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A Tourist Day?
Jun. 28th, 2021 07:38 pmI tell Kimberly we're going to have a tourist day today because we're going to leave the house in the morning and wander from place to place, not returning home until evening.
(I actually do this most Saturdays, but that's more a singular thing: a hike or a bike ride. Today, we're instead going to bounce from place to place along the east side.)
Monday's usually a work day for me, but I've been burning the candle at both ends lately because a few of my tech writing clients have suddenly become active. And I had a medical issue that seems to be resolving but was pretty stressful a few weeks ago. It's been stressful overall. But I've got all of my scheduled work done for June (1 new Designers & Dragons history, 2 new TSR chapters, 12,000 elf words, and my ongoing tech writing work is at least mostly under control), it's thus a pretty good day to R&R.
The main point is to let Kimberly swim in Lydgate. She was taking swimming lessons before we moved to Kauai, but hadn't really swam since arriving, other than a nice trip up to Hanalei with my dad, before Hanalei Hill collapsed this winter. After a hiatus she tried at Poipu last week, but the south shore gets big waves in the summer, so that didn't work out. So, we decided to travel out to Lydgate, where there's an almost entirely protected lagoon. (It's totally protected, but big waves splash over the walls.)
There's one set point in time for the day, which is an audiology appointment Kimberly has at 3.30pm. So I schedule our day based on that. It starts with us heading out at 10am (after I've taken my morning to do some writing and editing, including publishing my newest elf myth to the Glorantha Fans group).
I want us to have a leisurely, pleasant day, so rather than driving through Lihue we take the bypass, something which I've only done one before since we moved (other than our nighttime drive down Murderer's Alley, but that's another story, one probably recorded in this journal in early to mid January, 2020).
It's a beautiful road. Lots of scenic venues including mountains and Menuhune Fishpond. There are a few places that it's narrower than I like, but overall I need to remember it as a great alternative to get through town when we're not in a rush.
The trip out to Lydgate is otherwise uneventful. I have to remember that it's closer than I think: my Maps program says it's just 30 minutes away, though it's more like 40-45 today, with the detour down the Bypass.
Unfortunately, traffic has been increasingly horrible since the tourists returned, and out past Lihue that's been made even worse by work being done in Kapaa to expand the highway to two lanes each direction (something direly needed all over the island, though they're only doing a mile of it here and that's a multi-year project!), and it's really a wreck going north in the morning because they set up "contraflow" where they prioritize southbound traffic. Fortunately, Lydgate is this side of Kapa'a, but we hit the backup just as we get to Lydgate. We actually have to wait a few minutes before we can pull around and into the park.
Lydgate is fun swimming. Kimberly and I flit around in the water for about an hour.
The strangest thing is that the lagoon is shallower than it used to be. Toward the back walls, it used to be 8 or 10 foot deep, with rocks at the bottom, but now it's all sand, and nothing's deeper than 4 feet.
Is this the continued Disneyification of Kauai, to make it more palatable to tourists?
Or does sand just accumulate?
After lunch we'd planned to eat at one of our favorite restaurants on the island, Monico's. But my dad helpfully pointed out yesterday that they'd always been closed on Monday's. So we choose Mariachi's in Lihue instead, a different Mexican restaurant. We'd been wanting to eat there for a while, and had actually called in for a pick-up order a few months ago, but they'd apparently stopped answering their phone for pick-ups as soon as tourists were available again for sit-in dining, and that was a few weeks after the initial return.
(There's a bit of bad feeling on the island right now that we residents went out of our way to give business to local restaurants during the pandemic, and now that the tourists are back, we can't even get reservations at a lot of restaurants because they're stacked weeks and months out.)
Anywho, Mariachi's has space for us today. They're maybe a bit under half-full, which is good because that's the seating limit right now.
We're out on the balcony, which looked great when we frequently saw it driving by, but turns out to be pretty loud, because there's a road right out there with cars going by fast.
The service is slow, but it's obvious they're understaffed, because like everywhere right now, Kauai is having problems getting people back into the workplace for the same 'ole underpaid jobs. So, we don't take it personally.
The first surprise for me is the chips and salsa as appetizer. It's literally been more than a year since I've had chips and salsa at a restaurant, because pandemic (and because Paco's Tacos, one of the few restaurants we've patronized during out lockdown year doesn't serve them). Kimberly and I devour two bowls of chips and most of the salsa. They taste like freedom.
We place our orders after that, Kimberly for mole enchiladas, me for a taco salad. They're both good, though I'm surprised that they melt the cheese on the salad, which no one does in California.
In any case, our vaccine achievement is unlocked: we eat at a restaurant even though it's at least half full of potentially COVID-y visitors. (But we have good ventilation in any case, because we're on the balcony.)
The rest of the day is errands, so that makes it less of a tourist day, even though we don't go home in between
Because we're made of time, I buy some hiking boots at Costco, which I've had on our list for a while, but never wanted to spend the 10 or 20 minutes. But, we're planning to hike in the swamps on Sunday, and I didn't want mud going over the top of my shoes, as I've had happen in both Kauai (up in Kokee) and in the Bay Area (most memorably in Briones). It's been ages since I've worn boots, so I find them weirdly unconformable, going so high on my ankle (and they're relatively low boots!), but I steadfastly wear them the rest of the day to break them in.
We also go over to Home Depot, where we collect some spray paint for painting Kimberly's closet doors (which is another story for another day, one that involves stripes of paint). I also buy some fold-up work benches after having fallen in love with one that my dad purchased. I keep having to break down shelves in the garage to create work spaces, so these will be a big improvement, and they'll store easily when they're not in use.
(Can't say I could have predicted a universe two years ago where I'd be buying fold-up work benches, let along very excited about doing so.)
The rest of the day is even more mundane. Kimberly gets a hearing aid back at the audiologist after they sent it in for repair. (Actually, it's a replacement, which is even better.) We do our normal Costco shopping. We pick up a light dinner that still turns out to be too much food after that huge lunch at Mariachi's
Overall, a good day.
(I actually do this most Saturdays, but that's more a singular thing: a hike or a bike ride. Today, we're instead going to bounce from place to place along the east side.)
Monday's usually a work day for me, but I've been burning the candle at both ends lately because a few of my tech writing clients have suddenly become active. And I had a medical issue that seems to be resolving but was pretty stressful a few weeks ago. It's been stressful overall. But I've got all of my scheduled work done for June (1 new Designers & Dragons history, 2 new TSR chapters, 12,000 elf words, and my ongoing tech writing work is at least mostly under control), it's thus a pretty good day to R&R.
The main point is to let Kimberly swim in Lydgate. She was taking swimming lessons before we moved to Kauai, but hadn't really swam since arriving, other than a nice trip up to Hanalei with my dad, before Hanalei Hill collapsed this winter. After a hiatus she tried at Poipu last week, but the south shore gets big waves in the summer, so that didn't work out. So, we decided to travel out to Lydgate, where there's an almost entirely protected lagoon. (It's totally protected, but big waves splash over the walls.)
There's one set point in time for the day, which is an audiology appointment Kimberly has at 3.30pm. So I schedule our day based on that. It starts with us heading out at 10am (after I've taken my morning to do some writing and editing, including publishing my newest elf myth to the Glorantha Fans group).
I want us to have a leisurely, pleasant day, so rather than driving through Lihue we take the bypass, something which I've only done one before since we moved (other than our nighttime drive down Murderer's Alley, but that's another story, one probably recorded in this journal in early to mid January, 2020).
It's a beautiful road. Lots of scenic venues including mountains and Menuhune Fishpond. There are a few places that it's narrower than I like, but overall I need to remember it as a great alternative to get through town when we're not in a rush.
The trip out to Lydgate is otherwise uneventful. I have to remember that it's closer than I think: my Maps program says it's just 30 minutes away, though it's more like 40-45 today, with the detour down the Bypass.
Unfortunately, traffic has been increasingly horrible since the tourists returned, and out past Lihue that's been made even worse by work being done in Kapaa to expand the highway to two lanes each direction (something direly needed all over the island, though they're only doing a mile of it here and that's a multi-year project!), and it's really a wreck going north in the morning because they set up "contraflow" where they prioritize southbound traffic. Fortunately, Lydgate is this side of Kapa'a, but we hit the backup just as we get to Lydgate. We actually have to wait a few minutes before we can pull around and into the park.
Lydgate is fun swimming. Kimberly and I flit around in the water for about an hour.
The strangest thing is that the lagoon is shallower than it used to be. Toward the back walls, it used to be 8 or 10 foot deep, with rocks at the bottom, but now it's all sand, and nothing's deeper than 4 feet.
Is this the continued Disneyification of Kauai, to make it more palatable to tourists?
Or does sand just accumulate?
After lunch we'd planned to eat at one of our favorite restaurants on the island, Monico's. But my dad helpfully pointed out yesterday that they'd always been closed on Monday's. So we choose Mariachi's in Lihue instead, a different Mexican restaurant. We'd been wanting to eat there for a while, and had actually called in for a pick-up order a few months ago, but they'd apparently stopped answering their phone for pick-ups as soon as tourists were available again for sit-in dining, and that was a few weeks after the initial return.
(There's a bit of bad feeling on the island right now that we residents went out of our way to give business to local restaurants during the pandemic, and now that the tourists are back, we can't even get reservations at a lot of restaurants because they're stacked weeks and months out.)
Anywho, Mariachi's has space for us today. They're maybe a bit under half-full, which is good because that's the seating limit right now.
We're out on the balcony, which looked great when we frequently saw it driving by, but turns out to be pretty loud, because there's a road right out there with cars going by fast.
The service is slow, but it's obvious they're understaffed, because like everywhere right now, Kauai is having problems getting people back into the workplace for the same 'ole underpaid jobs. So, we don't take it personally.
The first surprise for me is the chips and salsa as appetizer. It's literally been more than a year since I've had chips and salsa at a restaurant, because pandemic (and because Paco's Tacos, one of the few restaurants we've patronized during out lockdown year doesn't serve them). Kimberly and I devour two bowls of chips and most of the salsa. They taste like freedom.
We place our orders after that, Kimberly for mole enchiladas, me for a taco salad. They're both good, though I'm surprised that they melt the cheese on the salad, which no one does in California.
In any case, our vaccine achievement is unlocked: we eat at a restaurant even though it's at least half full of potentially COVID-y visitors. (But we have good ventilation in any case, because we're on the balcony.)
The rest of the day is errands, so that makes it less of a tourist day, even though we don't go home in between
Because we're made of time, I buy some hiking boots at Costco, which I've had on our list for a while, but never wanted to spend the 10 or 20 minutes. But, we're planning to hike in the swamps on Sunday, and I didn't want mud going over the top of my shoes, as I've had happen in both Kauai (up in Kokee) and in the Bay Area (most memorably in Briones). It's been ages since I've worn boots, so I find them weirdly unconformable, going so high on my ankle (and they're relatively low boots!), but I steadfastly wear them the rest of the day to break them in.
We also go over to Home Depot, where we collect some spray paint for painting Kimberly's closet doors (which is another story for another day, one that involves stripes of paint). I also buy some fold-up work benches after having fallen in love with one that my dad purchased. I keep having to break down shelves in the garage to create work spaces, so these will be a big improvement, and they'll store easily when they're not in use.
(Can't say I could have predicted a universe two years ago where I'd be buying fold-up work benches, let along very excited about doing so.)
The rest of the day is even more mundane. Kimberly gets a hearing aid back at the audiologist after they sent it in for repair. (Actually, it's a replacement, which is even better.) We do our normal Costco shopping. We pick up a light dinner that still turns out to be too much food after that huge lunch at Mariachi's
Overall, a good day.
