While this trip was technically free - free airline miles and hotel room via points - it’s still going to cost a small fortune for me, between the rental car, airport parking, baggage, resort fees, and most importantly, food, which is costing us upwards of $250 a day. All at the time of year when I can least afford this. This probably wasn’t the greatest idea, this trip…but back in the fall when I booked it I didn’t know how broke I’d be; I also didn’t know how expensive Kauai had become. And we’ve never been here as a family of four. This isn’t the kind of trip you do on a whim with no planning and no money put aside, and I’ve done both, and the results have been mixed. I give the trip about a 4 out of 10 at the moment.
Things started off horribly with our first two full days here being ruined by giant storms all day - we did get a small break for about an hour in which we were able to get to Hanalei pier and jump off of it a few times before the torrential rains started again, but other than that, Friday and Saturday consisted of driving around in the rain, bored, arguing about what to do and where to eat, endlessly yelping restaurants only to discover they’re closed or the prices have doubled since the menu pictures were posted to Yelp. The H harps endlessly about what a ripoff everything is, which always results in vetoing whatever place I’ve found and spending another two hours googling and yelping and driving around aimlessly looking for something cheaper, only to discover the sketchy cheap places only have meat and absolutely nothing for me to eat, which makes me feel guilty when we have to all pile back in the car to head back to the expensive place that has one thing on the menu I can eat even if I don’t really want it and it’s usually pretty terrible. This scenario has presented itself for nearly every lunch and dinner we’ve had for the last four days. To say I could scream is an understatement.
We’ve tried to mitigate some of the money hemorrhaging with supermarket trips - the $5 sushi has been a bright spot, but other than that the daily bagels and muffins for breakfast and makeshift lunches of Doritos and cheez whiz on crackers have been a huge drag. I feel like I’ve gained back every pound I’ve lost since Christmas, and I could just be right.
If I were here by myself I’d be eating a pristine diet of fresh foods from farmer’s markets and Thai curries and tacos. But I’m with men who want meat and giant portions for no money and those things just don’t mesh. To his credit the H never intentionally makes me feel bad about being the lone vegetarian that consistently ruins all the plans - but his general agitation has gotten under my skin, and all I want to do is just to go home.
I’m glad I didn’t book a bunch of expensive tours that all would have gotten canceled by the shitty weather, but each day has been a disorganized mess of spending all morning frantically googling to find things to do when the H decides what I want to do isn’t “epic” enough, then discovering the “epic” things he wants to do are not safe this time of year and definitely not kid-friendly. Then we end up doing what I wanted to do anyway but hours later. It’s exhausting.
I’m so glad we only have one more day, and on this one day only we have kayaks rented to go do the Wailua river plus Secret Falls, a tour I did on my first trip here which I think we can manage on our own. So unless weather cancels us, we’ll be occupied the entire day with that, then can come home and pack and get ready to leave Wednesday morning. Finally a day of not pissing around looking for fucking restaurants. I can’t wait.
Despite my bitching, we have done some cool things here. We did the drive up to Waimea canyon - it was pretty much clouded in, but after this picture was taken it cleared a little and we got to see some of it.
We’ve had three good beach days with lots of swimming, snorkeling and boogie boarding. I can say I got my fill of beaches, and I’m grateful for that. I was worried I’d never get in the water at all as the trip began. The hotel has been nice, and we’ve enjoyed the pool and hot tub. Tomorrow will hopefully be a good high note to end the trip on.
But I’ve decided it’s time to change up our school break plans. I think other than traveling cheaply to neighboring states like we’ll do this summer, I should focus more on quality than quantity - if finances allow, save up for an every-other-year international trip, and go to the cabin for the shorter school breaks. That’s what the place is for, after all. I don’t know if returning to Hawaii multiple times is really worth it anymore. The kids are old enough that they can go international and it’ll have more of an impact on their lives. So I think we can officially label this particular trip “better in concept”.
One bummer thing that happened was our desert neighbor and contractor has had a falling out with the father-in-law (our actual neighbor, where the contractor stays from Dec-April), and isn’t allowed to stay with him anymore, so they are leaving the area. He was very apologetic about not getting more done for us - he actually wanted to put in our windows today and tomorrow, but couldn’t find the spare keys that the father-in-law has, so we missed that opportunity. If we’d been home I would have driven out there with keys and we’d have windows in by Thursday. Ugh. But I’m feeling very sad that we’re losing these important neighbors, and under bad circumstances as well (sounds like there was a big shit show that got them kicked out). They were cool people and I was looking forward to getting to know them. I feel sort of lost and adrift without people we know nearby, even though there are others we’ve met at the Palms we can always call on for help or advice. So that was a big blow, emotionally. I’m glad I’m meeting a new contractor over the weekend - I kind of feel like he *has* to be the guy now, that I’m out of options. I’m still debating on if I should just drive out on Sunday or try to brave the place all by myself on Saturday night, or try to drag the kids with me. Personally I think I should try to be by myself out there, just to see what it’s like. After this week and after three more days of spring break when we get home with two antsy kids and nothing to do on our return, I think a solo desert trip might be just what the doctor ordered.
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