A traffic jam in Kauai? The whole idea of going to one of Hawai‘i’s least populated islands was to escape the pandemonium of urban life (in my family’s case, L.A.). An oceanside bridge project north of the Lihue Airport (“Endless,” the Uber driver groaned about the construction) had my husband, son, and I crawling for nearly 40 minutes on our six-mile journey to the hotel. But as the congestion dispersed south of our home base of Kapaʻa, the hula music started playing in my head and the fragrance of coconuts and gardenia wafted through the Kia.
Our Kauai starting point was emblematic of the trip as a whole: surrounded by beauty
