Start of Vacation

We are now in Kaua'i, thoroughly settled into our Island condo.

Yesterday was Travel Day, and it was unfortunately stressful. It started off with a 4am alarm. We were out of the house by 5. We were on BART for something like 80 minutes, including some poorly timed transfers and it was not an enjoyable experience. I wasn't sick, but I was stressed enough about being sick that it was nearly the same thing.

Unfortunately the plane trip started off just as stressful. We had over two hours of bad turbulence--bad enough that the flight attendents strapped down the whole time. The plane kept shaking back and forth and every once in a while would lurch to the side or drop.

Later, as we were coming in to Honolulu, the pilot would say, "I thought that was never going to end" and "My coffee kept spilling all over the place." I'm glad he didn't tell us about the constantly spilling coffee, so near the instruments that were keeping us in the air, earlier in the flight.

Also of note & surprise: Dave S. + family were in the same airplane as us! I knew they were spending some time in Hawaii this Christmas (on the island of Oahu), but hadn't realized they were travelling on the same day, let alone the same plane at the same time. I remember thinking once during some of the worst turbulence, "Wow! We could wipe out a quarter of the gaming group in one plane."

In any case, the day headed upward from our arrival on Honolulu. My dad, Mary & Melody showed up less than an hour after us, then we continued on to Lihue via a short flight, then drove into Poipu.

They run hourly(ish) flights from Honolulu to Lihue and they have a very casual attitude toward luggage. Thus, our luggage shipped over on one of the Kaua'i flights before ours & it was happily waiting for us by the time we arrived. We were out of the (small) Lihue airport in minutes.

The rest of the evening we spent settling in, we to our condo, my family to their hotel room. I feel a bit bad that we have this 700 or 800 square foot condo & they're in a much smaller hotel room, but I get the imperssion that the hotel would have been more expensive, as crazy as theat sounds. (They got a discount 5-day package.)

In any case, after settling we had diner together, then got groceries (because Mary's going to be cooking dinner over at our condo for much of the rest of the trip) and generally enjoyed the company.

One amusement of the evening: my dad had to ask a couple of times to get a rollaway for Melody, and it finally arrived, it was a crib. Whoops.

Bring back in Poipu is as odd as I expected. I was only here for one week, in 2001, but it was a sufficiently immersive experience that it made an indelible impression. The condo is a small unit than the one my parents used to own, and it's furnished very slightly differently, but sitting here writing [before transferring this onto the computer that miraculously showed up in the condo this evening], looking out at palm trees over our balcony feels identical. The walk to the Sheraton last night, eating at Keoki's Paradise Lounge, and even taking a shower this morning all evoked strong memories. (This morning I could nearly smell the sunscreen & feel the sand washing off my body, though neither was actually the case.)

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Kauai's natural alarm clock, the roosters, started going off at 6am this morning, a bit before the sun came up. I think there was a torrential downpour from 6.15-6.45 or so, but I never got up to see it and it went on and off with the suddenness of an automated system, so who knows.

Everyone else is now out at Wahameia Canyon. I oppted not togo because it's slightly out in the middle of nowhere, and I didn't want to have more travel stress; yesterday was enough. I'm going to go out swimming instead & have borrowed a face mask from Mary.

A Fine, Fine Day

Went swimming out on my own today. I had Mary's facemask, and so I watched some of the few fish that are at the Sheraton Beach. At first I thought they were oddly blurry, and attributed it to the heavy waves. And then I came to remember that the facemasks we'd gotten last time were corrective. We're probably going to pick up some masks on our own tomorrow.

After that walked all the way up to Poipu, seeing not one but two monk seals on the way. They were protected behind tape lines, as usual, since they're endangered species. There must be barrier police who run down the second a monk seal is spotted and tape around them.

Went out to lunch afterward, had a fine read and a fine meal (shrimp salad sandwich!) and then came home about an hour before the rest of the folks returned from Wahamaia Canyon. Sadly their long expedition was a limited succcess due to heavy fog & rain.

In the afternoon I headed out with the folks while Kim stayed home and we visited one of their houses on the island and talked with their nice renter (Ken). They had a nice cat (Cinder) too, and I thought about my poor kitties at home, all desperate for attention and worried about us.

This evening we all went swimming down at the Sheraton beach (again for me). Kim unfortunately found the surf too much for her, and Mary cut her foot on the rocks, but my dad and I had a good swim.

Afterward we came back to the condo and Mary cooked up a fine dinner of salmon spaghetti. Quite tasty.

And we all talked for a while, then they headed home, leaving my dad's computer hooked up to the DSL line that runs into the room (an innovation from four years ago).

Over the day Kim & I also played a game of Lost Cities, and I read a little bit of Artesia: Adventures in the Known World and a lot of Furies of Calderon.

As I said, a fine, fine day. I'm currently feeling well-fed, well-companioned, less stressed, and happy.