After spending a restless night dreaming of SQL queries, I woke up to the sound of a bird singing outside our hotel room window. Sort of symbolic of the transition from the world of work to the world of vacation.
We spent most of Friday just hanging out and visiting with Milton and Charlene. We went back to their house, met their cats, ate some muffins (which Charlene baked) and some fruit, listened to some Hawaiian music. They played us an album by Hawaiian artists The Brothers Cazimero, which we were impressed by.
We went out for lunch and had teriyaki burgers. I don't mean hamburgers with teriyaki sauce - apparently, in Hawaii a teriyaki burger is strips of teriyaki beef on a bun. Very tasty.
As we drove around the city, I was extremely impressed by Milton's ability to navigate. Milton and Charlene are both blind, although Milton had some vision as a child. In the years I've been with Terry, I've known many blind people, with varying degrees of ability to navigate. But I don't think I've ever met a blind person with Milton's ability to give directions. I swear the man has a map on Honolulu imprinted on his brain. He could tell us, not only street names, and where to turn, but also what buildings, businesses, stores, etc., to look for. Most impressive.
Anyway, we then went and did a little shopping, and then went to get some shave ice. Not "shaved ice," mind you, but "shave ice." It's like a snow cone, but much better. Instead of crushed ice, they use ice shaved to a fine powder with a really sharp blade. We had it four times while we were in Hawaii - three times on Kaua'i, and once here in Honolulu. This one was the best. You can get all different kinds of flavor syrups, from the commonplace to the exotic. Terry and I had liliko'i, otherwise known as passion fruit.
We then said goodbye to Milton and Charlene, drove back to the airport, and caught a flight to Kaua'i. That's a really short flight. You take off, the flight attendant brings you a drink, and you land almost before you've had time to finish it. Ron and Mindy met us at the airport, and we went to a local restaurant, the Oki Diner, for dinner, and then went back to their house.
That was it for the day, but this would be a good place to throw in a little general information about Kaua'i. As I mentioned before, it's the northenmost and almost the westernmost of the main islands - only Ni'ihau is farther west. The whole island is essentially one big mountain peak sticking up out of the water, although wind and water erosion over the ages have carved out many lesser peaks and ridges. The main peak in the center of the island, Mt. Wai'ale'ale, is known as the wettest spot on earth. The average annual rainfall up there is 440 inches per year - that's more than an inch per day.
What this means to the tourist is that Mt. Wai'ale'ale is constantly covered by clouds. You have to take it on faith that there's a mountain there. I spent my entire trip trying to get a glimpse of the mountain, and failed... until the last day. More about that later.
The interior of the island - being, as it is, a very wet mountain - is uninhabitable. So the human habitation on the island is around the perimeter. There's a highway that stretches almost - but not quite - all the way around the island. There's a section on the west side, the Na Pali coast, which remains untouched.
There are a number of towns and villages around the island, most of which will be mentioned in the following pages, in the order in which we saw them. The main city, where Ron and Mindy live, is Lihue, which is located more or less in the southeast corner of the island - say, at about 4:00.