Quiet Day

I wasn't feeling great and the weather didn't look good for a drive to the mountains, so we decided on a low key day today. We took a longer morning walk, and stopped at Home Depot to look for a chain to secure the compressor to the side of the truck. It has a tendency to slide around while we're towing sometimes. We decided to use a carabiner to hook the chain to itself at the right length to stop the slide, which will make it easy to unhook when we want to use the compressor.

I took an afternoon nap. Jeff and Sabrina went out to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch.

We stopped on the way over to Jeff's for supper to pick up some vanilla ice cream to go with the strawberries we had cut up for dessert. Jeff made beef stroganoff for dinner. He demonstrated his process for making coffee: precisely measured and weighed to the gram in every aspect, and brewed over ice, because he doesn’t care for hot coffee. He uses a Chemex pour over coffee maker.

We enjoyed the dinner and the company. Jeff and Sabrina had to leave at 6:30 p.m. to take her to the airport. We stopped on the way home for some groceries and cold medicine.


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Living Planet Aquarium

Jeff and Sabrina picked us up this morning for a trip to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium south of Salt Lake City. It's a smaller aquarium, but has some unique and interesting exhibits. When we arrived it was almost time for the next showing of a 4D movie called "The Last Reef." The 4D Theater shows movies in 3D, plus scents, wind, mist, and movement. The mist definitely impressed the kids in the audience! The reef program was well done, colorful and educational, and a plea for saving the world's reefs from ocean acidification.

Some of the highlights of the exhibits include an area devoted to Utah wildlife, including three active, playful river otters, and a colony of Gentoo Penguins in the Antarctic Adventure area.

After we left the aquarium, Jeff drove to Park City to the Wasatch Brew Pub. He likes Wasatch beers and had heard good things about this brew pub.We all enjoyed our meals and the beers we tried. Jeff and Sabrina both enjoyed the Jalapeno Creme Ale. Ken and I preferred the Evolution Amber Ale.

It was hailing lightly when we were walking into the restaurant, and a heavy storm raged outside for a few minutes, but the sun came out again. Sabrina drove home, partly through another heavy storm, but the sun broke through and displayed a double rainbow. Read more!

Visiting and Laundry

We had plans to visit the aquarium today, but I really didn't feel up to it, and Sabrina definitely felt worse. Jeff took her to the doctor's. She was thinking she might have a bacterial sinus infection, but they said it was most likely a virus and sent her home. She spent most of the day in bed, but later woke up and seemed to be feeling a little better.

We all had brisket sandwiches for supper and sat around watching TV and reading. Jeff had the Eagles/49ers game on. Later we watched "Madam Secretary," with Tea Leoni, which is one of Sabrina's favorite shows. It reminded me a bit of the West Wing.

Meanwhile, we did our laundry, just in time, because we were about to run out of essentials. Tomorrow we're going to give the aquarium another shot. Read more!

Jeff the Chef!

We went to visit Jeff and Sabrina this afternoon. Sabrina is feeling worse, but she came down long enough to say hi and get me a cup of tea and a blanket. I cozied up on the love seat in the living room, and Sabrina went back up to bed. Jeff and his dad played pool.

Jeff had been working on the brisket for dinner since last night, concocting his spice rub and marinade and massaging the rub into the brisket. This morning he injected the marinade. The brisket went on the grill to be smoked for eight hours. Meanwhile he made potato skin appetizers, which were delicious. He made asparagus wrapped in bacon and baked in the oven. He made a big bowl of spinach salad, using the chef's knife like a professional.

Sabrina and I joined the guys as Jeff was putting the finishing touches on dinner. Sabrina sliced the brisket. Everything was delicious, including the Argentinan Malbec. After dinner and conversation, Sabrina and I went to rest while the guys played more pool.

We stopped on the way home to walk at the Home Depot. It was chilly, and it rained all day off and on and just wasn't conducive to walking outdoors. Read more!

Pool and Resting

I am still under the weather. We took our morning walk (more like a stroll) and found the train tracks. It’s not just one set of tracks: it’s three. No wonder so many trains go through. Fortunately, they do not sound their horns, but some of them do shake the house.

This is our site at Circle L with a nice shade tree

This afternoon Ken went over to Jeff’s place while I took a long nap. Ken met Sabrina briefly, but she was suffering from allergies and went up to lie down. That left Jeff and Ken. They played pool on Jeff’s new pool table. Ken used his new cue stick, which he said worked quite well.

I’m trying to catch up on my blogging, but not having much luck. Our network seems to be crawling this evening.
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On to Layton, UT

We drove today from Heyburn, ID, to Layton, UT, where we are staying at Circle L Mobile Home Community. The sign says "RV's Are Welcome," and it looks like half of the lots are RV's, many of them permanent. We chose this park because it is only a couple of miles from Jeff's place. We were concerned that our large rig would be a problem to park in a mobile home park, but luckily we got a spot we could pull through, so it was relatively easy.

Mountains in the evening light

Jeff stopped by for a few  minutes on his way to pick up Sabrina at the airport. We'll get together with him tomorrow afternoon.

This morning, on our walk we picked a couple more tomatoes, so we had fresh picked tomatoes on our salad tonight.

I still have a miserable cold. Read more!

More Miles on I-84

We walked this morning at Country Corners and took advantage of the opportunity to pick some small apples, a few ripe tomatoes, and a couple of small (probably hot) peppers. The owners are really nice, and the park is immaculate.

For the third day in a row, we drove east on I-84. Actually I-84 is angling ESE right toward the Salt Lake City Area. Tomorrow we'll pick up I-15 for part of the drive. There's not much in the way of scenery for vast stretches of I-84.

We're spending the night in a small city campground, Heyburn Riverside RV Park, on the Snake River. It's well maintained, and it's adjacent to a city park with a great multi-use trail. Our site #15 is a paved and level pull-thru that looks like it was at one time a handicapped spot (next door site #14 is a handicapped site).

We really enjoyed our evening walk along the river. We didn't see much in the way of wildlife, just a couple of small herons flying overhead, but we did see walkers, joggers, and skateboarders. It's good to see people using a park. We came to a small, obviously rather new covered bridge over a small watercourse, and we saw a young couple sitting close together on a bench on a hill, enjoying each other and the view.

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New Time Zone

We finally crossed Oregon on I-84 today and were welcomed into Utah. We're in Mountain Daylight Saving time. Unfortunately, we lost an hour in the process.

I have a terrible cold in the head, with stuffy nose, irritated throat, headache and just generally feeling sick. I'm taking cold medicine, but the cold doesn't seem to have noticed much.

We are spending the night in a well maintained, attractive RV park near Caldwell, Idaho.

We will head out tomorrow on one more day of our journey to visit Jeff.

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On the Road Again!

We called Jeff at J & S RV Services this morning and explained our problem. He sent Jason, the technician who had worked on our brakes, out to diagnose and fix the problem. Fortunately, that is just what he did. It turned out that a bleeder valve had popped out on the passenger side front wheel, allowing the brake fluid to spurt out. Jason repaired the valve and refilled the brake fluid reservoir (the actuator) and we were on our way with no further brake problems today.

Well, almost. Our ABS system reported that the sensor on the driver's front wheel was dead. Jason has no experience with those things, so he wasn't able to fix it. We will have it checked when we are in Tyler. Meanwhile, our brakes still work--just not in ABS mode.

We ended up at a Pilot RV Park in Stanfield, OR. It is apparently the only Pilot RV park in the country. It's adjacent to the Pilot Truck Stop, but set back away from it.

Tomorrow we'll be moving on to the Boise area, on our way to visit Jeff in Layton, UT. Read more!

Leaving Portland, But a Very Short Trip

We had a great final morning with Chris and Anara. Chris made tender, fluffy scrambled eggs for breakfast. Afterward we took a final walk through Laurelhurst Park, a lovely place to walk. Then back at the house we loaded up everything and headed to  J & S RV Repair to pick up our Majestic. It took a while to transfer everything into the RV and get hooked up, so it was well after 1:00 p.m. when we got on the road.

We drove an hour, so it was time to switch drivers. We pulled off I-84 at the first Hood River exit and turned into a large dirt/gravel lot. When I walked around the rig to check on things, I saw a long arc of something wet on the ground trailing back from the front passenger side wheel, clearly a lot of brake fluid. The brake actuator reservoir reported that it was empty. A Walmart was .4 miles ahead, so we drove there and parked for the night. We didn't think it would be safe to drive farther.

Once it cooled off a bit, I used our new mechanic's creeper to get under the rig and look at the wheel. I couldn't see where the brake fluid was coming from, but the whole inside of the wheel and tire was wet with brake fluid, and there was a puddle on the ground. Tomorrow morning we'll call J & S and see what they say.

We don't know enough about how brakes work to know what happened, but likely it wasn't put back together right and a seal leaked or some fitting wasn't tight enough, who knows??? As you can imagine, extremely frustrating!!! But we are okay. No one got hurt, and we are sure we'll get it fixed one way or another. We are 53 miles from J & S. The Dalles is about 20 miles further east, but may be too small to have anybody that could work on something like our rig. We do have Coach-Net emergency road service, which will tow us to the nearest repair place equipped to do the work, but no telling where they might think that would be.

This is especially frustrating because J & S had the rig since August 18. Oh well.

On a more positive note, for supper we ordered pizza from Pizzicato Pizza, just a few hundred feet from home. It was delicious. Read more!

Chapman School Swifts!

Chris made his wonderful waffles for us for breakfast this morning. They were delightful, as usual. Afterwards he and Anara and I drove to the Apple Store in Tigard, about half an hour southwest of his house. On day 2 of the release of the iPhone 6, the line snaked down the block from the store. We walked right in, since we had other business.

I was there for an "out of warranty repair." Translation, dunking your iPhone in the Pacific is not covered by the warranty, but Apple will supply a new or refurbished iPhone for $269. Usually the SIM card is reused, but since mine was most likely corroded by the salt water bath, I got a new SIM. Fortunately, a Verizon representative was in the store, especially to deal with the iPhone 6 release issues, but he was also able to make the change to my Verizon account to put in the info about my new phone.

It was a great feeling to walk out of the store with my iPhone restored. Or almost. It wasn't until later that Chris suggested that I might want to restore from an iCloud backup. That worked like a charm. Very soon all my apps and settings were restored, except that I have to login to each one to start fresh with it.

Meanwhile, Chris had picked up new iPhone 6's for him and Anara yesterday. All was well, except that the numbers were reversed, so that Anara's number was on her dad's phone and vice versa. The Verizon rep was able to take care of that issue too.

This evening we packed a picnic supper and took a bus to Chapman School to see the famous Vaux's Swifts in their nightly return to the large chimney at the school to roost for the night. This phenomenon occurs each September as the swifts gather for their migration south.

The swifts gather around sunset, swirling around overhead. Crowds gather on the lawn to watch this fascinating process. Many picnic, and children slide down a hill on large pieces of cardboard. The Audiobook Society staffs a booth with information about the swifts.

Someone else besides the people knows the swifts are coming.  While we watched, a Cooper's hawk arrived on the scene, first perching in a tree and then landing on the chimney. The swifts back off, but they know they must find a roost. After a bit, the hawk chased some swifts, but we couldn't tell if it had actually caught any.  Read more!

Ground and Floor

This evening Chris treated us all to a performance of Ground and Floor, a Japanese play in the Time-Based Art Festival put on by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Arts (PICA). (Commentary on a previous performance can be found here.) The performance was entirely in Japanese, with English surtitles on a large white cross-shaped screen behind the characters. Unfortunately our seats were far enough back (and my eyes are weak enough) that I missed a great deal of the dialogue. However, the music and unusual posture and movements of the performers conveyed a great deal.

Earlier in the day, Anara accompanied me on a bus ride downtown to the Apple Store for my Genius Bar appointment. All went well. The Apple representative working with me looked the phone over. He took the SIM card out and noted the salt crystals. He agreed that I was eligible for an out of warranty replacement phone. All I had to do was pay $269. The catch was that they didn't have one at this store. I ended up making an appointment to go to the Tigard store tomorrow, where they were holding a phone for me.

The rats are living in the dining area while we are sleeping in Anara's bedroom. That means we have more chances to observe them being cute.

One of Anara's rats, lounging in their new striped hammock.



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Birthday Celebration

We celebrated my birthday again this evening. Chris and Anara took us out for a birthday dinner at Nuestra Cocina, a Portland restaurant specializing in the cuisine of central Mexico. We had to wait half an hour on the patio for a table, because they don't take reservations. Once we got to our table, we had all sorts of delicious and unusual dishes, including a salad of "Grilled cactus, spicy green salsa, avocado & cotija cheese " and "Poblano chile stuffed with braised squash & Oaxacan cheese." It was all delightful, as was the company.

Chris and Anara had picked out some thoughtful birthday gifts. One was a jar opener. He has one, and I commented to him that it worked really well and would help me with the arthritis in my thumbs. It's an OXO Good Grips Jar Opener, very handy.

The second present was a Wii remote, so Ken and I can play games together without having to switch the remote back and forth. Thanks, Chris and Anara!

We slept in a bit this morning, still jet lagging after our trip yesterday. Read more!

Last Day in Paradise

For our final day on the island of Kauai, we headed north. Our first stop was Kilauaea Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge. Visitors can't actually go upon the lighthouse, but Kilauea Point is a marvelous place. From the overlook, you can see Crater Hill, where red-footed boobies nest.

Several species of ocean birds frequent the area, including Great Frigatebirds, who are the pirates of the bird world. They chase and harass birds who have managed to catch some food, scaring them into dropping the food. The Frigatebirds move in and catch the dropped food in the air. Outside the gift shop, a volunteer stood on duty, protecting a downy seven week old Wedge Tailed Shearwater chick, waiting patiently for its parents to return with food.

We drove on north, stopping at various beaches to explore. At one we saw an endangered Monk Seal resting on the sand, with signs warning visitors not to touch or bother the seal.

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We ended up at Kee Beach, at the end of the road, literally. A small cul de sac fronts on the lifeguard station for the beach beyond.

On the way home we stopped at Paradise Shave Ice. We shared a Honalei special, lime, cherry, and banana shave ice over macadamia nut ice cream. The ice cream was good, but we don't have to have any more shave ice--not our favorite.




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Adventures . . . And Misadventures

We decided that today would be a good day to kayak to Secret Falls. We had gotten some advice to rent a kayak from Hawaiian Village so the kayak trip would be shorter, so we headed off up Hwy 580 to just past the Opaekaa Falls Overlook where we stopped a couple of days ago

We were a bit surprised to learn that a hike of over a mile each way is required and that we would be crossing the river guided by a rope. Undaunted, we set out in our tandem kayak. We had a dry bag for our towels and camera. All was well as we kayaked the calm waters, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation.

We got to the place we had to beach the kayak and pulled it up on shore. Next we made two critical errors. We did not take the dry bag with us, but left it in the kayak. Ken took the camera in a small bag. I had the first aid kit in my nylon fanny pack. We had been told that we would need to cross the river following a rope. We spotted a nearby rope across the river and set out. Instead of water up tour knees, we soon found ourselves in much deeper water.

The sad result is that the camera and first aid kit got soaked. The next instant we found ourselves on an island with no visible trail. After casting about, we realized that we had gone the wrong way, so we crossed back, again getting things soaked. We finally did locate the path, mainly by following another group.

Did I mention that it rained heavily again last night? Everything was very muddy. We crossed the river at another rope, this time in only knee deep water. We were very glad we had our trekking poles, because the trail was criss crossed by roots anti many places quite rutted and mucky. Slogging through the muck was slow going, and we managed to take another wrong turn.
Back on the right path, we carefully picked our way, doing some slipping and sliding. Ken slipped and sat down in the muck. We had another couple of small streams to cross, which was good, because we were able to wash our feet and Tevas off. We finally got to the falls.

Lovely! A real treat and worth the difficult hike. One or two people swam in the pool at the base of the falls. We sat on the rocks and dangled our feet, enjoying the cool wart and the spectacular sight. Then we headed back. The return trip was much faster, but it was nearly five hours after our departure when we turned the kayak in. We walked through the Hawaiian village reconstruction, but mainly to get to the restrooms in the rear.

Tired and hungry, we drove to Tiki Taco and had some great fish tacos for a very late lunch. We filled up with gas for our drive tomorrow and headed home for showers and a rest.

Before I could rest, I spent nearly a hour trying to wash the red dirt out of our clothes, and mostly succeeding. Probably better not to wear a white shirt on a hike in the red dirt of Kauai!

Later we took a walk on the multiuse trail. It was getting dark, so we had the trail mostly to ourselves. We enjoyed the peace and the sights and sounds of he Pacific, which we will miss when we leave the Garden Island on Wednesday. Read more!

Waimea Canyon Trail

We got up, smiled at the blue sky and sunshine, ate breakfast, packed lunch, and set out for Waimea Canyon. our plan today was to hike the Canyon Trail to the top of Waipo'o Falls. While I drove, Ken looked up the hike on Tripadvisor.

He came across a couple of suggestions that rather than starting the hike at the Halemanu 4wd road, it would be more scenic to start at the lookout 1/4 mile down. We stopped at what w thut was the recommended lookout and prepared to hike. A woman parked nearby ventured to suggest that this was not a good way to get to the Canyon Trail, that it was in fact not maintained and even dangerous. Fortunately we listened to her advice. The next lookout turned out to be the one we were actually looking for.

It was a steep downhill for the first bit, with roots and leaves and loose dirt to trip the unwary. We were extremely careful, especially after my fall a few days ago. Along the way we met a woman and her daughter who were from Brisbane, and they hiked with us and chatted along the way.

When we finally emerged from beneath the trees, the views were, as promised, quite breathtaking. As we looked around and ooh'ed and ahh'd, we heard the rushing waters of the falls below us. We continued down through some large boulders to a real gem--a double falls ending in a cold pool, where some brave folks were actually in the water. I took my shoes off and sat on a rock to dangle my feet in the refreshingly chilly pool.

We sat on one end of a log and enjoyed the falls while we ate our picnic lunch. The hike back out to the car was not as difficult as we had feared. We arrived at the parking lot tired but happy and headed home, where the first thing we did was shower. I soaked in the tub for a while, which helped my back soreness.

After supper we did a couple of loads of laundry, had some ice cream, and headed to bed.

[photos later]

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Tropical Evening

Today we went to Lihue to the Verizon store.  Ken thought that perhaps there was something wrong with his Galaxy S5 because it seemed that the audio port is not working.  However it turned out that you just have to push the jack in farther than he thought so all's well that ends well. Meanwhile Lee did some shopping in Macy's looking for something to wear for our dinner tonight.

By the time we were done shopping it was well into the afternoon so we came home and fixed a big salad for lunch. We had a reservation for dinner this evening at the Hukilaulanai restaurant. We ordered the tasting menu, which is only offered early in the evening. It was a real delight. For a surprisingly reasonable price, we had a delicious five course meal complete with wine pairings.

From the first bite of tomato gazpacho with Koloa rum pineapple basil sorbet to the final bite of Big Island Vanilla Bean Creme Brulé, it was a gourmet experience. The setting looking out on the Pacific matched. When we sat down, the ocean was blue, but soon we noticed it looked more gray-green. As the light faded, the tiki torches were lit.

After dinner we walked along the beach, enjoying the crashing of the surf. The stars sparkled in the dark sky, and we even thought we saw the Milky Way.

[photos later]

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Waimea Canyon

Our first mission today was a trip to the Verizon store in Lihue to get a new Galaxy phone for Ken. The one that was drowned was a Galaxy 4S. He decided to replace it with a Galaxy 5S, so he did get some benefit to make up for the hassle of having his phone bricked. I decided to hold off on buying an iPhone and instead got a prepaid Verizon LG. so now we are back in business, in touch with the world. at least Ken is: he has all of his contacts and most of his apps back. I have a cell phone but so far no contacts.

We went to Waimea today finally.

We drove around the coastline to the town of Waimea, where we turned north along Waimea Canyon Road. We stopped at several overlooks along the way. One was especially spectacular, but each offered a different perspective of the canyon and its many waterfalls.

At Kokee State Park we stopped to talk with one of the staff at the museum. By this time it was too late to go on any long hikes today but we asked about good hikes for this weekend. She was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. We left to drive north to look out over the Na Pali cliffs. When we first arrived there was no view at all because of the clouds and fog. A man who was waiting at the lookout suggested that it had been sunny and spectacular a few minutes earlier. He said it was worthwhile to wait a few minutes to see if the weather changed.

He also suggested that we go look at a tree or plant with extremely large leaves. We went on to the final lookout at the end of the road. At first we had only a glimpse of a cliff looming out of the fog. Within a few moments as promised the sun was shining brightly and had burned off most of the mist. We could see the spectacular tall Na Pali cliffs and the restless blue Pacific and several boats.

On the way home we looked for a food truck named Tiki Tacos that had really good Yelp reviews. We never found it, so we ended up at another food truck where we got some decent fish tacos, but nothing to write home about.

[photos later]

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Birthday!

Today is my 69th birthday. My Aunt Iris called and sang Happy Birthday to me. Terri called from DC to wish me a happy birthday, and Anara called from Portland. Chris and I finally connected after several attempts. It was great seeing him via Google Hangouts. I got lots of birthday wishes from friends and family via email and Facebook. It was a wonderful day.

We had an awesome sightseeing flight over the island of Kauai with Wings Over Kauai. The island is garlanded with waterfalls galore, including ones featured in famous Hollywood spectacles. The Waimea Canyon rivals the Grand Canyon, but it is covered in lush greenery from top to bottom. The cliffs of the Na Pali Coast are sheer and terrifyingly steep--and they can only be seen from the air or sea.

We had a running commentary by our pilot, and we could ask questions and hear each other's comments. The Bose noise cancelling headphones worked really well.

After the flight, we had lunch at the Plantation Coffee Company Cafe. It's a lunch place with mainly carry out business. Oddly enough,it's in the lobby of the office building, and there are a counter and a few tables around the walls.

After lunch we visited the Kauai Museum, which is right across the street. As we walked up to the museum, we saw that a branch of the cafe is actually located in the museum courtyard, so we could have eaten there. The museum had some interesting displays, but needs a lot of investment, upkeep, and updating.

We watched a fascinating video on the history of Kauai, probably the best thing about the museum. The video tells the history of the island from its volcanic origins through its becoming a US territory. It also details the sad overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the dispossession of the native Hawaiians, with a rousing call for the revitalization of the Hawaiian culture.

After doing some shopping, we drove to Kilauwea Fish House for dinner, but we weren't able to find a parking place, so we went to Papaya Cafe instead. Their hot food gril had closed. When we stepped outside, a woman who was finishing her meal at an outdoor table suggested we go to Pho.

That was not a good choice. We had the house salad and garlic shrimp rice. The salad was mostly iceberg lettuce, and there were hardly any shrimp. To start with there weren't any; we had to ask our server where they were.

When we got back to our place, we did some laundry. I soaked in a hot bath, which was very relaxing and seems to help with my painful ribs from my fall Sunday.

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Wailua River

We did some exploring on the east side of Kauai today. Our first stop was Walmart in Lihue to buy some hiking poles. We did not bring our own because they are not allowed in carry on luggage. We bought an inexpensive pair, and each of us is using one pole. We also needed gas and lunch, but first a rest room. Much to our dismay, neither the gas station nor the Subway had a public restroom, Read more!

Wailua Falls, Opaekaa Falls, and Lee Falls

We wanted to see Wailua Falls and hike to the base of the falls. Driving out to the falls was no problem. Ken took some photos of the impressive double waterfall. Then we set out to find a trail to the base of the falls we had read about, but we never found anything that looked like we would feel good about hiking down. The state has put up signs to discourage people from attempting to hike down. We were discouraged mainly by the wet, muddy conditions, not something we wanted to deal with on a steep, unmaintained trail.

This spectacular view of the falls from the air was taken a few days later when we took an airplane tour.

We drove back to Lihue, where we bought gas. Our little Nissan was showing half a tank of fuel. We were surprised to find that we had used less than six gallons of gas, and the total charge was around $25. That's way less than we are used to with our ginormous truck!

We stopped at a Subway to use the restroom and have lunch, but they did not have a restroom, so we went across the street to MacDonalds. That's the first time in many years that we have eaten at MacDonalds. We had grilled chicken sandwiches, which actually were pretty good.
Later we drove out to Opaekaa falls.

We decided to hike the NouNou trail, which was recommended by the guide books. We found the deep red mud so slippery that we ended up turning back. To add to the discomfort, the path was strewn with fermenting (and slippery) fruit. Unfortunately I managed to lose my balance, tripped by the roots in the trail, and fall in the mud--yuck. Bruised and muddy, we headed home.


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Heritage Trail

Today we headed south along the coast road to check out Poipu Beach Park, which the guidebooks had said was a good snorkeling beach for beginners as well as more expert snorkelers. (We fall in the beginner category.) We spent some time walking along the beach, but the sand was soft and the surf quite high.

We found a picnic table under a palm tree overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was the perfect place for our picnic lunch. Even peanut butter sandwiches can seem like gourmet fare in such a setting.

After lunch we set out on a walk along the Koloa Heritage Trail. We started from Poipu Beach and walked to Keoneloa Bay and Makawehi and Pa'a Dunes, both located along the coast in front of the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, which is very grand indeed. The ocean is blue and sparkling and the ridge of land jutting out into the bay majestic. We saw people on top and hope to make it back to hike the next stretch of the coast.

For dinner we went to Verde, a Mexican restaurant that got great reviews on Yelp. The praise was well deserved. We had the garlic shrimp tacos with refried beans and cilantro rice, easily the best tacos and some of the best food we've ever enjoyed. It's an unpretentious place, and the service is island friendly. Great experience!

Back home, we washed clothes and fell asleep trying to decide what to do tomorrow. A sudden rain storm beat down, and we had to close the windows for the first time.

I got a message from Ed on WWF. He has accepted a job at a car dealership in Lufkin and will start September 15. I'm excited to have the family back in Texas!

Earlier in the day, we were looking over things to do. We wanted to see the island of Kauai from the air, and our friends John and Sandy had recommended a helicopter tour. We checked out a few tours on Tripadvisor, but all of them had some negative reviews that worried us. Then we saw the listing for Wings Over Hawaii, which had an overwhelming number of positive reviews. We decided to make a reservation for next Tuesday, which is my birthday. What a way to celebrate.

[Photos later] Read more!

Historic Kapa"a

Our walk this morning took us north on the multiuse path along the beach. This segment of the path is much more scenic than the part that goes through town. I really love walking along the ocean shore and seeing the waves breaking on the breakwaters. We passed other walkers and many cyclists as we walked along. The main wildlife that we saw was the ever present Kauai chickens. The colorful roosters strut about and crow vigorously.

It's threatened to rain on us a few times, but only a few drops fell. We passed one group of people wading in the sea, evidently fishing for something. Each of them had a net in and a pole, but they seemed to point the poles downward toward the water. We couldn't tell what they were fishing for.

Along the way we read several panels about the history of Kapa'a and Kauai. Before foreigners reached the islands, the people had a system to manage resources to sustain the population. Later the economy depended on large-scale agriculture, especially pineapples.

After lunch we walked around historic downtown Kapa'a. One store specialized in items made from hemp. Several featured tourist junk. We stopped at one health food store and picked up a few items. After a bit we were really hot, and we decided to take the offer of happy hour margaritas (and some ice water) at a local cafe.

We stopped in at the local public library, hoping to use some public computers. It turns out that you have to get a library card if you are nonresident. A three-month card costs $10. The library has only seven public computers, so users are only allowed to reserve them for one hour a week. The library is closed on weekends, and all the computers were in use, so we took an application and went back to our car.



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Jet Lag

We're in Hawaii! How exciting. But the process of getting here was exhausting, and our bodies are definitely not yet used to our new time zone. Hawaii is three hours earlier than Portland, so when the clock here says it's 8:00 p.m., our bodies are still inclined to feel like it's 11:00 p.m.

Today we did a bit of exploring of Kapa'a Town. We drove down the hill to the highway. Basically most of the island is circled by a single highway, which runs along the coast. In Kapa'a the coast is lined by beaches and parks and a multiuse path, which we walked south along.

We came upon a competition swimming pool, in sight of the ocean; it turned out to be a free public pool. Apparently all of the beaches and land belong to the public. They are used for public services like the public library.

A bit farther along was a beach with a sign that said "Baby Beach. Have fun!" Some families were in the water, splashing about. We stopped at Coconut Coasters to check into renting some bikes and talked with a nice young woman who also offered to set us up with helicopter tours and snorkeling gear.

We stopped at a little thrift store, where I found some useful containers, but my real find was a vintage pyrex teapot like this one:

I needed a teapot for the apartment, and I knew Chris didn't have a teapot. After we did a little grocery shopping in town, we went home for lunch. After lunch we went to Lihue and did some more grocery shopping.

After supper this evening we decided to explore the steep hillside behind our apartment. Our host, Dan, had suggested it was worth checking out all the trees, including avocado, cashew, tangelo, pomelo, lemon, curry leaf, bay leaf, allspice, fig, guava, Asian pear, mango, lychee, longan, banana, and coconut. We looked around but failed to recognize most of these. The mosquitoes definitely recognized that we were incautious enough to come into a wet, green area at twilight. They feasted on us, so we decided to explore more later.

Our tropical paradise

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Flying to Hawaii

Chris drove us to the Max station, where we rode the Red Line right into the airport terminal. Very convenient! We flew Hawaiian Airlines. As usual, flying was not fun, but Hawaiian offers some amenities to make it more pleasant. They serve a complimentary meal and a glass of wine on their long flights. There's no choice of entrees. As the flight attendant told a nearby passenger, it's "eat or no eat." Our lunch featured "Chinese Style Fried Noodles with Vegetables" plus salad and chocolate macadamia candies for dessert. All the portions are quite small, but the meal was pretty good.

We flew to Honolulu and then took an inter-island flight to Kauai. The Honolulu airport has a lovely plant-filled courtyard.

When we landed in Lihue, Kauai, we got on the Alamo shuttle to pick up our rental car, a silver Nissan Verve. We drove the ten miles to our AirBnB apartment in Kapa'a Town, stopping at Safeway to pick up some breakfast items. At first sight, we were very happy with our "Private Tropical Apartment," on the lower level of a house set into a hillside. From our walkway, you could even catch a glimpse of the Pacific. Read more!