We are about at the half way point of our sojourn. How quickly fifty days can go by so very fast.
Having time to explore, we walked around the historic town of Koloa. This was the center for sugar and the many of the early 20th century buildings still exist as boutique shops.
At Pizzetta, a restaurant in Koloa, we met “The Candy Man,” Craig Hoyal. He works with one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world, Actavis. For his hard work and diligence, he was awarded a week long free trip to Kauai by the firm. They gave him $1200 for spending money and said, “have fun.”
He is known as “The Candy Man” since he brings candy to all his clients, mostly doctors. Craig is from Arkansas and his son goes to the University of Arkansas in Conway, where one of my high school buddies, Dr. Charles Harvey, teaches Philosophy. It is truly a small world.
Craig tells us we must visit Arkansas, particularly Bentonville, home to Walmart. One of the Walton daughters built a first class art museum called “Crystal Bridges Museum.” It would be a nice stop also to see my friends, Charlie and Jeanne in Conway.
As we were leaving to visit the Allerton Gardens this morning, we met the owner of The Garden Inn, Steve Layne. He has owned the hotel since 1988. Many of the walls are painted with floral Hawaiian design. In the mainland, this would be called a “Boutique Hotel.”
In Kauai there exists one of five “National Botanical Gardens.” One of these days we intend to visit the one on Key Biscayne. We visited the Allerton Gardens in 2012. The beauty of the Allerton Gardens brought us back.
The tour has increased by ten dollars per visitor to $40. There were other changes as well. An air conditioned bus now takes you to the estate instead of an opened air “Disney Tram.” In 2007, the tour would end at the Allerton beachside home where John Wayne once lived. Now you need to take a “Sunset Tour” which costs even more money in order to see the beachside home.
The Allerton Garden was used in such movies as Jurassic Park, Donavan’s Reef and the famous T.V. show Gilligan’s Island. At the end of the tour, we were taken to the fig tree where the dinosaur eggs were found in Jurassic Park—the first movie.
Our tour guide, Hal, played as the African Chief in the Dustin Hoffman 1995 movie, “Outbreak.”
This morning we received sad news. Our daughter’s dog, Truffle, passed away. It is one of those moments you wished you were back home. Phone calls and texting will have to do.
