Helicopter Tour of Kauai

Our last day on Kauai was an exciting one, starting first thing in the morning with a helicopter ride over the island. I was kind of scared going in, but it was very exciting and cool, and our tour guide was easygoing and funny. We flew along the rugged Na Pali coastline and into an extinct volcano, and we saw tons of waterfalls. Kauai is a very green island. Then we got lunch to go and ate at the beach before going on the tour of Allerton Garden. This is an enormous botanical garden with all sorts of flora from all over the world, collected by the Allertons via steamship back in the day. They were also really into statues and fountains. We had an incredible view of a beach with a river flowing down to it, with coconut palms along the side and cliffs rising over it covered with blooming bougainvilleas. Unfortunately that tour does not go down there, but a more expensive sunset one does, so maybe if we ever come back... There was a large rock in the river with a bridge leading to it, and it was also covered with bougainvilleas. Don't worry, I took a ton of photos. The tour took longer than we had expected, and we weren't sure we could get back to the Catholic church near our hotel in time for Mass, but just then we passed a sign advertising St. Raphael's, the oldest Catholic church on Kauai. We found it and explored its grounds, which include the old church, a Stations of the Cross walk up to a grotto, a small chapel, a Lourdes grotto, and the compound that includes the gift shop and the modern new church, which was open in the back. I do like fresh air, but getting it in church is kind of a strange concept to me. We ended the evening at a brew pub, trying a flight of their beers and some of their delicious food. It was the place to be, with lots of twentysomethings hanging out, but oddly the music was all 80's and older. So if you are looking for night life in Lihue, the Kauai Beer Company is the place to go.

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Near-Seal Experience

Today is Friday the 13th, but it was not an unlucky day. Travalon and I went to the Kauai Museum, which had Polynesian artifacts to interest me and World War II artifacts to interest him, then we drove west along the southern shore of Kauai. Our first stop was beautiful Poipu Beach, which has a sheltered area we were wading in, watching crabs scrambling across the volcanic rocks, when the lifeguard announced: "Please stay away from the seal!" We turned to see an actual seal swimming not forty feet away from us. Then it turned around and swam away again, but not before Travalon got a good shot of it which I will try to post at some point. We had lunch at a restaurant called Brennecke's Beach Grill across the street from the beach; we both had ahi tuna and banana drinks. Then we drove to the Kauai Coffee Museum, where we did a walking tour of the plantation grounds and then had iced coffee. A word of warning: their gift shop has lots of great stuff, and we spent too much money there. As we continued west and then north, we saw horses tied up at intervals along the highway, five in all. That was sort of random. Our final destination was Polihale State Park, which was at the end of a long dirt road that kept getting narrower and rougher. Finally we arrived at a beach full of sand dunes, with mountains to the north and off to the southwest, two islands in the distance. The waves were enormous, and we got quite wet wading out into them. The wind was so fierce that it actually pulled on my earring enough to hurt my earlobe. We were enchanted by the idea of a beach named Barking Sands but never did find the road to get to it. The drive back was even more beautiful with the sun setting behind us, as we drove past tons of bougainvilleas and all sorts of other flowers. We ended the evening at an organic restaurant called the Coco Cafe which was so good that I will give them a five-star review on Yelp, if I can remember my password. Their Tahitian lemonade, made with fresh coconuts and lemons, was the most amazing beverage I've ever tasted. So it was a pretty lucky Friday the 13th!

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Kayaking on the Wailea River

Yesterday almost all of us who had gone to the wedding drove in two rented vans up to the North Shore of Oahu, where we had lunch at a shrimp truck, then we stopped at a beach and played in the enormous waves. None of us surf, but plenty of people were surfing there. Our last stop was the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is run by Brigham Young University of Hawaii. It was an outdoor theme park with little villages set up representing various Polynesian islands, and they would each have a 20-minute show, then you would go down the road to the next one. We watched the shows for Samoa, the Maori, Fiji, and Tahiti. The young Polynesian college students who performed were extremely beautiful; I don't know if that's a function of age or ethnicity. Then we went to a luau and watched a big show at the end of the evening. I would highly recommend the Polynesian Cultural Center to anyone visiting Oahu.

Today we flew to Kauai. It wasn't a very long flight; it took exactly one rosary. We rented a car here and set off to find adventure. There was something called the Fern Grotto on the Wailea River that sounded cool, and we headed off to find the outfit that had boat rides out to it with live Hawaiian music on board. Somehow we ended up at a different outfit that offered to rent us a "canoe," which turned out to be the cheapest plastic two-man kayak we'd ever seen. We gamely rented it and paddled out to the disembarking spot, which was very well laid out for the big boats but terrible for kayaks. I tied the kayak to a tree hanging over the river and stepped out... into water up to my neck. I'd already taken my shoes off, fortunately, so I didn't bother putting them back on as we trudged up the path to the Fern Grotto. It was a very beautiful grotto with a small waterfall and lots of colorful plants, including ferns hanging upside down from the rock. So that was our adventure for the day. We also stopped along the way to see a big waterfall. Back at our resort, we explored the pools and hot tubs set amid fake waterfalls and real palm trees, then we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Kauai is very beautiful, with lush vegetation and craggy mountains, and there are chickens everywhere, but I had shrimp for dinner.

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Hawaiian Wedding

Sorry for my lack of blogging yesterday. We were very busy, and of course it's like $7 for 10 minutes to blog here. Yesterday morning we got up very early and went to Pearl Harbor, where we toured the Arizona Memorial. It was very sobering to realize about 1800 men cut off in the prime of their lives were lying beneath us. You could see parts of the ship below the water, and it is still leaking oil almost 70 years later. We even met two survivors from that "day that will live in infamy," and Travalon went kind of nuts in the gift shop. I will hopefully post a photo of myself with the two veterans at some point, so watch for that. Then we had a tour of downtown Hawaii, including the state capital and royal palace.

In the afternoon we went to Travalon's friend's wedding. He teaches English in Japan, and his bride is Japanese but his family lives in Wisconsin, so Hawaii is a good in-between point, besides being a beautiful spot for a wedding. They got married at a Methodist church in a brief ceremony, and there was not best man or bridesmaid, since that's the Japanese tradition, but Travalon and the bride's best friend did sign as witnesses. The groom wore a white shirt and a lei, and the bride wore a white dress and veil as brides usually do back in Wisconsin. The groom said his vows in English, and the bride said hers in Japanese, but for whatever reason a woman played the piano through the whole thing so it was hard to hear. Another woman sang in Hawaiian. Then we went to the reception at the Kahana Resort, and wow was this place amazing! Tons of famous people have stayed there. They had a lagoon in the back with dolphins, fish just like the ones we saw while snorkeling, and big stingrays. It was right on the ocean. Don't worry, Travalon and I took lots of pictures. Our dinner was on the lanai (porch) and was of course delicious. Then we went back to the bride's hotel room, where I spoke a little French to her and her Taiwanese friend, who are both fluent. (They met while studying in Toulouse.) We all bonded over singing; Travalon did a mean Elvis Presley imitation, and I sang "Fly Me to the Moon," which the Japanese people knew the tune to. They sang us a song which we sing to the words, "The other day I saw a bear, a great big bear..." and it turns out that's what they were singing too! We stayed up way too late and woke up at 8:00 this morning instead of our usual 4:00 am, so we must be adjusted to Island Time.

Today we are going to the North Shore, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and possibly a luau, so I'll try to blog about how all that went soon.

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Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

I don't have much time to blog, since time on the computer here is very expensive. Travalon and I flew to Denver, then we flew west, over fascinating landscape and boring ocean, until we hit some turbulence. That was exciting, but not in a good way. Finally we landed in beautiful Honolulu. Everything here is as beautiful as I'd imagined: the beaches, the palm trees, the mountains. Travalon and I had dinner outside at a tiki bar overlooking the ocean, then we took a walk along the beach. There was a festival going on with a parade that went on for hours and a big fireworks display at the end.

Today we woke up around 4 am because of jet lag. We had breakfast at sunrise overlooking the beach, then we took a long walk along the beach, and then we went to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. This was the best snorkeling I've ever done, with tons of different varieties of very beautiful and surprisingly friendly fish. The bay has cliffs around it, and from the top of the cliff you look down on palm trees and turquoise water. It really was paradise!

Sorry this is so brief. More soon!

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Losing My Favorite Boss

Sorry for my lack of posting this week. I have been very busy preparing for my upcoming trip to Hawaii, so watch for posts from there. Also, I haven’t been sure what to blog about. Back when Light Bright was my office mate, she supplied me with plenty of material, but now I only see her once a month or so. The Sock Puppets we worked with were another source of constant material, but my current coworkers are a great bunch who – and this is their only fault – don’t supply me with any blog material whatsoever. The one unfortunate note is that my immediate boss is leaving for a job in Washington DC, which is bad enough, but his last day will be while I am gone so I won’t get to say a proper goodbye. He was the best boss I ever had, the complete opposite of FOX at my last job. Of course, this added to the list of things I had to get done before leaving for Hawaii. I almost feel ready…

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Prairie Man's Birthday Party

Sorry for the long silence, but it has been crazy. How crazy? I can barely remember Friday night! We had a “surprise” birthday party for Prairie Man (I’m pretty sure he knew it was going to happen), and Travalon picked out a book for him about some Duke vs. Kentucky game in the 90’s that was huge for college basketball fans. He also got a Christmas cactus and some other random stuff that I can’t remember now. Catzookz, Twins Fan, OK Cap, Jilly Moose, and of course his wife Luxuli were there, as well as Cecil Markovitch and the single B-Boy, Rich, Kathbert, Travalon, and me. Luxuli made amazing salmon and both cooked spinach and spinach salad, while Catzookz brought another salad, so we definitely got our daily allowance of vegetables that night! Rich made an angel food cake from Kathbert’s recipe, and she separated the eggs for him, so it was a joint effort.

Saturday the Rosary Ladies got together for coffee and the rosary, then Travalon and I had lunch at the new Kabul location, which is lovely but not handicapped accessible. Is that even allowed these days? We met up with the Daughter of Denni and a bunch of other people (including Denni himself) at the Stifskeller in the Union, where we drank beer and were going to play Cards Against Humanity but just ended up talking. In the evening we went to see The Kingsman, which someone aptly described as Quentin Tarantino meets James Bond, with Catzookz, Twins Fan, a friend of theirs, OK Cap, and Jilly Moose. The movie was very violent but definitely entertaining. The plot, about a madman trying to wipe out most of humanity to stave off global warming, was ludicrous but certainly original.

Yesterday at brunch we were joined by a guy who’s relatively new to town; he moved here from Omaha, so he and Travalon were talking about Cornhusker football. All I know about Omaha is that it is supposed to have a wonderful zoo. Tiffy and I have driven by it on the highway, but we have never stopped there. Suddenly I remembered it was a very sad anniversary – the sixth anniversary of Mr. Why’s death – so in the afternoon Rich, Kathbert, Pete the Sailor Man, and I went to Mr. Why’s grave, which as always we could not find because it was covered with snow. This time we tried really hard to find it, and we uncovered a bunch of graves, but we never did find his. Rich says we’ll have to put a tracker on it when the weather is good. In the evening the Japanese professor who often comes to visit Rich, his graduate student who comes with him, and three undergrad girls made Japanese food at Rich’s house for dinner, while Kathbert made pudding from the leftover egg yolks from making Prairie Man’s angel food cake. Pete the Sailor Man, Prairie Man, Luxuli, and I also enjoyed dinner with them; Travalon stopped by but wanted to get home to watch the season finale of Downton Abbey, so he left before dinner was served. Catzookz had wanted me to hide a little hot pink teddy bear with a T-shirt that says “Aquarius” in plain sight on Rich’s piano, so we could see how long it would take him to notice. Of course Kathbert spotted it right away, but who knows how long Rich might have gone without noticing if he hadn’t walked in while we were discussing it? Oh well, it was a fun game while it lasted.

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