kaua'i miss you already
OK. i've left kaua'i. i'm sad about it. I'm on Oahu on the North Shore - it's quite overwhelming, to be honest. there are so many tourists here - and not much else. granted, we're not really near a lot of towns, but i get the feeling there aren't many people who live here who have been living here for any significant amount of time. it's weird. i liked kauai better. the people were warmer. and the hostel was way better. this one is huge and full of surfers. not too much community feeling here either. ah well, it's just for the night. whatev.
Back to the thirteenth. We went to a little cafe for breakfast and spent too much money for an omelette, but had a lovely view of the mountains as we ate. We visited a crafts fair/farmer's market in hanalei on our way out of town, and we saw some necklaces we liked, but just as we were buying some more veggies for dinner, it started to rain and everyone packed up and high-tailed it out of there. It was a light rain, though, and quite pleasant, so it didn't stop us. We went on to Banana Joe's fruit stand in kilauea and bought some poi. that's mashed up taro. i thought it was kinda , but nabia liked it ok. it's kind of goopy and gray. blech. but they make a lot of it here, so ok.
Next we stopped at the Guava Kai plantation. Nabia's idea. Excellent idea. Everything was self-guided, but even though the plantation was huge, there was really only the gift shop and snack shop that you could go into on a rainy day. we spent a fair amount of time in the gift shop over by the free samples. we smeared all kinds of guava jellies, jams, and butters on the wheat thins they had out. our favorite was the guava passion fruit, although the guava strawberry was a close second, and the others were delicious too. then we thought about buying some for some gifts for you people, but thought no one would really eat it. so too bad for you. it was delectable. then we had some more of it. and then we had some free guava juice. pink and refreshing.
We proceeded to the snack shop, where they had samples of fresh guava out. we ate some. we're into the free stuff these days. we ate some more. then we saw the spot where they would be selling fresh whole guavas, but none were there. i asked the behind the counter if there were some available in some hidden guava storeroom somewhere, but she told me that i was crazy and needed to get some help. but seriously, folks, she said we could just go out into the field and pick a few ourselves. they're ripe when they're yellow and about the size of tennis balls. so, clad in our sarongs, we headed to the fields. we frolicked among the guava trees, chasing the roosters and searching for yellow tennis balls in the trees. we found a couple that were ok, and then i spied it. the perfect canary orb floating above the mediocrity. it was just a little too high up on a branch, though. we needed to team up. so i tugged the branch down closer to the trunk and nabia reached up to try and pick the guava. it was still just out of reach. i moved my weight down towards the end of the branch. suddenly, the guava tumbled from it's trapping and punched the upward-looking nabia in the face. we ed up for a little while, couldn't breath for a couple of minutes, rescued the now fallen guava from the ground, and then got some ice for nabia's face. we didn't want her to have to explain that her black eye was from a guava beating.
this typing is costly, now. by the way, i'm sitting at a weird kiosk in a little town called Haleiwa near our hostel. it's a strange plastic covered keyboard and there's no real mouse. i have to keep feeding dollars in when my time gets down to the end.
Back to the 13th. we drove onward and stopped at the kilauea lighthouse. we had passed it by before, but today was the day of stopping whenever we felt like it. so we did. Besides, there was a whole set of postcards we couldn't buy 'cuz we hadn't been there. so off we went. we stopped at another farmer's market on the way. they're scattered about the island on different days and only last for about an hour and a half. The lighthouse is at the end of a wildlife refuge. we learned about the different kinds of birds native to the island and the nene was our favorite (pronounced like "i like to ayt ayt ayt aypples and ba"naynays""), followed closely by the red footed booby. The refuge was cool though, and you could see tons of white birds on the mountain across the bay. The light rain continued to soak us just a little bit. enough to frizz the hair quite completely without matting it down. We made it to the lighthouse and got the panoramic view down the coast. there was a huge white storm on it's way in, and as it came it obscured a humpback whale that several people were busy spying on. as it approached us, we decided that was the moment to get going. we went and got only barely drenched.
From there we drove back to home base in kapa'a and checked in. we went to the natural food store (papaya's) to pick up the last few ingredients for our dinner and then went back, both of us exhausted and planning to nap. it had been too long since either of us had written in our journals though, so neither ended up napping and instead we both tried to write down everything we'd been up to in the last several days. it's tough to keep everything straight, i tell you.
We had seen an ad for $10 haircut special at the supercuts near the store, so we went back and got a little trim each. don't worry, people, i haven't chopped all my hair off. yet.
Now we return to the hostel, freshly coiffed and ready to make our delicioso dinner. matt, get ready. we had avocado cucumber cilantro cranberry sprouts salad, purple sweet potatoes, and pan seared steak. yummydelicious indeed.
After dinner several people got there guitars out. as i believe i mentioned that day, it was a flurry of singing and laughing and general warm fuzzies. i liked it. The players were steven (a musician with a band and demo cd, of which i am now in possession - he was pretty good, had some original stuff and a decent player), mike (the guy who picked us up at the airport, surprisingly good player), karl (goofy, lovable, at first not sure if sketchy but really a sweetheart, tone deaf, can't play a lick, but tries anyway), and michael (friend of karl, plays the ukelele and does mick jagger impressions as well as an impression of buddy holly singing a ramones tune. hey ho let's go-ho-ho... good stuff). as a quartet they were quite interesting. we sang such classics as "how sweet it is," some of steven's original stuff (like "it's goddamn cold" - i'll spare you the later more colorful verses), and finished out the night with michael leading "imagine." good times.
I'm gonna try and speed through there rest of this because i'd really like to set off for Fiji tomorrow night not still wanting to write here about Kauai.
On the 14th we got somewhat of a late start out of Kapa'a and headed south. the weather was gray and rainy once again. we started to do the Koloa heritage trail but discovered it was pretty lame, so abandoned it after we saw Spouting Horn, which is a hole in the lava rocks that spits up a shoot of water when a big wave comes in. They say it can get up to 60 feet. it didn't that day. but it was still cool. we read about some of the legends - that there's a big lizard that got stuck in there cuz he was too curious and the rumble you hear before the water shoots up is him growling. cool.
We started to drive back up to the highway, bypassing a resort town on the way and stopped at Shipwreck beach for a little while. the sky had cleared a little and we wanted some beachtime. at first it looked pretty ordinary but then we explored some dunes off to the left and wandered back into a little train that took us up onto some volcanic very cool looking cliffs over these little caves. neat.
After we left there, we went to salt pond beach park, which was supposed to be a chillin local hangout where we could just relax. the weather had gotten good by this point. we arrived there and went over to a little snack truck to get some plastic forks to eat our leftover avocado salad out of the ziplock baggie where it was residing, and whilst there we met uncle louie and francis. they were the self-appointed greeting committee and we sat in two plastic chairs they had set up next to them and chatted for a little while. They told us certain places we shouldn't miss, asked us about our travels, told us about their own (uncle louie, the "mayer of salt pond beach"- it said so on his key chain - had travelled across the us via bus 3 times, being hosted along the way by people he had met in hawaii). uncle louie then forced his cell phone on nabia and i and told us we had to call home and check in with our parents. we obliged, but neither set was home. too bad. so they got cryptic messages on their machines. After our chat, we went to eat our lunch and then spent a little while longer on the delightful beach, playing in the water and chatting with a family that was vacationing nearby with their adorable 3 and 4 year olds in floaties. The little boy would hum as he swam. very cute. On our way out of the beach, we gave postcards with pictures of the two of us to uncle louie and francis - uncle louie gave us two oranges and two bananas in return - he wouldn't take no for an answer. very sweet. very nice. friendly is good. aloha is good.
Next we started the drive up the mountain to Koke'e state park, where we would spend the night at spooky mcspookerson's cabin. more on that tomorrow. my time here has run out.
peace out.
Back to the thirteenth. We went to a little cafe for breakfast and spent too much money for an omelette, but had a lovely view of the mountains as we ate. We visited a crafts fair/farmer's market in hanalei on our way out of town, and we saw some necklaces we liked, but just as we were buying some more veggies for dinner, it started to rain and everyone packed up and high-tailed it out of there. It was a light rain, though, and quite pleasant, so it didn't stop us. We went on to Banana Joe's fruit stand in kilauea and bought some poi. that's mashed up taro. i thought it was kinda , but nabia liked it ok. it's kind of goopy and gray. blech. but they make a lot of it here, so ok.
Next we stopped at the Guava Kai plantation. Nabia's idea. Excellent idea. Everything was self-guided, but even though the plantation was huge, there was really only the gift shop and snack shop that you could go into on a rainy day. we spent a fair amount of time in the gift shop over by the free samples. we smeared all kinds of guava jellies, jams, and butters on the wheat thins they had out. our favorite was the guava passion fruit, although the guava strawberry was a close second, and the others were delicious too. then we thought about buying some for some gifts for you people, but thought no one would really eat it. so too bad for you. it was delectable. then we had some more of it. and then we had some free guava juice. pink and refreshing.
We proceeded to the snack shop, where they had samples of fresh guava out. we ate some. we're into the free stuff these days. we ate some more. then we saw the spot where they would be selling fresh whole guavas, but none were there. i asked the behind the counter if there were some available in some hidden guava storeroom somewhere, but she told me that i was crazy and needed to get some help. but seriously, folks, she said we could just go out into the field and pick a few ourselves. they're ripe when they're yellow and about the size of tennis balls. so, clad in our sarongs, we headed to the fields. we frolicked among the guava trees, chasing the roosters and searching for yellow tennis balls in the trees. we found a couple that were ok, and then i spied it. the perfect canary orb floating above the mediocrity. it was just a little too high up on a branch, though. we needed to team up. so i tugged the branch down closer to the trunk and nabia reached up to try and pick the guava. it was still just out of reach. i moved my weight down towards the end of the branch. suddenly, the guava tumbled from it's trapping and punched the upward-looking nabia in the face. we ed up for a little while, couldn't breath for a couple of minutes, rescued the now fallen guava from the ground, and then got some ice for nabia's face. we didn't want her to have to explain that her black eye was from a guava beating.
this typing is costly, now. by the way, i'm sitting at a weird kiosk in a little town called Haleiwa near our hostel. it's a strange plastic covered keyboard and there's no real mouse. i have to keep feeding dollars in when my time gets down to the end.
Back to the 13th. we drove onward and stopped at the kilauea lighthouse. we had passed it by before, but today was the day of stopping whenever we felt like it. so we did. Besides, there was a whole set of postcards we couldn't buy 'cuz we hadn't been there. so off we went. we stopped at another farmer's market on the way. they're scattered about the island on different days and only last for about an hour and a half. The lighthouse is at the end of a wildlife refuge. we learned about the different kinds of birds native to the island and the nene was our favorite (pronounced like "i like to ayt ayt ayt aypples and ba"naynays""), followed closely by the red footed booby. The refuge was cool though, and you could see tons of white birds on the mountain across the bay. The light rain continued to soak us just a little bit. enough to frizz the hair quite completely without matting it down. We made it to the lighthouse and got the panoramic view down the coast. there was a huge white storm on it's way in, and as it came it obscured a humpback whale that several people were busy spying on. as it approached us, we decided that was the moment to get going. we went and got only barely drenched.
From there we drove back to home base in kapa'a and checked in. we went to the natural food store (papaya's) to pick up the last few ingredients for our dinner and then went back, both of us exhausted and planning to nap. it had been too long since either of us had written in our journals though, so neither ended up napping and instead we both tried to write down everything we'd been up to in the last several days. it's tough to keep everything straight, i tell you.
We had seen an ad for $10 haircut special at the supercuts near the store, so we went back and got a little trim each. don't worry, people, i haven't chopped all my hair off. yet.
Now we return to the hostel, freshly coiffed and ready to make our delicioso dinner. matt, get ready. we had avocado cucumber cilantro cranberry sprouts salad, purple sweet potatoes, and pan seared steak. yummydelicious indeed.
After dinner several people got there guitars out. as i believe i mentioned that day, it was a flurry of singing and laughing and general warm fuzzies. i liked it. The players were steven (a musician with a band and demo cd, of which i am now in possession - he was pretty good, had some original stuff and a decent player), mike (the guy who picked us up at the airport, surprisingly good player), karl (goofy, lovable, at first not sure if sketchy but really a sweetheart, tone deaf, can't play a lick, but tries anyway), and michael (friend of karl, plays the ukelele and does mick jagger impressions as well as an impression of buddy holly singing a ramones tune. hey ho let's go-ho-ho... good stuff). as a quartet they were quite interesting. we sang such classics as "how sweet it is," some of steven's original stuff (like "it's goddamn cold" - i'll spare you the later more colorful verses), and finished out the night with michael leading "imagine." good times.
I'm gonna try and speed through there rest of this because i'd really like to set off for Fiji tomorrow night not still wanting to write here about Kauai.
On the 14th we got somewhat of a late start out of Kapa'a and headed south. the weather was gray and rainy once again. we started to do the Koloa heritage trail but discovered it was pretty lame, so abandoned it after we saw Spouting Horn, which is a hole in the lava rocks that spits up a shoot of water when a big wave comes in. They say it can get up to 60 feet. it didn't that day. but it was still cool. we read about some of the legends - that there's a big lizard that got stuck in there cuz he was too curious and the rumble you hear before the water shoots up is him growling. cool.
We started to drive back up to the highway, bypassing a resort town on the way and stopped at Shipwreck beach for a little while. the sky had cleared a little and we wanted some beachtime. at first it looked pretty ordinary but then we explored some dunes off to the left and wandered back into a little train that took us up onto some volcanic very cool looking cliffs over these little caves. neat.
After we left there, we went to salt pond beach park, which was supposed to be a chillin local hangout where we could just relax. the weather had gotten good by this point. we arrived there and went over to a little snack truck to get some plastic forks to eat our leftover avocado salad out of the ziplock baggie where it was residing, and whilst there we met uncle louie and francis. they were the self-appointed greeting committee and we sat in two plastic chairs they had set up next to them and chatted for a little while. They told us certain places we shouldn't miss, asked us about our travels, told us about their own (uncle louie, the "mayer of salt pond beach"- it said so on his key chain - had travelled across the us via bus 3 times, being hosted along the way by people he had met in hawaii). uncle louie then forced his cell phone on nabia and i and told us we had to call home and check in with our parents. we obliged, but neither set was home. too bad. so they got cryptic messages on their machines. After our chat, we went to eat our lunch and then spent a little while longer on the delightful beach, playing in the water and chatting with a family that was vacationing nearby with their adorable 3 and 4 year olds in floaties. The little boy would hum as he swam. very cute. On our way out of the beach, we gave postcards with pictures of the two of us to uncle louie and francis - uncle louie gave us two oranges and two bananas in return - he wouldn't take no for an answer. very sweet. very nice. friendly is good. aloha is good.
Next we started the drive up the mountain to Koke'e state park, where we would spend the night at spooky mcspookerson's cabin. more on that tomorrow. my time here has run out.
peace out.
posted by theonetheycallamy at 11/18/2004 05:45:00 PM
5 Comments:
I'll tell you one thing for sure, Ames, you certainly brighten my days with your journal! I am forever smiling at my computer screen and even laughing at loud quite a few times! Thank you, mom
Amy.....this is me, Elaine, Cindy's sister in Texas. Got your journal address from your aunt Barbara. You have NO idea how hard it is for me (a computer novice) to work this thing!! I've been reading along with your travels...your journal entries are very interesting and entertaining....one can almost "be there" by your descriptions of sights, foods, etc. What I want to say is that I wish you a wonderful, safe, exciting journey and lots of fun. I think you two are off on the adventure of a lifetime, and it's
awesome. I send you both big bear hugs and lots of love, and hope you don't mind if I drop in with a "hello" now and again as you whirlwind your way around the globe. Bye for now. Love, Elaine
I understand your missing kaua'i...it was a fantastic beginning of the trip. I'm sure more fun awaits you, and I look forward to reading your words on Fiji.
love Tante Barbara
Uncle B here
major cool trappings, dudette.
miss you but are thrilled at your adventures.
regards to Nabs.
we will have to relearn all about traveling across the amazon to get to MOMA; i have my work cut out for me.
LOL and LOL.
Grandma Ann would say:
you are where?
with who?
are you crazy?
dress warm.
S P I D E R S!!!
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