Kauai Sept 1-30, 2004

--writing with Apple laptop--

--Becky writes unless noted by Marilou--

This is our 7th trip to the island.

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Aloha,

We've been here since the 1st of this month. You know you're not a tourist any more when the only places you go are to the grocery store, the PO to check the mail, the same beach to swim, and out to your favorite near-home restaurants. You, also, find yourself eating at home more, working in the yard, talking to your neighbors across the fence, painting pictures, getting the truck repaired, planning what color to paint some of the interior of the house, and trying to tame a stray dog enough to get it to the Humane Society shelter. Yep, it's come to this. I think we're officially part of the island now.

So, I don't have a lot of fun new things to tell about. The weather the first week was warm humid days with cool breezy nights. There have been lots of scattered showers day and night. The second week was warm humid days with cool breezy nights. There have been lots of scattered showers day and night. The third week has been warm humid ... well, I think you get the picture. --grin-- Actually, today is much breezier, almost on the windy side. A nice change.

We arrived here to find that Steve had moved some of the larger plants from where they had been when we bought the house to their new locations in the yard. This took some large equipment's help to do the job. He had also planted a few new things, as we had planned, and put in the irrigation system (there ARE dry spells here sometimes). Our fruit trees that we had planted last May have at least doubled in size. Marilou has been planting more things, too, since we've been here.

Here's a couple of "stitched" shots from each of the back corners of our property. You can see MK working by the back fence (left, look closely!) and the fruit trees in the foreground of the first pic.

The from north corner:

The from south corner:

I've painted one piece so far. It's from a photo one of us took in Scotland a couple of years ago. Looks like it could be anywhere in the southern Appalachians' foothills, doesn't it? I'm going to start a painting of Stonehenge next.

Scotland Fields. oil on canvas, 22x28.

The sunsets continue to be entertaining most every evening. Here's a sequence taken one evening from the porch a few nights ago.

Here's our new bed that we had to wait for them to grow the tree from which it's made ... just kidding, though the wait seemed like it. It's style is Japanese and very simple. We got a Tempurpedic mattress, too, and love it!

Here's shots of the new jalousies windows. I took some shots outside the house and the windows don't show up much different from the rest that haven't been changed. So, I'm only including the shots from inside. The first is the master bath, which has benefited the most from the air flow the change created. The top three panes move separate from the rest and are close enough to the eves so that they can be left open even during a blowing rain. These two windows were glass block before. The workmen did a great job, too. In the mirror's reflection you can see the glass block that still remains as one of the shower's walls.

Here's the stairwell window that was also glass block before. And you can see the new hanging light with which we replaced the traditional chandler that had come with the house.

And finally the kitchen window is now jalousies, too. The traditional ceiling fan has been replaced with this "sort of different" fan. The whole thing slowly turns as each fan operates.

Well, that's it for now.

Hope you all are well.

Becky & Marilou

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Thursday, September 30, 2004

Aloha,

As one friend pointed out, I sounded a bit flat about being in Kauai in my last "travelog". Ah, contraire! I was making a poor attempt at sarcasm. Don't worry, we still get up everyday and have our morning coffee looking out to the mountains and talk about how we are so happy to be able to be at this very spot in paradise.

I was able to finish my second painting on this trip just before time ran out. It's a detail of Stonehenge. In 2002 while in England, Marilou and I took one of the tours that allows a small group of folks to walk amongst the stones after public hours. It's the only way now to get past the ropes that keep everyone 40 or 50 feet away from the old rocks.

Stonehenge, 2004, 36"x48", oil on canvas.

Since we've not done much of the usual going-about on the island, I thought some photos taken as we drive to Lihue (lee-who-e) one day might be interesting. So, on the next to the last trip we made to Lihue I finally remembered to take the camera and along the way I remembered to start taking shots. These are just candied shots I snapped through my window, across Marilou, or through the windshield, from the moving vehicle as Marilou drove. Perhaps this will give you an idea of what the island looks like in "everyday life", as opposed to just seeing the "postcard" type shots.

In these shots we're driving generally east then south from our house in Princeville on the northshore, to Lihue on the southeast shore, about 30 miles. Lihue is the county seat, has the airport, the one real Shopping Center with a Macy's, Sears, Starbuck's, etc., a very new Home Depot, and in another part of town Lihue has a very old WalMart. It takes about an hour for us to drive to Lihue. That much time is mainly due to the 2-lane road's speed limit being at the fastest 50mph in just a few areas with most of the limits at 35-45mph and through Kapaa/Wailua, the second largest populated and commercial area, the lights string the traffic out to a very slow crawl. (Not complaining. Why be in a hurry?!)

Though the years of Kauai's slow development, the one easy-to-build road that follows the shore around three-quarters of the island has been all that was needed, until now. With a bit more tourists and development there has become an increasing need to build a by-pass around Kapaa/Wailua. This is being addressed by the current powers that be.

And back to the pics. We're driving on that one main road mentioned above, called Kuhio (ka-he-o) Hwy. About 20 minutes into the drive I remember to start taking pictures. So, I've missed part of the scenery. I'll get it another time.

This is a range called Anahola Mountains with a pasture in the foreground. Part of the odd shaped formations has been nicknamed "King Kong". You might be able to figure it out. It's just his head and a bit of his shoulder in profile ... the second pointy peak from the left.

And a few more miles along the road, more pasture and a smaller range of mountains. Also, the red dirt of the road bank. This dirt is used as a dye. It's fairly permanent.

Another few miles and we're just north of Kapaa approaching one of the largest beaches, Kealia Beach, and a favorite for surfing almost year 'round. (In winter the big waves are at the northshore, summer the southshore.) Kealia Beach is on the eastshore and gets good wave action most any time.

As we pass Kealia Beach the surf isn't up very much today.

The Kapaa Stream runs into the ocean at Kealia Beach.

Here we're about one mile before coming into Kapaa. The hazy mountains on the distance horizon are just past Lihue. Kapaa is almost two thirds to Lihue for us.

This is downtown Kapaa. A very quaint small town with an odd mixture of styles.

One of our favorite restaurants in downtown Kapaa, Lotus Blossoming. They are getting ready to move to a larger location catty-corner across the intersection nearby. Hopefully this will be a good thing. As it is now, the place is so small, very popular, and without adequate ventilation. It can get very hot inside.

Just out of Kapaa towards island center is the Sleeping Giant land formation. Ancient legend says that a giant once lived in the area and (I can't remember all the story) laid down on his back and went to sleep, and still hasn't awakened. See his head to the left looking up to the sky and his chest and the rest of his body sloping downwards to the right.

With a short break in buildings after Kapaa, we are coming into Wailua. In this little town is the resort where Elvis filmed some of Blue Hawaii. The grounds for the movie wedding and the cottage he honeymooned in is still here.

Now a couple of miles south of Wailua, the Wailua Golf Course is on the left.

We're almost to Lihue, on the road to the airport. In the distance and across some suburbs of Lihue is the big mountain of the island, Mt. Wai'ale'ale, at 5143 feet. It's top stays covered by clouds most every day of the year. It's the wettest place on earth. An average of 43 FEET of rain falls per year on the mountain! Almost in the center of the island and once standing at over 15,000 feet high, it's the main volcanic vent that formed Kauai, though long totally inactive. Half of the circle wall of it's crater still survives the wear of all that weather. Jurassic Park used it as a backdrop for it's entrance.

We've turned at the airport entrance and are headed back into Lihue. This is one of the favorite spots that the chickens like to scratch. They are always here.

About a mile from the airport is this wonderful tree. I don't know what kind it is, I do know it's very old. The realtor who helped us find our house has her office in the two-story building to the right of the tree. This is in Lihue.

On the south side of Lihue is Kukui (koo-koo-e) Shopping Center. The Macy's and other similar stores are here. This isn't a good picture of the shopping area, I mainly liked it for our truck mascot lizard riding in the shell necklace. --grin--

Across the side street next to Kukui Shopping Center is the brand new Home Depot. One of our destinations today.

I realize now that I didn't take enough shots in Lihue. Sorry. Perhaps you can begin to get a feel for the island as an everyday type of place. Most often the tour books and myself included, popularize the spectacular parts of the island, and there are plenty of those spots. On the other hand, Kauai is (almost) just another county in just another state in the Union that has to make it's living day by day. The people born here grow up with the feel of what it is to live on an island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. It's second nature to them. The people who move to here want to be like them. I find the prospect of that very alluring.

This next photo was taken as we took off from Kauai (through a rain spattered window), looking north from Lihue. The last mountain range on the right is the Anahola Mountains where King Kong is. The cloud covered mountain to the left is Mt. Wai'ale'ale.

While we were in the Honolulu International Airport waiting for our Delta flight to Atlanta, a small shower formed a bit of a rainbow in the center of the shot. Diamond Head is at the far right on the horizon, barely seen over the hotels along Honolulu and Waikiki Beaches.

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We are now back at our Georgia home. I've already set the countdown widget that I have on my computer's desktop to December 8th ... the day we return to Kauai. It says 68 days.

Love to all,

Becky & Marilou