Pollywogs!

From the archive files of Garrett Socling…

Lihue

Just got done with a week in Lihue.  Work consisted of 4/5 of the trip, with a drive around the island Saturday, a drive to Wemiea Canyon Sunday morning and an hour at the beach Sunday afternoon.  Somehow we still managed to take a boatload of pictures (see here).

Lihue is…nice.  Of course, 99% of the time the weather is absolutely perfect:  summer 85'F day 75'F night, sunny, light breezes and about 60% RH.  winter, mostly the same but 10'F cooler.  The landscape is bowl you over beautiful, mostly tropical with these tremendous mountains everywhere.  A little drier along the south and west, wetter along the north and east.  The island is 'centered' around Lihue, which is the town with all of the services.  North and west of Lihue, a single mostly two-lane highway reaches around 70% of the island.  I'm not sure what happened to the last 30%, perhaps it was incredibly rough terrain.  The two lane reaches increasingly smaller towns and increasingly fewer two-lane bridges.  We traveled to the northern reaches, which was an interesting experience.  Mentally I already know Lihue is in the middle of nowhere, but somehow travelling down this tiny road past tiny towns, smaller and smaller, you get a real sense of driving back in time before human habitation, or back in time in some lost country.  

The only real development off the coast of the island is a tiny road up Wemia Canyon, a terrific gorge with terrific vistas.  Nothing else up there, but at least there is a little road to check it out with.

The water was fairly warm, I'd guess around 80'F.  Good for swimming.  The sun was hot, somehow Kelley and I managed to get slightly red with laying out for about an hour…

There is a real lack of public transportation on the island, and a real lack of road signage, beach parking and beach access signage.  I think it is primarliy because the island is very laid back, and no one ever got around to worrying about things like marking highways and whatnot.  Its good enough for the locals, so…

Do yourself a favor and avoid the big chain restrauants like the plague.  The local restrauants (even the most humble of them) cook a hell of a burger compared to the self-proclaimed 'Burger King'.

Overall impressions:  K sez although it was a state of the union (Hawaii even) it felt more like a third world country, somewhat Ghetto houses (out of style) and general wilderness/unkempt.  I somewhat agree, it doesn't really feel like the United States out there, other than the language and the money.  Too touristy for K's taste, which I find interesting, as most 'tourists' wouldn't find much to keep them entertained, while most 'escapists' would find the development 'just like home'.