Kauai January 4-30, 2004

--writing with Apple laptop--

--Becky writes unless noted by Marilou--

This is our 5th trip to the island. And now we are homeowners.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Aloha,

Sorry to take so long in getting this off. We ordered DSL right away and it took about a week for the modem to get here (not bad on that), then just as the day got here for our service to begin, a very serve storm hit and Verizon's DSL service for our area was down for many days. And our server in Georgia or the line in-between wouldn't let us stay connected long enough to do anything when we would dial long distance to TDS. This has been very frustrating. Though I've not dwelled on it, for we've been way too busy with setting up house-keeping here.

We are now homeowners on the beautiful island of Kauai. We still pinch ourselves every once and a while. I shall go back a few days and catch you up on what's been happening since we arrived on the 4th.

After a direct 9+ hour flight from Atlanta to Honolulu and the very short 30 minute flight to Lihue, we are back on Kauai again. (Kauai doesn't look anything like Oahu as far as it's number of buildings and people.)

TJ, a friend of ours here, met us with a lei for each of us; the traditional Hawaiian greeting. Actually, Marilou bought one for me before TJ showed up, thinking he wasn't going to make it. You see, in all the times we've arrived on the islands, we've never been greeted with leis and we were looking forward to TJ doing so. When Marilou went off to see if TJ was at the other airline baggage claim she surprised me with a lei when she came back. Then TJ found us with his leis. A very nice welcome.

It was just at sunset, as usual, when we got to Lihue. We got our rental car and it was time to eat a better meal than the airline food. It's not that the airline food is so bad, it's that we are cutting out the carbs and Delta serves mostly high carb meals. TJ suggested the L&L Drive In, a local family place in Kapaa. We ate there and then found our hotel in Kapaa.

The next day was Monday the 5th, THE day. Martie, our agent, called and let us know the house was officially ours. We didn't have to go to a "closing" or anything since we'd already signed all the papers while we were still in Georgia. She said the keys were under the mat. We had some brunch and then went to the house. Wow! It's ours! We were pretty excited.

Hal, the previous owner, had left essential furniture, sheets, towels, and some kitchen stuff in the house. So, we have a sort of furnished house. Though, Hal's taste is very different from ours. We'll probably replace a lot as time goes by.

An interesting tidbit of information: Hal is an actor. He has played, from what we know about at this time, the cop on Sanford & Son, someone (don't know) in The Jeffersons, and the sergeant in the movie Private Benjamin. We didn't get the pleasure of meeting him in person. We are getting to know him a little though, through his house. One thing we can tell is that he is a tall man, as there are pictures and towels racks installed higher than usual. He must have loved Chinese take-out because there are tons of chop sticks in a kitchen drawer and he must not have cooked much else besides stir-fried-style in a wok because that's the only serious cooking tools in the kitchen. Later we rented the movie Private Benjamin to see what he looked like.

That first day, Monday, we mainly just puttered around the house, called the local utility companies to get accounts put into our name, and made lists of what we needed to purchase for the house. We had to go to Lihue to do the electric company account change in person.

From our house in Princeville it takes about an hour one way to drive to Lihue.

We stayed in the hotel one more night so that we didn't have to rush to get the house ready in one day. On Tuesday we checked out of the hotel and moved all the rest of what we had with us into our new home on Kauai.

The first 3 days after that we spent shopping in the Wall Mart, other household item stores, and the island's new Home Depot. Back and forth. So much to do. So much to get. All those little and not so little things it takes to run a household. Along about Friday we were starting to feel at home; we'd rearranged the upstairs furniture, Marilou adjusted the large screen projection TV (left with the house) to a usable condition, and in general, we were just making the place ours. On Friday we also went to a furniture store in Kapaa and picked out a dining table set, a sofa set, and a bed. The old furniture that we replace is going to friends or Habitat for Humanity.

Saturday we looked at a pick-up truck to buy. Our agent's father, Curtis, has a 1995 Chevy Cheyenne 4x4 that was his own work truck up until he bought a new one recently. Curtis is also the contractor/builder we are using for the remodeling of the house in the future. It's a small world ... and even smaller island!

So, we liked the truck and made a deal. He's glad to know his "baby" is going to us and we're glad to know how well he's taken care if it through the years.

Sunday morning we finally got to the ocean for a swim. Only 15 minutes from the house are many beaches from which to choose. This day we went to a small one we'd never swam at and had a short swim. These days we are wanting to do more swimming than snorkeling so as to get more exercise.

After our swim several different groups of friends at different times came over to check out the furniture we want to give away. That took up most of the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday night, a storm passed over our part of the island. The wind blew hard and it was warmer that night than the usual 68F which made for a hard balance to strike between opening the windows for cool air and closing the windows to keep the insides of the house from blowing apart. And being in a new house, there were all the "strange" sounds that I *had* to get up to check out all night long. It was quite a night.

Monday morning, we had coffee on the upstairs porch as usual, only this morning a rain shower passed over the Hanalei River Valley, which is in-between us and the mountains. The rain and the morning sun produced a beautiful rainbow over the valley and part of a second rainbow.

Later that morning, TJ came over for coffee. TJ works as a boogie board and surfing instructor at the Princeville Hotel. We met him last October when we were here. He's also a musician and retired (due to injury) fireman.

Monday continued with the warm temps that the storm brought in the previous night. The winds stayed up, though nothing like during the night.

Later Monday Marilou and I went for a swim at another beach nearby called Anini. Here the reef is a couple of hundred yards off shore which makes for very calm waters, a sandy bottom, and shallow enough most of the way out to the reef to stand up for a rest if needed.

Tuesday some of our new furniture was delivered; the sofa set and the dining set. NOW the house is really beginning to look like our home! After the furniture delivery, some friends came by to get a few pieces of the old stuff. While I was helping to carry the box springs of the mattress set down the stairs it slipped out of my hands and the wooden frame of it landed on my left big toe. OUCH!!! It REALLY hurt and turned blue right away. I couldn't move it very well either. So, we piled into the car with ice on my toe and off to the Emergency Room we went. There are local clinics nearby though they were closed at this time in the afternoon. Besides, for x-rays we'd have to go to the hospital anyway.

The hospital is in Lihue, an hour drive. By the time we got to the ER my pain had decreased greatly. The ER wasn't very busy and I was checked in and x-rayed fairly quickly. There was no broken bones and no dislocation. The doc told me that blood might collect under the nail, which can be taken care of, other than than that I was good to go. I felt both fortunate and silly to have visited the ER with ONLY a big toe injury.

I've not included any pictures of the downstairs. It is mostly empty now after we gave away what we didn't want. Downstairs there are two bedrooms, a bath, an office/library, a living room, a front and back porch, and a two car garage with the laundry room and utility off of it.

The upstairs has the master bedroom and bath, a living room, porch, kitchen, dining roon, and a half bath.

Tuesday night another storm came through. This one made Sunday's storm look little. We had no choice but to close the windows along about 3:00a. Several times the power went off for a while. In the morning light we saw that our African Tulip tree had lost three big branches, a cover from one of the light fixtures on the upstairs porch was out in the yard, a roofing shingle was in the yard, too, and lots of fronds on the big Traveler's Palms were broken. Porch furniture was overturned along with two old grills the previous owner left with the house. It was quite a blow.

And even as the clouds cleared away on Wednesday morning and a rainbow arced over the valley, winds still persisted all day in extremely strong gusts. Marilou talked with a friend who lives here and he says that this storm, coming out of the west as it did, was very unusual. Our power was off much of the morning and early afternoon, too.

One thing though, the rain on the mountains produced the waterfalls for which Kauai is famous. I counted 21 that I could see from the porch. Most have to be seen with the aid of binoculars, though several many were large enough to be seen clearly with the naked eye. No rain no rainbow no waterfall.

Wednesday the 14th, was the day we were to get our DSL going. After fiddling with installing the software and trying to get connected for a while, I called the Verizon tech in Texas and he told me that the Princeville area was experiencing some sort of difficultly (last night's storm)... I gave up. (I talked almost daily after that to different techs at Verizon with no success, until today.)

On Thursday we worked around the house, as we've been doing almost everyday. Even though the house was mostly clean and in very good condition, there were areas that were not up to our liking. The kitchen being one of them. I've scrubbed the cabinets inside and out and Marilou has cut new paper with which to line them all.

Thursday evening we went out to eat at the Hanalei Gourmet Restaurant and knowing that TJ had not been feeling well all day, we dropped by his place with dinner for him. We visited for a while and then went home.

Friday the 16th, we were expecting to pick up our "new" truck which was being cleaned that afternoon. We went to Lihue to run errands and to check out a tattooist in Kalaheo that several people had recommended. We also went to Hanapepe, where there are many galleries and other such art establishments, as we waited for the truck detailing to be finished. It turned out that the truck wasn't to be ready that evening, so we went to a play in Lihue instead. It was a musical called Honk and based on the story of the ugly duckling. It was fun and we even knew someone in it.

Saturday the truck was ready. We went to Curtis' house to get it. He and his wife, Jamie, live out of Kapaa toward the mountains. They have a great view of Kawaikini, the tallest mountain (5243 ft) on the island and the one that has much of its volcanic crater remaining. We could hardly believe how well the truck cleaned up. A nice surprise. This truck was Curtis' baby. He had a new engine put in it just recently and it's been do-lolled up to increase the horsepower up to around 400 horses. And he must have put some glass packs on it, too, for it sounds real good when you "get on it". It will hop! Fun. Now we feel even more like we are part of local life. Out of the rental car and into a pick-up. Just need a surfboard hanging out the tailgate.

Saturday afternoon I went shopping for Marilou's birthday which was coming up on Monday.

Sunday I began to build an easel and Marilou loaded up the truck with all the branches that came down in Tuesday night's storm. We took the load to the local trash collection station. That evening we had the Laws over for dinner. The Laws are: Martie, our real estate agent; Tori, her 12 year old daughter; Curtis, Martie's father and our future builder; and Jamie, Curtis' wife and Martie's mom. Great folks. Marilou fixed a wonderful meal and I made a salad. It was our first dinner party on Kauai.

Monday was Marilou's birthday. Ron, a friend, was suppose to be here by 9:00a with a moving truck to get some of the furniture we were giving away. He was almost 2 hours late. Finally he showed up and got the furniture. Now we could really start Marilou's birthday. She wanted to go shopping. Lou had sent her some birthday money and Marilou had some specific stores she wanted to go to. That evening we had dinner at Gaylord's.

Tuesday morning, just as I was finishing my first cup of coffee, a tech from Verizon called. He was from a different department than the techs I had spoken to before. He said he had figured out the problem. Hurray!!! It had been their equipment/software all along. I was so happy.

After getting the DSL running, we went to register the truck with the county and get insurance on it. We ran a few errands while we were out. On the way back home we stopped by the fish market and got some fresh ahi (tuna) steaks which Marilou grilled to perfection.

So, I've finally gotten to send this. As you can see, we aren't doing too many touristy things this trip. The island is becoming a home more than a vacation toy. A beautiful place to live ... as often as we can.

Aloha,

Becky & Marilou

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Saturday, January 31, 2004

Aloha,

Since the last travelog-turned-new home log, we've continued to work around the house and in the yard. Towards the back of the lot are some pineapple plants struggling in the shade of a couple of Kukui Nut trees and a row of banana trees. We were thinking of trashing them

There was one small pineapple on one of the plants and it was very ripe. Thinking it was really too high in carbs to eat on a regular basis (thus the thoughts of trashing the plants) we decided to splurge and have some of it. Well, that was the best thing we ever did! Talk about the best tasting pineapple in the world!!! We've had Hawaiian pineapples before and nothing like this.

Then Marilou actually looked up the carb count on fresh pineapple and a half of cup is only 8 grams, well within our daily allotment of 20 or so. This changed our minds about trashing the plants. On top of the most wonderful taste, we learned that it takes pineapple plants about a year and a half to produce one fruit and then that plant dies. Baby plants start off the side of the mother plant as it comes to maturity. So, it's important to take care of the on-going process. These plants are much too valuable to trash. They just need to be moved to a better spot in the yard where there's full sunlight. And so we did, well mostly Marilou did. The rest of the pineapple plants are going to friends' homes.

The banana trees are going to other homes, too. Several many were blown over in the storm we had a couple of weeks ago. They tend to be a mess. The chickens and birds get to the green fruit usually before anyone else can. We're just not that keen on keeping the banana trees. The nursery near us (just behind us about 400 yards) is going to try finding homes for the two large Kukui Nut trees so they aren't wasted either. Kukui nuts are mainly used for their oil and the whole nut is used to make leis, too. Neither seem to be anything in which we are interested in producing and the tree isn't all that pretty to look at either.

We are thinking of putting in Mango, papaya, lemon, lime, and starfruit trees. I'm sure that's not all either. Also there are ornamental plants, trees, and palms we are considering. We've retained Steve, the "mow man" (our affectionate title for the landscape/maintenance professional) who was taking care of the place for Hal, the previous owner.

We snorkeled at the old landing in Poipu on the southside one day, which I'm having a hard time remembering what day it was. Saw a big sea turtle resting on the bottom in a sandy area about 20 feet down. Water was pretty chilly that day. Didn't stay in long.

I finished building my easel, though I didn't start a painting. Hopefully while I'm at home in Georgia I can work on several sketches and be ready to paint when we return.

Our time on Kauai this January came to an all too quick completion. TJ brought us more leis for our departure. Tradition says you are suppose to put your lei in the ocean as you leave the island for the goddess to protect you until you return to the island. We did that on the way to the airport.

As we flew to Honolulu, I saw a complete circle rainbow in the clouds over Oahu and the plane's shadow was directly in the center of it. I thought it was quite an unusual thing until I got home and did some research. They are called glories. The photo I've included is one I borrowed from the internet, as I did not have my camera out when I saw the one over Oahu.

We are home in Georgia now. Cold and greenless. Our cats, dogs, friends, and family redeem the winter surroundings. Plans of our next trip to paradise fuel us until then.

Much love to all,

Becky & Marilou