Hawaii Feb 2018: Wednesday Feb 14

Awoke to beautiful, bright blue sky. Unfortunately, it wouldn't last. the afternoon was overcast and it was raining by 4:00. Not a big deal!

We started our day by driving up to Wailua Falls, just a few miles from our hotel. There are lots of waterfalls on this island, this is the easiest one to see.

We needed to be at the airport by 12:30 for our airplane ride. On the way we came across "the mall", so we strolled around, killing time, had a bite for lunch ("lobsta' roll- nothing like one you'd get in Maine!) then found our way to the airport.

Our one hour plane ride around the island was awesome! The plane, an "Air Van", was built by an Australian company specifically for use in the Outback. Our pilot, Marcus, was an engaging young fellow from Minnesota. He gave us a smooth ride with plenty of interesting commentary. I rode "shotgun". We picked this mode of conveyance over a helicopter, which is the most common, because it was considerably less money and I wasn't sure I wanted to ride in a helicopter! It was great!

After the plane ride we continued south to visit the Kauai Coffee company, the largest coffee plantation in the islands with 3100 acres. Their visitor center was a tasting room and gift shop.

A word about traffic - its awful! There's really only one road on the island and while the local economy is isn't growing particularly, tourism is. The traffic is so bad they've had to change the school schedule! And there's once section where overnight they put our traffic cones to create a two lane highway. The trouble area is from Lihue through Kapa'a .

Another observation, now that we've seen the whole coastline from the air, there is very little evidence of pleasure boating. Only in Lihue's bay did we see small marina - nowhere else. Wondering why that is?

This evening's dinner, to honor Valentine's Day, was great Italian meal at a place called Bobby V's just a short walk from our hotel.

Back to the hotel for more Olympics!