What? More Hawaii?

Yes, more Hawaii. And there will still be even more to come, because, even though Rick's time is nearly up, I still have about 11 more days. But that last 10 days will not be spent sight seeing. Mom and I have created quite a long list of chores around here for me to do.

But - for now - the vacation continues.

Thursday was spent working around here. Rick caulked the storage shed and I'll paint it after he's gone. While he did that I ended up working in the garden. There are lots of palm fronds that needed to be removed and I had to plant the yellow ginger I picked up for her the other day. By the end of the day we were both completely exhausted and went out to a local burger joint to eat, Bubba's Burgers.

While we were working we discovered one of Mom's chickens sitting in her box to lay an egg. Rick went to take pictures, then I copied him, she was being so trusting, not jumping out of the box when we came near. A while later we heard some of the bottles around her box falling and when I looked up to see what had happened I saw her laying among them and she didn't look good. They apparently have a problem here with the wild chickens contracting botulism. It paralyzes their legs and neck, then eventually the rest of them til they die, usually within a day. We actually found one dead by the car one of the first nights we were here and since then about 8 more have gotten sick. Dad has burial duty and buried 3 yesterday and 4 today. We're gonna see about creating a better watering setup so their water stays fresher, maybe that'll help.

Oh, yeah. While Rick was busy caulking Dad asked for him to stop to help him cut off the bunch of bananas that was finally ripe. That was quite a treat! They cut it down (Dad used a chain saw on a stick) and hung it outside to finish ripening. We get to start eating them tomorrow.

Moving on to Friday. We wanted to get up early one morning to see if we could get a nice sunrise-at-the-Kilauea-lighthouse photo session. We got there early enough but found the road to the lighthouse gated up and inaccessible. So we were forced to stay at the parking area that overlooks the inlet next to the peninsula that the lighthouse sits atop. While it didn't afford us a good shot of the lighthouse in the sunrise, or even a good shot of the sunrise, period, it did have an interesting feature we didn't realize we'd get to experience. The area is a bird sanctuary also and is home to red-footed boobies, wedge-tailed shearwaters, tropicbirds, albatross and others. When we got out of the car we were surrounded by swooping shearwaters that were nearly hitting us! The babies that we'd seen in the burrows during our trip to the lighthouse previously would occasionally get loud and sound like human babies! The trees were full of noisy boobies. The shearwaters swooping around resembled large bats. Twice we saw them run into the fence and one time the bird was having enough trouble getting away that I decided to go give it a hand. I delicately put my hand against one side and then gently folded up his other wing, pulled him from the fence and threw him up in the air! The second one turned away from the fence and flew in the opposite direction when I approached him. So, while I think we both decided to delete just about everything we took that AM it was a delightful event after all...

We have been doing so much sightseeing that we haven't had any time to souvenir shop, the other tourist pastime. I know of a few good spots to look but I started feeling a little puny so I pooped out and started getting grumpy. Rick puts up with me so well. He wanted to get some shots of other things that are unique to Hawaii, Kauai in particular so I thought it over and took him to peruse the beach and gardens at the Marriott in Lihue.

Once we were ready to go home we remembered that we'd wanted to try to find this hula show that was to be held at some hotel in Lihue but we couldn't remember the name, Kauai something. On the way I spotted one that looked like it just may be it and shure nuff, it was! We caught most of it. The musicians and singers were at least partly Hawaiian and were great, but the dancers were probably from a hula school and were mostly non-Hawaiians, aka haoles. Not too authentic. But it was fun nonetheless.

This morning Rick had to finish up caulking the shed while I fixed a lamp and cleaned and rearranged some kitchen cabinets. Then mom and I took a jaunt to the dump and then to the store for some food items. Around 2 PM we were free to go play again and guess what we did? Picture taking, of course!

Rick had a few spots in his sights that he wanted to get and so did I. Most of them were in the Kilauea and Hanalei areas so that's the direction we headed. We got most of the stuff we wanted and found the Hanalei Bay beach and pier. I had never been there. I've been missing one of the best places on the island! The atmosphere was very laid back and family oriented. There were couples walking hand in hand, older couples sitting in matching beach chairs, dad's surfing with their preschoolers, adolescents and teens jumping off the pier, paddle-boarders, surfers, etc. So much activity and a beautiful sky and sparkling water. We loved it there, in spite of the dragon!

Well, tomorrow is Rick's last day. I keep feeling like I'm leaving. I'm not, I'm just not sightseeing any more. From here on out it's all work, well mostly. Runs to the dump, picking up coral for mom to use in her garden, weeding, raking, painting, etc.

It's probably gonna feel good to go home. But not yet.

1 cats hacked up hairballs:

Melinda September 19, 2010 at 10:14 AM  

It's gotta be tough to leave such a beautiful place. I'd be looking for real estate! Say, I really like the photo of the seemingly naked howlie banana man.

The chickens catching botulism, what an epidemic! You have the photo of her last moment of health, what a sweet girl she is....I'm glad your dad is burying them and not throwing them out.

About Me

My photo
After 2 unsuccessful marriages I spent 12 years as a divorcee, only to fall prey to another man's wiles. We had a fun 5 years together and then he decided he wanted more freedom so once again I'm single.

So I'm freshly divorced at 57 and have 5 great kids and now 7 grandkids. My kids are still a major part of my life but I'm busy helping my aging parents on Kauai.

I've lived in California, Hawaii and Oklahoma before finally settling here in Washington. I love Washington and come back to visit family, friends and take care of my garden often but will be temporarily a resident of Kauai.

I've moved 30 times in my life (no, my parents weren't in the service, at least not since I was about 2) and finally planted roots when I got my little house that I've owned since '91.

My family are Jehovah's Witnesses, I've been one since '72.