"You must be a Christian!" she said, and we had a nice chat, reminding each other of favorite bits of praise music as the light changed from pink to gold.
After Mom was up, we took off for the North Shore, stopping at McDonalds for something besides the granola bars and tea I had in the room. I have wanted some fruit, but didn't want to leave it in the car for five hours yesterday while we made our boat trip. We had an interesting, but unsuccessful, detour last night on our way home in search of a grocery. This morning Mom noticed a grocery right next to McDonalds. I left her eating her pancakes and walked across the parking lot.
You know Hawaiians and their Spam. Here's the Spam aisle.
This is not the North Shore of Lake Superior. It has a similar cliffs-and-water beauty, but there the comparison ends. We stopped at every look out. Sometimes Mom got out. Sometimes she could see from the car.
According to our captain last night, the second most visited spot on Kauai after the Na Pali Coast is Kilauea Lighthouse, which is a bird sanctuary. Entry to the sanctuary is for a fee, but you can enjoy the view without going in.
We almost skipped Anini Beach Park because it was off the road and we had seen lots of beaches. I'm sure glad we didn't. This one had a boat launch that served as a great access ramp for Mom's walker. I settled her in the shade of a wall and some nice people offered to take our picture. So here is proof that Mom made it to the beach--feet in the water--in Hawaii.
Anini Beach had these wonderful twisted trees overhanging the water.
We missed the turn off for Hanelei Beach. We found it on the way back, and it was not nearly as nice as the other places we stopped, so I'm glad we didn't waste our time. We picnicked at a spot further along Hanalei Bay: reduced-for-quick-sale chef's crab salad, a sweet croissant, and half a cantaloupe that was definitely not picked green and shipped to market.
The setting gave a great up-close view of the rock formation that inspired Peter, Paul and Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon"...frolicking in Hanali (to rhyme with sea.)
We ended our outing at Ha'ena Beach Park, where Mom again had a place to sit in the shade and I went for a short walk.
There are a lot of one-lane bridges up here. We had a sort of traffic jam at one point just east of Hanalei, but after that, traffic moved nicely. We intended to stop and buy more fruit for tomorrow, but the "by-pass" we took went around it.
We are both pretty tired. Mom napped while I edited pictures.
From 5 to 6 there was a reception at the pool deck with singers and hulu dancers.
Hulu is way different than I was taught to think of it as a teen in a no-dancing culture. It's very graceful, almost balletic. Most of the songs were in Hawaiian, but the last was in English and we could see how the arm movements expressed the words. I was impressed that the dancers were not all pretty young things. One was pushing 50. Or maybe tht was the effect of too much sun. Another was quite heavy, but still extremely graceful. Afterwards they went around and greeted people, and the older woman present Mom with one of her leis.
Mom had to figure out what she could wear to dinner that would go well with a yellow lei. She ended up putting a skirt with the dark brown shirt she was wearing and looked very nice.
The hotel restaurant is pricey as you might imagine, and they add a $6 charge for splitting, but Mom ordered a regular entrée (shrimp scampi), and I ordered a much cheaper "small plate," knowing that she would not get away with all hers. Mine was poke--raw tuna seasoned with seaweed. The waitress wanted to be sure I knew what I was getting. It was delicious. Not fishy at all, but the texture was similar to rare filet minion so I still don't think Steve would like it. Mom tasted a bite. And as expected, I had some of her shrimp and fettucini.
By the time we were finished eating the moon was up. Full. If we had planed better, we should have watched the moon rise over the ocean and then gone to dinner. Next time...
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