Back in the Garden

Things worked out such that I had a free day and though it was across the island I knew that I wanted to go back to work in the Allerton garden. During my winter stay on the island, or everything I did, volunteering to work alongside the garden staff became part of my routine (I settled into working Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the gardens) and was perhaps the most rewarding of all the things I did.

Today I showed up for work and was greeted warmly by the whole staff and it felt just like going back to where I belong. To be clear, as much as I like this work, for now at least, I won't be working as much as before - I'm working on getting set up permanently and want to explore a number of new prospects. However, when I do settle into a routine I can easily see a day or two a week working here as a fixture of whatever life here turns out to be.

The work for today was clearing out a bunch of hau that had overgrown a former dirt road obscuring it and making it completely impassible. They said this happens routinely and quickly - they did this job perhaps a year or so ago. Obviously this is a minor road used just for staff access to this part of the garden, on the west side of the river back from the part of the shore featured in Pirates of the Carribean #4.

Hau (Hibiscus tiliaceus) a fast growing tree in the mallow family. It is a tall woody plant, good at spreading, that creates a large tangle. The wood is very soft but fibrous - it reminded me a bit of the wood disposable chopsticks are made of. On the left is a closeup of the cut wood and the back of the worm-eaten leaves. I should have taken a nice photo of the plant but after hacking at it and hauling it to the dump all day long I was not thinking of the aesthetics of it but more considering it my adversary.

Above you can see the loaded truck filled with the trimmings - at least seven or eight truckloads were hauled out and dumped. We used chain saws for the heavy cutting, but also cane knife (at right). With a little practice I was impressed with what the cane knife can do. You use the weight of the knife to do the work, and cut the branch at an angle for best effect, on the sloped part of the blade. The cut shown in closeup above is of a fairly thick branch (two or three inches across), made with three angle cuts, and the center bit just breaks off.

It was good to see all my friends in the garden again, and I brought a Sugarloaf pineapple to share with them. It was also like a good workout at the gym - cutting, lifting, loading - but in a very beautiful setting without the sound of the waves on the wonderful Lawai-kai beach just down the road. The day went from overcast and rainy in the morning to humid and then clear, sunny, and hot by the afternoon, eventually with a cool breeze giving respite from the blazing tropical sun.

Back home by about four for my afternoon ocean swim. Only in Kauai.

Ocean Safety

Already this year there have been eleven deaths in the oceans around Kaua'i, an alarming rate, and there is controversy brewing as to what to do about it. Everyone appreciates that tourists come here to have a fun-filled vacation and don't want to be lectured to; on the other hand, to save some lives there is a good argument that they just might need to be educated.

A recent AP article - not local investigative journalism - explains the conflict of interest between better educating people about ocean safety and not quashing tourism business.

Arriving into Lihue airport recently I saw the new educational video and thought it was not very effective. The content is very abstract, grade school level stuff, and it completely avoids the topic of what bad things can happen if you aren't careful.

The video is not getting a lot of visibility in any case. The airlines are not anxious to show the video, and it doesn't seem to be available online (or I can't find it if it is somewhere, which is about the same as not being there).

My impression is that the tourist industry wants to brush all this under the rug and hope the problem goes away, or at least remains quiet and unknown to prospective visitors. The quotes in the AP piece seem to demonstrate a lack of understanding by using examples like sharks and drunken cliff falls which have not been part of the problem. The problem being people too close to ocean or fast-running streams at the wrong time and place.

Nobody has to fear Kaua'i but you do need to use good judgment. "Don't go if you don't know" is good advice but it can spoil the fun of exploring a remote beach you just discovered.

• play it safe
• go in the water where lifeguards are
• watch the weather report 
• don't attempt to cross running water more than a few inches high
• anywhere near the ocean, keep an eye on it

Hanalei Pizza

After the hike yesterday had great pizza at Hanalei Pizza in the Hanalei shopping center on the makai side. The web site is very thin but does show the regular menu, plus there are specials. This place is very Hanalei (laid back) and the pizza really is delicious by any standard, if a little unconventional. Prices are fairly high but the Large is quite large. The chalk board tells you what you need to know about this place.

Our Crust is made with Coconut Water, Hemp oil, Hemp seed, Flax oil, Flax seed, Flax flour, Flax bran, Poppy seed, Chia seed, Whole wheat flour, High protein flour.
We are Not known for our SPEED!
If you are Not Happy LET US KNOW.

UPDATE: Hanalei Pizza is now closed.

Hours 11:30am to 8:30pm every day

Phone 808-826-1300 or 808-826-9494

Dining

They make pizzas to order and also do a good business selling slices that they warm in the oven if you can't wait, are eating solo, or want to try many kinds. They will do half-and-half or even four-quarters as different kinds if you have a large party and want diversity. They will top your pizza with feta cheese and chopped basil as an option which I recommend. There is an assortment of beverages in the frig, or pick up beer or wine at the Big Save while your pizza bakes (no corkage fee), or have water to drink.

Pizza making

Shawn is almost always cooking when I show up through there are other chefs, and I learned a lot of neat tricks for my own pizza making. They have a nice professional pizza oven (the electric bill must rival the cost of ingredients, power is very expensive on the island) and the crust is nicely cooked to a firm but moist crisp.

The recipe for the dough is above from the chalk board, and they recycle old dough into the mix each time so there's no waste. To prevent the crust from over-rising a spiked roller is run over it to puncture the dough. Rolling out the dough on the working surface, flour and corn meal are used alternately so you get one corn meal side that will bake down to prevent sticking to the bottom of the oven.

The sauce is a chunky tomato and roasted garlic mix - a nice technique is using a plastic measuring cup to scoop out the sauce, pour it on the crust, and then use the bottom of the cup to spread it evenly. Garlic butter is brushed around the outside edge, toppings go on, and it bakes.

Saturday north shore day

I've been running around getting situated here: finding a longer term place to live, selecting healthcare professionals, and meeting friends along the way - both planned and unplanned. Weekends there is little progress I can make on these fronts so I get free days on Kauai.

This will be a long narrative of my day which should make for a decent travelogue. Photographs can be viewed in full fidelity in this photo album. 

Saturday morning I left Anahola before sunrise heading north, planning the day out while driving. Naturally, I decided to head for the end of the road. Traveling past Hanalei Bay it was apparent that the tide was well out with unfamiliar rocks showing here and there around the bay. Still early, I sailed through the one-lane bridges and arrived at Ke'e Beach with plenty of parking still available. Already a community group had been doing cleanup work there and had an impressive collection of trash bags filled awaiting disposal. This area has recently (just in the past 3-4 years I have been visiting here) become very popular as a tourist destination and one sees way too many cars for the limited road and parking space there is. (Of course I am one of those, but at least I don't park squeezing the car into the vegetation and jutting out into the road as one routinely sees. There is talk of having a gate and charging admission. Good for the community supporting the park under the stress of so many visitors.)

 

The Kalalau Trail begins just off the parking lot, climbing a rough hewn natural stone stair case for the first stretch that before long gives way to dirt with rock trail. This is one of the world's great hiking trails and very popular but I'm early enough (7:30am) that for the next two miles I only encounter a handful of folks and often have my section of trail to myself. This is shot from the second vista as the trail winds in and out of valleys in the mountain, steadily climbing.
On the makai side are the lush mountain slopes that make this area so strikingly beautiful and exotic. Further down the coast this all becomes even more so.

In this first two mile segment the trail follows the terrain, winding into valleys, then back out along the coastline. Soon you are hundreds of feet above the ocean spreading out below. This is the edge of one of the largest expanses of open water in the world: there's nothing for thousands of miles out there looking north from Kauai.


Soon the trail levels off and the first good view down the coast toward Kalalau to the west appears about a half mile in.

Small waterfalls and streams cross the path often at its deepest penetration into the valleys or crevices along the terrain.

Here's an example of the more rocky portion of the trail. While it gets a little muddy from the water trapped between the stones, when it gets really wet the rocks provide traction compared to the slick all-dirt sections, especially further along on the descent to the first beach.

Here's a classic shot of this shoreline looking down the Na Pali ("the cliffs") coast.

And again at another vista: if you were there you would know why one can't help but shoot this over and over.
I came upon a couple here both standing with cameras pointing down the coast. I took their photo so they returned the favor. The view is great but this early in the morning the trail is shadowed making for difficult shooting. Fortunately they prioritized the scenery over the person just getting in the way.

Approaching Hanakapiʻai Beach on the descent to the stream that empties into the near side of the accessible shoreline.

This area can be very dangerous as well as beautiful. This year there have been a number of people lost in the waters of Kauai, and this stream and beach have taken part of that toll. Watching the weather and using common sense it's fine and today was sunny and clear. With no recent significant rains lately the stream was a little over ankle deep and easy to cross.

 Hanakapiʻai Beach is a nice wide white sand beach, festooned with a large number of stone cairns.

To the right is a view of the sea cave to the west end of the beach and showing some of the surf - moderate today. People go out into the water a bit but you need to use caution: no lifeguard here, no cell service to call 911.




After watching the waves and walking the beach I walked back the way I came: four miles round trip. More on the return hike in another article to come.

 I strolled up Ke'e Beach for a while heading east, back toward civilization. I thought this shot on the left might make a nice screen background for my computer (haven't tried it yet) because it is easy on the eyes.

This beach is nicely protected by a coral reef out there where the waves are breaking (right). Instead the reef it's very shallow and flat. In the view of Ke'e from the trail you can make out a couple of guys walking out there with spears looking for fish at that low tide.

In those shallows were small schools of tiny fish skittering around. I wasn't the only one to notice: a dog was chasing along the fringes of the surf. Impressive that the dog noticed them.

Back at the edge of the sand stood trees whose roots lay exposed from erosion. And of course there are chickens everywhere.




I washed up and turned over my nice parking spot to some lucky visitor and headed back toward Hanalei.





Next stop was a quick visit to the Limahuli Garden where I had helped build a hale to see if the finishing work was any further along (it wasn't). It looked great standing there above the lo'i of kalo (taro). Buildings much like that must have been in this valley many years ago (except for the use of nylon cord and cement). At right is a shot of the interior ceiling and supports.

Just as I was leaving someone called my name; the garden director noticed me (from a good distance) so I joined them for talk story in the hale. He was showing a visiting scientist around the grounds with another staff member who took a very nice shot of me, her first time to use a rangefinder camera.

Lunch at Hanalei Pizza was excellent, this place deserves an entire article. I've gotten to know the chef there and learned a lot of tips for pizza making. Go here for more on the pizza and cooking tips.

I was planning to have a frosty from Banana Joe's on the way back but they are closing for a month (travel perhaps) and the kitchen was closed. I bought a papaya instead and headed home. Immediately I headed into the ocean for my late afternoon swim.

If this is what a typical day in retirement is, I think I'm going to like it just fine.

Pancho Graham

Listened to great slack key guitar by Pancho Graham tonight playing at the Lighthouse Bistro in Kilauea. Pancho is masterful with six-string guitar and a mellow singer, playing in a very relaxing laid-back style. More than one person on the island recommended Pancho and he did not disappoint.

You can sample his music here - "Pine tree slack key" is his signature piece that he closed with. Slack key is uniquely Hawaiian guitar tuning where strumming the open strings produces a major chord. The music has a very special sound that fits this place perfectly.

The Lighthouse Bistro is a nice venue: a small bar and modest size dining area all opened up on one side to an open courtyard surrounded by a collection of shops. Fresh fish, good food, several beers on tap, and friendly service. Pancho seems to be an institution playing Thursdays at the Bistro, but for the latest check out the live music schedule here. To get there turn makai at Kilauea (just north of milepost 23) at the Shell gas station; follow Kolo Road a block or two, then take the well-signed first left on Kilauea Road (toward the lighthouse) for about 1/2 mile to Kong Lung shopping center where the venue is located. Tonight I walked in without a reservation and got a nice table near Pancho to enjoy the show.

Maui Hale Symposium Photos

Quick selection of some photos from the past few days at the symposium are here. I haven't had time to properly process and organize. Scenes from the preparation and competition, some local sights, views along the Hana Road, and more.

Maui Hale Symposium Completion

The hale building symposium completed today with five teams building on five sites over three days. The photo at right shows what a completed hale looks like, made of wood, stone, and leaves, lashed together with nylon cord (a modern change obviously).

The judges have scored the competition with the results to be announced tomorrow at the Hana Taro Festival. My role in this was to observe and score each day's work (a different team each day). The principles of competition are:

• Laulima: everyone contributing effectively
• Lokahi: harmony, cooperation and teamwork
• Uʻi, Nani: aesthetics, beauty
• Maikaʻi, Pono: correctness
• Kawikiwiki: timeliness

I observed three different teams over three days and saw first hand their various ways of working and responding to challenges. Throughout the work was without exception remarkably amicable and focused on helping everyone grow their skills and learn both the construction details as well as the cultural aspects. 

One story from the symposium may convent a bit of the real meaning of this event. Going into the final day, the team I was observing still had none of the palm leaves used to thatch the roof, and was busy building with all hands and had no time to go foraging leaves. Finally mid-morning they sent two guys out to collect leaves and soon after they left a truck pulled up loaded with leaves - another team had finished early and brought their spare material, knowing the leaves were needed. And once they got there they all pitched in and helped prepare the leaves and pass them up to the team who were thatching in parallel to quickly wrap up the job to completion. They took the principles of Laulima and Lokahi to not just one team, but to all participants.

Houlani Hale

Awakening pre-dawn I opened my eyes to something akin to being in a large alien spaceship, very dim blinking lights intermittently revealed a high ceiling that looked organic. The sound of crashing waves confirmed where I was - inside a huge hale (Hawaiian style building) - the palm-leaf-thatched ceiling was organic, eerily lit by the glow of the blinking of a bank of charging cell phones. Permit the dramatic description: this place is really something, almost other-worldly.

This is Houlani Hale, a short distance south of Hana on the island of Maui, home to our host Palani, where most of the hale symposium participants are staying for the event. A few acres tucked in next to the cattle ranching fields right on the coast, with a series of buildings laid out around a big lawn area turned into a small scale golf course for practice. (Once a year our host deploys his riding lawn mower into the cattle pastures to create a cross-country style golf course for a local invitation-only tournament.)

The 100 foot hale dominates the buildings, a barn essentially, serves as the symposium meeting room and dorm. From there working toward the ocean: a bar hale, a pizza oven, wash basins, shower, and head. The photo is the kitchen/dining area where some great grinds have come from, a full spread at every meal.

The lawn ends abruptly at a rocky cliff perhaps 10 meters above the ocean. There's no beach but one of the guys is quite a diver and he gets down there and brings up fresh fish and shellfish.

It's almost 5:30 and biscuits just went into the pizza oven to bake. Here's the recipe: mix one box Bisquik with two cans coconut milk; bake.

Maui Hale Symposium preparation

First day on Maui, beautiful hot weather all day.
After breakfast kumu (the master hale builder leading the event) held a review session for participants brushing up on details of construction Hawaiian style. At right here we are inside the largest hale on the planet: 100 feet long, the size of a good sized barn.

In the morning we collected and distributed materials in preparation. Then after lunch kumu and I drove to Kuhului harbor to pick up the truck we shipped from Kaua'i loaded with wood for this event. I followed him back tailing him all the way down the Hana Road - some thirty miles of winding road through gorgeous tropical terrain leading south, abundant with waterfalls and view points overlooking the ocean to the east.

By dinner all the participants gathered and the event starts tomorrow 7AM. People are here from all the major islands, along with friends about forty people or more. Dinner featured fresh fish and shellfish caught right off the coast here and expertly prepared, and steamed ulu (breadfruit) which I had for the first time. Dessert was banana bread (several varieties including mac-nut & pineapple-coconut).

Civil Defense 2.0?

Saturday the civil defense system was activated to warn us of potential thunderstorm and flash flood danger on the west side of Kauai. I happened to be at the library where an automated call came in and Ed the librarian relayed word to the patrons.

It was already pouring rain and lightning was going off, lighting up noticeably during the cloud-darkened daylight. While I understand the weather service is tasked with issuing these warnings (as well as "watches"), it seemed fairly obvious that it was stormy and unnecessary travel was inadvisable.

More importantly, why in this day and age don't we have civil defense alerts appearing on our phones? Clearly we have the technology, but either the civil defense people for some reason aren't using it or if they are it is certainly not widely used at all.

Isn't this important? Today's Boston tragedy underscores that things can happen any time, any where. Do we really want to depend on Twitter? Civil defense must be consuming a lot of tax dollars and has an important public trust: why aren't they already on my phone?

I haven't researched it but I bet the civil defense is largely using very outdated legacy technology and probably doesn't have budget to do new things. Cellular carriers decide what goes on our phones, and civil defense warnings surely ranks well below Facebook and games ... We have everything to do this (as one tiny example) and we don't seem to be able to actually do it. All we need to do is set priorities, choose, and act. It isn't hard, it could save lives.

Fortunately, for me at least it was just heavy rain (wipers on fast) and I saw no reports of damage or injury.

Kauai Bus

I've been carless the past few days and riding the Kauai Bus. After dropping off a very generously loaned truck in Kalaheo, I took the bus back to my place. Two busses actually with a 45 minute transfer wait at Kukui Grove shopping center: $4. One weekends the schedule is a killer - two hours between busses - but it worked out fine by chance.

The walk back from Anahola Post Office was nearly two miles but  not a bad walk, featuring views of the Hole In The Mountain - including an angle from the road where you can see daylight through the hole.

Today packing took a little longer than planned but I got it done, did a bit of cleanup, and left with 35 minutes to get back to the bus stop. Made it with 2 minutes to spare (with my bags for Maui) and the bus was obligingly a few minutes late so plenty of time. To get to the airport involves transfer to the Lihue Shuttle but things were more or less on schedule and the connection was under 10 minutes, getting me to the airport (LIH) in plenty of time.

It's too bad that the Kauai Bus is not published in a format that Google Maps directions can use but just maybe I can help with that. The schedules are online as PDF (at http://www.kauai.gov/Government/Departments/TransportationAgency/BusSchedules/tabid/208/Default.aspx) but it's fairly cumbersome to plan a trip.

Like many non-urban bus systems the Kauai Bus has a "Catch 22" problem of low ridership and sparse schedules... if only there were more busses and stops they might get more ridership. A quaint detail is that you stuff your $2 (per trip) into a fare machine designed for coins and when it gets full (and you could as easily pull money back out if you wanted to) the driver uses a paint stirring stick to stuff it down lower into the locked box.

Bottom line: it's great to have the Kauai Bus and I expect riding it when it works. The drivers have all been helpful and show Aloha spirit which makes a difference.

To Maui

Not a big change of plans, I am flying to Maui for a hale building symposium and the Taro Festival, back early next week to Kauai. Both events are located around Hana, where I will be staying -- but not at the fabled Hana Hotel -- in a hale fittingly enough.

The symposium (invitation only) starts Tuesday with organization and practice, then five teams will have two and a half days to construct their 8 by 10 foot hale. Teams are provided with materials consisting only of wood, stone, leaves, and nylon cord or sennit for lashings. Tools are provided (this is the first event I have been invited to that specified, "no need to bring knives").

This will be my first trip to Maui since a visit long ago. A friend of my mother's had a condo at Kaʻanapali that we visited for spring break of my sophomore year I think. I recall the drive on the Road to Hana as an amazing display of tropical lushness the likes of which I had never seen: blue ocean on one side, green jungle to the other, and a waterfall at every winding turn.

Maui has a reputation of being heaving developed that has kept me away, but I have no doubt that Hana is far enough away from the resorts that it won't disappoint. Visiting Hanapepe last week, my friend from Maui remarked that Hana was like that but smaller. Of course the road has become a major tourist attraction, in volumes now unlike anything way back when, but I will have locals shuttling me through all that and get to sit back and watch it all.

Kauaʻi Video

Check out this one minute video that brings Kauaʻi alive more directly than all the words and photos I've written here.

http://gopro.com/videos/video-of-the-day/2013/4/13/

The GoPro featured videos are always top-notch, smart and compelling advertising that actually gives you ideas of shots you could do yourself.

My GoPro 2 has been great complement to still photography and so tiny it's effortless to carry along all the time so it's always at hand.

Downshift

After a very busy first few days I have been winding down just a bit, settling into my Anahola accommodations and enjoying a relaxing pattern of morning and afternoon ocean swims, sitting on the back porch watching the waves.

Friday went in to Kapa'a to buy food, turning around just ahead of the infamous congested traffic on the highway. Otherwise R&R.

Saturday drove out to return the truck generously long to me for the past few days getting settled and am currently bussing back after meeting a friend for lunch in Kalaheo. Later back at my place the plan is a quiet dinner on the porch overlooking the ocean.

Day 2

I won't continue these long detailed posts very long, but until I get settled into the rhythm it's the best way to capture the days. Besides, sun is starting to peak over the horizon and the beach is right outside my backdoor so I want to make this short and sweet.

As planned we drove the load back across the island and shipped it off for Maui uneventfully. Breakfast at the Tip Top, then to the airport to drop off my friends. Only Kumu could get on an earlier flight so Jackie and I decided to see the west side with the hours until her flight, playing "tourist". We were a most unlikely pair: native Hawaiian Jackie playing tourist, shown around Kauai by this haole guy just landed days ago playing local host.

In a few hours we squeezed in many of my favorite spots:

• a bag of Taro Ko chips (taro crisps)
• visited to the Talk Story Bookstore
• walk along Waimea beach by the pier
• the West Kauai Visitor Center
• seared wasabi ahi tacos at Island Tacos
• brews at Kauai Brewing Company

At the visitor center luckily Puna was in so had a nice visit to catch her up on things while Jackie checked out the collection in the museum section. Back to the airport in plenty of time.

From there I was off for Anahola where I found ridiculously luxurious accommodations, beachfront no less, courtesy my good friend here. After a beach stroll we had dinner (honey sesame encrusted fish with broccoli) and more talk story.

Today I return the F-150 truck generously loaned to me by a friend of a friend to Kalaheo, bus to the airport to pick up a rental car and probably head back to "The Compound". From there, we'll see.

Day 1

Today was my first full day on Kauai - arrival and travel yesterday I will designate Day 0.

It was a very full day and this will be particularly detailed and long I'm afraid. Feel free to skim or skip (skimp?) If you do skip, let the very bulk of this entry serve to describe how packed the day was. I promise every day won't be this much verbiage but wanted to portray the life that I have managed to drop into: it feels as if I was never away. And without skipping a beat the whole day flowed, full of so many experiences as far from life just a few days ago on the mainland as they were pleasant.

I should explain first that I am with the kumu (guru, essentially) master hale (Hawaiian building) builder doing some miscellaneous finishing tasks on the two hale that I was able to help build the past few months. When I booked my flight I was surprised to see my friend from Maui was on Kauai then, and it happened they were driving from the one hale to the other and were going by the airport at about the right time so they agreed to pick me off and immediately on arrival I was in the midst of an adventure.

This morning, awake before 5am we headed out from Limahuli (that's nearly end of the road, north shore) and drove to the Nawiliwili (the main port near Lihue airport on almost the opposite side -  the southeast corner - of the island. There he picked up a truck shipped from Maui, did some errands around Lihue, and drove back to Limahuli arriving mid-morning in time to help with the hale work already started, mostly roof patching and tightening.

Lunch was terrific, featuring green kale from the garden here with balsamic vinegar, steamed taro, lau lau so tempting I decided to declare a pescatarian exception and have two servings, and blueberry pie for dessert (Happy birthday, Katie!)

At lunch met a very interesting couple from Moloka'i working on an ambitious project restoring ancient fishponds to productivity. The term "pond" misrepresents the scale of these fishponds: "fishlake" is more like it - these are on the order of sixty acres and will take many years of work to recover but the process is begun already. I'm interested in visiting to see this work and to see Moloka'i which is said to be even more rural and undeveloped than here: my kind of place.

In the afternoon we loaded the truck picked up in the morning with wood to ship back tomorrow. After work was done I walked down to the end of the road at Ke'e Beach for a swim. The cool water was delightful and turning back to shore I had a stunning late afternoon lit view of the green cliffs soaring about the beach behind the beginning of the Kalalau Trail there. Back to the garden house a group of workers and volunteers was chatting, and after a bit I drove 3 of them back home (about halfway back towards Lihue). That's a lot of windshield time.

Dinner was back at the garden house featuring pupus (appetizers) from Pono Market in Kapa'a. Every one of the four types was scrumption: ocean salad, langoustine poke, lomi lomi salmon, and spicy ahi poke. (Poke is chopped sashimi with seasonings, a Japanese influenced Hawaiian food.)

Discussion of logistics for tomorrow concluded as "nalu" (meaning wave, as in "go with the flow"). We leave again at 5:30am and hit Young Brothers shipyard at 7:30am to send off the truck for Maui and meet a long-time friend of kumu's there (he's also shipping something it turns out). Kumu and his niece fly back to Maui in the afternoon - probably I will take them to the airport - but that's as far as we know. I have some leads on a place to stay tomorrow.

It should be interesting to see how it works out from there.

Experimental realtime dictated blogging

First please pardon strange typos et cetera as I'm sitting in a parking lot at young brothers shipping dictating this into my phone waiting for a truck to pull up. I arrived yesterday afternoon indica why was picked up at the airport by friends and now am helping with an elaborate truck shuttling exercise involving driving back and forth across the island a long ways for Kauai but only about 30 miles each way. 2&a half round trips I believe is the plan. My friends pick up truck is being used effectively as a mobile container he shipped it here from Maui we will load it up on the other side of the island driving back to ship back to Maui with a bunch of wood for a Hawaiian structure building seminar next week over their. By the way it seems to cost a little over a thousand bucks to ship a car inter island.
From here we drive back to the north side load up I am then tomorrow drive the loaded truck and the truck I'm in over here drop it off at the port, take him to the airport then I'm on my own. Next week I fly to Maui to help with the seminar and then after about a week back to co why where I have a couple weeks before off to Japan again.
that's where I am right now in this adventure I'm immediately immersed in. I hope this live blogging won't be too rough and too boring with the new show my plans. I intend to read it back and see if it makes any sense also welcome to feedback and keep doing this if it makes sense or go back to writing more considered posts yet when I'm busy its hard to find time to sit down and do a nice write-up so this is an exploration looking for the tradeoff between those two ways of approaching this blog.

A New Beginning

I'm retired. To me what this means is that, while of course I am on the hook for a few things like paying taxes (done for this year), more or less I plan on doing the things I choose to do. Surely it's a little more complicated than that with responsibilities to family and friends, but what new obligation I incur will be in exchange for benefits that I choose. Other than paying taxes, of course.
So there is no misunderstanding, in no way do I mean to complain about my recent employer: the company has very enlightened policies with respect to employees, which by the way is very good business, and my coworkers have been amazing in their understanding and support. Mahalo!
Perhaps the biggest lesson from my recent months on Kauai is to trust in things working out - detailed planning is not only unnecessary, it may not help at all. By the end of that trip so many remarkable opportunities materialized that I could not possibly have imagined much less planned for, the experience morphed seamlessly from basically vacation into something more akin to having a life on the island, including all that entails: authentic cultural exposure, and most importantly connections with so many good people of the island. Indeed the hooks were set deep.
Next steps over time will be some downsizing, and a shift toward Kauai, but there is no rush. The next couple of months I have a couple of off-island trips planned: a visit to Maui to help out with an event; a trip to Japan to see family and friends.
That's the extent of my plans: no reservations for a room or a car yet but I have friends picking me up at the airport and a place to stay the first night, and a few ideas of how to wing it from there. I think that's about the right degree of planning at this point.
I'm almost there - on layover at Honolulu airport.
Aloha

Priceless

$60 for two checked bags
$14 for breakfast at an airport bar
$318 for a one-way ticket to Lihue
Moving to Kauai: priceless.

Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple

UPDATE: Now you can buy it online.

When not in Kauai the next best thing is fresh Sugarloaf Pineapple from Kauai. And the very best is from my good friends' farm there which occasionally they generously send me.

In a nutshell, this is a variety of pineapple unlike the yellow kind: sweeter, low acid, and the core so tender it's fine eating. Much more detail at the link above.

Incidentally, last week there was a rather comical dispute in The Garden Island (Kauai's local paper) setting the record straight that Sugarloaf Pineapple is not GMO. Recently a very confused gentleman felt obliged to write a letter to the editor saying the by virtue of being a different variety of pineapple it was therefore GMO. The pineapple farmers who actually know something about the subject wrote in response correcting this misinformation. Then on April Fool's day (I'm not making this up) the same fellow writes back admitting he was wrong but somehow concluded that he was right anyway.

According to The Non-GMO Project who we think should know, GMOs (or “genetically modified organisms”) are organisms that have been created through the gene-splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This relatively new science allows DNA from one species to be injected into another species in a laboratory, creating combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods." If you prefer Wikipedia it concurs: "A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques."

Several decades ago Sugarloaf pineapple was discovered naturally occurring in the pineapple fields of Lanai. I think we can all agree that nobody was doing any genetic engineering that long ago, and if anyone was, how likely was it that they were working in a pineapple field in Lanai?

Seriously though, the important point about GMO is that it creates organisms by human tinkering that are impossible to achieve by hybridizing or as natural variations. Sugarloaf Pineapple is anything but that, it's perfectly natural, and as we all agree, quite delicious pineapple.