Magical Molokai

Just when you think life has settled down, something else crops up. This has been a busy year for me. There have been multiple trips to my Dad’s house to help him deal with some health issues, most of which are still unresolved. He’s doing okay, but we are still working on things and I’d rather not go into detail. I will likely need to go up and spend time with him on a more-regular basis, to help him manage a variety of little things that have just become too much for him.

May 1-5, I went to visit a friend. May 9-12 I was at Dad’s again. Then, the biggest and brightest “upheaval”… I started a new job May 13, so had to spend the 13-16 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The job I started in September with the employer based in Minnesota was not a good fit for me. After being laid off from my last two jobs with a little over a year at each of those employers, I hated even the thought of looking for another job. I don’t want to be a job-hopper. Really. But the role at the Minnesota company would have required a whole lot of stress with the potential for many long days/extra hours. I’m not opposed to long days on occasion, but knowing it was more likely to be the norm than the exception didn’t appeal to me. And when an opportunity presented itself sort of out-of-the-blue, I went for it. I think it’s going to be a MUCH better fit for me.

During these unsettled times, thoughts of our Molokai cottage help sustain me. It really was a magical place. The setting was perfect. Hubby described it as an oceanfront cottage at a sparsely populated resort in the middle of nowhere. But I am getting ahead of myself…

Of all the Hawaiian islands we visited, Molokai was the smallest. It was also the least-populated by residents and tourists alike. There’s not even a single traffic light on the island! No lifeguards, either, so common sense was required.

Getting to Molokai was a little adventure for us in and of itself. I did not book those flights much in advance. I think I booked the Molokai trip two days prior to the actual journey. There are a couple of small airlines that have regular island-to-island flights. We chose to fly with Mokulele airlines, despite some mixed reviews we saw online, and we could not have been happier with the service.

It was a wee disconcerting for me being able to see the landing gear from my window. Later, Hubby reported that he saw the other wheel from his window.

They assigned seats at the “terminal” which was more like a trailer. The kind used as auxiliary classrooms at over-crowded elementary schools. We all, maybe eight passengers total, lined up at the gate — a six-foot tall wire fence — ordered by weight then walked out across the tarmac like a line of schoolchildren to board the airplane. I think there were seats for about 12 passengers in all. It felt more like a sightseeing tour than a journey. I’m glad it wasn’t a scheduled, three-hour tour! 🙂

In all, I think the flight took about 30 minutes.

We arrived on the island earlier than anticipated. Not knowing how long the drive to the Honolulu airport would require at rush hour, we left our North Shore house sooner than we needed to and arrived at the terminal a couple of hours before our scheduled flight. Rather than let us sit, waiting, the airline just put us onto the next flight, which was pretty awesome, except we couldn’t check into our cottage until about 3:00.

We stopped in the town of Kaunakakai, population 3,425 at the 2010 census, for a leisurely brunch. We finished shortly after noon. Since we had a few hours to kill, we decided to head up to Pālāʻau State Park, a place I’d seen described as having a scenic overview of the historic Kalaupapa peninsula, an isolated and hard-to-reach piece of land to which persons with Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) were once banished. I’d also read that there was a short trail leading to a phallic stone thought to enhance fertility. Who can resist a good penis-shaped rock?

As I’d read, there was an overlook from which you can see the leper town. Look closely and you’ll see the beach on the left is composed of regular sand, but the beach on the right is a black-sand beach.

Many people think there’s one black-sand beach in Hawaii, but there are actually many.

Because of the low clouds, the air was very moist, but cool. It almost felt like we were walking though a rain forest. There were other people there, but only a few. And they were quiet, which was nice. The dense carpet of pine needles helped muffle unwelcome sound.

There was interestingness everywhere. In so many ways, Hawaii is a bit unreal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We could have paid an exorbitant price to ride mules down very narrow trails along crazy-steep cliffs to tour the leper colony, but we chose not to. Instead, we drove back across the middle of the island to the western edge, which is where we’d booked a cottage.

I don’t think I ever took a picture of the front side of the cottage. It was kind of unremarkable.

 

I’ll never forget that sight. I stared at it for days. It’s what kept me from blogging or otherwise doing anything that required my attention for more the a few minutes, especially if it meant staring at electronics.

We didn’t do a whole lot on Molokai.

 

 

Yes, we could hear the waves at night. It was so loud, you couldn’t NOT hear it. It was amazing.

 

We never did eat in the kitchen. What meals we prepared at the cottage, we ate on the patio. Can you blame us?

 

The sunset that first night was a little disappointing, but there would be other sunsets.

And even a sunset like that, which is far from the prettiest one I have ever seen or captured, is a beautiful sight to see. It really was the perfect location, and we enjoyed five very relaxing nights there.

I have lots more pics to share.