Friday, July 8, 2016
Anahola, Hanapepe, Waimea, Kapaa
In case you're wondering why it's taking me so long to blog it's because the wi-fi at the hotel was total crap. It would've taken me hours just to put together one days worth.
Ok. So we woke up at the crack of dawn so we could catch the 6 am sunrise. I think we woke up at 4:10 to leave the hotel a little before 5. We were kinda weary because we weren't sure how safe it was going to be. We were pleasantly surprised that no one even took a second look at us. There were a couple of cars there but I don't think we even saw a single person till 5:45. Unfortunately there was no spectacular sunrise but at least it didn't rain and we didn't get mugged.
After the sunrise shoot we headed back to Lihue for some breakfast at Tip Top Cafe. On the way back we saw this sign at one of the Kapaa beaches. Had to pay my respects...it's been almost six years since he has passed away and there's still a strong presence here :(
After breakfast we went back to take a power nap since nothing is open this early in the morning. Our next stop was Taro Ko Chips in Hanapepe. We called in an order for 20 bags last week so we had to pick up our stash. I loved Hanapepe. It was such a cute little town, it felt like we traveled back in time.
I refused to sit on these chairs so Jalna volunteered instead. I woulda felt so bad if I broke one of them!
Jalna made some new friends. This is Stanley on the left, Dale on the right. They were quite intimidating at first but then Jalna softened them up and they ended up being very nice
Here's a funny story...I have a friend that I workout with at the gym, his name is Ryan. He has a lot of family on Kauai so he visits often. When I told him I was going, the first thing he says is "go to Hanapepe, stop at the Shell gas station, you can't miss it. It will be on your left hand side. Broke da mouth fried chicken, better den Zippy's!" So of course I was excited to go check it out. If you have never been to Hanapepe, it's an extremely small town. You couldn't miss the gas station if you tried. We pull up to the gas station and we're thinking, I don't think there's any chicken here, there's supposed to be a sign outside. And the store part looks really small. Jalna walks in and I swear the only thing you can buy in that place is gas and soda. We're already giggling to ourselves cause we're shame to ask about the chicken cause obviously she doesn't have any. She asks the lady at the counter and she tells us that we've probably mistaken it with the Waimea gas station. They sell chicken there. So I call Ryan and told him what she said. He insisted it was Hanapepe! We're cracking up in the car, arguing that there is no damn chicken in Hanapepe! I told him forget it, we going Waimea to go eat chicken there. No more that 3 minutes later I get a call and he's laughing on the other end...I WEN GET THE PLACES MIXED UP! WAIMEA GET THE CHICKEN, NOT HANAPEPE! We got to Waimea 5 minutes later and lo and behold look what we found:
We got lucky too. There were only 3 small pieces left in the warmer. It was good chicken! Especially the skin..
So the next time someone says go to Hanapepe to get some broke da mouth chicken, don't believe him!! Go to Waimea instead!
After the chicken stop we ran into a shave ice store named JoJo's, so we stopped in for a quick snack. Sorry, gotta go to Jalna's blog for those pics.
We weren't going to visit the canyon until Saturday but it was still early and we had nothing else to do so we took the trek up those windy roads. I must say, the signage going up there is pretty horrible. We took a couple of wrong turns and we also saw a lot of other cars parked on the side of the road, probably getting lost like us...but the view was pretty amazing once we finally got up there.
Jalna regrets not getting a haircut before she came on this trip...you'll see why in a later post :)
I forgot to mention...I swear there are more chickens than people on this island. It's pretty funny. You see them EVERYWHERE!! And it's so strange, I think i've seen a 5:1 ratio of roosters to hens. Yikes!
We found out before we left that Kapaa held their Bon Dance on Friday night. We told ourselves if we weren't too tired and if it wasn't raining that we'd check it out. I'm glad we did. So cute!
When we told people that we might go, the first thing that came out of everyone's mouth is "Flying saucers!" I had no idea what the heck it was but they said it was a sloppy joe type of sandwich pressed between two pieces of bread. I guess it's a Kauai thing. A must buy if you go to a bon dance. I think it was $3. It was pretty good!
They also mentioned a Pronto Pop, a corndog with a homemade batter. I liked it! I think this was $3 too.
Chinese pretzels for $5/bag
I also bought a 2 pack mochi for $1.50 but I forgot to take a picture of it
It seems like the whole town showed up!
You see those clouds in the background? Those aren't happy clouds. It started to rain so we left early.
