Our flight to Honolulu leaves at 12:35. We leave the condo around 9:00 am and go to the craft fair right by Poipu beach. We browse there for an hour, then head to Lihue to return the rental car. We have a 2 hour layover in Honolulu. We eat lunch at the airport, then wait for our flight to Molokai. Husband said the plane would be small, but I didn’t think it would be THAT SMALL. It holds 10 passengers. The pilot takes our boarding passes. We sit in the front, and my husband can see everything the pilot does before take-off. It’s odd, but cool.

 

It takes ½ hour to get to Molokai. We pick up our rental car, and uncover a problem. I’m usually the one who drives, because my husband is a better navigator than me. Actually, I’m a horrible navigator. My husband has to pay for this rental, so he has to drive, and it’s extra $$$ to add another driver. So we’re already stressed out—-my husband because he has to drive, and I because I have to navigate.

On the drive to town, it becomes quite apparent that navigation will be an extremely easy task. The island is much quieter than I imagined. In town, we feel like the only tourists there. I fall immediately in love with the small-town feel of Molokai.

It’s Saturday, and I know the stores are closed on Sundays, so we need to get two dinners worth of groceries. Husband wants to get in and get out, which is stressful for me since I’m the one who needs to familiarize myself with a new grocery store with crazy prices, and figure out what to cook. We buy basics, eggs, milk, bread, bratwursts, and beer. Then we head to the condo.

We’re staying at a condo in the Wavecrest condos, right after the 13 mile mark on the east side of the island. Our condo is very nice. It looks like everything inside is brand new. The floors are giant ceramic tiles that feel nice under bare feet, and there’s soft fluffy shag rugs too. The kitchen is brand new and there’s a great view of the ocean. The only drawback is that you can’t hear the ocean from the bedroom—we got used to that on Kauai. Outside of the bedroom window is a walkway, so occasionally we can hear people walk by, which might be annoying to some people.

 

The best thing about Wavecrest is the pool. It’s made of individual sapphire blue tiles, and it’s big enough to do laps. I would stay here again in a heartbeat, just for the beautifully situated pool. There’s two b-b-q’s and an open air clubhouse. It’s nice, we’re extremely happy with it. Some locals seem to be having a bit of a party on their lanai, but we’re hopeful this is because it’s Saturday night. We grill our brats for dinner, and have Kona Brewing Co.’s Big Wave Golden Ale. It’s beerlicious!

 

 

We read the material that the owner has gathered about things to do on the island, and discover that most of the potential excursions all require guided tours because they’re on private land. We also discover that taking a day trip to Maui on the superferry will cost almost $200 just for transportation

Day 8 Molokai

We decide to spend the day driving around Molokai. We drive to 20 mile beach, which is supposed to be good for snorkeling. When we get there, we notice several people snorkeling. We sit on the beach for awhile. It’s only 11:00, but we’re already hungry, and I’m carsick. I decide to drive from now on, despite the fact that the rental is in husband’s name.

We decide to go by the Goodz and Grindz, which we saw along the way. It’s close to the 16 mile marker. We decide to finally try a “plate lunch.” I get the roast pork with gravy, and husband gets the teriyaki chicken. My pork is pure comfort food—melt in your mouth pork, rich, made-from-scratch gravy, rice and macaroni salad. With a soda, our lunch costs $16.50. The convenience store next to Grindz rents DVD’s, but we of course can’t agree on something.

We then head to Papohaku Beach, which is the longest beach in Hawaii. We stop at various beaches along the way. When we get to Papohaku, it’s extremely windy. It gets so bad that we feel like we’re being sandblasted, so we leave. On the way back to the car, husband spots a siamese cat in the grove of trees that line the path to the beach. I spend the next ½ hour trying to get it to come to me. Husband takes about 100 pictures of me trying to get the cat to come to me. It must be feral, it won’t allow us to get closer than 10 feet or so.

 

We drive back to our condo. I feel tired, and my skin feels gross and salty. I take a shower, then go for a swim in the pool, then take another shower. We have dinner, watch Little People, Big World and go to bed.

Go on the next part of the journey!