21 May Vacation on Kaua’i Day 9

Friday Apr 16

We woke up early on the farm, eager to utilize the farm amenities for a final time. I threw a load of laundry into the machine by 7:30a and went down to the oasis in the morning quiet to take a shower. We also grabbed the remainder of our luggage which we had left in storage for the first week of our vacation. After recharging the devices via the wall outlets in the kitchen, eating some leftover pizza, and repacking the car – we were ready to leave the farm once again. We took a stroll through the beds and said a wistful goodbye to our keikis and all the maturing veggies we planted… gave big hugs to Luna and Jiva once again.

We had a 10a appointment with Hanalei Spirits – a local distiller in Kilauea. We had toured the biggest distillery on the island months before – Koloa Rum Company – with less than impressive results from the big, tourist-trap style rum company. On the flip side, we had tried one of Hanalei Spirits’ signature liquors, Okolehao, and loved it. The distillery was not officially doing tours, but Aaron decided to give the owners a call anyway on the first day of our vacation. He chatted with Vindy, one of the founders and the master distiller’s wife – and after 10 minutes of hearing about Aaron’s interest in spirits, we were granted a site visit appointment! So we arrived for our tour which took place on their property only three streets down the highway from the farm.

Vindy was our tour guide, and we entered the small warehouse and went through the tour of their process. We were both very impressed with the wealth of information Vindy provided, and their history of starting their own business was fascinating! They utilize as much found and repurposed material as they can find on the island, often searching for years to find the right equipment. They also utilize organic permaculture practices, aiming to grow as much of their own plant and food additives themselves. After hearing about the details for probably a good 30-40 minutes, it was time to sample the spirits! We got to try each of their varieties and were really wowed by them all! They make a vodka from taro, a rum infused with sugarloaf pineapple, and a liquor like limoncello but with lilikoi instead of lemons that tasted just like candy syrup.

Before we knew it, 3 hours had gone by, and in addition to getting loads of stories from Vindi while we sipped samples, we met Tutu, Vindi’s mother in law: the inspiration and recipe selector for the Hanalei Spirits Summer Gin. We also learned that Vindi was friends with Jenny – our hiking buddy – and she cheerily asked if Jenny adopted another dog, prompting me to pull out my phone and show her photos that Jenny had texted me the night before of her new pup.

It was a fantastic experience and we felt so lucky to get the chance to get an intimate, behind the scenes view of a local business of such supreme quality and innovative ideas. We got bottle of the lilikoicello and walked out smiling! Our goal for the day was to head to the south side of the island and park at a new beach. Since we were driving around at least half the island, we wanted to test a couple food options we’d had on our list to try before leaving. First stop was a place in Lihue for saimin. Saimin is a Hawaiian noodle soup that is similar to ramen. Usually topped with pork, spam, kamaboko, green onions… it’s served all over the island and we hadn’t tried it yet!

We weren’t terribly impressed with the saimin — it was really salty and didn’t have the same balance as most ramen or pho soups. We split a single order and still had plenty leftover.

Our next stop was “Kaua’i’s Biggest Little Town” – Hanapepe. There were a number of restaurants in the home of Lilo and Stitch – but I knew I wanted sushi from Japanese Grandmas Cafe. I picked out a specialty roll and we walked around the historic Main Street and the Hanapepe Swinging Bridge while we waited for it to be ready.

We took our takeout to the beach we chose for the night: Salt Pond Beach Park. The massive beach had a campground and a day use parking lot – both quite busy, unsurprisingly on a Friday night. There was a 9th birthday party of at least 10 kids and twice as many adults at one of the pavilions. The back 5 spaces of the day use parking lot were hosting some folks out with a grill, bumping music and a case of beers. Then there was the crowd of beach-goers, in and out with surf boards and stand up paddle boards.

We parked facing the water and ate our sushi and leftover Saimin, enjoying the last of the setting sun on the water. A full and fun Friday, complete with local flavors on north, east, and south shores of Kaua’i.