Go
Where No One Goes…
After a long drought here in Oregon,
the rains finally came in the late fall, and then they over-stayed
their welcome by December 2015—breaking wet records all over the
western valley portion of our state. After an emotion-packed year,
we decided to check out what we might be able to swing as a brief
escape from it all—the sogginess inside ourselves and outside our
door—and discovered the island of Molokai, Hawaii. We were
attracted to it because of its seeming aversion to tourist traffic
and its lack of everything that tourists look for (and we do not).
Coupled with that, and most likely because of that, prices were way
more affordable than those popular islands we hear so much about
(Maui, Oahu, etc.).
Day One
Although largely uneventful (no major
catastrophe tripping us up), getting there was the usual “fun time”
that flying/travelling generally is—waiting at airports, toughing
out lines, making do with tight quarters on the plane—from Portland
to Honolulu. Once there, we hiked our way over to the small airplane
part of the terminal where a hopper later took us to Molokai. We
went through yet another security station and then waited some more
at the only eatery there before being summoned, in a sort of
kindergartners-line-up-with-buddies-and-numbers way, to the little
plane that would take us to our little haven. That flight was
pleasant and brief, and we were able to see the whole island from the
air, which is a nice way to get your bearings.
We landed at the small airport, got our
little rental car (a Fiat, soon to become Chris’ least favorite car
in the universe—“It makes our Prius seem like a race car!”),
and headed for our cottage on the ocean, stopping first in the town
of Kaunakakai to pick up groceries.
We were not to be disappointed in the
least. The cottage was everything it was advertised to be and we
were immediately impressed/comfortable/excited to be there.
Day 2-Day 4 Highlights (because
they all happily and easily blend together)
We spent a bit of time scouting the
island by car—drove to the ends of all 3 main roads—and saw some
beautiful spots. Since we were staying on the east end of the island
where it’s mostly laid-back residents, we got a kick out of seeing
the west end which was a totally different feel with its big fancy
resort “ghost town”. The reason the resort was basically boarded
up and abandoned was because the island told a developer “No!” to
his desires to expand in order to “make Molokai some serious
money”…they were not interested, so he up and left everything.
Part of the place now gets used by a handful of tourists.
As we drove about, we decided to
“treat” ourselves to whatever ice cream sandwich-type offerings
the various stores along our way had. My favorite was a mocha ice
cream ball wrapped in a soft sweet doughy rice outer layer—yum!
Chris thought these were good too, but his favorite was a special
kind of strawberry cheesecake ice cream bar. Okay, it's worth
mentioning at this point that we KNEW we were going to have to diet
when we got home (and we did, we are).
We saw the “highest cliffs” that
overlook Father Damien’s leprosy colony (Chris’ comment regarding
the cliffs was that maybe if we put the Fiat at the top and let it
drop, it might actually make it up to 25 mph).
Along one of our “jaunts”, we went
inside a little itty bitty church in the middle of nowhere that was
all set up for service (including vases of fresh flowers) and no one
there...
We enjoyed the local flavor and met
some nice people, including Julie at the Visitor’s Center, Arelone
(“Bird Lady”) who taught us about various birds we saw on the
island, and our neighbor Tony, who generously brought over and served
fresh coconuts, then gave us a lobster he and his dad had caught that
day.
From our back deck or “back yard”,
we watched fisher people in the ocean work their way along/around our
fishing pond, followed the progress of divers working along the
reefs, then did a bit of snorkeling ourselves ($7/day for that
equipment).
Walking along the road was even
enjoyable as there is almost no traffic and you essentially wind up
walking along the ocean. Bird calls accompanied us everywhere and
they were surprising us here and there along the way…
Maybe it’s the happy sun that did it,
but we even began to feel like the crabs along our beachfront had
personality and enjoyed watching their progress as we ate/drank on
our back deck.
The sound of the waves put us to sleep
every night and it was absolute heaven to me. I would go back there
just for that. And we would both go back again just to enjoy this
low-keyed, easy-going, low-populated island. No complaints (until
Day 5 when we had to travel back)!
