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Today we sent Buster packing.  He went back to Island Cars, we picked up a Toyota Camry and someone else drove Buster away.  He probably doesn’t even remember us.  There’s one thing that we have to admit about Buster. . .he’s got personality.

We intended to go boogie boarding today, but instead, we wound up handling condo business.  In the morning, we got a quote on having our two lithographs reframed, then took them back this afternoon to get the job started.  The walls are bare, but hopefully we’ll see the finished product before we leave.

Since I didn’t take any photos today, I’m going to include a couple from previous year’s trips.  The photo with the  monk seals was taken on our beach just last year.  These guys gorged themselves, then came up onto the beach to sleep off the binge.  The bottom photo was taken on our hike along the Kalalau Trail.  One of the reasons I chose this photo has to do with Buster.  Howzit, brah?  The reason we got Buster was that the couple before us at Island Cars was going to hike and camp on the Kalalau Train.  They rejected Buster, leaving us with the “guy with personality.”  Guess that’s better than a blind date with one of those guys in the top photo. . .unless you’re a monk seal.

Let’s begin with a correction. I’ve been calling it Kapiolani Park, the children’s playground and park area near Lydgate is actually Kamalani Park.  Now that I feel a weight removed about that, here’s what happened.  We had rain for the first time last night, then strong trades first thing this morning.  However, by the time we were halfway through our walk, they were already settling down.  We did the approximately four mile round trip walk in about an hour and a half, which included some mandatory time to sit on the bench at the park and ooh and aah at the view.

The Kamalani Playground was constructed by an island-wide effort in 1994.  It’s an impressive structure that includes a volcano slide and art work.  You can see a bit of the art work in today’s photo gallery (yes, more than just two today).  If you want to learn more about this great place, go to www.kamalani.org.  Click on any of the photos below to see a description and a larger version of the photo.  Tomorrow —Boogie Boarding!

Aloha!

Meow Gallery: The gallery is empty.

By the time we were on our way back from the park (sometime around 8:00 a.m.), the sun was shining, the clouds had begun to clear and locals were settling in for the day at the park.  Since today was Mother’s Day, locals were creating temporary homes at the beach.  They arrived with coolers, chairs, blankets, food, canopies, etc., everything they’d need to have a comfortable and fun day in paradise.

We wound up spending most of the day around the condo, made our Mother’s Day phone calls, got a little time at the pool later this afternoon and got to chat with people from Oregon and Texas.  The odd thing is (maybe not so odd) they’d all spent time in California.

If you’ve read my previous entries, you know who (or what) Buster is.  Today, Buster went shopping.  He got to go to the mall, KMart and Walmart, woohoo!  (At least at Walmart, Buster brought home two boogie boards and a snorkel (mine broke a couple of years ago and we’ve never had the time to snorkel since.))  Buster behaved fairly well with a few exceptions.  The major issue was that his air conditioning got persnickity, on—off, on—off.  Finally, on—on, but that was just a couple of miles from home.  Definitely, Buster’s got a mind of his own and the bruises to prove it.  (The photo doesn’t do him justice.)

I also said that it might take us up to two weeks to make it all the way to Kamalani Park on our morning walk.  I was trying to be conservative and allow a little room to fudge.  Well, we made it this morning.  As Kathy noted, we’ve been here less than 48 hours and already made the long walk.  Ah well, tomorrow we’ll go back and do it again.  The second photo shows the stream that runs just behind our condo complex.  We cross this (further down where it’s open, of course) and we’re on our way.

And here’s the weather report: 84, sunny with light winds, which started to shift today to more of a traditional trade wind pattern meaning that the VOG (Volcanic Smog) was reduced a bit.  Things cleared out and the visibility was good.

The beaches get busy on the weekends, of course, so we decided to get some of our more mundane shopping stuff out of the way.  One of these days we have to start working on the condo, there’s a long list.  But in the meantime, it was a perfect day to take Buster shopping since we don’t know how long he’ll be with us.

We’re closing in on the end of our second day here on Kauai.  It started with rooster wake-up calls at 3:00 a.m.   I woke up at about two, listened in awe at the silence, then went back to sleep.  About an hour later, the fun started.  By turning on the air conditioner fan, we can drown out most of the rooster calls.

Today was also time for our second walk on the beach.  Yesterday afternoon was just a short one to stretch our legs and to say hi to the ocean.  Today we did double the distance, tomorrow we’ll add some more.  By the end of a couple of weeks, we should be up to the full two miles to the Kamalani Playground, which is at Lydgate Park.  For now, though, we just need to be content with the shorter distance.

The photo shown here is where we begin the daily beach walk.  This morning, it was time to take Buster (that’s the name we gave the car we rented from Island Cars) out for a drive.  Grocery store and that big island store, Walmart.  We picked up our supplies at Walmart, then went on to the grocery store.  Kathy felt that we should lock up Buster just in case someone wanted to steal our stuff.  To my way of thinking, Buster’s about as safe as you can get on this rock.  Anyone who sees it probably says, “I’m not gonna steal from that sucker, he’s worse off than me.”  On the other hand, they might also think we’re drug dealers.  So, maybe locking up the car was a good thing.  Later this afternoon, we met with our property manager who told us the reason rental cars have gotten so expensive here is that the big companies shipped their cars off island.  In the meantime, guess we’re just going to “blend with the locals.”  I did have a guy honk at me today.  I think he recognized Buster.

We’re off to Kauai.  Finally!  It seems like a year since we were here last… oh yeah, it has been a year.  Anyway, today was a travel day.  Lots of airport time, plane time, waiting time, blah, blah.  The best part of the airport time is, of course, in Honolulu.  We just love the courtyard just outside of the interisland terminal.    Here are a couple of photos taken from there yesterday.

The flight itself was uneventful, however, the flight attendant who was serving lunch was happily surprised when he saw that we had our own lunches.  He said that the biggest complaint they get on flights is about the food.  Of course, now that Hawaiian is selling meal upgrades for ten bucks, you might expect that you could get a better meal if you want to shell out the money.  Of course, give that the upgraded meals were a Chicken Caesar Salad or a Greek Salad, maybe not so much.  How much could they possibly save by giving us a cheap meal instead of something that’s actually decent? 

We also decided to try a different rental car company, Island Cars.  They have “late model, good running” vehicles at less than half the price of the big guys.  The good news is that, as they say, we’ll “blend in with the locals.”  You can fill in the rest.

Ah well, we’re here and so all is well.  So, for now,

Aloha