Final Day Taken in Island Time

So sad, our final day in Hawaii. Starting out, we knew it would be a bit of a slow day as our check-out from the hotel was at 10 am but our flight in the evening wouldn’t leave until 10 pm. We’d planned a few easy things to do along the way, that were low stress – but in retrospect we may not have planned enough.

To start out, we’d set alarms for the first time all week – the least “Island Time” thing we’d done in a while. For reference, “Island Time” has been a running joke for us all vacation, as it is something, I am chronically bad at. Even our snorkel guides back in Maui made fun of me about it. Simply put, its taking a deep breath and not worrying about everything needed to be done “on time” and more so – time spent not doing anything is also fine. Anyway, we set alarms to make sure we got our room fully packed and were out in appropriate time. Packing was … unexciting ... as you’d expect but considering what kitchen remnants, we wanted to try to keep was a unique task. That said, we did enjoy some Nenes trying to come into our room.

We ate one final time at the hotel, same as yesterday – a buffet and a chorizador. This led to a bit of drama as we’d only done this because our paperwork told us we’d receive the buffet for free, but when we got the bill, they said that was not the case. When I was able to provide the paperwork, we got credit for the meal, so it wasn’t so bad.

After we ate we headed out from the hotel and to our first stop of the day: Kaua’i MiniatureGolf and Botanical Gardens. This stop was a lot of fun! Initially we thought the golf and the gardens would be two separate things (this would have been better for consuming time) but instead the mini-golf was played through the garden. At the beginning of each hole was a sign providing some information or history about the local plants. The information ranged from how they arrived on the island to what cultural impacts were brought with them. Every plant and tree was labeled and we got many answers we’d had all trip. We learned that a kind of apple tree we’d wondered about was a Mountain Apple Tree, and another mystery fruit tree we’d seen while grilling was a kind of mango. We learned that Black Bamboo was a thing and we learned about Canoe-Plants (27 essentials brought in canoes to sustain on the journey and recreate on the land). Throughout all this, I thought the miniature golf was a lot of fun and we had a quite competitive game, ending with scores of 55 and 52.

After golf we headed just a few miles away to the Kilauea Lighthouse. This is a location on the northeastern coast that shows up in many photos and many attraction lists for the island. Unfortunately, I was not feeling great at this point in the day – unsure why – but guessing lack of sleep. We pulled over just outside the entrance which provided a lookout point over the lighthouse. It was a beautiful vantage point and appeared to be a pristine lighthouse in a perfect spot. However, combined with how I felt at the time, we opted to not pay to drive in and explore the very crowded venue more closely. It was still worth the stop though, as it was barely out of the way at all.

This brings us to our second major stop of the day. Further down the eastern coast we visit the Koloa Distillery. This stop was amazing! At first, I took a nap in the car and Archer did some reading, as we still had an abundance of time. Then we headed in. We put our names on the tasting list and explored the shop side of things. Before too long we were invited in and in order, given 5 samples. First came the Dark Rum. I love dark rum and this one was worth having. It is Koloa’s first mass produces spirit and a major award winner. Our second tasting was the Spiced Rum. Also, delicious. The third was their Coconut Rum, which tasted very much like coconuts, more than usual, so if you’re not a fan of that flavor this one may not be for you. The fourth sample was a coffee-rum, which was made together with the local company Kaua’i Coffee’s beans. The rum tasted of coffee, chocolate, and vanilla and would be a dangerous thing to own. Finally we tried the passionfruit-rum blend. This is a much lighter drink, only about 10%, and frankly tasted like juice. Very good juice but not one you should have a full glass of. Anyway, it was all amazing and we are excited to share that they can be purchased in many places in the continental US, and we recommend them if you get the chance.

After the tasting we wandered the complex we were in, which was home to a variety of other stores. The only shop we stopped in though was the ceramics store. They had some gorgeous pieces, including some bowls that were stunningly light-weight. I personally enjoyed this stop because the counter had a super friendly cat on it and we became fast friends. Then, before long we got back on the road. Unfortunately, we still had lots of time and nowhere left to go. We headed to “a park” to eat our lunch. This setting was not the best, as it was not a very nice park, but we ate our leftover nachos in the sun all the same. Then, not wanting to linger, we headed to the airport for lack of a better idea. Through the airport we found another “park” which was really just a parking lot on the coast with a great view. We sat their a bit, ate the fruit from our lunch, and debated what to do with our remaining six hours.

We looked up parks, museums, zoos, aquariums, breweries, distilleries, malls, etc. Unfortunately, we failed to find something that was both open and interesting. Embarrassingly, and for lack of a better local option, we found a movie theater and went to watch the Lion King. The movie ended a bit after 6 so we made our way to the airport again. Here, things were uneventful, and we were truly now on our last legs home.

Finally, the flights home were a disaster. We took of from Kaua'i at 10pm, landed in Phoenix and then took a second flight to Dallas. When we landed in Dallas we'd learned that our next flight was cancelled. We waited for 2 hours in a line to re-book on a flight that we'd apparently already been put on, and yet it still took about 20 minutes to get our tickets. The woman there then made us repeat that we should make our way to Gate D2 (we were currently at A22) and Gates D1-D20 were the literal furthest possible tram stop. So we headed out, and the closer we got to Gate D2 the more we were convinced these were all international flights, and the gates seemed to not ever reach D2... I don't know what to say about this. Anyway, we then checked at a desk and had to return to gate A36, which is what was on the tickets originally, so why were we sent to D2 I wonder. When we got back the gate was moved again to D26, so we were back, basically where we started. To relax we headed to a California Pizza Kitchen for pizza and beer. Finally, this flight took us to Charlotte, and then we had "a quick layover" to get back to Baltimore. We rushed to our gate, only to find this flight delayed. In a nutshell, the flight that was supposed to take off at 11pm didn't leave until close to 2am, so we finally arrived back in Baltimore around 5:30 in the morning. This made it so we few two different red-eye flights in under 24 hours, which is not a common thing. 

I wasn't originally going to write about the airplane travel, but it just felt like a comedy of errors that is maybe worth a smile.