Kauai

We have been away from home four of the last six weeks. Over half that time was spent at Jenny Lake Lodge. The rest with Franny and Ken in Kauai.

It just occurred to me the other day that we have just been in two of the most photographed places in the world. For instance, the photograph to the left was taken at sunset the night before we had to leave. The four of us were luxuriating under some viney trees that I should probably know the name of but don't. We were drinking our last bottle of champagne and being a little furtive about it, since there was a rather imposing sign at the entrance to the beach informing us that alcohol was forbidden beyond that point. We were just taken up in the moment and couldn't be bothered by municipal trivialities.

Off to the left looms Bali Hai. I know it doesn't look like that in South Pacific, but all the guides assured us that they used trick photography to make it look like some faraway island paradise. Actually, it is a nearby island paradise. It is also interesting to note that the Hawaiian language has no B in it. Of course, that is okay because Kauai isn't in the south pacific anyway.

A little bit to the left of Bali Hai is the beach where Mitzi Gaynor washed Rossano Brazzi out of her hair. I never could understand her attraction for him in the first place. Further up the coast are all kinds of recognizable location shots for Jurassic Park. A little bit inland is the waterfall where the helicopter first lands.

Forgive me for being so touristy, but I like recognizing places I've seen or read about it. Been there; done that; have the tee shirt.

So let me go on. Somewhere between Mitzi Gaynor's beach and Bali Hai is Pierce Brosnan's house, the one with the blue tile roof. A little bit up the road from Pierce's place is the red tiled compound that Liz Taylor sold in 1971 for $17,000,000. One can only guess at its worth today. I know all this because Larry, our incredibly articulate guide on the catamaran tour of the Na Pali coast told us so. He even pointed out the place where all the dinosaurs ran while the expert paleontologist and the two bratty kids were up a tree. I thought I recognized it.

I'm sorry, but I get carried away with stuff like this. In the Tetons we are always driving by some familiar spot. "Oh, look, isn't that where they shot that Chevy commercial?" "That's the spot where the town in Shane was." "John-boy Spencer got married in that chapel, and wasn't that the Mormon barn he was helping to build?" "I'll bet you anything this is where Rocky outran the Mercedes in Rocky IV."
But back to Kauai. On the south shore is where Harrison Ford and Anne Heche crashed the plane in Six Days, Seven Nights. And on the drive from our condo to "downtown" Hanalei I think we pass the field where the director in Tropic Thunder blows up. Cool.

We need to make our next little getaway to New York to see Nate and Ashley. I think I know exactly where Cher's brownstone in Moonstruck is.