After packing late last night, well past midnight, I woke up at 4:40 AM this morning and got dressed, and the rest of the family followed. We left the house around 5:20 PM and drove to LAX for our Hawaiian Airlines flight, which was scheduled to take off at 7:40 AM.
The entire trip to Lihue on Kauai, from leaving the house to leaving the baggage claim at Lihue, was uneventful. J and I were seated separately from W and Hsuan, and J and I slept for most of the flight, waking up toward the end to watch Vacation on my iPhone.
As we drove from the airport, it was around midday, so I wanted lunch. Hsuan looked up some places on her iPhone and started giving me directions. I tried following, but it was simply too irritating to drive without knowing where I'm driving, the lay of the land (or having a map in my head), or anything about the destination, so I pulled over. It turns out she wanted to go to The Fish Express, which is a highly rated restaurant in Lihue, but it's more of a fish market kind of place than an actual restaurant. It's essentially take-out food.
I decided instead that we'd eat at Gaylord's at Kilohana. It was clear it was an actual restaurant, and it gets even better reviews on TripAdvisor. Hsuan thought it was a chain restaurant, but I hadn't heard of it. It turned out not to be a chain restaurant. It seemed like what I wanted, so we drove there.
It turns out that Kilohana is also a former sugarcane plantation, and it's a historic site.
First off, lunch was outdoors under covered walkways adjacent to the mansion. It was very tasty. J, as usual, had chicken and pasta. W had chicken crepes. Hsuan had an ahi poke in a coconut bowl. I had beer battered tacos. For dessert, W had a slice of the plantation pie, and I had some coffee.
Then we walked around the plantation. There were shops, and there was a train ride tour of the plantation, so we got tickets for the 2 PM ride. The ride itself was short and pleasant, with our guide describing all the plants still cultivated on the plantation. It turns out that the sugarcane and other fruits are used by the bartenders in the restaurant to make new cocktails, among other things. There are also a few animals on the plantation -- donkeys, horses, some cattle, goats, tons of wild chickens and even a herd of wild pigs. The islands are overrun by wild chickens and pigs, but the plantation decided to corral a small herd of wild pigs to keep as the plantation's "pets". We stopped the train, and people got out to feed bits of bread to the pigs, chickens, and goats. The bread is just a tasty snack; in reality, the pigs' main sustenance comes as leftovers from the restaurant.
The Koloa Rum Company also has their company store on the plantation. When we visited the store, one of the ladies staffing the store asked if we were local, using some Hawaiian phrase that I don't remember -- I think it might be kama'aina. She said we looked like we belonged there. Later, I signed up for a rum tasting in the store, and I joined a group of 11 others in the bar. Despite the fact that she and I both had California drivers licenses, the woman next to me also asked if I were a local. Hmm.
Anyway, Koloa rum is made with pure cane sugar, not molasses, so it's very high quality, high-end rum. It's also difficult to make or maintain profits, sits molasses is much cheaper, but they seem to be doing well. The company has won many awards at assorted rum competitions.
The four varieties of Koloa rum I tasted were really good. Very aromatic, but the favors were bold and not overly subtle. I'm glad Koloa rum is widely available in the US, so I didn't have to buy a bottle to bring home in the luggage.
Afterward, we made the short drive to Poipu and the Grand Hyatt Resort, where we'll be staying for our vacation.
We rested in our room for quite a while, and then just before 6 PM, we left to explore the resort grounds. Maybe we're just not used to it yet, but the Grand Hyatt grounds are more convoluted than the Grand Wailea in Maui. More places to hide in, more places to get lost in. It has its attractions. The beach waves were high and dangerous-looking, though, and the weather was cool, though the time must have had much to do with it.
We had an expensive dinner at Tidepools, the resort's signature restaurant (or one of them). Then we returned to the room to wash up and go to sleep.