I know you have all been waiting with baited breath for the next vacation update so here we go. According to some of you, doing nothing was an alright thing, but others indicated that it could be a sign of old age. We will take it as both.
Today was a more productive day. It was a scheduled day off from running so instead we hiked down to the St.Regis hotel and back which is about 1.5 miles or so for the round trip. We then had our usual leisurely breakfast before making our way back down to the beach at Hanalei Bay. Our route takes us to the end of Hee street by way of Maki Maki street. The street names here are quite amusing sometimes and sometimes unpronounceable. The beach was its usual spectacular self and we soaked up more of its glorious sun and warm temperatures which have typically been right at 80 degrees. This surpassing awesomeness has caused me to want to attempt a Haiku. It will not be a good one, but it is my first attempt.
Lying on the beach
Hanalei Bay is awesome
Burning is not so
Interestingly to us car people, the thing we have commented about the most on this trip is our rental car. It is a Nissan Versa sedan. It is without a doubt the worst car we have ever been assigned for rental purposes and easily one of the worst designed cars in the history of cars. It reminds me of some of the old Soviet Block cars from back during the Cold War era though I have fortunately only seen those on TV. The Versa has 109 horsepower and 107 lb. ft. of torque and is a dull gray. Supposedly the peak of the torque curve is at 4700 rpm, but M and I are certain the car would explode if the tachometer got anywhere near 4700 rpm. A slight press on the gas pedal produces a mighty roar and very little acceleration. The roar is actually more like a loud whinny from a puny horse. All of that happens before 2500 rpm. On the good side of the ledger the handling of the car isn’t as bad as one might expect. Oddly enough it has really nice Continental tires that corner quite well. The interior of the car leaves much to be desired. Even though its a small car, one feels as though they are driving a bus. We have determined that this is because the car is much too narrow for its height. Someone 8 inches taller than me would still have plenty of head room. Only one more day with the thing though and it has served its purpose quite well. I imagine Nissan designed this car specifically for the rental market anyway.
We begin our trip home tomorrow evening so probably no updates till we get home. Hope you all are well.