Kauai - What Didn’t Work Quite as Planned

Nawiliwili Lighthouse

Liz knew I was interested in seeing whatever lighthouses I could, so one of our first stops was near the airport to see the Nawiliwili Lighthouse. We found the golf course, but had a difficult time finding the road near the guard shack that was referenced in the directions. We asked a few people who seemed to be making up answers, so I was thinking that this might not be a very big lighthouse. I forgot to bring a picture of the lighthouse, so I found what I thought might be the lighthouse. Unfortunately, in later looking up a picture, I realized that what we saw wasn’t the lighthouse. Drat! But it was still a great view, and I didn’t really want to keep holding up the group as I continued to look with lukewarm directions to the lighthouse, so I guess it all worked out okay.

Hanakai’ai Beach and Falls Hike

One of the hikes the Walker siblings were most looking forward to was the Hanakai’ai Beach Falls Hike at the northwestern part of Kauai. Unfortunately there was a fire on the trail, and the park service was closing the trail as we got there. We talked about sneaking by, but the park ranger was pretty insistent that wasn’t a good idea.

Delay at Kee Beach

After our non-hike because of the fire, we inadvertently locked the keys to one of the Ford Mustang Convertibles in its trunk. Cell phone coverage at Ke’e Beach was pretty spotty. Sprint did not have service. David got his phone to work after holding it in just the right position near the roof of the car. Did you know that AAA policies don’t always cover locksmith services in remote areas of the US? Check your fine, fine print! Apparently coverage is not included on Kauai. After frustrating calls with the rental car place and AAA, we did fortunately find a phone number of a locksmith only ½ hour away. We were pretty apprehensive about the whole thing, because even if we could get into the door, there was not a switch for a trunk release. We were rescued as the locksmith skillfully opened the car, and short circuited the trunk to open it so that we could get the keys! (Very impressive!)