Day 33 – What to do on a Rainy Day?

Try to outrun the rain? Or just drive around? Or go play outside between showers? We did all of those things and a few more!

We had a few rain showers overnight, but no gushing downpours. We woke to a bit of cloudy skies, but after reading Glen’s detailed forecast we knew showers would be more numerous today due to the remnants of a tropical storm.

We had to have a beach walk to start our day, so we just went “around the block”, a brief road walk to the beach and then back to the road. Lucky for us we did this loop, we had monk seal encounter #5 of this vacation and a rainbow!

After the walk it was breakfast time and then the jackfruit adventure awaited Mike.

Well, the jackfruit adventure was a bit of a bust and disappointing. Mike watched youtube videos on how to cut the fruit and what it should look like, so he was prepared. However the jackfruit was picked to early and wasn’t ripe. The pods were rock hard and didn’t have that juicy fruit taste.

After a clean up of the area and Mike from the gluey substance that jackfruits give off, we headed to do the other side of Waiakalua Beach. On Day 26, we went to the left side of the beach, today we attempted the right side. The adventure here didn’t get very far, the rocks we had to go over were more and further than we expected to get to the secluded beach. Plus it started to rain, which was making the rocks very slippery.

After that we packed in the adventures for the day, went to the Dolphin for lunch and had a salad and a fin burger, cajun style.

We arrived home to patches of blue sky, mixed with gray. When we had a fairly large swath of blue, our neighbor invited us to look at another neighbor’s gardens and her stunning orchids. I feel like this trip, orchids are all the rage!

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We had a late lunch, so we just had some chips and salsa for dinner before sunset viewing. We were treated to rainbow before the sun sunk.

In our three trips to Kauai, we never had a truly full day of rain, today was the rainiest we’ve encountered, but we survived, dodging the rain and at times embracing it. You have to make the most of the days, rain or shine!

July 28, 2017 0

Day 32 – Daily Delights

I love the spontaneity of our days. We never know what little or big delight will cross our path during the day. Today we had a few delights and last the one of the day was HUGE.

The day began with a two mile beach walk at Cannon’s beach. It wasn’t the plan to walk that much, but we just kept going, until hunger pains set in and returned home to breakfast.

After our breakfast, we made the plan to hike the Moloaa Coastal Trail. While doing some research we learned that this is a disputed trail, but luckily it is still open to hike. One blogger called it the trail to nowhere. It does end at a fence line, but the views are dramatic and worth it to go “nowhere”. You have to walk to the left of the bay to access the trail. We lucked out today and had a monk seal sighting on the way to the trail head!

This was about a 1 mile walk from the car and to the end of the trail at the fence. Don’t worry, you know when you hit the end of the trail, signs inform you of it.

After our hike we jumped in the water for a quick cool off, we even tried to get the seal in our water selfie!

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This is a lovely little area and one we need to spend more time at. We had planned another adventure after this, but once again hunger pains steered us in another direction, to lunch we went.

We decided to try out The Bistro in Kilauea. Before we went there, we did have to stop by the egg place at mile marker 18 to see if they had fresh eggs. We scored, they did! Once again I got to hang out the sold out sign.

On to The Bistro we went. They had two specials, fresh caught ahi, served over soba noodles with pineapple salsa in a coconut curry sauce and a chicken sandwich (not locally caught) that had a tomato goat cheese spread with lettuce and tomatoes served with fries. To be honest Street Burger has the better fries. We decided to try both dishes and have the pineapple cobbler for dessert. Everything was delicious and yes you might say a bit pricey, but we were ok with that.

After lunch we stopped at the soap store to pick up more surfer salve soap and a few other goodies to ship back. Once we arrived at the house, I took my regular afternoon siesta and then we had dinner. Yes tonight we had the ahi the neighbor caught, served on grains with long beans.

After dinner a rain shower was passing through, so we decided to get a head start on tonight’s dessert, the bananas wrapped in limpia pastry, this time I drizzled dark chocolate on it.

Sunset tonight was wet, hazy and full of weddings.. Three different weddings, one came complete with a singer and hula dancer. We had the good fortune to be treated to the couple’s first dance, the music provided by the Ukulele player singing Iz’s rendition of Over the Rainbow. Yes, I did tear up.

When we returned home, very wet, the hughest delight was waiting for us, jackfruit. A neighbor asked if we wanted one, we said sure, next time we will ask what size before saying yes…yikes, anyone have any recipe suggestions?

We truly had a day full of all different delights. Who knows what delights tomorrow will bring us.

July 27, 2017 2

Day 6 – To the Other Side We Go

Today was our move day to the other sound of the island to our friend’s home on the North Shore. Time to spend a month here house sitting. We are very blessed to have house sitting/caretaker gigs going with friends here and in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

It was a typical morning for us, big breakfast with coffee. Today we enjoyed papaya boats with yogurt, granola and more fruit. This is my new favorite breakfast creation, can’t wait to add in some fresh mango!

Following breakfast it was time to pack up and head out of the Waimea House. Our first stop was the Kauai Coffee Company, now that we are further away, we wanted a few extra bags.

Our next stop was one of my favorite farmer’s markets, the one at the community college. We picked up some great veggies, fruit, jams, goat cheese and guess what, more coffee.

swiss chard!

Mike getting more coffee

the haul of fruits

We had one final stop in Lihue, Costco. Our big purchase was Kauai Shrimp.

On our way up to the house, we stopped at a road side stand to pick up eggs. We picked up the eggs, saw the price and put the eggs back down. I thought $12.00 a dozen was a little overpriced. Though they did have wonderful micro greens, so we did purchase a bag.

Finally we arrived at the house and were greeted by the largest papaya we’ve ever laid eyes on. Our friend left it for us as welcome back gift. Perfect for a very large smoothie tomorrow.

At this point we were starving, so back we headed to Hanalei/Princeville. We thought about Sushigirl Kauai, but her line was ever so long. Driving past Hanalei Dolphin the bar was empty so we decided after our brief stop at Foodland, we would return, have fish tacos and a beer. Returning to Hanalei there was no parking at the dolphin and the place was packed, guess rain showers drive the people off the beaches and into food places. We had high hopes that Sushigirl Kauai wouldn’t be packed because of the rain. She wasn’t that busy, so in we pulled and ordered.

Sushi Burrito

The Legend

While I waited for the order, Mike went to the house to drop off the groceries. On his way back his family from the midwest was attempting to facetime him from the family reunion. Cell service was spotty, so we had to wait until he picked me up and we landed back at the house. We face timed with Jenni, Chris, Matt J., Matt B., Mark, Nancy, Mary, Monica, John and Karen (they made me put in their names).

Once we showed the family around via the phone, we finally sat down to enjoy our lunch. The food was amazing, so fresh and flavorful. I have a feeling we’ll be regulars over the next month.

We rested, prepped all our veggies, chatted with neighbors and waited for sunset viewing hours.

It felt so natural to take the path to the beach, sort of being with an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time, just feels right to be together again.

The sunset wasn’t spectacular but we didn’t care because we were on our favorite beach to view the sunset, Tunnels.

But what was spectacular was the monk seal that swam by us. How is that to end the day? Perfect way to start living on the other side of the island.

July 1, 2017 0

Day 33 – Connected to the Ocean

I wish I could start every morning of our life like we did today. Wake up, savor a fine cup of coffee, eat fresh fruit, locally grown and then take an hour and half stroll on the beach.

We entered at Cannons Beach and strolled almost to Ke’e Beach. What a morning to walk, sun and tide were both out. Simply a beautiful morning with creatures of the ocean to watch.

P1020500 — crabs, snails and limpets oh my

P1020515 — Monk Seal shhh taking a snooze

After our private experience with the monk seal, we continued on until we were able to see the Napali coast in all her beauty.

At this point we turned around and headed back. It was a relaxing way to start the day.

By the time we landed at home, it was time to find lunch. We enjoyed The Jailhouse Pub the first week were here, so we decided to have another lunch there our last week. We drove the 50 minutes and once again had an enjoyable lunch. Of course the waitress and the Guinness beer added to a fun lunch experience.

We then hoped to have a dessert at Icing on the Cake in Kapaa, but it is closed for renovations until August 16th. We were broken heartened. Oh well, hit up the bakery next door. We picked up a little mango french toast thingie to eat at our outing tonight and I got an iced mocha to go. Ok it really wasn’t a true iced mocha, a shot of espresso with a little milk and lots of chocolate, to die for!!

At home we recovered from the beach walk and lunch. Quickly 6:30 came and we packed up snacks and headed out to Waipa for the Hawaii Ocean Film Fest featuring tributes to Andy Iron and our Cultural Connections to the Sea.

P1020531 — the big screen - don't worry the place fills up

The films were great. We had a lot of fun and to help set the mood the moon came out to play.

We started the day at the sea and ended the day with films about the ocean. Not a bad day, I say.

August 12, 2011 0