Flashback Friday: Hawaiian honeymoon day 6

The last day 🙁

How sad that I’m now reliving the angst that accompanied this island goodbye all over again…

Since our flight’s departure wasn’t until 5 pm, we decided to make the most of our last day on Kauai and drive up and around to the Northern part of the island that we hadn’t yet seen. 

Along the way we stopped for lunch at a local veg-friendly joint that had been recommended to us for a good meal. 

Mermaids Cafe was a hop, skip, and a jump away from being a ghetto hole-in-the-wall place.  It was cutely quaint…for lack of a better word.

There was a small window where one (of the three) employees took orders, behind which the other two employees were cooking.  In other words, it was a kitchen with a cut-out to serve the food.  

We sipped on passion fruit iced tea and lemonade while waiting for our orders. 

 

It took a while, and there was a small mix up. 

This was the Tofu Stir Fry Noodle Plate with broccoli, carrots, red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and greens seasoned with fresh garlic, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil over noodles. 

Only problem was, neither of us ordered that dish…

Once the staff realized they gave us another customer’s order, it was back to the waiting game…eventually Kyle got the chicken version of the dish that he did order. 

Amid the aforementioned confusion, the cooks (?) informed me that they were out of rice.  Uhhh…ok?  So instead of putting my dish over rice, they offered me a side salad instead.

This was probably the weirdest salad I’ve ever been presented with.  Red onions and walnuts?  Together?  Not so great.  I pushed it around the plate a bit, but mostly I was just waiting for my main order.

Voila!

I got the Tofu Coconut Curry Plate with broccoli, carrot, red bell peppers, mushrooms, onion, and greens cooked with a mild yellow curry in coconut milk, served over rice with a side salad.

It hit the spot.

The only thing left on the plate was a sea of oily sauce, that I nearly slurped right up, too. 

After lunch we made our way next door to a cute local coffee shop called Java Kai.

Any sign that says “vegan” on it will lure me in…

The Belgian waffles sign doesn’t hurt either…

It had much more than local coffee.  The cafe offered everything from fresh juices, smoothies, and hearty breakfast fare, to falafel sammies and raw veggie wraps. 

What a cute little spot.  Mental note: return here next Kauai trip!

In fact, the entire street was packed with cute little eateries.  I almost wish we had ventured away from the hotel a bit more…almost. 

After getting our coffee fixes, we were back on the road to see some waterfalls.

And more roosters…

I can’t believe how many different types of landscape and climates there were on Kauai (not sure about the geology terminology there).  On the way to the Canyon it was all desert and dry, and on our way North to Princeville it was lush and green and we felt like we were surrounded by marshlands.

Garden Isle indeed!

Our last pic together in Hawaii.

On our way back from Princeville, we decided to stop off to get airplane eats.

I had spotted a place called Papaya’s Natural Foods on the way, so I had to check it out. 

Healthy plane snacks!!

Vegan donuts?  That’s it, I’m staying in Kauai. 

It was like a smaller scale Whole Foods, complete with a prepared foods hot bar. 

 

Excellent.

We got our goodies for the FOUR flights (yes, we had a few layovers getting back to LAX), and bid aloha to our week in paradise. 

Back to reality…

*If you are going to Kauai and curious about the vegan scene, this site has a very thorough dining guide.  We only spent a few minutes in Princeville, but they have a wide range of veg-friendly places.  Postcards Cafe was recommended to us as was Kilauea Bakery and Pau Hana Pizza. 

Hope you enjoyed the honeymoon posts 🙂