Cow-Eye!

Yep, we're in Kauai! (on Kauai?) It's early Saturday morning and the folks are still in bed. I don't find the desire to blog while the folks are up, I guess I feel like I need to spend the time visiting with them.

As I try to do when here I'm up much earlier than at home. That's for 2 reasons, 1 - I don't want to get too accustomed to this time zone, if I wake up at 6 it's already 9 at home, and 2 - it gets late here much earlier than home, I want to utilize all the daylight I can. The sunrises are always worth getting up for!

Well, we missed the sunrise this AM. We did get up and head to the beach when we got up, though. Last night we ran down to the closest beach as daylight was dwindling as we haven't touched the sand or water yet. When we got back Mom said that the monk seals like to rest at night on a part of that beacht. But they take off early so we hit the beach as early as we could - no luck. Oh, well. We'll just try again tomorrow!

The chickens were particularly amusing this morning. On our way down the road I saw something running. A small dog? It was yellow and had what looked like a red head. No, it was a great big fat rooster, just bookin' across some grass! Then when we were headed back from the beach we were coming up to a woman that was walking down the road and on the other side was a chicken, they looked as though they were walking together. Just a few yards up the road there was a rooster with his wings held out from his body chasing a hen across the street, she finally just flew up into the trees. So now I know why the chicken crossed the road - to get away for the rooster that was chasing her!

So, to go back to the beginning, our flight was late, long, full and somewhat uncomfortable. Fortunately it was only as long as it was, it would end, just keep your eyes on the prize - Hawaii! We went to Walmart from the airport in our Impala LT that we got for a song, thanks to hotwire.com. We had planned to hit some place for burgers and a beer but the flight was so arduous that we were pretty wiped out, so I just grabbed some McChicken sammiches from McD's in Walmart and we headed for the folks'.

As we're entering the Kapaa area Mom calls and tells me to get cake - she wants cake. "Safeway's open" she says. OK, we'll get cake. Mom wants cake.

We get here and start yacking, then Dad gets here from meeting and puts eyebrows up when Mom tells him we brought cake! We were dog tired but still, in the excitement, stayed up till midnight, that's 3 AM to our Washington bodies!

So yesterday was our first morning and day here and, as usual, it was spent just kinda catching up from our tiredness and excitement. We went out to a late breakfast at their favorite breakfast spot, Kountry Kitchen, then on to Costco and Walmart. In the parking lot at Costco we ran into some of their friends and found out they were headed for Polihale beach to camp - something I'd like to do. So while chatting with them she, Liz, mentioned that they spent 2 years in Minnesota. That reminded me of something funny that our circuit overseer, Bro Hricziscse, said. When I mentioned his name Liz said "oh! so-and-so Hricziscse (pronounced ra-chis-cha)?" "No" "OK, his brother Rashan and his wife Esther?" "Yeah!" They knew them! That was so funny! I also asked about camping at Polihale, since I've been wanting to do that and the condition of the road, since it's been bad and in recent years gotten worse. She ended up calling from out there to let us know that the road is fine. Nice little turn of events in that Costco parking lot!

A while after we got back to the house dad invited us to go to the Kanehe's house at the end of the street to watch them set up an imu for kalua pork. I was helping mom with some chores around here and really just wanted Dad and Rick to get to spend some time together so I stayed. I figured it would only be like a half hour or so. Well, it was more like 2 or 3 hours!

Rick took lots of pictures, they got to witness the whole process, it was really neat but all men. Kalua pork, authentic Hawaiian kalua pork, cooked in an imu, is man's cooking, even moreso than regular BBQ (haole imu, they called it). It even involved heavy machinery.

Oh, one more funny story.  When we went down to Aliomanu beach last night I grabbed a flashlight since we were rapidly losing daylight.  We started walking down the beach and I started to notice the holes and piles in the sand and remembered the crabs that make them.  I started shining the light on one when I spotted it and it just took off!  They run impressively fast.  So we continued to walk and finally stopped and stood in the waves for like 20 minutes, then started to walk back.  I was using the flashlight since it was now totally dark and shined it down the beach - the crabs were everywhere!  Running in and out of their holes and to the water, they looked like rats!  Some were smaller than an inch in width all the way up to about 4 or 5 inches, from leg tip to leg tip (do they have feet?).  So I hung on to Rick and we walked delicately by the light of the flashlight.  At one point there was a big one that waited til we were quite close and then started running toward the water but right by where we were walking, we both jumped around like the lady in the cartoon jumping from the mouse!  it was hilarious!

Well, I think we should eat breakfast and then head out for maybe the lighthouse at Kilauea, that sounds nice, eh?