What
are some of the “things” or activities that visitors do
for fun?
ANSWER:There is so much to do while visiting Kaua’i
depending on your interests. Some of the more popular activities are:
Viewing the Napali cliffs from a boat tour, seeing Kaua’i from
above in a helicopter or plane tour, kayaking the navigable rivers,
take a zipline over the treetops, take an ATV tour, horseback riding
in beautiful scenery, playing on golf courses with views that can distract
you, enjoying a luau and the list goes on and on.
The National Tropical Botanical Garden (photo
credit: Deb Roskamp, Traveling Boy)
What's one thing the public probably
does NOT know about Kaua’i?
ANSWER:Kaua’i
is nicknamed the “Garden Island” and in fact Kaua’i has
many gardens to enjoy while visiting. Three of those gardens are part
of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG): Limahuli Garden, Allerton
Garden and McBryde Garden. The National Tropical Botanical Garden is
the only tropical botanical garden with a charter from the United States
Congress. In the early 1960’s a group of forward-thinking individuals
recognized the need for a tropical botanical garden on U.S. soil, and
banded together to form a foundation with the purpose of ensuring such
a garden was established. NTBG has the mission to enrich life through
discovery, scientific research, conservation and education by perpetuating
the survival of plants, ecosystems, and cultural knowledge of tropical
regions. One of the most recent programs at NTBG is The Breadfruit Institute
founded in 2003. The mission of the Breadfruit Institute is to promote
the conservation and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation. The
institute is taking a leading role in the conservation of breadfruit
diversity and ethnobotanical research documenting traditional uses and
cultural practices involving breadfruit.
Mount Makana as seen in ‘South Pacific.’
(photo credit: Kauai Visitors Bureau/Kicka Witte)
What has Kaua’i contributed to
the world?
Kaua’i has contributed millions of wonderful
vacations, weddings, honeymoons and memories, as well as iconic images
via the movies and television. From 1934 “White Heat” to 1958
“South Pacific” with Mitzi Gaynor to 1961 Elvis’ “Blue
Hawaii” Kaua’i has been immortalized in many blockbusters,
including the recent “Jurassic Park” films, “6 Days /
7 Nights” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
to the Academy Award winning “The Descendants.”
Three Musical Pilgrimages: Mozart, Grieg and Hendrix
Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
could read and compose music, plus play the violin and piano, when he was
five years old. Born into a musical family in Salzburg, Austria (then the
Holy Roman Empire), he had a unique ability for imitating music, which first
became evident when he recited a musical piece by simply observing his father
conducting a lesson to his older sister. This led to a childhood on the
road, where the young prodigy performed before many of the royal courts
of Europe.
Treasures of Ireland: The Irish Goodbye (Dispatch
#20)
The Palladian Traveler brings to a close his 20-part
series on the Emerald Isle from an upscale restaurant in downtown Dublin
where he files his final dispatch and then quietly slips away.
Two "MUST SEE" Truly Spectacular Places
in Europe. Here's Why.
The Han Grotto and Culzean Castle. As the name
of my Traveling Boy feature is "Travel With a Difference," it's
important to me to always bring you offbeat and unusual tourist places around
the world you may not know about. These two fit that category to a T, and
they're absolutely worth a visit. One's in Scotland and one's in Belgium.
Culzean (pronounced CULLANE) Castle is located near Maybole, Carrick, on
the Ayrshire coast of Scotland.
Highway 49 Revisited: Exploring California's
Gold Country
In the 1840s, the population of California was only
14,000, but by 1850 more than 100,000 settlers and adventurers had arrived
from all over the world – and they came for one reason: gold. James
Marshall had discovered the first gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in El
Dorado County, creating the largest gold rush in history.
Lake Charles’ Family-Size Low-Key Mardi Gras
The Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras in Lake Charles,
the second largest in Louisiana, does not need parents there to avert their
children’s eyes. This is family entertainment and children are very
much part of it. The main office of the Lake Charles CVB has costumes from
last year’s Mardi Gras but it also has figures to fascinate little
ones from country boys fishing for their dinner to alligators who have already
fed and are rubbing their stomachs.
Puerto Vallarta: Magic and Mayhem on the Malecon
So I heard that you could spend from dawn to dusk on
the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and never get bored and I thought,
"Okay, I'm up for that challenge." Well, maybe not the dawn part
– I'm not a morning person – so I had no problem leaving those
early hours to the joggers and those seeking an early start to catch their
red snapper for dinner.
Monte Verità: In the Footsteps of Anarchy
Just as I reach the end of a squiggling, multicolored
path, an acorn plummets from an oak tree above me. It lands at my feet,
just as the path culminates at a mandala of Venetian glass, eight feet in
diameter. On the worn-out front lawn of Monte Verità, the Mountain
of Truth, this path, Chiara's Rainbow, evolves through the colors of the
spectrum – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and finally violet
– before arriving at the mosaic mandala where psychic energies supposedly
prevail. The falling acorn brings me to the present moment.
Costa Rica's Green
Sitting at an umbrella table in downtown San Jose overlooking
the Plaza de la Cultura is like a page out of Hemingway's "The
Sun Also Rises." The plaza is laid out in a maze of stalls where
passive vendors sell sparkling silver jewelry by the trayfull, hand-carved
clay masks, colorful Guatemalan belts, area rugs, and hammocks perfect
for a midday siesta. Three men play an old wood marimba over the buzz
of the crowd while a steaming plate of Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) is
served to an elegant lady who was performing with her guitar...
