That song is about Moloka'i but it's the first thing that came to mind for a title about our trip back to Kaua'i a couple of weeks ago during the long Kamehameha Day holiday weekend. We lived there over 11 years, from February 1991 through September 2002 for me and Ryan (and through June 2003 for Darrell). We moved there from Oahu when I was transferred from Waikiki to work at the Princeville Hotel, which was undergoing a major renovation at the time. Darrell went to work at the Hyatt Regency Kauai in Poipu so it was a good thing we lived in Kapa'a, right in the middle. When we first moved there we lived in Wailua Homesteads, just past Opaeka'a Falls. In 1992, right before Hurricane Iniki, we bought our house in Waiaeleale Estates in Kawaihau.
The person we wanted to see most was our neighbor Helen, Ryan's "Nana." She's 86 years old and is in great shape. She teaches a daily water exercise class to seniors at the Kapa'a Pool. She always looked out for us, from when we first moved in, adopting us like family, helping us by watching Ryan if needed and even picking him up from school. We've only seen her a few times in person since we left 10 years ago but we've kept in touch via phone and mail.
She always keeps us updated on "our" house next door, which is on its second owner since we sold it. It was pink when we had it, then we painted it green in order to sell it. The new owner, another "Carol," has added yellow siding. They've made some nice improvements to the exterior, and it was nice to see that "our" pink plumeria tree in the front has thrived, as have the snow bushes in the back yard that I planted with cuttings from Helen's yard. We were sad to hear that our neighbor Arlette across the street had passed away. We still have the magnet she gave us when we left on our refrigerator.
One of the things on our list of things to do when we got back to Kaua'i was get chorizo musubi from Pono Market. We used to go there all the time since it was right next door to Pono Cleaners, where I used to go almost weekly, and right around the corner from Ryan's preschool. Pono Market's owner Bob Kubota is always friendly and nice. This was the first place I ever ate chorizo sausage and the musubi is so good.
Then since we were right there, we went to KIDS School, Ryan's preschool. We expected it to be empty but there were a bunch of cars in the parking lot. Apparently graduation was held the night before and the people were there to clean up and rearrange furniture. It looks just the same, but Ryan said everything looks a lot smaller! Uncle John Apana, who runs the school with Mrs. Phyllis Kunimura, was there and looked up Ryan in the school records. A couple of his preschool classmates also went to Kamehameha with Ryan.
After visiting with Helen, we headed north and drove out to Kilauea School, which Ryan attended from kindergarten through the beginning of fourth grade (he started fourth grade on Kauai in July then started fourth grade again on Oahu in August when we moved in 2002). Again Ryan's comment was that everything looked smaller! And we think they moved the cafeteria. I always loved the look of the old main building where the admin office, kindergarten and first grade classes were, because it reminded me of my old elementary school, Lanakila, on Oahu. That building was torn down long ago, but I had classes in that building and I saw pictures of my dad and aunties in front of that same building as well.
Since we were on that side of the island, we played tourist and drove out to Hanalei, turned around and stopped at the lookout over the taro patches. Maybe it's our first time taking pictures there, even though we lived there so long!
We drove through Princeville, where I used to work. I had wanted to see the new St. Regis, which is what my old hotel is now called, but it was valet parking only so we just drove through the porte cochere. Maybe another time...
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