Disclaimer: Back in May of 2006, when I started posting about our vacation to the Hawaiian Islands, we were severely limited regarding photos I could share due to bandwidth limitations. Here in 2022, I’m updating these posts using the original image and text I shared, but I’m adding the rest of the photos I would have liked to share if bandwidth and storage had not been issues 16 years ago.
The only obvious parts of this old post are that sunrise happened on Maui, and we ate dinner at Kualapu’u Cookhouse on Molokai. Okay, there are many other things we can deduce from the photos, but this entry originally only featured the image of Uncle Benny at the bottom of the post and that paragraph that remains intact from what I posted back in 20006; everything else between here and there is being written here at the end of October 2022.
Well, maybe there are other obvious things, such as being at this dock in Lahaina where we launched in the early morning with the mate who was a mighty sailing man, our skipper brave and sure. and us five passengers who set sail for a three-hour tour, a three-hour tour to the island of Molokai
The weather started getting rough but not too bad. The tiny ship was tossed; well, that’s how the song went. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the ferry to Molokai would be lost, the ferry would be lost.
And then, in a flash, the skies cleared, and the Professor and Mary Ann found that not only were they the only survivors, but they were suddenly, madly, hopelessly in love. They lived happily ever after on an uncharted desert isle.
So, just sit right back, and you’ll read a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from a tropic port on Maui about a tiny ship.
Enough of that nonsense. We got to the island of Molokai and had to find our way to the rental car place. Back on the mainland, when I made this reservation, the person seemed perplexed that we wanted to rent a car for two days, as most people don’t. Well, I insisted that we needed a car as we wanted to see as much of Molokai as we could, and now we are driving a car that might be about ten years old and probably had over 120,000 miles on it. No problem, we were moving on our own whims and didn’t need to rely on a taxi. So, with wheels underneath us, we were off.
Well, this is pretty and worthy of a stop.
One of our next stops on the road east was at Mana’e Goods & Grindz for lunch, and on our way out, another customer offered us a couple of these Mountain Apples.
Funny thing, this Hawaiian weather, in the 30 minutes or so that we were eating, clouds moved in, dropped a bit of rain, and were just as quickly gone again.
Just driving along on the Kamehameha V Highway on our way to the end of the road.
Not quite at the end yet.
Wow, a nēnē crossing but not a nēnē to be seen. As a matter of fact, at this point, we didn’t believe we would get to see one of these birds once during our stay on the various islands. The nēnē is a goose specific to Hawaii that is believed to have been blown this far out to sea, never to return to the mainland. Little did we know that just one day later, on Kauai…
Hālawa Park with part of Moa’ula Falls in the distance. We are reaching the end of the road.
If one were self-contained as in wealthy enough to never have to venture out and were able to bring most everything needed to them to their remote island paradise, this might be a perfect place to live. If you need to make a living and you’ve not seen the world yet, this could end up being a kind of prison, albeit a beautiful one.
Halawa Congregational Church, built in 1852, was destroyed by a 36-foot-tall tidal wave in 1946. That wall of water was due to an earthquake that struck deep in the ocean in faraway Alaska.
Heading back to Kaunakakai, we passed the St. Joseph’s Mission Church in Kamalō, that’s been standing here since 1876.
I’d venture to say this stop was at the Kakahai’a Park because shortly after this, we are heading inland, if that’s really even possible. I only say that as it starts to feel like the ocean might be seen from every point on Molokai.
On our way to Maunaloa, we are “inland.”
It’s as though we’ve arrived on yet another island.
Met the owner of the Plantation Gallery and added more stuff to our stash of things going back to Arizona with us next week.
As I said, this does not look like the Molokai we were on just a couple of hours ago.
We’ve arrived at the far west end of the island at the Pāpōhaku Beach Park.
My 39-year-old big kid/pal/wife collecting seashells by the seashore.
Possibly the one and only time we’ll experience sunset at Pāpōhaku Beach, it surely is one to remember.
We ended up at the Kualapu’u Cookhouse owned by Steve and Tina. Without enough cash for a meal (no credit cards accepted), Steve extended us credit until morning, and we sat down for a meal of opakapaka (pink snapper) in a lilikoi (passion fruit) butter sauce and the grilled mahi-mahi in a guava-lilikoi sauce – our dinner was outstanding. For dessert, Steve brought us a slice of homemade Macadamia Nut Chocolate Pie to share; it was yummy.
Just as we were finishing and the restaurant was closing, Uncle Benny (Benito Deluna) came over and delighted us with a shark tale, explained how life is all about love and brotherhood, and then plucked a couple of heartfelt love songs that finished a perfect day in Hawaii. The next morning, we returned to the Cookhouse to square our bill and sat down to an excellent breakfast; sadly, Uncle Benny only plays evenings.
