Mammoth Doesn't Go to Hawaii Day 6 and 7

 
Saturday 8/13 Day 6

Knowing we had to pack up and leave our north shore condo to go to a condo down south, we were unable to settle down and do much of anything. We did a do-over of The Spot for breakfast and it was better than the time before. I was going to get a different meal from before, but after looking over the menu several times during our half-hour wait in line, I decided on the same. This time the rice wasn't crunchy and the bowl was a little better put together.  All I could have wished was a little more spiciness and a lot more avocado.

Goodbye, North Shore!

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Then we basically did nothing but pack up and leave.The drive took about an hour-and-a-half, circling the eastern edge of the island, and we ended up at a condo that looked like an old-timey motel converted into luxury apartments.  It was pretty decent looking on the outside--not new but very well kept up. It was about four stories tall, rectangular, with a row of rooms facing a park and another row facing the parking lot, pool, and the hotel complex next door. Luckily our room was on the park side and our little balcony had a sideways view of the ocean at one end.

The remodelers had gone all out with the decor and I had nothing to complain about except for the mirrors! Horrible!  Three entire walls were mirrored, and the fourth one would have been if there was any way to make a sliding glass door into a mirror. If I lived there I would remove all of those stupid mirrors and put in some nice, restful wallpaper decorated by pictures. Who wants to look at themselves in a mirror all day and all night long?

Luckily we got used to them quickly. And one had to admit, the rest of the decor was nice. There was really only one room with an interior wall protruding halfway to divide the space into a kitchenette on one side and a sink/closet on the other.  The rest of the space contained a king-sized bed and a tiny dining table, with an extremely tiny television screen on the top of the wall in a corner.  Nice use of space, but hopelessly cramped after our lovely little condo up north.

Nice landscaping

When we were settled in, we took a walk to check out the snorkeling beaches. Just across the street from the hotel beside our condo, there was a tiny, rocky beach with lots of people crammed into the space. We may have actually tried snorkeling that day; I don't remember. But probably not.

And I have no record of what we ate for supper. Odd. Oh, wait--we had pizza!  Very good and very overpriced pizza from a delightful little place a 20-minute drive to the west of our condo. Great ranch dressing for my salad, too.

 

Sunday

An avid search of the guidebook and google maps turned up a paucity of breakfast places on the south side of the island. Most seemed to be attached to golf courses or resorts, and the prices turned me away. We ended up driving all the way back to Lihue (only 20 minutes, this time) to eat at Daddy O's.

It was just your basic boring American breakfast. Nothing to recommend but nothing to complain about.

And then, I think, we went snorkeling at the hotel beach. It was rough getting in the water--waves would knock you off your feet if you weren't well anchored, and sitting down in the sand was impossible--you'd be putting on your fins and suddenly the waves would catch you unaware and next thing you know your bottom would have scooted up ten feet along a sandy shore and your buns were bouncing off rocks. Then the powerful suck would take you back again.

But once I got in, I immediately found some great fish!  All over, really. If a person was a confident swimmer and dared to go out closer to the rocks that protected the little bay, the waves wouldn't be so bad and the snorkeling was excellent. I didn't really dare, though, and a couple of times I found the current taking me places where I didn't want to go.  At first I stuck close to Ed, and that was good, but soon I lost contact with him and got cold feet, so to speak.

And cold hands, and nose, and fingers and toes. I was freezing!  after a little bit of good snorkeling, I came back out and found my hair had gotten caught up in the straps of my mask. That took a good ten minutes to untangle, and then I tried to go in again. but I'd lost my energy and only fought the waves for a little while before I realized I wasn't having fun anymore and gave up.

For supper, after reviewing and rejecting the few affordable options, I settled on a fairly pricey seafood restaurant--Keoki's Paradise.  It was trying very hard to be a trendy, gourmet kind of experience, but it failed.   it made me think the owner watched too many Top Chef episodes on Food Network and tried to make his cooks duplicate the experience.

They did at least have fresh local fish, of varieties that a native Hawaiian would probably recognize. I didn't, of course. And it wasn't overcooked, at least. But the preparation was bland and boring, and the accompanying vegetables kind of blah, too. I mean, I love me my veggies, but these did not go down with delight.

I guess if you "dined" with appetizer, wine and dessert, you might have enjoyed the experience. But the food would still have been so-so.