A Peek into the Honeymoon: Kauai Food Edition

Last year when we went to Maui I had intended on writing a blog about all the places we went and the accessibility of each place. Well of course life got in my way and I completely forgot so I am writing one about our honeymoon! I found it very hard to research accessibility on the internet so hopefully this post will help ease the mind of some others planning a trip to Oahu or Kauai. This post is the first in a series because there is too much to put in one post! This is the FOOD post! Oh yeah, we ate really well on this vacation. And probably gained about 20 lbs each.

We will begin in beautiful Kauai! Since we had a huge traveling hiccup we arrived to Kauai a whole day late. Meaning we were checking in the next day at our hotel and we lost our room since they conveniently double booked the wheelchair accessible room with a roll in shower. But thank God I had my confirmation email that said roll in shower, so they put us in a room with a tub and shower bench but refunded us a night, free valet parking, and took our resort fees off. Saving us some serious cash and the room we used worked well enough.

Once we were settled in our room it was getting dark and we were starving so we walked to a shopping center the valet guys told us about. That was yet another adventure trying to find accessible paths in the complete darkness, haha. We found Poipu Shopping Village it was a very cute little place with all kinds of shops and restaurants. We settled on Poipu Tropical Burgers, oh man was it good! Especially after a whole day of airport food. I had the Bacon Guacamole Burger which was amazing. Delicious, I'm drooling just thinking about it. After stuffing our faces we went straight to bed so we could see all the sights of the island the next day.

We got up and ready bright and early for Waimea Canyon. Along the way we stopped for breakfast at Kalaheo Cafe & Coffee Company. I had cinnamon french toast and a latte, I can only imagine the calories but it was worth each sweet bite. I believe Jared ate some form of breakfast burrito that he licked the plate clean. I even tried it, even though it had one of my food enemies in it (eggs, yuk) Stuffed our faces again and hit the road.

Made our way up the canyon, it was breath taking. Totally lived up to the hype we read about. The canyon is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. There was even an accessible bathroom at one of the look out points, which was nice since the latte had worked it's way through me. We made our way down the canyon and stopped at a road side fruit stand. Those really are the best part of Hawaii (all the islands), nothing compares to fresh pineapple. Went back to the hotel applied the sunscreen we forgot in the morning, big mistake.

Don't let the looks deceive you, it is great!

LUNCH TIME! Since our last suggestion from the valet guy was such a hit we headed to the Koloa Fish Market for lunch. Koloa is a cute little town near our hotel, we walked in and it was a raw fish market.... ew. We are NOT sushi people. We ran as fast as we could. In our sprint away from the raw fish we stubbled upon a Mexican food truck, we love Mexican food. Chalupas Food Truck (behind Old Koloa Town building). YUM YUM YUMMMMMM! I got the chicken burrito and Jared got the shrimp burrito. This was my favorite meal of the whole island! You must hit this place up if you are ever in Kauai.

We shopped around Koloa some more, picked up presents for family members. Made our way to the other side of the island found some more cute towns. Not sure where we ended up but our restaurant for dinner was terrible and I couldn't even tell you the name of it. Called it a night early because of the time difference late nights weren't an option. Plus we had to get up very early once again Grinds Cafe. It was okay, breakfast foods probably would have been a better choice than lunch but I wanted lunch.
to explore before we left for Oahu at 2pm. Our final meal was at

Our time in Kauai was very short and part of me wishes we had a couple more days to see more than just one side of the island but such is life. Now on Oahu is where we did some REALLY good eating! Look for my next post of Food of Oahu.

How Accessible is an Accessible Hotel Room?

Traveling is a wonderful thing and I don't know many people who don't enjoy doing it. However for me traveling can be both exciting and nerve racking at the same time. You never really know how "accessible" a hotel is until you get there. Nine times out of 10 the hotels are what I like to think is the absolute bare minimum the law requires accessible. Many times I find myself looking at the room and questioning how the hell anyone thought this was accessible. Not to mention a lot of the touristy things aren't really accessible. So planning a trip is a dance of trying to find what is going to be the most accessible, affordable, and fun. With my next vacation (going to Hawaii!) on the horizon and the hours I spent scouring the internet for information that I never found. I have decided to now write reviews of all the hotel rooms I stay in. Hoping this will maybe helpful to someone somewhere because just one time I want to go on vacation and not have the pit of worry in stomach about the accessibility of a hotel room.

On to the last hotel room I stayed in. It was at the La Quinta in Jacksonville Florida. First of all if you aren't aware of this, as we weren't, when you make a reservation with a hotel they have the right to only take your preferences into consideration. Meaning that needing a wheelchair accessible room is only a preference, I had no idea but noted. So when we arrived they informed us that the people staying the room the night before decided to stay another night meaning I had to stay in a room that didn't have the roll in shower I require. This was extremely frustrating and annoying but since it was only one night I just put up with it. Side note when my boyfriend was complaining to the front desk lady about how I wasn't going to be able to get into the shower now she actually said that she would come and help me get in the shower. I was completely weirded out by this, she was missing the point of what he was saying. Anyways back to the room...

Overall I would say it wasn't one the best nor the worst I have stayed in. Once in the wheelchair accessible room the shower had the hand held shower head along with a shower bench. That actually had a back on it and wasn't one of the those tiny ones that look like they can really only hold a person who weighs 50 lbs. The room was a little dingy smelling but I guess that comes with the territory. Not to mention the beds were pretty firm and I don't love firm. I like to sink into bed. My biggest complaint would be that the carpet from the lobby to all the rooms was so thick I was out of breath each time I had to wheel from the room to the car. I came to the conclusion that anyone with less function than me would have a real hard time with the carpet. All of the doorways had the real cracked cement leading up to the door making getting in the door not always a simple task. 

In all I would say that this room was moderately accessible and pretty affordable. For a para it wouldn't be too hard to manage but I don't know about a quad. Also the room was little tight so needing too much equipment or supplies would take up most of the room fast. I wouldn't be worried if I ever had to stay there again but I might try and find a different hotel next time.

Here are some photos, ignore the mess it was a last minute thought as we left at 6 am!

the bathroom for the door

Toilet wasn't too bad. Definitely a tight space.

This shower chair is one of the better ones I have had but it is so tiny I just don't get how hotels think this works for full grown adults! Or better the ones without the back, so hard to shower without the back! 

So the shower head had to be put down for me because I couldn't get it down myself.

One of the doorways.

The evil carpet!

Hope this is helpful to someone out there!

Facebook Fight

I see that somehow I have sparked quite the debate with this whole handicap bathroom deal. For all the curious minds I will paint today's scenarios and my bathroom adventures.

My sister and I decided to do a little light shopping for ourselves, getting into some real christmas spirit. And while she was waiting in line at Express I decided to hit the bathroom really quick. Although it wasn't time for me to go, I figured I may as well since we were close to the easiest bathroom for me to use and I wanted to avoid a disaster of an accident. Now I should disclaimer this by saying I have NEVER experienced a line at these bathroom because they are in a small strange hallway and didn't know about them myself until a year or so ago. So I wheel around the corner and there are 3 woman standing in line for this one restroom. NOT families but single able bodied females. A larger mid 40s woman, a 13 yr old girl, and another 40 something woman. I was instantly annoyed and quickly posted my status as a joke, as I contemplated saying something. Because there is a large public restroom just around the corner with like 40 stalls. So really I had no clue on why able bodied people would want to wait 15 minutes for a restroom  when there is one just a few feet in the other direction. So as I was thinking I was looking at the bathroom and noticed that there aren't any handicap signs on the door. In that moment I decided not to say anything because there wasn't any sign saying handicap, but it is very clear to everyone that if there is a single HUGE public bathroom with bars and lowered sink/mirrors that it is a family restroom. And in our society FAMILY restrooms are for FAMILIES and HANDICAP people. So that is where my frustrations came from today, not to mention the people parking in handicap spots and then sprinting into the mall. All the stares and looks of awe that a handicapper is actually out of the home that I get as I wheel through the mall. My limit of tolerance was met and I used Facebook to blow off a little steam. Boy did that get everyone all fired up.

I will say that I love everyone who supports me and cares enough to help express my point or defend my feelings when I usually can't because I am so timid when it comes to confrontation. But this is my official response to the comments left by one of my Facebook friends who I have no idea who she is and pretty positive she is the one who left some awesome comments on my last blog about handicap restrooms (Tinkle Time). I think I understand what she was getting at about how handicap stalls are strictly for handicap people only and she only uses them when necessary. I may be giving her too much credit but I prefer to think most people are good somewhere inside and not just mean to the core (although there are people who are). I have never said the handicap stalls are strictly for people like me and I would never be angry with a mother with a stroller and children for using the handicap stall because they are also why those stalls are there. Because we REQUIRE the extra space. We don't find it a luxury or convenient but physically need all the space we can get. I don't think anyone knows how embarrassing it is to pee your pants as a grown adult or how even more embarrassing it is to pee with a stall door open because there isn't enough room to shut the door as people just walk past getting a free show. As my boyfriend pointed out tonight that if there weren't disabled people in the world there would be NO HANDICAP STALLS.

So yes they should be strictly reserved for the disabled at all times. There are loads of accommodations in society for the disabled because our lives are HARD, front row parking, ramps, elevators, open isles, lowered checkout counters, etc. And I get angry when able bodied people use these accommodations as well. Which at some point politicians finally realized that a disabled person's life is hard and made guidelines and laws to help make our lives easier. And yes I think truly handicap people should get special privileges because I can never fully express how hard this life is. All of the changes and emotional strife I experienced and continue to experience daily makes it hard to go out into society but knowing that there are accommodations to make it a little bit easier experience, is why I started to go back into the community. But I will tell you days like today made me lose a lot of confidence in the human race. Not to mention the fact that it is only fair to make the world easy for a disabled person to navigate as well, since we are people too an deserve all the same opportunities everyone else gets.

P.S. Anyone who compares having any short of simple disease or injury to being in a wheelchair or handicapped pisses me off. It is not the same as being permanently disabled. End of story.