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A correction for Chapter 3. The author of Hawaii is James Michener, not Ernest Hemingway, as I erroneously stated. Thanks Scott for catching that. I love both authors, and was momentarily confused, possibly a senior moment. ;o)

This is Saturday, and our last day on Kauai before flying to Oahu on Sunday. We drove to where the Kalalau Trailhead is located, just off the parking lot at the very end of the road. These are some serious hikers just beginning the 11 mile hike to Kalalau Beach.

In these next two photos, I need to tell you that I did NOT take them. There is a spot on the Kalalau Trail known as Crawlers Ledge. I would not do this hike.

I also came across this Youtube video taken by Maurie Feldberg with a video camera strapped to his forehead. If you feel like getting your heart pumping a little faster, give it a viewing. It’s just under 9 minutes of vertigo induced terror.

Crawlers Ledge - Kalalau Trail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNEZ4YQJJyY

This is a less treacherous section of the trail, and Pete and I actually hiked this part back 1987 on our first visit to Kauai.

On the way back to the resort we stopped to see the pier that juts out into Hanalei Bay. The pier doesn’t seem to serve any function except serve as a means of getting the locals out on the water, where the kids can dive off and swim ashore.

There was a nice beach, and lots of people were enjoying it. The pier was not large, but it had a covered area at the end of it.

There were people maneuvering an outrigger canoe and it appeared they were taking it out of the water to put it on it’s trailer. It looked like it could be a very fast boat when all the paddles were maned. They must use it for racing competition.

The kids were having a ball doing backward flips off the pier.

Since we were doing our Na Pali Coast catamaran snorkeling & dinner cruise on the 16th, we scheduled tonight (Saturday) for celebrating our 34th anniversary at the Saint Regis Hotel at Prinveville. With a name like that I expected it to be pretty POSH.

The lobby was rather elegant, and the dining area was split between indoor and outdoor. We chose to eat outdoors because it was such a beautiful evening. Of course we had to sample their Mai-Tai skills. We were not disappointed.

I had a heart of palm salad and soup de jour, and Pete had a delicious Ono.

The dessert presentation was fantastic, but it was a little strange. Fortunately the ambiance made up for that.

These are scenes of peace, beauty and serenity. I can’t imagine what it must have looked like on September 11th of 1992, when Hurricane Iniki struck the island at it’s moment of peak intensity, leaving in its path 6 fatalities and $1.8 billion in damages.

Here are a few photos of the aftermath left in the wake of hurricane Iniki after it had moved north. It’s not a pretty sight.

It never ceases to amaze me how people recover from these kinds of natural disasters. We humans are pretty resilient creatures.

Our flight to Oahu was only 32 minutes, and we landed at Honolulu International at 10:16 AM. My cousin Suelyn met us and took us to lunch for a most delicious Dim Sum. We had Dim Sum many times when were living in the Bay Area, so it brought back a flood of great memories. Afterwards she dropped us off at our hotel, the Hale Koa, which is a strictly military hotel. One might ask, how can that be? Well, this grandiose hotel was built entirely from funds provided by military personnel.

Our room was pretty spacious. Since we were only going to be here for 3 nights, putting things in drawers made no sense. We are learning how to live out of a suitcase. ;o) Our room was on the 12th floor.

This is the view from our balcony, and we had what they call a “partial ocean view”. Well, yes, I CAN see the ocean.

Here is a little history about how the Hale Koa came into being. Fort DeRussy has evolved immensely from 1906, when it was sold as a 72-acre parcel of “undesirable” land, to the building of Battery Randolph in 1911 at the east end of Fort DeRussy (now an Army Museum) to the significant roles that Fort DeRussy played during WWII. What the military was lacking was a place to hold grand social events. After WWII it was decided that a resort hotel should be built on the property, and to fund it, the men and women it the armed services donated the proceeds from Officer’s Clubs, Enlisted Men’s Clubs and Post Exchanges world wide, to provide a means where service men and women and their families could have a place of their own for Rest and Recreation. It opened in 1975 with the 419 room Ilima Tower. From this celebrated opening till today, the Hale Koa Hotel remains, an all-ranks, all-service hotel committed on providing first-class service without regard to an individual’s status. This is echoed in the mission of the hotel that has remained unchanged from its inception, “To operate a first class hotel and recreation facility at affordable prices for military members and their families.” As proof of this, our three night stay was only $147 per night. Try to match that at any one of the top rated resort hotels in Waikiki

Today, Fort DeRussy Armed Forces Recreation Center is the home of the Hale Koa Hotel, or House of the Warrior, a world-class resort hotel and continued favorite R&R destination for our country’s military personnel. In 1995 the Maile Tower was added, bring the combined capacity to 818 rooms. Also debuting was a 1,100 stall parking garage, fitness center, adults only pool, and a new restaurant, Bibas Courtyard Grill, which, by the way, is EXCELLENT! Not one dime came from taxpayers. If you are a non-military person, you cannot obtain a room at the Hale Koa. Today, the Hale Koa takes great pride in operating self-sufficiently, with not one taxpayer dollar supporting upkeep or operation. It is estimated that over one million military personnel and dependents take advantage of he Hale Koa’s many facilities yearly.

And, location is everything. It is right on the beach at Waikiki. You can’t get mush more central than this.

The facility is huge, with recreation as the key feature. And, they provide nightly entertainment and a luau once a week.

Staying at this facility makes me kind of proud to have served in the U. S. Navy for 26 years.

After we got settled in, Suelyn picked us up in the lobby and took us to see the home on the hill she and her son Rick are purchasing. It has a fantastic view. We then went to their home for dinner, where Suelyn made a wonderful beef dish with mashed potatoes and broccoli. It was wonderful.

In their yard they have this most magnificent mango tree. Rick is gathering some to take into the house. Suelyn cut one in half and apparently the seed comes out rather easily, and we ate it with a spoon as you would eat a cantaloupe in the skin, but it is infinitely softer and oh so sweet. I’ve always loved mangos, but this particular variety far surpassed any I have had before.

We were not able to spend as much time with Rick and Suelyn as we would have liked to, and for reasons beyond their control. So, I did not take enough photos on this short visit, thinking there would be more time. I still want to share with you a few photos of them and their home, so I’m borrowing a few shots from our earlier visit when we spent a week on the Big Island of Hawai’i to celebrate our 29th anniversary five years ago, and followed that with 5 nights on Oahu, where we also stayed in the Hale Koa, before flying on to Michigan. I hope you won’t mind this little regression.

Our first evening on Oahu, Suelyn and Rick took us to a wonderful Chinese restaurant. The meal was excellent.

Rick with Aiden and Megan,                             and Pete with Suelyn.

A windy lookout point on the Kailua side of the island                 Suelyn introduced us to what I would call a snow cone.
                                                                                                            You could choose your flavors and mix them. Delicious!

Suelyn spent the next day driving us around the island, and we saw places we’d never seen before. The Dole pineapple fields were amazing. I remember reading the chapters in Michener’s book of how pineapple was introduced to Hawai’i. As I recall it was a very protected resource in Mexico, and it had to be smuggled to Hawai’i. It thrived, and made one family very rich over the ensuing years.

A view of their home from the street. Pete and Suelyn chat before she takes us back to our hotel.

Inside the woodwork is amazing, and we really liked Rick’s taste in art.

Their home is quite large, extremely well cared for, and it has a spacious back yard.

If I were to live in Hawai’i, I would want this house. But then, Argentina isn’t so bad after all. ;o) We still love it.

The next morning we enjoyed a really nice breakfast at Bibas Courtyard Grill

We could see this huge rubber tree plant in the garden . . . and this is what it looks like a night. WOW!

This is the adults pool. How thoughtful of them. And, this is the kids pool. It’s early yet.

The beach was very wide, and very long. The water was warm, and as calm as a bath tub. Talk about paradise!

We had dinner that evening at Bibas and Pete’s lamb chops were to die for. I got a salad and a raw ahi appetizer with taro root chips. For dessert Pete got the cheese cake, and I got a volcano chocolate browny with ice cream. No surprises there. ;o)

The next day we went to the Barefoot Bar on the beach and had another Mai-Tai. When in Hawai’i you’ve just got to have a Mai-Tai, and the drink wasn’t even invented here. It was created in 1944 at Trader Vic’s in San Francisco. But who cares?

The beach wasn’t what I’d call over populated. It’s pretty exclusive to the Hale Koa, which is nice.

Suelyn told us that we should go to the Halekulani and visit their restaurant House Without A Key. It was a short walk from the Hale Koa. We did, intending on just having a cocktail and watch the hula show, but we decided to have dinner there as well.

The Mai-Tais were great, and the view of Diamond Head from our table was nice too. Notice how perfect the weather is.

This is an aerial view of Diamond Head. It’s the huge crater of an extinct
volcano.  You’d never know that just by driving by on the road.

We arrived a little early, so the place was mostly empty. By the time we finished our Mai-Tais and ordered Mojitos, the place started to fill up, and the waiters became rather busy. That’s when we decided to have dinner here.

Our appetizer was sushi, succulent pieces of raw tuna. It was so good, dipping it in soya sauce mixed with wasabi. The band, consisting of three guys with bass, guitar and ukulele who played, and sang beautiful Hawaiian songs.

Pete ordered the grilled ahi which was wrapped in prosciutto, which he says was excellent. I ordered soup & salad.

The sun was getting very low on the horizon, and would soon be setting. Folks were leaving the beach and heading home.

For an after dinner drink Pete had a glass of chardonnay and I had an Irish coffee.

The hula dancer was as graceful as a swan, and everyone was enjoying the music and dancing. What a perfect last evening here in Hawai’i. We didn’t have to check out until noon, so we had a leisurely morning packing. Our flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles wasn’t until 9:30 that night. We left the Hale Koa at around 2 PM and had lots of time to relax in the Admiral’s Club at the airport. Although here it was actually the VIP lounge for Japan Airlines. The fare was very Japanese.

Our homeward flight was a bit grueling as the leg from Honolulu to L.A. was 5½ hours with a 5 hour layover. We took off at 9:34 PM and arrived in L.A. the next morning at 6:01 AM. Again, the Admiral’s Club was a nice place to wait it out. L.A. to Miami was another 5 hours, with a layover of a little over 3 hours. We took off from L.A. at 11:00 AM and arrived in Miami at 7:07 PM, a daylight flight. Miami to Buenos Aires was 9 hours. We took off from Miami at 10:20 PM and arrived in Buenos Aires at 8:16 AM, another overnight flight. From takeoff in Honolulu to touchdown in Buenos Aires it was roughly 28 hours, but because of the 7 hour time difference, we actually spent two nights in the air. Our own bed felt so good, and the cats, as always, were really happy to see us. We hope you’ve enjoyed our sharing of this adventure with you.