Kauai – Nawiliwili

    We arrived in Nawiliwili on the island of Kauai the morning of Saturday, October 31st, 2009 – Halloween Day! Since we did not book any excursions, we were on our own for the day. We had to be back on the ship by 4:30 in the PM. We took a ride on an antique looking trolley to the little shopping mall just down the road. Speaking to the driver we found out he grew up in Vienna, Virginia. We checked out the shops and passed on the opportunity to take a 2 and half hour bus tour to some nearby attractions. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to take a trip to Waimea Canyon. We’ll have to come back to check out their little grand canyon. After we purchased some souvenirs from the shops, we walked down to another shopping mall that overlooked the Kalapaki Beach. We did some more shopping and then stopped in for lunch at J.J.’s Broiler (www.jjsbroiler.com). We sat on the back patio that had a nice view of the beach. We caught some college football on the TVs, since this place was decked out like a college sports bar. We saw man swimming with what looked like a dog at first… but as they got closer we could tell it was a little pig. Our waitress told us that folks just go up into the mountains and find a wild pig baby to take as a pet. And these little suckers can be VERY loud when they start squealing. Oh, and our meals were excellent – probably the most authentic Hawaiian food we encountered on our trip. David had a Kalua Pig dish that was basically a pulled pork over a bed of boiled cabbage. It had a wonderful smoky flavor and was delicious.