Paradise on Kauai

The weather at home was frightful; a horrible mix of rain, sleet and snow.  We have had problems getting out of our neighborhood on our private (which means not plowed sometimes for 24 hours) road.  So Matt drove us to a hotel just outside of the airport on Tuesday night.  This put us only 10 minutes by shuttle from our 7 am flight.

By the time we got up this morning I could see huge snowflakes adding to the mess.  But we got to the airport in plenty of time to stand in line at security.  Our flight boarded early to try to get in line for de-icing.  But we got stuck pulling away from the gate and spent an hour and a half in line to de-ice.  Our first stop was Phoenix and I had made up my mind that we would be stuck there at least overnight.  There is  only one flight a day to Kauai from Phoenix and we only had just over an hour between flights. We used up that time on the runway at MSP.  We were lucky that so many Minnesotans were taking that same flight because the plane to Hawaii was held at the gate until we got there and our luggage was loaded. 

After being on a plane for almost 5 hours we ran to catch a 6.5 hour flight and were thrilled to be in the air and on our way to warm breezes.  It was a non eventful flight and, yes, when we arrived our luggage was with us.

It was pouring rain in Kauai as we loaded into our rental and drove through rush hour traffic to the east side of the island.  We stopped for an early dinner (4 hour time change made it 4:30 in Kauaii and 7:30 in our heads.  Then we found a great small grocery store for some Kona coffee and fresh pineapple for breakfast and then headed to our condo on Poipu Beach.

This is an amazing place.  There are a bunch of condo buildings scattered among huge palm trees on a wide green lawn.  Our front lanai looks across the lawn to the booming surf.  There is no air conditioning, just plantation shutters on three sides of the condo.  Screens keep the birds out and the shutters can be closed to keep the rain out.  There is glass only in the sliding door that faces the ocean.  I can hear the surf, the rain, and the birds.  It smells of grass and earth and flowers.  I walked barefoot on the grass down to the ocean.  Tide and surf is high.  The sun has set – early here near the equator.  It is still raining as we try to stay awake until 9 pm.  This is paradise.