State” there were only 2 “rest days” out of the 3 weeks. I decided on January 31st to suspend my daily accounts of our experience, believing I would resume upon our return to Kansas City. However, the best laid plans…
Our return to Kansas City went well. Sifting through the accumulation of mail I was reminded that it was tax season. I have always done our taxes, and this year was no exception. In recent years doing our state and federal returns has been relatively straightforward. Not so this year. We had a second state (Colorado) to file in due to the sale of our Colorado home. That, coupled with changes in Missouri’s tax laws, and questions involving the synergy between the state and federal returns occupied my time and attention for a few days. I got it done, and then quite obviously did not return to posting about Hawaii. Thank you to those who have reached out and asked, “How was is…”, “What happened…”, “Are you going to finish…”
It was great, if a bit brutal. I had to decide to realign priorities during the trip. And yes, I intend to “finish” in the next few posts. So, here goes.
On January 31st we left the island of Maui and traveled to our third island, Kaua’i. (When possible, I am using the Hawaiian spellings that include the punctuation/pronunciation marks, the okina (a backward apostrophe indicating a pause) and the kahakō (a long vowel symbol but denoting that the short vowel sound should be held longer.))
We had been staying at the Ka’anapali Beach Hotel and on the last morning the hotel staff presents a Kukui Nut Lei Ceremony to the departing guests.
This hotel was perhaps our favorite of the five that we experienced. It was comfortable, well situated for tourist enjoyment, and made a focused effort to include Hawaiian traditions and culture along with the hotel’s hospitality.
The ceremony was heartfelt. We were instructed to bring our Kukui Nut Lei with us on any returns to the Islands as it is tradition to add a nut to the lei on each return. Christine and I will take that to heart.
Again, our leaders Susan, Patricia, and Glenn, adroitly shepherded us to the airport for our one-hour inter island flight. At Kaua’i’s Lihu’e Airport a bus was waiting for us and touring continued without pause.
We visited Spouting Horn Park where an old lava flow and lava tubes interacted with surf to present a Hawaiian version of Yellowstone’s “Old Faithful”.
We also visited the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Botany is not my “thing”, but for some in our group the extraordinary diversity of tropical species found here was captivating.
Christine’s long deceased uncle and aunt, Clark and Veda Bowen, spent part of their retirement here on the island. From 1981 to 1983 Clark was Executive Director of the Kokee Natural History Museum, Kaua’i. We visited the museum on February 2nd. Clark had been a professor of Botany/Biology at Iowa State University from 1955-1980. Two of the members in our group knew the Bowens at the University nearly 50 years ago. What a coincidence!
The remainder of the afternoon included a stop at a grocery store to buy “supplies” for the following “free day”, check-in at the Hilton Garden Inn, Wailua River, and dinner.
The following day, February 1st was one of our two “days off”. Christine and I did some investigating together. The hotel grounds were archeologically significant, and I did some solo hiking and exploration.
My solo wanderings took me to a hidden Japanese cemetery,
and the equally hidden Holoholokū overlook where oral tradition holds that the sacred births of island royalty occurred here.
To be Continued. Peace Everyone. Pete
Anne Pyle says:
Yay! You’re back!!