The plot takes second place

Before we went on our vacation to Kauai this September, my husband Andrew and I watched dozens of travel videos on YouTube. We rounded out our research with movies set on the garden isle. One of these, The Perfect Getaway starring Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich, Timothy Oliphant, and Kiele Sanchez, was a murder mystery thriller where the main characters were hiking part of the Kalalau Trail. The movie was entertaining, although I kept getting distracted by the beautiful scenery. There was enough mayhem, however, to convince me to pass on attempting that trek. Anytime there is a steep cliff in a movie, or in real life, there is potentially someone waiting to toss you off of it.

If you looked at the photo above and recited “The plane! The plane!” congratulations, you are old. Saturday nights in the 1970s found me stationed in front of the television, waiting for that opening shot of Fantasy Island. The waterfall is more impressive in person, even if we did have to stand in line at the overlook in order to snap a photo.

Our first full day on the island we hiked parts of the Heritage Trail. Meandering along the coastline, we saw few people and almost the same amount of goats. Neither group looked like they might be planning someone’s murder.

Andrew did complete the hike on the Kalalau trail all the way to Hanakapiai Falls. I passed on that exercise, but joined him on the Kuilau Ridge Trail on a later day.

Kauai is steeped in history – many of the buildings in the towns were constructed during the sugar cane and pineapple plantation era in the 1800s. We spent our last two nights on Kauai at Waimea Plantation Cottages. Their cottages were built in the late 1880s to 1930s and moved to the resort site and lovingly restored.

I thought I would do some writing while on vacation, but that didn’t happen. My days were spent enjoying the setting and abandoning the plot.