Au Revoir Rachy Poo!

Well, another visitor has come and gone. This time it was Rach. We had a nice 10 days together, and we kept pretty busy.
She got in late Thursday night so we picked her up and went almost straight to bed. The next day we did our mandatory shopping for necessities and finally on Saturday we were able to go see some sights. So we headed north. Our first stop was in Princeville to check out the condition of Queen's Bath, since we had such a great time there on her last visit. Well, being winter, the water was way different and we had to stop before reaching sea level. No visit this time! But it's a nice hike with a couple water falls along the way.

Our next stop was at Hanalei. We headed out the pier to see if we could see any surfers out on the big(ish) waves. Well, we could see them but not enough to get any good shots. We drove to the opposite side of the bay and ate our lunch, it was a beautiful day! Next we stopped at Tunnels Beach and once again - NO SURFERS! (maybe the guy lied when he told me that was Tunnels!) But I wanted to get some shots of Bali Hai from that vantage point anyway. I have to go back and shoot a sunset there some day! We kept meandering and finally came to the end of the road - Ke'e Beach and walked down the beach some there, to be able to see the Na Pali Coast. Our day was completed by a get-together on our lanai with all my friends from the congregation. It was a nice gathering with lots of interesting, good food. So much so that no one wanted to leave. Then someone mentioned the Kapaa Art walk and we were all off once again! We made a quick run around and got to listen a while to our favorite on-island band, "Quake" at the Eastside Grill. Rach and I left early 'cause we'd had a very long day!

We spent a windy day wandering along the coconut coast in Kapaa and Waipouli. Since she'd already seen all the sights on her last visit we were able to slow down a bit and just take it easier. So we spent time just meandering and had lunch at the Olympic Cafe. We went to a thrift store and found a new dining set for the folks, Rach's gift, then to Home Depot for some new rug runners to go with the new furniture. We got some great deals and the kitchen looks so pretty! We spent mom and dad's shopping day doing up the kitchen to surprise them after we had a mediocre breakfast with a GREAT view at the Beachwalk in Kapaa. We had to recover the pads on the chairs, paint the table base and cut and edge the runners. We got done and about 1/2 hour later the folks showed up, it was a great surprise!

Last year I treated myself to a whale watching trip and determined that anyone who comes during whale time also needs to do so. So Rach and I splurged on that. Due to the winds and rough surf they chose to take off from a location much closer to home, Nawiliwili Harbor. We had a great time on the boat, saw lots of whales and spinner dolphins (they jump and spin like cheerleaders!). The captain was a local guy and had a more aggressive style of whale watching than the guy who drove the boat last year but it was such a party atmosphere no one could complain. I swear every person on that boat was sarcastic! Rach really let her hair down (like when she goes to baseball games) and had a blast! I don't think anyone noticed when they failed to serve us our champagne at sunset, we all had so many Mai Tai's! Maybe they decided we all had had enough alcohol, we didn't need champagne!

We spent a day on the south and west side. Although this island is small it has enough traffic to make the drive to the other side a real job. So we got kind of an earlier start and headed to Poipu. We saw the Spouting Horn (meh) and the public section of the McBryde National tropical botanical garden. I discovered a pretty orchid and cactus garden in Poipu when I was out with Mary so I took Rach there. I also discovered the Kauai Coffee plantation with Mary and took Rach there. It's a great new addition to my Kauai tour. We ate our lunch on the beach again and analyzed the Tommy Bahama beach chairs that all the rich tourists were using. I'm gonna have to get me one of those! We stopped at Salt Pond park, walked a little. We went to Glass beach so she could collect some glass sand for a coworker and saw a seal sunbathing. In Old Town Hanapepe we found a little hole-in-the-wall shave ice vendor selling old style shave ice (no ice cream and in a styro cup) and while Rach cooled herself with that we walked through town enjoying the art galleries from the outside.

We had planned to do something else, besides the whale watching and that something ended up being bike riding! But it was a VERY windy day and we realized we were maybe only be out for 10 minutes. I had a goal, I wanted to get up close and personal with the old "pineapple dump" so we headed that direction first. There's a nice bike path being made that will eventually reach from Anahola to the airport in Lihue. So we headed toward the pineapple dump which was uphill but down wind. I wanted to get the harder uphill part done while we were still energetic and fresh. We rode up that hill with no effort and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The views were spectacular! Then we turned around and headed down hill. I wondered why the down hill riders were pedaling when we were going up and I found out. Gravity was no match for the wind - we had to nearly stand and pedal to go DOWNHILL! It was crazy! We got back to the bike rental place, grabbed a bite (fish tacos at Al Pastor taco truck) and a quick visit across the street to the Kauai Craft Fair and was gonna go back on the trail for as long as we could stand it but Rach got to a point not too far and said it wasn't fun any more. It was just too hard. So we turned around and, now going WITH the wind, we barely had to pedal! It was so fun! We wish we cold have gotten a ride in someone's truck to the far end of the trail and just coasted back the whole way!

The folks like  to take visitors out to Duke's for dinner on their last night on island so we had that planned and forgot that it was Valentine's Day! So Duke's and every other restaurant that takes reservations was booked solid. We had to find a nice, first come, first served type of place. We ended up in Hanalei at the Dolphin restaurant, right on the Hanalei River. It was very nice, we all had something different, Dad had chicken, Rach had fish, Mom had veggies and I had sushi. Because it was her last day here we had to go buy some pineapples for Shirley. She found out you can take a box of pineapples on the plane and check them FOR FREE. So we bought 10 beautiful Maui Golds and packed them up and took them and Rach to the airport around 10:30 for her midnight flight home. She posted on facebook a screenshot of her phone weather report when she got there - 34º! As much as I love the seasons I can't really say that I miss the freezing weather - except maybe the hot tub that goes along with it!

Whoa!

A whole month without blogging! Well, it's mostly just day-to-day stuff going on so, yeah.

The work around the house is coming along nicely. The house is almost completely finished inside! Just gotta get a plumber in here somehow so that can get done and we can move on...

I have a nice group of crazies that I get to hang with at least one night a week. We have a moon party every full moon, so far the weather has cooperated. Once we had the event at one of their houses and it just wasn't the same. We're gonna stick with the beach for the moon risings. This time we had music, a fire pit and the usual finger food, wine and beer. There was a total of about 15 of us, including some visitors from the mainland.

The weather has been decently cool. I've even worked outside during the day without sweating! That's saying a lot! And last week the nights dropped into the upper 50s, we had to add another layer and warmer pjs to our sleep routine. we also had a couple storms that flew through. One lasted only a couple hours, while the folks were in town and I was home alone. Yeah, we had buckets of rain but it was the wind that was impressive! The gusts were downright scary!

The folks are all healed from their surgeries. They both accomplished what they were meant to. The only thing that didn't work out was that Dad managed to get shingles just as he was healing. That isn't going away as quickly as his recuperation went!

We sure have a lot of power outages here! 1/1 our power went out just after midnight and was out for about 5 hours while we slept. The strange thing was that the WHOLE island went out!

We had the best baby shower ever last weekend. It was mostly done by the dad and granddad! We played games but it wasn't the typical gaggy baby shower games. We all sat and ate and then our tables were our teams and we played games as teams. Our table came in 2nd nearly every time! We would win funny money and after the games were done we had (click the link!) an auction for prizes! That way we got what we wanted, not just what we won!

So now it's whale season, I only saw a splash so far. But Rach is coming in a month and we'll hopefully go on a whale watching trip! I hope it's as good as the one I did last year, that was superb!

At this rate I guess it's safe to say: "See you next month!"

Synchronized Surgeries!

This sure has been a busy couple weeks! First Mary's visit and the convention and all the house-sitting and airport shuttling. Then the folks both managed to get their long-needed surgeries, which had to be done on Oahu, scheduled simultaneously!

I dropped them at the airport early Monday morning. Once on Oahu dad's classmate, Arthur, picked them up and shuttled them to mom's hospital, Straub. She had her pacemaker installed without any problems and immediately after she could feel a difference - instead of dragging around with a pulse in the 40's she was more energetic and alert with a more normal pulse in the 60's.

Dad has a bunch of funny stories regarding his prostate surgery that was performed at Queen's hospital, 4 or 5 blocks from Mom's hospital. One that was particularly entertaining involved the test he had to have to determine that he truly needed the surgery that was schedule for the next day. He was told it was going to be an ultrasound - NOT!!! It was a tube that was inserted that showed the enlarged prostate and blocked urethra and the full bladder behind all that, not quite the simple ultrasound he was expecting!

Apparently they were quite the couple at the airport. They both had to be pushed around in wheelchairs so they had a captive audience. Mom is usually the one cracking jokes and being a little too open with the details but this time it was more Dad! But everyone seemed interested and got a big kick out of it, they even shared the stories with other airport personnel so they had a forewarning about the couple at gate 59!

So now that they both got their fixes we'll see how things go, hopefully we'll see some improvement for a while...

Good 'Ole Mary

Mary, my buddy who went to New York with the boys and me back in '05, then we went together to San Diego to help a family move last December, has always wanted to visit Hawaii. Since I was planning trips twice a year I knew I could time a visit so she could accompany me. That was, of course, before I knew I'd be MOVING to Hawaii. Anyway, November was the next scheduled visit and she jumped at the chance!

I went home to visit my family and winterize my yard and timed it so I'd return with Mary and then, because I'd moved here and didn't know I'd be doing that when I originally booked our tickets, I just didn't fly back with her. She whined about having to get on the plane and fly by herself but all turned out well.

Surprisingly, when we got here she was up to a trip to the beach so I took her to the same beach I'd taken Rachyl to when she first got here - Kahili Beach, my new favorite. We just walked down to the beach and found some rocks to sit on and watch the surfers for about an hour.

We were fortunate enough to have timed our flight when most of my friends were heading to Oahu to attend our International Convention. That meant there were lots of empty houses and few left behind to house-sit. By the end of Mary's visit I was house-sitting 4 places to different degrees. We were here with the folks from Sunday - Tuesday, then Wednesday we moved over to the funhouse to watch it for Kathy. The following Wednesday we moved into a very nice place with a stunning view and stayed there for the remainder of Mary's visit, then I stayed a couple more days to take care of their cat, dog and young chicken. And I was also stopping at a neighbor's place every day to feed their pets.

In our first week I got to show Mary all of the sights that she could handle, with her sensitivity to heat and sunlight. So the 2nd week we were just in relax mode. While we were on the road a lot we carried a cooler and took our lunch and ate on the beach several times. Mary treated me to many meals out and paid for all my gas. Such a generous friend! Well, maybe that was because she only had to pay $99 for the buddy ticket I got with our Alaska Airlines credit card!



We were originally going to go to a luau but after checking around decided instead to do the Na Pali Coast sunset dinner cruise. It was a good choice! There were swells about 8' high and lots of wind so we flew out to the far end of our cruise, then came back leisurely while Captain Ian told us all about the valleys and pali (cliffs) and their history. The ride out was exhilarating, Mary found the best spot where we could be outside but not get blasted by the wind and sea. She was very worried about getting seasick but everything turned out fine. There were a few sick ones on the catamaran but fortunately Mary was not one of them. But oh! I didn't mention the dolphins! On the way out we had spinner dolphins accompanying our boat for a while. Then on the way I saw a flying fish! It almost looked like a hologram because it was travelling at the same speed and direction as our boat. It was about a foot long and bright silver! A couple and I were the only ones who saw it and we just stood there in amazement til it was gone - then we all basically high-5'd each other for witnessing such a cool sight! On the way back the bottle-nose dolphins lead our boat for a while. They'd swim beside and between our hulls, then take off in front of it and jump! While that was going on the spinners were in the distance just have a dolphin party! Jumping completely out of the water! Weee! The simple meal they offered was one of Mary's favorites of the whole trip - pulled pork or chicken salad sliders, pineapple slices and some salad or something. Food is not my first priority so I don't remember exactly.

Oh! Another thing about our boat trip. We bought the tickets for Tuesday and the weather and swell were so bad that the captain decided not to do a sunset cruise that day but gave us lots of options: we could choose another day, get a full refund or go out with him to wherever he decided to go that afternoon, it just wouldn't be the Na Pali coast. So we chose Mary's last day here because it was predicting the best weather. It was a perfect day for it! (for November, that is)

There are lots of little stories I could tell from the visit, the nene at the Kilauea lighthouse overlook that almost let Mary pet him, the parrot in the cage on the roadside that squawked and jumped when Mary reached her hand out, feeding the chickens grapes at Ha'ena, the foul-mouthed, drunk partyers at Salt Pond, the moon party and the discovery of the '49ers, the numerous visits to the Kauai Coffee plantation, the adventurous drives down roads previously unknown, the search for pineapple fields, etc.

So will she be back? Maybe in the new system...

A Home Visit

Well THAT was the longest I've been away from all my kids! 3 months! Some of us felt it more than others but it was great to go home and spend some time with everyone.


I got to go with Rach to pick a new kitty. She found a real winner and named him Mongo. He's a bengal mix, probably with tabby. He's very much like their current kitty, Izzy. For some reason he adopted me and my robe. In only a week the 2 cats were playing! One of their favorite things is to chase each other up and down the hall. It sounds like a couple little horses running! I got to learn first where he likes to sleep - right on my face! So the first night I had to move him off my face 8 or 10 times before he gave up and slept in the middle of the bed. So now when they're sitting on the couch Tony has 2 cats and Rach has none...

The new little baby Kevin is such a sweet smiley little boy now that they figured out how to fix up his tummy problems. He's crawls and stands pretty good for just 6 months old! I think the grandkids all enjoyed seeing Gramma Soup. Hunter came and helped me in the yard as often as he could. We found a dead possum skeleton (and hair) in the woods where I dump my grass and saw deer back there too! Both little girls talk a blue streak and Taylor seemed to have fun when I went over to see their chickens and visit Gage.

Rach and I also went to the Kubota Gardens for a quick photo day. It wasn't as pretty as in the summer but I'll go again in May. It should be gorgeous then!

One night I heard that Denny was gonna can some tuna that he caught on a recent fishing excursion so I went over to watch the process. Very interesting. Imagine - my SON cans stuff!

Since Tony has lost over 100 pounds he needs a complete new wardrobe, which they, of course, can't afford. Rach convinced him to check out a Goodwill store when they were donating some of his fat clothes ("If you're donating these just think - so do other people") and now he's hooked! So we went into Seattle to visit the massive one there. We had a very successful shopping trip!

I managed to cram in all the yard work time I needed. It rained often but if it was a dry day I worked. And every Sunday it was dry, so I couldn't get to a Sunday meeting! But I made it to all the Thursday meetings. And my last Monday was a beautiful day so I killed myself to get what I could done. I worked so hard and was so sore that I had a hard time getting to sleep. I even dreamed that the next sunny day was the next day so I'd have to work instead of getting my day of rest! It was a nightmare! But I got everything done that needed doing: balance hot tub chemicals, put moss killer on the roof, clean the gutters and chopped lots of shrubs back hard. Then there was cutting back the spent perennials, putting weed killer on all the gravel and mowing. When I was done I had my park back once again!

I requested 2 events to take place on my visit that I enjoy every year, visiting a pumpkin patch and having our big turkey dinner. So we also got those in and both were as memorable as usual. There was a very obvious void, though. Our newest little family was missing but maybe we can do things with them when I visit in May. For May I'm requesting a trip to the tulip fields in Mossy Rock.

So the weekly texts will resume this coming Saturday, kids - be prepared!

Dis Couch Ain't Very Comfy

Tuesday night. If something's gonna happen, it'll be on Tuesday night. Because I plan to go out in service on Wednesday. That's my sleepless night. No, I don't get nervous, it's just the way it is. So last night I was sleeping quite soundly, for a change, when I felt something.

It must have been my buddy on Maui's story of waking up and finding a centipede on his back that made me instantly aware of the crawling I felt through the sheet. It was large, fast moving but not heavy like a mouse - it was a centipede.

I was instantly awake and aware of what was going on. I quickly slithered out from under the sheet in the opposite direction from the big bug's movement, flicked on a light and began hunting. I found the 5- incher right away but he moved so fast I knew I wouldn't be able to catch him. I grabbed my pillow and sheet and attempted to sleep on that little couch - ouch!

So I missed another morning in service. I was glad I stayed home, though, because once the folks were up I began tearing my "nook" apart and found the nasty thing on the floor. I went and grabbed some tongs and got him! He was twisting around in the tongs and I had planned to flush him but the bathroom was occupied! WHAT DO I DO WITH IT!?!? The answer was out in the yard - throw it to the chickens! They love the yummy things. So I chucked it and a big rooster ran after it and cleaned it up for us...

After all that I researched what attracts them and found out that they're considered beneficial insects - they eat other bugs. That's too bad, they're not welcome here!

A New Pastime...

You've been seeing it on my Facebook posts - my new friends have a routine of going "swimming". I wondered what exactly that meant and now that I know I'm all for it! What we do is go to our favorite, fairly calm, reef-free area and stand out in the water, talk and fight the current!

I've been invited to walk down to the beach with some of the friends that live right nearby. I've turned down their invitations, though, because the walk first heads away from the ocean, then leads down a dark, narrow, curvy road with barely any shoulder on one side, a hill on the other and is riddled with potholes. It's downhill so once we're all relaxed and maybe tired from all that "swimming" it's a long walk uphill. I used my asthma as an excuse. What I should have said was "Ain't gonna happen!"

So there's 4 of us most of the time:

Kathy Gay is a recent transplant from the mainland, a stage 4 breast cancer survivor, has outlived 2 husbands and is a great-grandma already at 60! She has crazy energy and has sunk a ton of money into the funhouse so she'll be living off her investment for the next couple years.

Leslie Fabiana is a local girl who lives on her family's Hawaiian homestead land with her husband and lots of relatives in neighboring houses. She's been on Kauai for something like 30 years and knows everyone and every place on the island. She's the oldest of our group, is a grandma and one of her sons is a photographer.

Leslie Proffitt is an adorable southern belle from Kentucky, also recently transplanted here. She has a husband back home, selling their property there, and a 39 year old son here that she's living with. She also has custody of her grandson, Lachlan (sp?). She found a property here with 2 houses on it that her family will be living in and it's nearby, less than a mile away!

Every now and then Diana Mahi joins us. She and Leslie F have been close for decades. She's a recent widow, has 3 kids and a few grandkids. She lives on her land with rental properties (one that I stayed in ten years ago) and a tree farm or something like that, a beautiful property where a previous blog "Aloha Donny" took place.

So we like to go and stand in the water and, if it's late enough, we bring drinks and pupus (snacks), usually hummus and nori and chips. After we got out of the water they all drink wine and I bring a beer or 2. Diana's been bringing battery-powered candles so we have a nice glow after dark. Last week I left around 8 and after I was gone some people showed up to lobster hunt using snorkels and underwater flashlights!

We had a full moon party a few weeks back, the full moon was supposed to be huge, orange and coming up at sunset. We had a real nice group that included some kids, I think there were 10 all together. One girl had just been at her ballet lessons so she ended up dancing on the beach in the moonlight.

So I have a new pastime to spend with my new friends! When it's time for me to leave the beach (when I'm getting chilled) they promise to bring a jacket for me so I can stay longer the next time. What a great bunch!