Kiawah Island, Shark attack; Beginning of summer

 Kiawah Update 2022

Check out my posting from last May for details on the island.

In late May we drove down to Kiawah Island, for a 2 week stay in house near the beach. We had visited Kiawah last May and had a wonderful time so we thought we would do it again. The house we had rented was not available so  we rented a different house in the same  area -Sparrow Pond. The house had 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths and was a 5 minute walk to the beach.

We used Kiawah Exclusives https://www.kiawahexclusives.com/to rent the house. They  were previously called Pam Harrington Exclusives. The rental side of the business was recently broken off from the real estate sales part of the company. 

Arrival arrangements went smoothly. A couple of months before our arrival the house we were to rent was sold and was no longer being rented. They gave a choice of 6 other cottages in the same area and gave us another house for the same price. From the time we had rented the house, last August, to the time they contacted us in October, the price of rentals had sky rocketed. Holding the price was a very nice gesture although it would have been upsetting to have a big price increase.

The new house was not as nice as last year's house but it was acceptable. The grill was decrepit and I called the agency. The grill was replaced with a new grill that afternoon. All in all service was great although maybe some of these issues could have been prevented in the first place.

The Beach/ Shark Attack

The beach is beautiful. There are no lifeguards on the Kiawah community beach. There is a public beach at the beginning of the island before you reach the security check in for Kiawah.

The water was warm and swimming good. We had a small problem however. My son's girlfriend was bitten by a shark on her leg in the second week. This is where lifeguards might be helpful. EMS came and so did the fire department but everyone acted if they had never heard of or ever seen a shark bite. The closest major emergency room was in Charleston 40 minutes away. Everything worked out fine but we will probably not return to Kiawah. Not the best memory.

Food

The Village Market by Harris Teeter, the closest supermarket is a great store. It is located in Freshfields village https://freshfieldsvillage.com/ neat the entrance to Kiawah.  You can obtain whatever you need at reasonable prices. There are a few farm stands on the approach to Kiawah and you can get fresh fish and pies at them. I cooked almost every evening and the food I had to cook was wonderful.

Our house.

The beach.

Charleston. We went to Charleston for a day. There is a tourist pass that you can buy that gives you access to many of the tourist attractions in Charleston. https://tourpass.com/charleston/?gclid=CjwKCAjw9NeXBhAMEiwAbaY4lsyKBmMUfN0i1ioIweEdUkWRKbr0U4Xs6HO9mEdZ13cBJ4Cdz3rf5hoC1f0QAvD_BwE   Tour pass is the company and their app worked very well. You can make reservations at the larger attractions very easily. The great thing about the pass is that you can go to wherever you want and not stress the cost. The pass is not cheap but you save money if you go to several attractions.. You can also buy it for 1.2.3 or more days. Note: we have found these passes can be great in many cities around the world. in Paris, for example, the pass helps you avoid long lines at major attractions

We went on a harbor cruise and took a horse carriage ride Palmetto Carriage Tours around Charleston. Both were fun but the carriage tour was special. Our guide was brilliant -informative, funny and she could really sing.

The boat tour went close to Ft Sumter.

I played golf at a Kiawah course. They now have 5 golf courses. I played Oak Point which is located off the island near the entrance to the island. The course is in beautiful condition. The courses are not cheap $250 but I played 9 holes for half price. There were no specials or "twilight " rates that I could find.

I picked Oak Point because I could play by myself late in the afternoon. The staff was great and I had a really good time.

An alligator. At least I did not see any sharks.

Freshfields village  has a drug store with a soda fountain which has very limited hours. The ice cream was really good and hit the spot on a hot afternoon.

A good barbecue place closer to Charleston near Costco and Whole Foods. Costco and beach vacations go wonderfully together. Cheap gas, wine and good fish and meats.

Had to stop at South of the Border. It has become a dump. Unless you need gas, no need to stop.

We stopped over night in Raleigh. We found a restaurant close to our hotel that was one of the best places we have eaten in a long time Neuse River Brewing.https://www.neuseriverbrewing.com/ Great ambiance, inside or out, good beer and the food was unexpectedly great. Prices are very reasonable. We had duck, a pork chop, great sides and for dessert - carrot cake and banana bread pudding. It is located in an out of the way garage in an industrial area but we found it quite easily. They also have good reasonably priced wines.

Pork chop

Duck.

Theater updates. 

We saw the Bedwetter a musical by Sarah Silverman and walked out. It was at the Atlantic Theater in NYC. Boring and grating.

We also saw Richard 111 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park starring Danai Gurira . We walked out again. Boring.

Wine

Have drinking some very good stuff this summer. The Denner 2021 rose https://www.dennervineyards.com/product/2021-Rose is very good. Grape blend is 50% Mourvèdre, 26% Cinsaut. 15% Grenache, 9% Carignan. A substantial rose with a Rhone style grape blend.

Anthony Road https://anthonyroadwine.com/in the Finger Lakes area of upstate NY. They make a dry 2020 Riesling and a rose of 2021 Cabernet Franc that are very good. I found them  for $15 and $12 in a NJ wineshop. They have a stand at the Union Square Market in NYC on Saturdays.

More wine info to come.

Finished 5000 pages of Game of Thrones. No ending! Everything up in the air. Loved the stories but frustrating. HBO gets lots of credit to put things together. After reading the books, the show was very impressive.

Enjoy.

Kauai

 Kauai

We got a bit tired of Maui (groans) so we went to Kauai in March. Flew nonstop to Honolulu and then short flight to Lihue in Kauai. We picked up a rental car and were off to Poipu, on the southern coast of the island. We had learned from previous trips that if you want some sunshine, go to Poipu. In addition Poipu has a few very nice swimming beaches. Kauai doesn't have the beaches of Maui but then what place does (okay Anguilla).

We stayed at Koloa Landing Resort at Poipu, Autograph Collection Hotel/condo, https://koloalandingresort.com/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2&y_source=1_Mzg5MDA5Mi03MTUtbG9jYXRpb24ud2Vic2l0ZQ%3D%3Dpart of Marriott. The resort has around eight 4 story buildings with studio and 1,2 and 3 bedroom units. We booked through Marriott and stayed in a studio unit. It had a small kitchen with 2 burners stove, microwave and refrigerator. Not a place for cooking but useful for takeout. We had a spacious lanai / terrace with great views of the ocean and sunsets. The hotel is across a road from the ocean but a beach is a 10 minute walk down the road. The resort has 3  pools. One is a large pool complex with slides and waterfalls. A second is a nice good sized pool to relax by. The third is an adult only tranquility pool. There are gas grills around the grounds.

The hotel only has one restaurant -Holoholo Grill. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is outside by the main pool. Some tables are under cover and there is a small bar. The restaurant was great. The breakfast had taro bread French toast and the usual stuff. Prices in the restaurant were very reasonable. There is a happy hour in the afternoon 3-5. Takeout was a breeze and we ate several nights on the lanai with great sunsets and good wine from Costco. Salads were very good as was the poke, and fish of the day. The restaurant made life easy. Restaurants at Poipu are very crowded and can be very expensive.

We explored Kauai from Poipu. There is basically one main road that goes around most of the island. Beware of supposed shortcuts as they create additional traffic issues when they rejoin the main road.

 Traffic is a big problem on the island. The main road going south from Lihue can be backed up for a mile as 2 lanes merge into 1. But the worst spot is around Kapa'a which is on the way to Hanalei. On our way to Hanalei the traffic jam in the opposite direction continued for at least 10 miles. Going home the traffic around Kapa'a was terrible. They actually have a Kapa'a bypass but it just creates another traffic jam when it returns to the main road. The traffic can make the trip from Poipu to Hanalei unbearable. Expect it to be a full day trip.

There are farmer's markets all over the island. There is a good sized one in Lihue on Saturday.

We also went to Waimea Canyon. On our previous trip we could not see it due to fog. This time we had clear weather. We  drove to the end of the park road where there is a lookout to the Na Pali Coast. Roads do not go entirely around Kauai. See map below. The end of the road to the Waimea Canyon is as close to Hanalei as one can get from the other side of the island. The only way to see the Na Pali Coast is to hike or take a boat ride.

Lookout to the Na Pali Coast and the ocean.

We took Holo Holo Charters https://www.holoholokauaiboattours.com/ on a snorkel boat ride  to the Na Pali Coast. The trip was fun but the way up the coast line was quite rough. Winter trips encounter rough going but you get to see whales. Basically a good portion of the passenger were seasick. My wife and I did not get sick which made for a much better experience.

Another day we visited a blowhole near Popiu.

Another day we explored some beaches near the Grand Hyatt in Poipu.

People dive off this cliff.

You can see a diver swimming to shore.

On our last day we drove north to Hanalei and stopped at the Kilauea Point lighthouse

We stopped at Anahola Beach park. A very long and pretty beach that had some nice places to swim.

We stopped in Hanalei.

My wife found an organic shaved ice shop. Organic was important for the shaved ice flavors as most shave ice shops use artificial flavors which I don't like. This shaved ice was awesome.

Taro fields.

Farmer's market; Papayas were cheap and plentiful at the farmer's markets. They were also very good.

Sheraton Beach in Poipu.

Restaurants on the island were very crowded. The one expensive restaurant we went to was the Beach House. It was crazy expensive and the food was nothing special. The fish we were served was the not fish on the menu. The food came out faster than at McDonalds. Pretty restaurant that is right on the beach. It is run by a Peter Merriman company. Not one of their better efforts.

We went for happy hour to Merriman's Poipu Kauai restaurant and that was very good and happy hour is reasonable. Great service and  good ambiance.

But the best food  we had was from Kiawe Roots https://www.eatatkiawe.com/menu It is on the main road 50 at Lawai . We did take out and everything was packed beautifully and delicious. Reasonable too.

Enjoy.