Wandering the garden isle

As we were ill nearly the entire time we were in Kauai, our plans continued to change as we realized hiking and kayaking would not be possible every day. Instead we drove. We drove all over the island making sure to soak in as much as we possibly could.

Our first stop was in scenic Hanapepe where they were having an orchid festival. There is a revival movement attempt being made by the art community in this town. Lots of fun cute shops with local art work from traditional crafts like quilting to marbelized silk. It was great. There was also a gorgeous Zen temple.



There was also the standard kitschy tourist stuff. On Kauai they have a popular souvenir called a red dirt shirt. The dirt in Kauai has so much red iron in it that it will dye anything and everything red-- a handful of someones based an industry on this. It made me wonder how the dye would work for batiks...

Unfortunately it was here that my camera died, much to my disappointment, AT the orchid show. We tried to come back the next day, but by the time we got there they had closed up for the day. Instead we went for shave ice. Jo-Jo's came highly recommended, and it truly was the best shave ice we had while on Hawaii-- not too sweet, real fruit rather than artificial flavorings-- it was a drive and totally worth it. I got coconut and adzuki beans in mine and Dj got mac nut ice cream in his -- really super tasty.

After that we turned around and hit the craft fair that runs 4 days a week in Kapaa. Nothing there was highly innovative or exciting. Some pretty hand made jewelry, sarongs that were mass hand made in indonesia, and conch and coconut kitsch was really the majority of our findings. There were no price tags and the vendors were extraordinarily attentive. Everything was overpriced, but when we went back a week later (dressed just a little nicer) we found that the price of everything had gone up at least 50%-- we left annoyed and mostly empty handed....

At the end of our stay at the Hilton, we found a rental that had a last minute cancellation, kayaks, and other fun gear for about the same price as the hostel would have cost. This seemed perfect, and we packed ourselves up and moved in. It was a small studio apartment on the back of a house. It wasn't fancy, but more than adequate.