Highway 1

April 14, 2006 | In California, Tourism | 3 Comments

This doesn’t have much to do with Kauai, but someone asked about California Highway 1 and I had written this for a friend a while ago. In a way, the California coast is similar to Kauai because you have a long stretch of road wedged between the hills and coastline, with lots of towns, side roads, trails, and beaches to explore. The major difference is that it’s warm enough on Kauai for swimming at the beaches.

I used to live in San Jose and explore the coast a lot. I highly recommend the drive, but some sections are better than others. Depending on where you start and how much you want to do, here are my recommendations:

  • If you start in the city of San Francisco, go through the Golden Gate park to Ocean Beach and head south to eventually join up with Hwy 1 near Pacifica. Devil’s Slide is after Pacifica, and it’s really not a big deal when the road is open.
  • Unless you want to see the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo State Reserve, take 92 inland from Half Moon Bay and turn south on Skyline Drive (35). There are places with great views of the Bay and Silicon Valley. Follow signs to Big Basin Redwoods State Park and Santa Cruz. You’ll go through some quirky little communities in the forests. This is slower than the coast, but a much less seen part of the Bay Area.
  • If you’re pressed for time, you can also skip the coast/skyline here and take 280 (“world’s most beautiful freeway”) south to 17 and “over the hill” to Santa Cruz.
  • Santa Cruz and its suburbs to the south are funky “little” coastal communities and a good place to stop for a meal by the wharf, but not really the Hwy 1 experience. South of Santa Cruz isn’t much of an experience either, Hwy 1 is pretty much a freeway to Monterey.
  • Monterey is again a nice town with some history (old plaza and first capital of CA, cannery row), as is Carmel (beautiful mission church), but there’s a lot of tourist fluff. The aquarium is very nice, but it will take at least half a day to get your money’s worth. The 17-mile drive at Pebble Beach is not worth your money unless you’re out of time and won’t see the same beautiful coast for free further south.
  • South of Monterey is where the “classic” Hwy 1 begins. There are no “escape routes,” or rather they are even slower, but this is the most scenic part anyways.
  • A few miles south of Monterey is Point Lobos State Reserve, the best place to explore the coastal rock formations and tidal pools. Ansel Adams and Edward Weston got their inspiration here (I just found other photos here). If you get out of the car just once, I would vote for here.
  • South of Point Lobos is the oft-photographed Bixby Creek Bridge (though that wikipedia photo doesn’t do it justice). There are also many turnouts along the highway to stop for the many views.
  • I don’t know much about Big Sur, other than the bakery (and cafe) along the road used to be very good. The town is crowded in the summer so we never bothered checking it out. There are trail up the canyons to natural hot springs, but they’re crowded too and we never tried to go there.
  • From Big Sur to San Simeon and Hearst Castle, it is a long 65 miles of scenic driving on a rugged coast with few services. If you have the time, there are a few side roads to explore or trails if you want to get out of the car and get a different view of the area:
    • At Julia Pfeiffer-Burns State Park (not the Pfeiffer State Park in Big Sur), walk on a trail under the highway to see a pretty waterfall splashing directly onto the beach.
    • The Nacimiento-Fergusson road winds its way up into the hills for some nice views. It does connect to 101 inland, but it is much smaller and more deserted than Hwy 1.
    • 4 miles beyond the Nacimiento-Fergusson road is Prewitt Creek and a little hamlet called Gorda. There is a trail that starts at the tiny ranger station and climbs up the grassy hillside for some views. Turn around when the trail heads back into the valley.
    • Salmon Creek is 13 miles further and has a short hike up the valley to some waterfalls among huge boulders and Bay trees (a fragrant relative of the bay leaf spice).
  • Hearst Castle is a must if you have a half-day to spare, it’s another tycoon-plunders-Europe-to-build-an-American-chateau, but it’s pretty and the Hollywood stories are interesting. It is popular and you probably need to reserve your tour ahead of time.
  • Cambria is the little artist’s town to the south of Hearst Castle. It has a nice mainstreet with lots of tourist shops. I wasn’t that impressed because like many places, it’s hard to find the character of a place in the 2 hours you spend on Main street.
  • Morro Bay a bit further south seemed more authentic, and it has a nice big rock in the middle of the bay. From there it’s a short drive inland to San Luis Obispo.

For lodging, there’s nowhere to stay between Big Sur and Cambria, except for a few state campgrounds and a tiny lodge in Lucia with a small roadside restaurant. And since Big Sur and Cambria are small, they are expensive and easily full in the summer. Even in bigger towns like Santa Cruz, Monterey and Morro Bay you would probably need reservations during the summer.

Kauai Olympian

February 26, 2006 | In California, Journalism | No Comments

Quick before the games are finished in Turin, I have to pass on the Kauai connection to the winter Olympics.

Elena Hight snowboarding on a big red snowpark terrain feature that looks like a cement pipe, in a place with ski lifts
Source: volcom.com (why not vol.com?)

At 16 years old, the youngest member of the US snowboarding team is Elena Hight [not sure of the pronunciation on that]. According to the Garden Island newspaper, she was born on Kauai and lived here until the age of 7. I imagine she surfed here, though the story only says she was snowboarding at the age of 6, on the mainland it must be assumed. Her family moved to Lake Tahoe, California’s ski mecca, and she became one of those fearless daredevil kids on the slopes.

It all paid off because she finished sixth overall in the women’s halfpipe finals. Congratulation, Elena. I hope our (3 month-old) daughter learns to surf and ride half as good as you can.

Elena’s (outdated) bio and photo are on the US snowboarding team website. I also found a kidzworld interview with her, though I must warn you of all the pop-ups trying to sell things to your kids. Here’s a shorter interview with more photos and no pop-ups on the Volcom website, a surfwear manufacturer and sponsor (isn’t that redundant).

Errata: With the time difference and late-night posting, it seems like I missed the closing ceremony of the games by 24hrs.

Open Reply to Bill

February 21, 2006 | In Homeowner, California, Development, Kauai Style | 2 Comments

Bill just wrote to me:

My wife and I have been envious of your ability to make the transition from mainlander to islander. […] But we have to ask, how were you able to do it?! We have looked from afar at the property listings and they are outrageous even for modest properties. And yes, we’ve read that the islanders are just fine with that as more people would like to have that dream existence.

But anyway, just wanted to say hello and thanks for your blog postings. Its very interesting reading and great to see the vivid pictures. […]

I’ve been asked similar questions before, and I think my answer will interest other readers, so I hope you don’t mind if I answer publically.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for reading A Kaua‘i Blog, glad you like it.

There are at least three transitions to make if and when you move here: financial, social, and psychological. Many people leave again in less than two years if they can’t successfully make all three. There is a book called “So You Want to Live in Hawaii” that you should read if you’re considering moving here. It doesn’t encourage or discourage you to move, it just helps you be clear about the realities and your own motivations.

The financial transition is the most obvious, you need to be independently wealthy, have a job lined up ahead of time, or enough savings to last until you find a job. Personally, I took a sabbatical from a computer job to move here and begin the adventure hiking business, and my wife quit her job to make and sell crafts here. We are frugal people and we made the move with our savings. However, we found we didn’t want to live in a shack and we could not afford rent for a decent house with our start-up ideas.

Fortunately, I was able to go back to my California job through tele-commuting and stay on the island. That allowed us to buy a house, barely. I still do guided hikes, but it just can’t pay the mortgage in a place like this. Like my hiking business, I think there is a market for successful entrepreneurs on Kauai, but not much funding. You either need a background in business so you can do a real business plan and get a loan, or scale back your living needs drastically to whatever you can make from your cottage industry.

Any decent (but still small) living space for a couple is at least $1000 per month, mortgage on a small house is around $3000 monthly. The cost of living is roughly the same as the San Francisco Bay Area, just without all the job opportunities. In my estimate, you would need at least one professional salary (architect, engineer, nursing, etc.), or two skilled jobs (contsruction, trade, teaching, government, etc.) for a couple or small family to be comfortable. Long-time residents and local families who own their house can live on two or more service jobs (sales clerk, cleaning, tour guide, entertainer, etc.) because their mortgages are much much lower. For everyone else, the overlap between available salaries and obtainable mortgages or affordable rents on this island is very small.

For career-minded manager-types, the only real opportunities are with the international luxury resort franchises on the island, but they do exist. The good news is that nurses can always find work here, skilled jobs are available for those with experience, and service jobs abound at $10/hr. So people willing to work can usually get started here, long enough to see if they can make the other transitions. The bad news is, the weather is often perfect, the beaches are beautiful, the locals are taking it easy, and you won’t have time to enjoy it. When you move here expecting every day to be a vacation and instead you have to work more than you did on the mainland, you will feel how hard the financial transition can be.

Real-estate is a thorny issue here. Many realtors are just flipping homes to investors, which prices out the locals, and sometimes literally drives them out of their affordable rental. Locals have no mobility because they’re selling older homes and can’t afford the new ones, unless they leave for the mainland. There is also resentment against developers who are taking the green agriculture land that gives Kauai much of its character and turning it into investment/vacation housing. You can guess what happens when there is more housing than open land: no more character and charm.

The social and psychological transitions are harder to see and plan for. If you have a large circle of friends and live close to family, you may find you won’t stand the move. But that may be true even if you move somewhere else on the mainland. Locals and earlier transplants avoid the fresh-off-the-boat mainlanders because so many of them leave even if you take the time to cultivate a new friendship. We’ve had that happen to us. We’ve tried being open to the local culture, both the Hawaiian heritage and the current rural character, and we’ve found people to be friendly, but there is still a limited number of like-minded people on the island who share our professional and recreational interests.

And finally, island fever is real. Activities are more monotonous, and potentials are more limited here than on the mainland, especially if you come from a city. We love the outdoors and are still finding things to discover, but we also miss skiing—fortunately that can be fixed with a winter vacation to California. No such thing as a road-trip in Hawaii, if you’re used to a change of scenery every now and then. Again, it is a question of openness. Kauai has a lot to offer if you’re not busy complaining about how it’s not like the mainland.

And once you feel you’re established here, you may still feel like you’re not treated as a local. It takes much more time for those who were raised here to see you as one of them. You need to get connected to the social fabric and think of the island as home, not someplace you can leave if things go bad. And don’t try to speak pidgin until it feels natural to you. Our friend Gabriela, who has lived here for 30 years, built two houses, ran a B&B, and wrote a book about it, says it took at least 20 years to be accepted into the local community.

To be honest, we feel well established here after 2.5 years, but we can tell that none of our transitions are complete. Buying a house and raising a child on a single income from a remote job makes us financially vulnerable, we’ve met lots of people but have really established only a few friendships, and we do get homesick for the high Sierra or the Alps. So be prepared, but don’t be afraid to make the move. And once you get here, slow down, be open to the local culture, the local activities, and the opportunities that are here. And give it some time.

Aloha!

Gas Prices

August 25, 2005 | In Politics, California | 3 Comments

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).

Regular unleaded at $2.999 at the Kapaa Shell station

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.

In the Eye of the Beholder

March 23, 2005 | In California, Development | 1 Comment

I often wonder what it that attracts people to Kaua`i, what makes them vacation here and then want to move here. Of course it’s exotic, but what is hiding behind that word? Kaua`i is tropical, not cold, very different from the mainland, and I think that difference is the natural beauty of the landscape. Not that that the mainland is not beautiful, but I think it’s fair to say that Kaua`i is one of the more spectacular places with the least human intrusion (in the US) that you can get to on a commercial flight.

But is the landscape only beautiful to me? I tend to think it is a universal trait of humans to see beauty in nature, but maybe it is only in the urbanized ones, and in the end not really all of them.

So, can a freeway be beautiful?

Sign saying 'Junipero Serra, the world's most beautiful freeway'

That’s the I-280 Freeway leaving San Francisco. The sign is located just after the Highway-1 exit. Here’s an almost artistic photo of the same area. It has elegant lines, a pleasing curvature, some nice lines leading to the vanishing point, could it be beautiful?

Off-ramp exit of I-280 in San Francisco

Or is it just the concrete intestine of a giant asphalt hemorrhage in a place where natural beauty gave up the fight long ago?

Except for a few stretches with passing lanes, there are no 4-lane highways on Kaua`i, and I’m sure that makes a difference in the overall balance of beauty.

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