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Home Diary Dates
April 6, 2006
We are officially residents of Hawaii, in the county island of Kauai, on the north shore. Who'd have thunk it? After 20 years of life in north Georgia and loving that, we found Kauai to call to us even more than the beautiful southern Appalachian Mountains.
And so, we packed up the cats and bought one-way tickets.
As we were settling into our seats on the Delta plane before we left Atlanta back on the 18th of March, a flight attendant came to tell us that our cats had been loaded into cargo and all was well. That was nice to know. I had no idea they would pass that info to us.
Due to the storms that have been hovering in the Pacific, the flight was one
of the most turbulent crossings we've ever experienced. I'm sure the cats thought
it was the end of the world.
It was raining when we got to Honolulu's International Airport, as it's been
doing for weeks. We had 1 hour and 55 minutes to get our cats and check-in at
the Inter Island Airport for the Hawaiian Air flight to Kauai (the last flight
for the day, too). It took almost 10 minutes for the jet-way to be pulled up
to the plane so we could debark. The Delta greeter had not much of a clue as
where we needed to go to get our cats. He stammered something about baggage
claim. At baggage claim we asked the Ag Inspection man about our cats. He said
he was plant inspection and animals were another department and pointed to another
booth where we were to phone the animal holding office. The lady at that booth
said that no one answered at said office, and pointed us back to the first Ag
man. He then gave us another number to call. Back at the lady's booth, she called
the new number and got the needed info. We had to walk to another building on
the airport grounds to retrieve our cats from the Ag inspection office. Okay,
it's raining, the clock is ticking, and we're pushing a cart with several bags
already on it and no one has been able to give us clear directions to the Ag
building. Fortunately, I had some "emergency" ponchos in my backpack
and several people along the way helped us find the building for which we searched.
The Ag folks were very nice and had our cats out to us with just enough time
remaining for us to find our way to the Inter Island check-in (after one scenic
route foray). Thank goodness for small airports with not many folks checking-in.
We were just minutes from being too late to make our flight. And if we had missed
it, we would have had to stay in Honolulu overnight, with cats.
You see, every time before this one, we'd fly into the International Airport in Honolulu, debark into the small Delta gates section and then walk about 5 minutes along a beautiful outdoor breezeway to catch the Wiki-wiki bus that would carry us for about 5 minutes to the Inter Island Airport right next door. Just upstairs from where the bus dropped us is the Hawaiian Airline gates. We'd not even have to go through another search/scan in the brief trip between airports. So, perhaps you can see clearer why we were a bit confused in our journey to the Ag Office and then to the Hawaiian check-in desk.
And for those of you who are wondering why we didn't take the cats onboard with us, we had to ship them in cargo. There was no other choice. HI Ag requires all animals coming into the state to be transported in cargo and taken from the plane by their staff straight to their office for inspection. They are very particular about not letting in rabies. There has never been a case on the islands and they intend to keep it that way.
We are actually lucky in that just last year the regulations were changed to allow animals who have met ALL requirements of shots and timely testing for rabies antibodies to be released to the owner, upon inspection. Before that change all animals had to be quarantined for 3 to possibly 6 months on the island of destination before the animal was released to the owner.
Anyway, if we had taken the cats onboard with us, they would have probably screamed bloody murder the whole time.
The flight to Kauai was so bumpy that the pilot requested that the flight attendants
remain seated for the duration of the 20 minute ride. Again, I'm imagining what
the cats were thinking in cargo. As we neared Kauai, the clouds cleared and
we had the rest of the evening under a starry sky.
Picking up the kitties at the Lihue airport was a breeze, the baggage guy brought
them right up to baggage claim. Marilou got the rental car while I waited with
the kitty-boys and our luggage. We then proceeded to drive north to home.
It was dark the first time we passed the dam break flood damaged area that evening
and we could only see the immediate roadside scarring. We've since driven past
the site several times in daylight. It is truly amazing as to the amount of
destruction forces of nature can deal out in a matter of minutes. What before
was dense forest areas is now smooth red dirt, not even stumps remain.
The cats have been here for about one & a half weeks now. George seemed
to settle in easiest. Payne spent time under a downstairs bed at first, coming
out every now and then to see what this new world was doing. Now they both venture
out onto the upstairs porch when we are having our morning coffee. We don't
intend on letting them out into the yard, since they know nothing about cars
and they live close to roads now. They'll have to be happy to catch geckos in
the house and on the porch. Don't worry, the geckos are fast and can go up walls
and we'll save the ones we can that the cats actually catch.
We know that the cats are doing well when they begin to perform their usual antics, like play-fighting as soon as the lights are turned off for bedtime and Payne loves to try to open cabinet doors in the middle of the night which causes endless banging and then there's the times when he actually gets in the cabinet and then scratches to get out. Marilou has had to Payne-proof the cabinets in the bath by putting magnetic closures on them. We've found ourselves asking one another, "And we wanted the cats here ... why?" <grin> No, it's great having the kitties here. We are really home now.
Baby avocados on our 2 year old tree.
A baby pineapple that'll be ready in maybe 10 months.It's about 3 inches tall in this shot.
The other day, I came upstairs to check out the sunset and saw the waterfall really raging. It had just rained a big downpour and we've never seen the waterfall going like this. In the far (first) shot, the steam cloud is making it hard to see the waterfall in this small photo. In the mid and close up shots you can see the thick water. The roar of the fall was very loud, too. It's probably about one & a half miles away with another mountain in between and it sounded as if it were in our yard.
In this shot of the rest of the mountainside, there are many other waterfalls. There's more, I just can't remember where and I can't really see them in the photo. They don't last long and it takes a big rain to get the smaller ones showing.
Payne and George are Hawaiian cats now, though they weren't sure why we were holding them outside on the porch when they really didn't want to be there right at that time, as you can see in their body language.
