Jeanne Toulon
Enjoying the beaches of Southern California while growing up in the 70’s, it was a lifelong dream to live in Hawaii. I envied the island lifestyle, the ocean, sun and the surfing culture. While in college, I was invited to spend my month long Christmas vacation with my sorority sister and her family on the island of Kauai. We had such a good time that month going to the beach every day and improving our tan, staying out late and then sleeping in, swimming, hiking and enjoying Kauai’s secret spots. She invited me to come back and spend the upcoming summer with them. She told me that we could get jobs and save money for school. I was in the midst of planning a trip to Europe that summer, but cancelled my plans and told her, yes, I’d love to come back. Why did I make that choice? Well, it sounded so much more enticing lying on the pristine sands of Poipu Beach, enjoying the ocean and then working at night. Europe would have been unfamiliar to me, zipping here, there and everywhere and a little too hectic. I just wasn’t ready for that. Needless to say, we didn’t work that summer and believe it or not I met someone. He was her step-cousin whose family came to Kauai in the 1850’s. We were tag-alongs in a group that always got together and we were the ones who actually hit it off. That summer was amazing, we spent every day together doing many of the same things I did on my previous vacation and within a few weeks we’d fallen in love and knew we wanted to get married. He was going to college in Colorado and I was going to college in San Diego. For two school years we commuted back and forth from Colorado to San Diego and then after I graduated, we got married.
Of course we moved back to Kauai after our wedding and settled into the island lifestyle raising a family quite happily. Coming from a large metropolitan area it was nice to be in a small town, rural atmosphere where you know your postman, grocery checker, the gas station attendant and people in your community, personally. I am fortunate because I live with open space, cows and horses around me, an ocean view, the stars twinkling bright at night and listening to total silence when we sit on our lanai for dinner.
Thirty years ago there were few hotels on the island, but I was able to land a job at Sheraton Kauai Resort on Poipu Beach. I hit the ground running and enjoyed working in the hotel’s food, beverage and catering division for 12 years. During this time two hurricanes struck our island and the hotel causing a job interruption both times, with the last one ending my service there. I was then hired at the Hilton Kauai Beach Resort working in the same field for the next 17 years.
Fast forward 30 years –Who said summer romances never, last? Well, I’m still married and living on Kauai, but now have a new job. We always hear that things happen for a reason and change is good, right? Well, now I can say I believe it! Last year I was hired by Kōloa Rum Company as their Director of Public Relations. Kōloa Rum Company was founded in 2001 to produce and market world class, small batch micro-distilled, authentic Hawaiian Rum and related products. After nine years of hard work and red tape, the company started distilling rum last year and opened a company store and tasting room at the Kilohana Plantation in Lihue. I can honestly say that I have a dream job working with a small startup company and learning and talking about rum, what could be better!
Working in the hotel industry for those 30 years gave me the opportunity to travel and utilize the wonderful benefits the hospitality industry offers. I’ve been to Bali with my family as well as Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and parts of the United States. One thing I’ve noticed in my travels is that no matter what beauty those third world destinations and the US mainland have, Kauai far surpasses them and doesn’t have polluted air and water nor the traffic congestion and crime they have. I always love coming home, it’s true, there’s no place like it. On my drive home from the airport through lush vegetation, seeing vibrant rainbows even in misty rain, I still feel lucky that I made Kauai my choice and never looked back.