Photos of Kauai: Helicopter Ride and Allerton Gardens

Some good news - my old condo is going to be shown tomorrow! So people are already interested. But this post is mostly going to be photos of our helicopter trip over Kauai and Allerton Gardens on the same island. First, photos from our helicopter trip:

 

 

 

These next photos are from Allerton Garden, a collection of flora from all over the world:

 

Stay tuned for Maui, which will probably take at least two posts.

Famous Hat

Whitewater and Hawaiian Brownies

This was a really good weekend for me because the weather was so beautiful, and because Tiffy came to visit. It’s always fun to hang out with her! Saturday I asked her to come to my old condo so she could see how nicely it’s been fixed up. I had to wait for her and for the delivery people who were going to install the new washer and dryer, so Richard Bonomo kindly went to Home Depot to pick up some stuff for me. They had sent me a gift card that supposedly contained $100, but when he brought the stuff up to the checkout, they said there was no money on the gift card. I talked to them today, and they said it would take 7-10 business days to resolve this issue. Of course, getting the gift card was an adventure, because they sent it via UPS to the old condo, and I wasn’t expecting it (it’s some sort of incentive for having used them for carpet installation), so by the time I found the delivery slips, it had been sent back. I had them send it to work, but now it has no money on it. Home Depot, I’m getting a bit fed up with you. They did do a good job installing the washer and dryer, and the carpeting. Rich, Tiffy, and I got lunch at a Mexican restaurant near our health club, because he was going to work out with Luxuli, and she stopped in briefly but had nothing to eat. Tiffy and I went for a walk in my neighborhood and saw one of the cranes, which is odd because we usually see both of them together, but then it occurred to me that the other one might be sitting on a nest. We went to Monroe Street but were too full from lunch to eat dinner, so we just had something light before the concert put on by the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble. I enjoyed all the minor-key music, especially the flute duets. Afterwards we had a late dinner at Brasserie V. Meanwhile, the guys went out for steak (except Prairie Man, who had a mushroom dish) at the Tornado Room. They like to get together and eat red meat once every couple of months.

Yesterday morning Travalon felt pretty lousy, so he did not go to Mass with Tiffy and me, or brunch afterwards. Then Rich, Tiffy, and I ran by the old condo one more time to get a closet door out of the way, because my realtor was coming to take pictures. She sent me the posting today, and the pictures make the place look amazing. Here’s hoping I get a good offer quickly! Rich, Tiffy, and I went for a walk at Tenney Park and ended up sitting out on the breakwater, just gazing at the lake and talking about how philanthropy does not equal charity, among other things. Meanwhile, Travalon was feeling a little better so he adventurously went to a Spanish Mass at a church near our house. He was the only Anglo there and felt a little out of place, but he did enjoy the music. After Tiffy headed home, he and I drove to Whitewater to try a new brewpub he had read about called Second Salem. We also went to a brewpub that had been called Randy’s until a few weeks ago, but now is called 842 or something. We walked all over the Whitewater campus with Rodney to burn off all that beer and pub grub (I had a macaroni and cheese sandwich), and we also took a shorter walk in Cambridge on the way home. We stopped by Rich’s house, where he had made Hawaiian brownies with coconut and macadamia nuts Travalon had given him. Mm, they were so good! Kathbert came too, and Luxuli stopped by just as Travalon and I were leaving. We thought maybe we should try making brownies inspired by lots of different places, like New Orleans and Texas, but now I can’t remember what would be in them. They did sound good at the time. Maybe if they turn out well, we’ll write a cookbook: “Brownies of the World.” 

Famous Hat

The Wounded Amaryllis

Yesterday I took the afternoon off of work so Travalon and I could do some last-minute cleaning at my old condo. Unfortunately, one of the closet doors had fallen against a door between rooms and left a dent in it, so Travalon ran to the hardware store to get wood putty. Rich and I had managed to break a light cover while putting closet doors back on, so we still have to replace that, and we still haven’t found a bathroom exhaust fan that fits. The balcony needs to be repainted, but that is a common element and the management company says they are working on getting bids for that. Otherwise, the place not only looks nicer than when I moved out, it looks nicer than when I moved in. The carpeting is new, and the walls are now a lovely pale almond. It’s so inviting that a small part of me wants to move back in, but it will be wonderful to be rid of it completely. The realtor said I should be able to get more than I was hoping for, so that is some really good news. She did say we should install a washer and dryer, so we had to go to Home Depot and drop some serious money on that. My unit is slightly bigger than the other ones on the market there, plus it’s upstairs, plus – and this is the real selling point – it has underground parking. (I did miss that this past winter!) We are going to have the washer and dryer installed this coming Saturday, and then it will be listed. Here’s hoping it sells quickly and for a good price!

Travalon said I could blog about this, as long as I emphasized it was an accident. A couple of weeks ago he accidentally knocked over my amaryllis plant, which had a bud, and the stem got bent. I was not feeling well, so I burst into tears, and he felt really bad. We thought about trying duct tape to patch up the stem, but we took it to a nearby flower shop, and they splinted the stem. They said it probably wouldn’t work, but the bud continued to get bigger, and split to show four buds, and now the biggest one is opening. Not only is this a happy story in its own right, it seems like a beautiful metaphor for so many things in life: when hope seems lost, it is still worth the effort to patch things up and see if they heal.

Famous Hat

Bad Day Turned into Wonderful Day

Yesterday I was having a bad day, topped off by that heartbreaking Badger loss. Today I woke up feeling very depressed but dragged myself to work anyway… just to have someone call the moment I got in, before I had even logged into my computer, and she was so irate that she plans to send nasty letters to my boss and my boss’s boss. Why is she so mad? She didn’t receive something from us, because she moved and didn’t tell us. I said I would send it again and please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery, but she did NOT like that answer. Fortunately my coworkers all dealt with this person while I was in Hawaii, so they know she is high maintenance, but it really brought me down so I called Travalon to cheer me up. Guess what he did? He sent me a dozen red roses at work! My day has definitely improved! Thanks, Travalon!

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Melkite Rite Easter Vigil

I hope all my readers had a great Easter holiday. I took Good Friday off of work, as is my wont, to sing at our church’s midday service. Later in the evening one of my bandmates had a surprise birthday party, and fortunately her children got all vegetarian food and salmon, so I could indulge. Not that indulging is generally associated with Good Friday… I was thinking of going to the Lutheran church’s evening service, but Richard Bonomo and I had to do some work on my old condo. I’m hoping to get it on the market by Wednesday…

Holy Saturday my band had a gig at the McKenzie Center’s Maple Syrup Days pancake breakfast, and Travalon came along to listen and eat pancakes. Only this year the breakfast was so well attended that the line was ridiculous, so he waited until noon to get pancakes. Then we took Rodney to the dog park to enjoy the beautiful weather. I really wanted to see the Badgers in the Final Four, but I also wanted to go to Milwaukee to attend a Byzantine Rite Easter Vigil with Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy, so Travalon said he could tape it for me. Cecil, the B-Boy, and I went to a ludicrously expensive and snobby Italian restaurant (but to be fair, the food was excellent), and we managed to run up a bill over $200 for just the three of us. The liturgy was very beautiful, Melkite Rite but mostly chanted in English (some Arabic), and the chant tunes were very Mideastern sounding. The priest kissed each of us on the cheeks, so it was a good thing the congregation was not too big, or we would have been there all night. Afterwards we each got a red hard-boiled egg, then we found out the Badgers had won!!! They beat heretofore undefeated Kentucky by seven points!! Since the liturgy was shorter than we expected, we got back to town about 1:30 and were surprised to see Rich biking home. We said, “How can the Vigil Mass he went to have run so late?” and he thought, “How can they be back in town so early?”

Yesterday I managed to get up for 9 am Mass despite my late night, and then we went to brunch as usual afterwards. Travalon and I brought Rodney when we went to visit his mother, and we went for a walk outside that must have been comical to anyone watching, because her Jazzy (motorized wheelchair) goes much faster than we can walk, so I was running to keep up with her. Travalon, meanwhile, was walking at a relaxed pace with Rodney, who is too little and old to even try to keep up with the Jazzy. In the evening we went to Rich’s house, as we usually do for major holidays, and there was a big crowd as usual for Rich’s roasted lamb and one guest’s lemon chiffon and chocolate chess pies. After coming home, I watched the Badger game. Today I have had some bad luck, and hopefully it doesn’t rub off on them as they play for their first championship title since 1941. GO BADGERS!!!

Famous Hat

Pictures of Hawaii: Kauai's South Coast

We have so many photos of Hawaii, I'm going to have to divide Kauai into two posts. This first one will be from the day we drove along the south coast of the island and visited Poipu Beach, the Kauai Coffee plantation, and Polihale Beach, as well as photos from the day before, when we kayaked on the Wailea River to the Fern Grotto.

 beautiful waterfall

"typical" Polynesian village where we rented the kayak

the Fern Grotto

 Famous Hat at the Fern Grotto

Wailua River we kayaked on

the resort we stayed at

 tropical sunset at our resort

 Ti plants behind the Kauai Museum

tropical plants behind the Kauai Museum

 Poipu Beach

 monk seal at Poipu Beach

Poipu Beach

footpath along the Kauai Coffee plantation

 distance from Kauai Coffee to various points

coffee blossoms

 overlooking the Kauai Coffee plantation

 funny sign in the Kauai Coffee parking lot

 Famous Hat at rugged Polihale Beach

monument to Japanese immigration to Kauai

Still to come: our helicopter ride and Allerton Gardens on Kauai, and of course the entire island of Maui!

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New Glarus and Paoli

Sorry for the lack of new pictures the last few days. Pictures take a really long time to upload, and I’ve been too busy watching basketball. “Watching basketball?” you might say. “What, you, Famous Hat?” Yes, when you are married to a basketball addict, you do get sucked into March Madness. Especially since our beloved Badgers are going to the Final Four, but unfortunately they play at the exact same time as the Easter Vigil Mass. I’m going to have to make some tough decisions…

Friday evening Cecil Markovitch, the Married B-Boy, and the OTHER Choir Director were going to the Dorf Haus for their fish fry. Normally I’d have joined them, but it was one of those stupid days at work where I created extra work for myself, having to manually enter a bunch of data our software usually enters for me, so I was in no mood to go so far afield. Travalon and I were going to stick close to home, but the Other Couple texted and wanted to get together at a restaurant just down the street, so we did. We were there until after nine, and they were still planning to catch a movie! We just went home and to bed.

Saturday was a beautiful day, relatively speaking (in Hawaii it wouldn’t have been), so Travalon and I took Rodney the Dog and drove to New Glarus for a long walk on their bike trail and back up through their adorable downtown. We stopped by the brewery and stocked up, then we drove to Paoli and had cheese curd bread, which is even more amazing than it sounds. A new brewery called The Hop Garden had just opened up, so we tried their beers, which are very potent, and then I was completely buzzed. Good thing Travalon was driving! He didn’t try all the kinds like I did. We also took a walk in Belleville, along the bike path there that goes over a bridge. We got home and watched basketball – of course – and then Richard Bonomo stopped by for leftover fish fry from Friday night and a showing of some of our Hawaii pictures. There are so many that he only got partway through Kauai before it was really late.

Sunday Luxuli, Prairie Man, and the other bass in the choir went to brunch with Rich, Travalon, and me. It wasn’t a beautiful day, so we just stayed inside and watched basketball, until Rich had a few people over for dinner. I probably could have put more photos on the blog, but I was really getting into these basketball games. The teams who make it to the Elite Eight are very good, so the games were close and exciting, with lots of lead changes. One even went into overtime. We did take Rodney out for a walk between games, and despite the lousy weather, the wildlife was out in force. We saw the cranes who nest in our neighborhood every year, and two weasel-looking creatures chasing each other. The birds are returning to the marsh behind our house, so now we wake up to lots of birdsong in the morning. Spring is finally on its way!

Famous Hat