March 9 South side towns

Sunday March 9

Quiet morning here with early morning news. It’s the first morning where things have felt a bit cool and we even had to turn off the big fans that have run almost constantly since we arrived. Nice this morning that the internet is again working and I have a chance to update the blogs and upload photos. Of course, in the process, I realize that I am losing days in spite of my commitment to keeping track of what we are doing. I know that in the blur of all that we are doing, if I don’t write about it on a regular basis, the whole thing will run together in one big chunk and Mo and I will look at each other and say, now when did we do that? Where was that? What year was that?

I guess that’s the whole reason for the MoHoTravels blog in the first place, somewhere that we can go besides a tattered old journal to try to remember when we did what. The fact that it can be shared if I choose is just a little bonus, and also forces me to spell and at least think a little bit about what I am writing. That’s good for me even if no one but Mo or I ever read anything at all. Of course, the main reason is that I can type about a zillion times faster than I can write, and I am at the point in my life where I can no longer read my own writing. Ha!

The day is unfolding quietly, with thoughts of going back to the Poipu area and checking out the tropical arboretum there and the Spouting Horn, and maybe walking around the town of Koloa.

We decided to explore the southern coast today and check out the little historic towns of Koloa and Hanapepe, then on to Poipu. It's still amazing to me just how different the southern and western side of the island is compared to the east and north where we are staying. The historic aspect of Koloa plantation history could have been interesting, but most things don't open until noon in these little resort towns, and as we discovered, Sunday is a very quiet day all over the island, except for the churches. Many shops and attractions are closed on Sunday, so if you decide to visit, plan Sunday as a beach day or a home day. Although the beaches were fairly busy with the addition of locals to all the tourists. We also found out that this is the quietest time of year, a lucky thing for us. Winter and summer are much busier, with traffic jams and long lines waiting to get into any restaurants, so we smiled at our totallly random luck. When we planned this trip, we were just thinking off the best time to leave late winter early spring snows behind us. Great timing!

We left Koloa and drove up the coast a mile or two to see the famous Spouting Horn, a typical blow hole kind of feature with the addition of a very noisy vent that sounded exactly as you might imagine that a dragon would sound. In spite of all the warnings about not going behind the fence, people were all around the blow hole and I went down there as well to try to catch a photo of the water exploding like a geyser. Photos didn't quite get it, but I did get to be up close to the very scary dragon sound! spooky!!

We had also planned to go the tropical botanical gardens, one of 5 in the world, but decided that the $30 price tag was too high for our plans so skipped that one. After viewing the Spouting Horn we continued north on HWY 50 to the little town of Hanapepe, the art center of the island. Everything was very very quiet, with most stores and galleries closed, but we walked across the swinging bridge, and talked with one artist in her studio who filled us in on some of the more controversial issues that are plaguing the island in this day of dot.com millionaires and absentee owners. The problems sound the same as many other places in the world, gentrification and second homes eating up all the real estate, inflating the prices far beyond what a working person can possibly afford, and killing the local culture while it feeds the economy is ways that don't help the masses very much.

We returned home in the late afternoon to more relaxation, and I cooked a truly wonderful stir-fry with chicken and some truly sweet pineapple. I haven't mentioned the pineapple, but omigosh, it is every bit as sweet and non acidic as the pineapple I loved so much last year in Thailand. Ahhh! and great little very sweet bananas, called "apple bananas" are also wonderful. This time of year is quiet as far as fruit and veggies, go but the pineapple lived up the the dream!