Once again we had a plan, but once again mother nature decided she didn’t like our original plan. The plan was get up early and hike the first two miles of the Kalalau Trail. She decided to drop some rain on us and we know when we see the mountain flow of water from our house, we know the trail will be too slippery to hike. Little piece of local knowledge we gleaned.
So what to do? hmmm sit back and enjoy a leisurely breakfast of papaya boats and coffee. 
The new plan was to go to Koloa area for the afternoon farmer’s market. Before that though we would go over to McBryde Gardens part of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. On our first trip to Kauai, we decided to become members and support their mission.
Before we left the house, our neighbor let us know the other neighbor had fresh caught ahi for sale. It helps to be repeat visitors, the locals come to trust you and share that type of information. Off I went to get 2 lbs of fresh local cut ahi. Talk about local, it was in a cooler on the back of the guys truck under his house.
Finally we were on our way to the Gardens. A lot has changed in six years, the trams are buses now to get to the garden, more walkways were added, new sections were put in, and the bus guides are more knowledgeable. I feel like the gardens are growing up.
After our jaunt around the gardens it was time to head back on the bus. We then drove over to the Koloa farmer’s market. Once again we picked up more fresh fruit. We figure while here, eat as local as possible because in CT, fresh veggies are NOT year round.
Our next local thing to do was go to Costco!
As we drove home we decided to explore a bit and went on a new to us road, Kealia Road. What views of Kong we had.
We stopped at the aging Spalding Monument. This monument bordered the Kauai Ranch.
The drive down the road was just as stunning.
We arrived home in time to make dinner. We were so busy today, we forgot about lunch. So while I prepped dinner, Mike made guacamole from a butter avocado we picked up at the farmer’s market. OMG, I only want to eat butter avocados from now on. While I cooked we snacked on salsa, guac and chips. Dinner was a jambalaya with local shrimp, veggies and sausage.
After clean up it was sunset viewing time. We learned on our first trip to leave our slippahs at the beginning of the beach, like locals do.
Post sunset we returned “home”. I put dessert together wrapping the banana in the lumpia, then baking for 25 minutes. The bananas are a perfect size to wrap up and the taste was out of this world. Though a drizzle of chocolate would make this out of the ballpark amazing!
With a little bit of local knowledge, we avoided a trail that could be slippery, purchased fresh ahi, visited local food places (farmer’s market and Costco), went on a road less traveled by tourists and placed our slippahs in the correct spot. Local knowledge is a blessing.
CTHikergal Travels 
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