Marti’s friend Gail drove us to Sacramento International Airport, where we boarded a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu. Because we traveled westward, we arrived in the late morning; after a flurry of cell phone calls, our sister Debbie met us at baggage claim. We ate a quick lunch of local food and did some shopping before it was time to head back to the Inter-Island Terminal and our flight to Lihue.
In the old days, twin-engine props flew between the islands. Nowadays, between Oahu and Kauai, passengers ride on jets and flight-time is under half an hour. Here’s a view of Honolulu Harbor and Diamond Head Crater as we were climbing after take-off.
After we disembarked, we picked up our rental car, shopped for groceries at the Star Market in Puhi, then we were on our way to Waimea. With the stops on the way, it took us about an hour to get here.
Marti had stayed at the Waimea Plantation Cottages on a previous trip and requested the same room, Cottage #57. The Cottages were built on the old H.P. Faye estate, and retain the look of the homes of the plantation workers, though everything is new and very comfortable. Our room is near enough to the beach for us to see (and hear!) the waves; there’s a kitchen, large living room, bedroom, and bath with a tub and shower.
I remember the Faye place from childhood and it’s likely that many of the trees we see now on the grounds were planted before we were born. On the left is a banyan tree, perhaps a Ficus benghalensis, with the Manager’s house in the background. The center photo is a closeup of the tree’s roots; one can understand the tree’s moniker “strangler fig.” On the right is the tree we called an ironwood pine, probably a Casuarina equisetifolia, a native of Australia.
