Candace and Mike
Kauai 2005
Day #
- March 5 (Saturday)- Tucson to Kauai
- March 6 (Sunday) - Working at Nothing all day
- March 7 (Monday) - Golf at Poipu Bay
- March 8 (Tuesday) - Working at Nothing all day
- March 9 (Wednesday) - A visit to the Red Dirt Shirt Factory
- March 10 (Thursday) - Golf at Poipu Bay
- March 11 (Friday)- Working at Nothing all day
- March 12 (Saturday)- Golf-Maybe(weather bad!)
- March 13 (Sunday)- Working at Nothing all day
- March 14 (Monday)- Golf if no rain
- March 15 (Tuesday)- Working at Nothing all day, then late flight home
- March 16 (Wednesday)- Getting back home around noon today.
Day 1 -- Saturday - March 5th
We flew non-stop from Phoenix to Honolulu. This was the first time we've ever been on a plane landing to the west at PHNL. Normally they loop back to the east and land towards downtown. As we were on the right side of the plane, and they made a long straight in approach to the west, we were able to get quite a few great shots of the area. By about 6pm we had made it to Kauai, picked up the car and were on Poipu Beach.
Day 2 -- Sunday - March 6th
The condo where we are staying at Poipu Kapili
This shot was taken early the following morning
just
across the street from where we are staying.
The world famous 'spouting horn' blow hole.
About 2 miles west of
where we are staying
this old lava tube gets the tidal flows in an out
and spews large plumes of water about 30 feet in the air.
Another vent
nearby makes a loud 'whoosing' sound
as the water flows back to the ocean.
Feeding the birds ..
drop a few bread crumbs on the grass by the
patio
and they show up in droves.
Day 3 -- Monday - March 7th
Golf Day at Poipu Bay Resort
From the restaurant patio before we played.
Early in the round...
still smiling in spite of golf.
There's a lucky horse in a pen in this photo.
He's got a
great view for grazing.
Our playing partners, enjoying the sun and warmth of
Kauai.
They are from Cleveland, where they don't wear shorts
in March.
A couple of shots along the Poipu shore
heading in on the back 9.
On 18, another heart-breaking missed put.
Candace's pink ball would not go in the hole either.
The consolation was that massive quantities of Mai Tais were only
steps away.
Coming back in on 18.
A view of the club house.
Day 4 -- Tuesday - March 8th
A day of doing basically nothing
We spent the day having lunch and doing a little shopping for Hawaiian shirts at Hilo Hattie's and the Red Dirt Shirt Company.
The famous 'tree tunnel' that leads to the Poipu area
The rediculously gaudy pool at the Marriott Resort.
The much more peaceful koi pond near the front of the hotel.
Day 5 -- Wednesday - March 9th
Another day of doing basically nothing
I unpacked my Hilo Hattie bag and discovered
that I bought a hula girl dashboard
ornament.
What a Beauty!
I can't wait to put her on the dashboard of
my truck
and see her move as we drive
over the speed bumps on the way to our house.
Red Dirt Shirt Store Stuff
We've been coming to Kauaii for about 20 years. On another infamous 9/11 (this one in 1992), a local sportswear company was just about wiped out by Huricane Iniki. Bob Hedin, the owner of the company, found the wind and water from the Iniki had stained all his inventory with fine, red dust blown in from the local sugarcane and pineapple fields. Once this dirt gets in your clothes, there's no way to clean it. "Who will buy a dirt shirt?" his wife wondered?
His inventory was ruined, but Bob made "lemonade out of lemons". Being resourceful he managed to recover by saying that's the way the shirts were supposed to look. Dumb tourists, like us, bought it and the Red Dirt Shirt Company was born.
The company buys T-shirts from all over the world (China, Mexico....wherever cheap-T's are made). They arrive pure white. Two cups of local red dirt are used to dye 24 shirts. The dirt, which is the red volcanic soil of the Hawaiian Islands, is first blessed by a Hawaiian minister before it's dumped in the vat with the white shirts. The final product is on sale all over Hawaii and via the internet. The company went from a total disaster to a multi-million dollar shirt empire in a few (hard) years! If you Google the internet you will find that lots of other folks have stolen the idea and sell "dirt shirts" made with local dirt all over the US. As far as I know the idea originated here in Kauai after Huricane Iniki in 1992.
This trip, we decided after years of coming here that we were not leaving without some. Here's a few shots of our loot.
A red dirt T-shirt
Embroidery on Mike's new Golf Shirt
Golf Club Hat
Mike is a factory tour nut. Give him a chance to see American Industry in Action
and he will jump at it.
So, today we drove out to Port Allen (about 10 miles west of where we are staying)
and located the original Red Dirt Shirt Factory. What follows are some photos of the factory.
It's not a meat packing plant operated by Freddy Kruger, but it sure looks like it could be.
You might not be able to see it in these
photos, but the washing machines that are used to 'dye' the shirts are Maytags.
I can't imagine the that the poor Maytag repairman that might have to work on them
from time to time actually does anything but shake his
head in disgust. On TV he wears pure white overalls, which wouldn't last 1 second in this
place.
Given the abrasive nature of the red dirt these machines CAN'T last very
long so I suspect that perhaps they just run them till the bearings grind to a halt
and they stop turning and then buy new ones. After all, that's the American way.
Maytag Repairman's Nightmare
Was Freddy Here?
Maytag Repairman's Nightmare #2
Day 6 -- Thursday - March 10th
Played Golf Today
Candace by the Leaderboard from the last Grand Slam at Poipu Bay
Our friends Dave and Sondra Annon from Tucson,
visiting Hawaii for
the first time,
joined us for the round at Poipu Bay.
It was very
windy but we had a great time anyway.
Sondra is going to start working for the grounds crew.
She raked every sand trap on the course during her round.
Windy....
Day 7 -- Friday - March 11th
Mostly we just relaxed and read books a lot.
When we lived in our golf villa in Tucson
(while our new house was being built)
our next door neighbors were Bill and Kathie Malcomb.
Bill is a semi-retired
architect from Newport Beach, CA. If you have ever wondered what a
semi-retired architect does here's what Bill told me:
"Semi-retired means my name is
still on the stationery. I go into the office
once in a while, keep my old chair warm, make sure nobody has
rearranged my pencils, and drool a lot
while the young secretaries walk by. Then I stop by the payroll clerk's desk,
drool over her for a while, then pick
up a big check and leave."
His firm did a number of projects here in Kauai many years ago
when he was young and full of energy. He's pretty much a tired old fart now.
We thought he might enjoy seeing how some of his projects have fared
after all these years and a few huricanes so
we sent him the following note yesterday:
Bill:
We were downtown in Lihue and stopped by the county building
department to get the locations of some of your buildings. They
remembered you quite well (the warrant is still open) and said your
firm had won a number of awards in the area.
We got out the map and managed to find a few of the places you had
worked on and snapped the attached photos. Hope they bring back great
memories of your time on Kauai.
If you'd like we can probably locate some more over the next few days.
Mike and Candace
Double Award Winner:
Excellence in Landscaping Award
and
Innovative Roofing Materials Award
Residential Curb Appeal Award
Ecological Sensitivity Award
Commerical Design of the Year Award
Multi-Family Housing Design of the Year Award
Bill's Award Winning Design for the Kauaii Children's Hospital
The main hospital was so well-received they asked him to design an annex
Day 8 -- Saturday - March 12th
We were supposed to play golf today at Poipu Bay, but it had been pouring rain all night and still doing so as of about 9 am.
We cancelled about an hour before our tee-time and then it turned out to be the nicest day all week. So we went shopping with the money we saved and bought a lot of Hawaiian CD's.
Day 9 -- Sunday - March 13th
Doing nothing today but brunch at the Hyatt.
Great News in the Sports Section
On a short walk after breakfast
One of the many waterfalls at the Hyatt near the pools on the
way down from the lobby to the beach area.
This photo was exposed for about 1/10th of a second
to get the flowing water effect.
The background would be sharper with a tripod, I suppose.
Day 10-- Monday - March 14th
Played golf today at Pukea ... a course that started as a 9-hole course and recently expanded to 18. The original nine holes (now the back nine) is nice, but the new holes (front 9) still needs a lot of landscaping before we'd ever consider playing here again.
Day 11-- Tuesday - March 15th
As we were packing up to go we came to the
extremely disconcerting conclusion that we needed another suitcase to cart home all
the loot we bought..mostly new Hawaiian shirts. So we spent some time searching all
the local stores for a suitcase large enough to hold it. After locating the appropriate
suitcase (we bought a RED one instead of black .. it shows up a lot better on the
luggage carousels!) we decided to make a journey up to the north side of the island
to see what's new in the Princeville area. As our luck would have it this was one of
the sunniest and warmest days of our trip.
Here's a few pictures of that little side trip:
Day 12-- Wednesday - March 16th
Fly all night...get to PHX about 9 am. Then a two long hour drive home to Tucson.
