Name Dropping

Two days ago, I’d heard through the coconut wireless that the Clintons were visiting Kauai. I’m always surprised how a non-gossiper such as myself manages to hear these things. Anyways, it was nothing to blog about, especially without any proof.

But it made the news today, so it must be true. Bill, Hillary, Chelsea, and possibly her fiancé are/were here. As my original source put it, “I didn’t know they still traveled together.”

What does any of this change? Nothing at all, which is why we call it gossip. But it is interesting to note that many celebrities visit here, a reminder of the away-from-it-all-yet-luxurious segment of the local tourism industry. Soon after moving here, we met a guy who works at the private jet terminal at the airport. He sees them all come and go, rolls out the carpet for them, loads their bags, refuels their planes, and keeps his job by not saying anything about them–and gets good tips I imagine.

Like some not-so-rich-and-famous visitors, a few celebrities have bought into the island dream as well. Bette Midler owns much land between Wailua and Kapaa town, though I think that is more about buying into the real-estate boom than living here. It is agricultural land, so her property manager runs cattle on it, and she is generally open to community needs such as when they wanted to run bypass road through her property. Ben Affleck (or is it Ben Stiller, to me he’s just the recent movie star whose name starts with Ben) owns a house on the North Shore and vacations there off-and-on. A friend told me he was with his family at Kalihiwai beach the day we got married there last year. I wouldn’t be able to recognize him, even if he was on any of the photos.

I’m filing this under journalism so I don’t have to create a “gossip” category.

Wailua Beach

As promised, here are photos of the beach that Sonja and I go to most often because it is the closest to our house. It’s about a mile away, just across the main highway. We used to walk there, but sometimes we go at lunch and take the car to go quicker.

Looking left:

Looking right:

The beach is probably almost a half-mile long, at the far end (to the right) is the Wailua river mouth. The river makes the water murky at times, but it’s better right now in the summer. The waves here are moderate because of the wide sandy beach, but there are surf breaks over low rocks at either end. During the summer, the waves are low and you can snorkel over the rocks to the left. The main highway is right next to the beach, but you can barely see it through the vegetation and you can’t hear it all because of the waves.

For now, the beach is mostly deserted except for a few tourists during the day, and some local kids in the afternoon. That will change soon because the Coco Palms hotel on the other side of the highway will be entirely rebuilt with some 300 rooms and condos. The hotel was made famous as the setting for Elvis’s Blue Hawaii movie, but it has been closed since it was battered by hurricane Iniki in 1992. The old buildings will be torn down early 2006, and reconstruction finished by 2008, according to this article.

If you like the view, there are other condos right above the beach for sale: $675,000.

Gas Prices

Hawaii made the national news today with the announcement of the first gas price regulations (called the gas cap) in the country. It was even reported in California, a state with similar prices for gas and other cost of living expenses. Without going into the politics of regulation, I think the intent of the gas cap is to align wholesale prices to those on the mainland in order to keep the two local refiners (on Oahu) from profiting from their geographical monopoly.

I took this picture yesterday in Kapaa, thinking that it might be the last time I see gasoline prices under $3 per gallon here. The gas cap price set for the island of Kauai this week could theoritically bring it down to $2.92 (2.80 wholesale cap price + 0.12 average station markup).

Some other comments related to this photo:

1. For comparison, a gallon of regular unleaded cost just under $2 for a brief time after we moved here 2 years ago.
2. Unlike Chevron, the Shell stations on Kauai tend to be among the cheapest, and you can get another 5% off by using their no-fee credit card. I usually wouldn’t endorse using a credit card, but all prices are set to take into account their processing fee, so it pays to play the system. I pay cash at businesses I care about.
3. I loathe the nine-tenths of a penny fraction added to gas prices. It’s shameful psychological manipulation that this world could do without. It should be illegal to charge a price that is not reflected in the legal currency.
4. The strings of pennants on the Shell sign are relatively new and ostensibly placed around the sign. I wonder if the’re meant to obscure the price. They are also meant to attract attention. Many businesses in Hawaii use flags and banners to circumvent the restrictions on outdoor signage. As a matter of fact, the gas stations already get a break because the mandatory price sign is bigger than any other free-standing sign allowed.

About the Photography

All photos on this website are my own unless otherwise noted. Nearly all are taken with a 2-year old HP Photosmart 735 (3.2 megapixel) point-and-shoot digital camera (5732 photos so far). The images are generally very good quality, except in certain lighting conditions such as the contre-jour in the picture of the goats. There you can see the distortion around the edges at wide angles and washed out colors in the light.

If you click on most photos, you’ll see the large version. Please feel free to save any photos for personal use. If you republish them non-commercially, please include a link to this site (http://great-hikes.com/blog). For commercial use, pinch me to make sure I’m not dreaming, and then we’ll work out a deal. I have lots of other photos that I might put into a portfolio someday.

Goats and Coconuts

This is just a whimsical photo taken near the Foodland shopping center in Waipouli, halfway between our house and downtown Kapaa. Even in Hawaii it is rare to see animals grazing in a coconut grove, especially in a shopping district. Kauai still has some rural charm to it.