Kauai: The Tall Coconut Tale

I’m not a big fan of coconut, but my husband is crazy about it.  Of course I knew he’d be searching out coconuts on our trip.  Sure enough, on our first full day on the island we were driving along the road in the late afternoon.  As we came around a curve, there was a somewhat elderly man selling coconuts but the side of the road.  Dr. Peds screeched to a stop next to a couple of delapitated vehicles and a few other touristy rental cars that had also stopped for coconut.  He exited the car to purchase his coconut, and ended up having a very lengthy conversation with the toothless man selling it who  was collecting ways to say “coconut” in various languages.  The lady who bought a coconut before Dr. Peds told him how to say coconut in Chinese, but the toothless man kind of just looked at her and said, “Huh!”  and didn’t even bother to write it down.  Eventually it was Dr. Peds’ turn to pick out a coconut, and while the toothless man was chopping off the top with a machete, he told my husband all about how he was selling coconuts, lots of coconuts, to send his daughter to college.  The lady behind Dr. Peds remarked, “My, you really do need to sell a lot of coconuts, don’t you?”

While all of this was taking place, I was waiting in the little blue rental car, which we fondly named “The Blueberry.”  From the comfort of my seat I watched a young lady who appeared to me to be tripped out on some heavy duty drugs convince some other tourists to give her a ride down the road in their rental car.

Eventually Dr. Peds came back to the car with his coconut chopped open on the top and a green plastic straw sticking out.  He handed it to me to hold while he zipped down the road again.  At the next lookout I mentioned that we should stop and take a look at the view.  I handed him back the coconut because I didn’t want to be responsible for it sloshing all over the rental car, and he drank the rest of the coconut water while watching waves break on the beach.

Moments like this are what makes spending time with my husband so interesting.  He doesn’t want to JUST do the fancy touristy parts of wherever we are traveling.  He has a flare for finding the interesting.  For the record, he said the coconut was terrific.