Lazy day

Tuesday we had a meeting with the condo association for them to sell us a time share. Happily, we got out of it pretty quickly because we mentioned that we are both unemployed!! Great thing to remember - if you are at a timeshare given to you by a friend and you get invited to the sales pitch, just tell them you're unemployed!! You're automatically an unqualified sell. According to their standards, people to whom they pitch the sale, must be employed.

That was at 11:30 to 12:15 or so. It was SOOOO hot that day that we decided to sit in the path of a full force fan and then hit the pool in the afternoon. We were at the pool from about 2:00 to 5:30, which was great!! Part of the pool has a sand base. We had a sort of "Zen"-ly cathartic time in that side of the pool. I lay there in the sand waving sand out of the way into a hole or indentation in the sand. Then I sat in it with a big grin. My Sand Dent!!

We both fell asleep poolside for about 15-20 minutes. When we got back to the condo, we decided to go shopping a bit up the road in Hanalei, a lazy little town with a ton of restaurants and shops. There's also a world renowned beach (rated #1 in the world) that we wanted to visit to get some sunset shots, but that didn't happen on Tuesday - that happened yesterday - Wednesday. In the first shop (out of the two we went to), the shop girl, Chelsea, told us we had to go to Bouchons for sushi and see Drake, whose last day was that night and he was leaving the island.

Drake is a sushi chef from Montana who learned the craft from a NJ Jew in Montana, and brought his sushi to the island about 6 months ago. He got a few phone calls recently to open up his own restaurant back in his hometown. So we were a couple of his last customers here in Hawaii! We basically sat at the sushi bar and said, "Make us four rolls of your choice or signature stuff and have fun with our chopsticks!" He giggled and served us up rolls that highlighted tuna (albacore, ruby red, and belly), eel, salmon, roe, avocado, mango, mackerel, and red snapper along with a number of sauces. It was REALLY good!! The only drawbacks were the initially oppressive heat, the roach that popped out from in front of us and scooted around the corner of the refrigerated case, and the millions of tiny little yellow-white spiders making their way across the "back splash" of the bar in front of us.

We got back home and cooked up the swordfish that we bought at Costco on Sunday (had to eat it!), did laundry, and went to bed. Oh, and I forgot to mention my rum concoction of pineapple juice, simple syrup, and coconut milk. YUM!! Love having our own kitchen.

Plantation & Fruit with a Sunset

Yesterday, Wednesday, we went to the Kilohana Plantation near Lihue very far south of where we are. We drove for about an hour and just made it in time to get on the train. The Kilohana Plantation is about 100 years old and their crops originally started out as just sugar cane, which became less lucrative when other (Caribbean) islands could make it for cheaper than in Hawaii. The plantation now has a diverse crop base and provides Kaua'i with a place to test certain crops. They're also a haven for endangered indigenous hardwoods.

We took this little covered train around the 100-acre plantation to see the fields of taro, pineapples, oranges, bananas, lychee, ramandon (like lychee), papaya, taro, sugar cane (used as a windbreaker for various crops), mango, and other tropical fruits I can't remember. Along the route, the train stopped for us to get out and feed domesticated wild pigs. They were so cute, but mean to each other because everyone wanted all the bread. The tour ended by way of a forest of plants indigenous to the island. 95% of the plants on the island are not natives, and the 5% that are natives are now endangered, which is sad. We also heard news reports of mosquito-borne viruses killing off native birds at staggering rates high in the mountains.

At the gift shop, I bought a pooka bead necklace for less than half the price of others we found at other stores on the island. Apparently, the beaches aren't coughing up as many pooka shells as in years past, so the real ones are becoming evermore rare. Some of the necklaces, depending on the center bead and the types of pooka shells on the necklace, sell for upwards of $200, but I got mine for a very reasonable rate, plus an extra 10% off because the lady liked me.

I did check at many other stores; one lady exclaimed when we walked in her store, "Wow! Those are beautiful pooka shells you got there - and I love the mother-of-pearl in the center!" I asked her to show me her collection of pooka necklaces, and none of them went for less than $120. Some of the sunrise shells she had - collector shells - went for $400; divers dive for the much nicer shells and they find more shells that aren't beach-worn. Here's an example of a sunrise shell (as a center bead of the necklace):



There were other shells from the shop owner's "personal collection" that were originally priced at $900!!! I could NOT believe that someone would buy a shell for $900. Perhaps that's why there was a rack of them 50-70% off.

On the way back to the condo, we stopped at a fruit stand to pick up some native fruits. I wanted to find jackfruit and breadfruit, but they were nowhere to be found - at any market we visited. We did, however, find some things like lilikoi (a form of passion fruit with more pulp), tamanu, noni fruit, mangosteen (I think), a couple of things I can't remember, papaya, freshly gathered lychee, mangoes, chocolate sapote, and white sapote (both of which we have to wait a day to taste because they're still ripening).

At one of the markets, we had a girl open up a fresh young chilled coconut to drink the milk. She said, "You know the milk is really good for the kidneys..."

I thought, "Great! Maybe it'll take down that cyst!"

At the end of the day, we ended up in Hanalei again for a little bite to eat. Ordered one plate of Hawaiian pork with cabbage and a side of tuna tartar. They mistakenly gave us two plates, but didn't charge us more. With that, we drank a Ginger-Lemon drink, which was potently biting, but totally refreshing.

We found the Hanalei beach and watched the sun go down over the ocean and myriads of swimmers and boaters. By 7:10, everyone was gathered in different parts of the beach and watched quietly for 15 minutes the sun go down. Some took pictures, others hugged each other, and gazed into the distance as their faces turned deep yellow, then orange, then a light lavender. It was a religious experience and a beautiful day.