Friday, June 2, 2023

2023 Kauai, Hawaii - June - Day 1 - Arrival Day (and the Rooster)

 We began our adventure at 4:40 AM (MST) today.  Kim and Ilene came to our house and Ashley drove us to the airport.  Our flight was for 6:30 AM to LAX and we were at the gate with little problem.  The flight was on time.  However, we got noticed that the connecting flight to Lihue was delayed 2.5 hours and would not leave until 11 AM (PST).   The delay held and we landed, very roughly I might add, at the Lihue airport around 2 PM (HST).   We are now 4 hours behind Utah time which makes our day a 28 hour day today.  But we all feel pretty good.


The first order of business was to get a rental car.  Kim and Ilene rented the car from Dollar.  The process went well getting it.  We are in a nice Dodge Charger.  Denise and I watched the chickens roam around the lot and rental center.  There are chickens everywhere and apparently they are treated like a wild bird here.  More to come on chickens….


After getting our car, we headed north towards Princeville where our condo was waiting for us.  We first made a stop at a taco place that was recommended to us by Ilene’s sister.  The name of the place was Tiki’s Tacos.  We all had fish tacos and they were really good.  I would recommend it.  


I will just get this out of my system to begin with (being tight Tim).  Everything here is crazy expensive.  1 average sized fish taco….$10.75.  We dropped $30 for 2 tacos, a bottled water, and a can of juice.   Oh well, the kids don’t need an inheritance anyways!


After our food stop, we headed to our condo.  The island is beautiful and the 40 minute drive did not disappoint.  So green and lush.   It was a bit cloudy and we did get some rain showers, very short rain showers, through out the day.


The condo, Wyndham Bali Hai, is nice.  It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo.  It is clean and nice.  We are on the 2nd floor and it is a bit warm here.  That’s important to know as upon checking in they told me that to run the air conditioning it would be another $20 per day (in addition to the $13 per day for taxes and extra fees).  AIRBNB certainly does not tell you that in its listing.  Anyways, the pool and area is beautiful.


Once we were in the condo, we unpacked our suit cases and then Denise, Ilene and I ran to the store nearby to get some breakfast and lunch stuff.  There is a little market in a strip mall like place where most of the locals and tourists shop.   Kim had some church business to attend to so we stayed at the condo.  


After getting back from the store, we got into our swim suits and headed to the pool to cool off and get refreshed.  It felt so nice to jump in and relax a bit.  We were not there too long as it was starting to get late (7 PM…but 11 PM in Utah time) and we needed to do some planning which we did.  And then it was off to bed, before 9 PM I might add.  We are getting old I suppose.


The condo did cool down nicely once the sun was down.  Every room has big fans and they do a good job moving the air around.   I slept great (since I’m writing this at 6 AM on day 2).  However, remember those chickens?  A rooster apparently nested somewhere outside our condo and began crowing about 4 AM and continued off and on until about 6 AM.  I wanted to go find it and wring its next and have chicken for dinner.  I feel like we are sleeping on a farm.  I hope he nests somewhere else tonight!



You can see our friend (a chicken) wandering at the rental car site at the airport.  I think he followed us on the 40 minute drive so he could start crowing at 4:30 AM!!!!


A new best friend for Denise at Tiki Tacos.  I think it is funny that we fly 6 hours from LA and end up eating lunch from a guy from Mexico who has been in Hawaii only 5 years.  And we ate tacos no less.  :-)


Tiki taco lunch.  It is really yummy.  We all were pleased.


This is the road coming into our condo area.  There is a beautiful golf course all around us.  I should have brought my clubs and robbed a bank!


I believe that is a cardinal.  We see them everywhere.  They are a beautiful bird.


This is a photo of the pool area near our condo.  We cooled off there after finally landing in our condo and getting unpacked.  It is a nice one.


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