traveling with toddler kauai day 2: early morning

5:15 a.m.

Scott says, “Wow, vacation wife sleeps for twelve hours, gets up and does the dishes.”

Julie says, “Yes, let’s move to Hawaii.”

* * *

The first day in a condo situation involves shopping for supplies. Yesterday afternoon, while the boy was napping in the car seat and my parents were waiting for their condo to become available (you know, 4 p.m. check in and all that), my dad and sister headed to the closest market, a local chain, for a few basics. Milk, eggs, coffee, a pineapple. They actually found organic sprouted grain bread, which is exciting.

But today we’ll need to plan. How many meals for the week? Where can we get more organic stuff (even though it’s going to cost a small bloody fortune since everything, even very basic dry goods, cost more in Hawaii without the appellation.)

We’re on our laptops in the living room, free wireless (the world is accepting that this is a necessity for travelers, even in paradise) waiting for the sun to come up, doing a little research. Scott is finding pictures of trucks on the internet for Jonah to enjoy.

And I find what I think is just the most wonderful Kauai Farmers’ Markets website. Not only because it gives the important details (dates, times) but also for the colorful advice from… someone about what the markets offer, and how to approach them. Note Monday’s market advice: “Be there early with your running shoes!  Consumers are not allowed in until the actual start of the allowed selling period.  This means that people dash in as soon as the rope goes down.  Quite exciting!”

There is one big health food type grocery that I recall from our previous trip: Papaya’s Natural Foods. (How could you not want to “come visit the store with a heart”?) We’re close-ish to the one in the mall in Kapaa so that may be on the agenda for today.

Other than grocery acquisition, plans for the week include at least one of two train rides on the island. We saw the sign for the Kauai Plantation Railway as we were driving in from the airport (kids under 2 ride free — woo hoo!). A tour of 100 acres of farmland and whatnot. According to bellman Jacob, whose son’s name is Joshua (you can see how we hit it off right away — both our moms have j-names too) there’s another train ride that involves a petting zoo with piglets. This site gives the lowdown on everything Kauai Trains for the enthusiastic hobbyist (and looks down its nose a smidge at KPR for not being historically accurate) and mentions Grove Farm. Apparently there’s a steam train there that is only open second-Thursdays of the month which would be while we are here. No info about it on the Grove Farm website though. Will have to ask the concierge (ooh la la).