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.

Happy New Year

Best of 2021

Travel - Kiawah Island, South Carolina - Great beaches, golf, food and it is quite reasonable.

Food- Vacchiano Farm meats

Wine - Wines from Domaine Drouhin Oregon, Tablas Creek, Denner and many wines from Tuscany. A bit of prejudice as I get wines directly from these wineries.

Bakery- Breadstand, Maplewood, NJ

Breweries -Untied, New Providence, NJ and Maui Brewing Company, Maui

Pizza in an exotic location -Hana Farms pizza, Maui

Best new dish - Taro Hummus at Hana farmer's market

 Trends for 2022

According to CellarTracker, California wines were by far the most consumed wines by people on Cellartracker. I have noticed that I have gravitated to California and Oregon wines over the past few years. Lately I have made an effort to buy more Bordeaux, Burgundy and and Italian wines. The pricing on the European wines looks good compared to the better California wines.

In 2022 I will be more conscious of the alcohol content of wines and trying to keep the abv 14% and under. That being said I don't want to be too dogmatic on the issue as there are plenty of enjoyable wine over 14%. Checkout Denner wines.

Another thing that bugs me these days is the elitist attitude of most wine critics. When I discuss expensive wines I can be considered in that group but does anyone get impressed about vertical tastings of $1000 bottles or all of these fancy wine dinners for thousands of dollars. Vinous is getting very annoying in that regard. Their latest series of 3 dinners and tastings for La Festa Del Piemonte 2022 is $3250 per person. End of story.

Wineries have no shame either. Cliff Lede has a wine Poetry 2018 that has gotten excellent reviews. If you want it you must buy 6 bottles for $1860. Eric Asimov in the NYT has the right attitude . Search for wines that are made by smaller companies that are not taking shortcuts in trying to make a good wine. Not all small wineries make good wine but follow your nose just like you would try to find a good restaurant. A neighborhood pizzeria or Olive Garden.

Coravin, New wine club, Go Rutgers

Wine accessory

Received a Coravin Three+. Love it so far. It is simple to use and worked well. I tried 2 bottles and poured small amounts from each. Now I need to see how the wines taste in a week. The device opens up new horizons for our wine drinking. I hesitate to open some big, high  ABV wines. With this I can pour a glass or 2 and see how things go. If my wife wants some wine when I am not around, she can open a bottle and not feel obligated to finish it the next day or 2. Not yet sure of the durability. Will report as I use it more and more.

New wine club

A friend introduced me to a wine club that I had never heard of before. It has been around since 2011. Winestyr is the name.https://www.winestyr.com/wine They are trying to bring small wineries in the US directly to consumers. You can buy wines from their collection or you can enroll in a club which sends you 2 or 3  bottles periodically. You can choose white , red or mixed. Shipping appears to be included in the club shipments (not sure) but is added to the wines you purchase from their collection. Buy 6 bottles and get free shipping.

As you know shipping is a big issue for me in buying wine as it can negate any price advantage one gets from ordering wine from a club or winery. For example, getting a 15% discount on a $50 wine from a winery is offset when it costs $8 per bottle to ship.

What caught my attention about Winestyr was the wines that I received from them. They were both very good wines(good reviews) and were from wineries that I had never heard of before. One bottle was Sauvignon Blanc from Lail Vineyards.  The winery has a top winemaker and produces very expensive Napa wines that the critics seem to adore. I really enjoyed the Sauvignon Blanc although it was by far the most expensive Sauvignon Blanc I had ever tasted.

As an aside, I am finding that Napa Valley wineries can produce some of the best Sauvignon Blanc wines that I have tasted. Check out the one produced by Cliff Lede.

I reviewed the wines that they offer and I found some top of the line wines from wineries that are hard to find. They are offering a wine from Helen Keplinger(another winemaker celebrity of the critics) that I thought was only available from her mailing list. I have not had a chance to investigate other wines from wineries that I know nothing about, but I would think that there are some gems in their collection.

Wines of the year and other goodies will be upcoming. Looking forward to our New Year's Eve tradition of Peking duck, dumplings, veggies, Champagne and Italian pastries. 

Good luck to Rutgers in the Gator Bowl as they will need it. 14.5 point spread seems low but hey, the basketball team beat  Purdue,  which was #1 at the time.

Enjoy!

Holiday Season

 What to buy for the holidays?

Wine - My favorite US wineries have holiday specials. Tablas Creek https://tablascreek.com/story/holiday_gift_ideas and Domaine Drouhin Oregon https://domainedrouhin.com/holiday-shopping/ The Drouhin Roserock wines have been especially good.

Many wineries and merchants have holiday specials with some good deals on shipping. Check out your favorite. There are some good wine clubs (see Letter Teague's article on good wine clubs. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-find-the-best-wine-club-11639076030)

A good corkscrew is always useful. Get a waiter's corkscrew with 2 stages for removing the cork.

Other gift ideas:

Theater tickets- Off Broadway or your local theater have so much to offer.

Plan a trip -Half the fun of traveling is the planning and anticipation. Read some travel books to get some background to places you would like to visit.

Donate to a local foodbank; they are doing some wonderful things.

Books, everyone likes to read; they just need a book that interests them. Check out the Foundation sci-fi books by Isaac Asimov then watch the tv show on Apple tv. Try a new cookbook or an old one. See if you can find a dessert book by Maida Heatter or a Silver Palate cookbook, oldies but great recipes.

Enjoy. The best of the year will be upcoming.

Return to Maui; Shakespeare in the Park

 Maui

We decided to go back to Maui. United now has a non stop flight from Newark to Kahului. Great scheduled times both ways. The airport in Maui has improved its rental car area and they have built a huge enclosed garage for the rental companies. The garage is connected to the airport by a short tram or you can walk. We had no problem with a rental car. We used National and car was great and it was the same price as always. 

We needed to be tested before we left NJ but they have now waived the testing if you are vaccinated. United handled everything very well and they checked our test results in Newark and gave us a wrist band which allowed us to enter Maui without an issue.

We divided our stay between Wailea(5 nights) and Hana(3 nights). In Wailea we stayed at the Ekahi village condos through Destination by Hyatt. We had a beautiful 2 bedroom ocean view condo with full kitchen and a 3 minute walk to Keawakapu Beach, one of our favorite beaches. I love the Ekahi condos. They are not fancy but the location is great and the units are spread out over beautiful grounds. The prices are not bad either especially when compared to the hotels.

In Hana we stayed in the owner's suite condo in the Hana Maui Hotel but we booked through AirBnB.

Everything looked  beautiful a s always but then things got real. Restaurants are at reduced capacity and so there were crazy long waits at our favorite places Monkeypod, Wailea and Paia Fish Market, Kihei. Monkeypod took our name for there waiting list and told us it would be an hour and 45 minutes. They did not take reservations. Paia Fish Market had a wait of 45 minutes to over an hour for eat-in or take out.

The wait at Ululani's Shaved Ice in Kihei was over an hour, ouch. Luckily they have other locations like in Kahului where there was no wait.

We did eat twice at the Maui Brewing Company in Kihei.https://www.mbcrestaurants.com/kihei/ They have a huge restaurant with very spread-out tables outside. They had live entertainment and and a very efficient method of ordering. They had a 20 minute wait one night but the wait list is very efficient as well. 

We went to the upcountry farmers' market on Saturday. It is pretty good with about 30 vendors. Parking can be tough but there are spots available a few blocks away. Saturday mornings from 7am to 11am.http://www.upcountryfarmersmarket.com/

Wailea now has a farmers market https://mauifamilymagazine.com/event/wailea-village-farmers-market/2021-07-06/ every Tuesday and it is very good. It is small but has some great vendors. We got local fish and some top notch fruit and veggies.

Luckily we had a kitchen so we were not dependent on restaurants. The supermarkets are doing fine and Costco was good as always. Their wine selection is great and don't forget to use their gas station as it is around $.50 less than other gas stations.

We went up Haleakala and had a great time. Perfect weather and it was not very crowded. It is about a 2 hour drive from Wailea depending on stops. It is part of the Haleakala National Park. https://www.nps.gov/hale/index.htm If you want to go up for sunrise, you need to make a reservation.

Makawao is still the same. It is upcountry and is about 40 minutes from Wailea. Komoda's bakery is same as always except for the line outside. We got our Monkeybread and malasadas. closed Wednesday and Sunday.

Hana is the same as always but a bit depressing. Locals are not to pleased with tourists. There were some nasty signs. The Hana Maui Hotel https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/hawaii/hana-maui-resort/oggal?src=adm_sem_agn_360i_crp_ppc__google__e_hana%20maui%20hotel_TwoRoadProp&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvO2IBhCzARIsALw3ASqgAHVu7RnHw1PguBYlQNraXzKr_a1WOBkUSeUgR322RAL2xJ307wgaAqazEALw_wcB has been taken over by Hyatt. We saw nothing positive about the change except they added a bar to one of the pools. The usually delightful staff was rude and un-helpful. The restaurant was closed. There are basically no activities and worst of all they have made no attempt to rebuild their house on Hamoa Beach. They give you 2 ratty chairs at the front desk and they a have shuttle to the beach every 2 hours. Wow! They could have a person at the beach with chairs, towels and umbrellas. Check out the hotel prices and you can see why you might expect more. 

Good news from Hana, Hana Farms https://www.hanafarms.com/ has opened up a new restaurant with pizza in the jungle. The restaurant is nicely laid out and they have singers on some nights. The pizza is great; we took out. But it can get busy and check days and times when it is open. Dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. Best place in Hana by far. Good banana bread at their stand.

Hana has a farmers market once a week. They had a stand that sold taro hummus. It was a great. The guy grows the best taro on the island. He also is Israeli so he knows his hummus.

 Past Hana is the other part of the Haleakala National Park where the 7  pools are located. This park also has the Pipiwai Trail which is a great hike. It is about 4 miles round trip and you walk through a bamboo forest and end up at a 400 ft waterfall. The trail has been discovered but it is not that crowded and the hike is lots of fun. Bring water and wear hiking shoes.

Shakespeare in Central Park

The NY Public Theater has produced the Merry Wives in the Delacorte Theater in Central Park,https://publictheater.org/ NYC. It is a updated version of the Merry Wives of Windsor. Plays at the Delacorte are always a delight and we had great weather the night we attended. The play is entertaining and tickets are free through a lottery system on Goldstar.https://www.goldstar.com/events/new-york-ny/free-shakespeare-in-the-park-lottery-merry-wives-tickets A great experience and bargain in NYC.

We ate dinner before the play at Sarabeth's Kitchen on Amsterdam Ave. We had a hamburger and chicken sandwich but everything was very good and service was great. We ate outside in one of the new street kiosks and it was very comfy. Their Happy Hour extends to 7pm and food is part of the deal.

End of the Pipawai Trail.

Haleakala

Ekahi Condos

Ululanis shaved ice.

Hotel Hana Maui lanai

Pipiwai Trail

Hidden Red Sand Beach in Hana

Pipawai Trail bamboo forest

Hana

Hana Farms restaurant for pizza night

Keawakapu Beach

Enjoy.