Just another day in our island life!

Sunday January 23rd, 2022

Another great morning!  I skipped the bike ride this morning, it was raining (although I could have gone, the rain is not really a deterrent for me here, still warm!)  So Munchie made us a great omelette and we waited for the sun to come back, which didn't take long and we hit the beach for a couple of hours.  

During this time, Ilio showed up!  

He and Keko seem to be hitting it off!

Monday, January 24th, 2022

This day started out like most mornings for me, got up early and went for a bike ride.  Now here is where I have to make an embarrassing confession; I left on my bike ride from our lanai and left the patio door not only unlocked but open!  Just closed the screen.  Wanted to let the fresh morning air in.  Thought with Munchie still inside the condo, everything should be fine.   I did this from our lanai in building E and had no issues.  However, on this morning, things did not turn out so fine!  Some time between 6am and 7am, someone entered our condo and stole my wallet (credit cards, bank cards, drivers license, no cash though) my address book and my binoculars.  These 3 items were on the table just steps inside the door.  They took nothing else.  My laptop was also sitting on the table, they left it.  I didn't even realize anything was missing until we were getting ready to head out at about 10am and was looking for my wallet.  Then it struck me!  I find this very frustrating and embarrassing.  I know better!   Some may say; "what about poor Munchie all alone in the condo", well I tell you, lucky for them they didn't wake her up!  

So I spent the morning cancelling my cards etc, reporting the incident to the police (a shout out to the local police service, their response was awesome, they arrived here within minutes and three officers came).  I know there is little that they can do, but they might get lucky and find someone with my cards and ID.  

I know, some of you are wondering what Keko and Ilio were doing at the time, as this could be considered "bad karma".  I did address this with them.  They stayed pretty silent about it!

After getting all the reporting etc done, we hopped the bus and headed into Lihue, a minor Costco run.  We hit Macy's, Costco, and Target!  Didn't really get much just a few odds and ends.  We did stop at Kalapaki Joe's for a quick bite.  We had wings and deep fried wontons.  Both were really good!

This was Munchie's happy hour special, a huge Margarita for 5 bucks!

Well, at end the of the day, other than my ridiculous brain fart and ensuing embarrassment, no real harm done!  I had checked on any activity on the cards and there had been none.  

Tuesday January 25th, 2022.             Nail Maintenance Day for Munchie!  

I started the day with a 6am ride (lanai door closed and locked!!).  Another awesome ride, a bit of wind with some spots along the route getting a nice sea mist blowing in.  

We had our morning breakfast and coffee, but skipped our walk as Munchie had a nail appointment!

We walked down to Anela Nail Salon, about a 12 minute jaunt.  I went along with my bike and then made a run to Big Save for some supplies we needed for another batch of muffins!  

Munchie was quite happy with the nail fill and said the staff were friendly.  She said they were "excellent"!

We spent a couple of hours on the beach in the sun.  I took the time to catch up on inspecting the inside of my eyelids!  Also enjoyed a cool, refreshing dip in the ocean.  

Wednesday, January 26th, 2022    Kapaa Farmer's Market Day

Today, I lounged in bed until almost 7am!  My morning ride started right at sunrise and I opted for a new route inland.  It began with a substantial rise in elevation over and I had a pretty good anaerobic start to the ride!  I went up past the High School and then down (and up!) some back roads, eventually taking what we in Alberta would call a "back road" (no pavement!) around to bring me back to the ocean path.  The back road followed one of the inland canals and was very peaceful and picturesque.  

I did have to make one stop for some pics for my sister-in-law, Beverly! 

I got back from my ride after 8am and we had our coffee, muffin and hard boiled egg, a game of Yahtzee and then went for our 4 mile walk!  We saw more whales this morning!  It never loses its appeal for us, seeing the whales out there!  We haven't seen the dolphins on our last few walks.  

The Kapaa Farmer's Market begins at 3pm on Wednesdays and is located at the soccer field just a ten minute walk along the ocean path from the Pono Kai.  We walked down about 15 minutes early and had a chance to check out the vendors before sales began.  There were already a bunch of people there lining up at the vendors waiting for 3 o'clock! 

We were quite impressed with the produce and came away with some beautiful, fresh, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, apple bananas and a daikon.  Munchie had to explain to me what a daikon is, basically a mild white radish.  Munchie said the first time she had them was in 1981 in Germany!  They served them sliced with your beer!  Munchie liked them with salt, go figure! 

We got back with our booty and Munchie served the daikon up with our afternoon happy hour cocktail, Michelob Ultra on ice for Munchie and a Stella for me! 

I tell you, the daikon as a side for snacking is now on my list of likes and up there too right along with peanuts, pretzels and pistachios!  

Munchie again put out an awesome supper for me (us)!  Some pan fried ono medallions in a lemon butter glaze and a greek salad made up of fresh produce from the farmer's market.....yummmmmie!  

Then she decided I needed dessert so after supper whipped up a batch of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  She did have to twist my arm, but not very hard!  Homemade cookies, you can't beat that to cap off a great day!

To be continued........

Mornings are great!

 Thursday January 20, 2022, 

First things first.  I have to formally introduce you to my two best friends on the island.  I have mentioned them before but here is irrefutable proof that I did not make them up!   

So folks, may I present, the tremendously talented twins ; 

Milo and Mason!

Even though I'm sure the boys like me the best, I think Munchie has a spot in their hearts as well, but she needed homemade cookies to secure her spot!

For those of you that know me, you know I don't have any grandbabies of my own, so I have to "adopt", like the Peanut in Edmonton (special aside for Gracyn: WLYB?) And now, "the boys"!  Gonna miss the two tykes when they have to jet home to the mainland!

Okay, now on with Thursdays events.  I did about an hours ride this morning and on the home stretch said good morning to Josh.  I assume he was was headed off to work, eager to nurture, refine and positively influence young impressionable minds!

I'm sitting here watching another gorgeous sunrise, waiting for my darling bride to emerge from her much deserved slumber.  The coffee is set to go, and as soon as Munchie is ready we are off for our morning stroll!

Got another delivery from the Amazon today!  Ordered some splash guards for the bike.  I am always amazed at how the vendors can do it?  From the mainland to Hawaii in less than 48 hours, free shipping and the guards were under $20!  The packages are delivered to the front desk and they call me to come and get it!  Its like Christmas!  Marge at the front desk is usually the one that calls me (this is my 3rd package since we got here, 2 for the bike and a set of beach chairs!).  I told Marge she must be Santa's best helper on the island, she agreed!

Josh and Alayna came over in the evening and Munchie, of course, prepared what she called just a few easy appies!  Double baked hot wings, stuffed mushrooms, veggies and dip, and of course her awesome nacho cheese dip!  And she topped it off with some of my favourite vegetables, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!  We had an awesome time.  Josh and Alayna are a great couple!  They shared some very exciting news with us, they are expecting their first child!  Munchie is hoping for a girl, so she has an Island surrogate grandbaby to spoil!  Munchie told Josh and Alayna about our Peanut and how she knows her designer labels (especially MK).   Josh and Alayna told us about how they ended up here on Kauai, what a great story!  Josh was submitting his resume to a number of different places and sort of out of the blue he got a call from Kapaa middle school and within a week they were selling everything in Oregon and heading to the islands!  What a great adventure for them.  And what a great place to start a family!

We look forward to keeping in touch with Josh and Alayna and are hoping to get together a few more times while we are here!

Friday January 21st.  (moving day!)

The day started with the usual 6am bike ride for me then coffee, cards and muffins when I got back.  Then we had to pack up the place for a move to another suite.  However there is one little hiccup, our next suite isn't available until tomorrow!  We have one night in a smaller one bedroom suite in the K building, up front.  We managed to have everything packed and loaded on a couple of carts and fortunately the K unit we moved into was ready to go before 11am, so we didn't have to use the hospitality suite as an temporary luggage depot!  The only real logistical concern was the frozen and perishable goods, but with the direct move it was not an issue.  Hopefully, we have another seamless transition tomorrow.  

We have to hop suites a few times, the down side of availability when booking our bonus weeks with our timeshare.  The upside, we still wake up in paradise!

We went over to Paco's Tacos for lunch, it was very good!  

  

It used to be the Ono Family Restaurant, which was a great place to eat.

We saw Milo and Mason headed off to the beach for their last time on this visit to Kapaa.  They took their parents and auntie along to enjoy some fun time in the surf and sand!  The boys are headed home on an 9am flight.  We will miss the twins.....oh yes and their mom, dad and auntie!

We had met a couple from Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the flight over, Ed and Beth Long.  They are staying at the Pono Kai and are also timeshare owners here.  They are here until mid March!  They do a bit of room hopping too, again a bit of a minor inconvenience, but not too bad.  We see them often on the walking path and around the complex.  They are a delightful couple!  

The other day Ed told us they have a spot they enjoy walking over to for happy hour at the Coconut's Fish Cafe.  Its about a 20 minute walk from the Pono Kai, over by the Safeway.  So today we met up with Ed, (Beth had to pass, she was a bit tired) Ed's daughter Natalie, son-in-law Craig, another long time Pono Kai alumni, Barbara, and Marie.  

We all walked over to Coconut's and had a great time and conversations.  I do so enjoy meeting new people, everyone has such great stories, experiences and adventures!  Here's to new friends!!

We met the franchise owner, Carol, a great ambassador for her business!  Upbeat and friendly!  A shout out to her Carol and her staff, the place was extremely clean and tidy and the food and drinks were awesome.  The surfboard motif is a neat theme!

Saturday, January 22, 2022.  

This is a very important day in history, on this day in 1946, James Allen Medley entered the world!

Jimmy is our group of retired Mounties elder statesman.  He joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on April 20 1966, but his most noteworthy feat was getting Stella to marry him on July 5, 1969!  Jimmy I think you still owe Stella $800!  (that's what he had to have in the bank to be granted permission to marry by the RCMP at the time!)

Happy 76th Jimmy!  (you ole piper you!)

Today is another move day for us, we have to vacate our one night suite (K203), and wait for our next unit to be ready, A102. 

Check out of K203 was at 10am, check in to A102 is 4pm.  This meant we had to use the hospitality suite to store our luggage and supplies until A102 was ready.  We had things pretty organized so it wasn't too bad.  There are 3 refrigerators with freezers there for guest use and we were able to store our frozen and perishable goods there.

Saturday is a busy check-in/check-out day at the Pono Kai and the hospitality suite was being used to capacity!

We spent the morning sitting in the lobby talking with the 4 girls from the US east coast (New York & Atlanta).  Hazel and her 3 daughters, Anne-Marie, Janet and Gillian, were in the E building, a 2 bedroom suite just up and over from us.  They are originally from Jamaica.  Munchie and the girls, especially Janet and Gillian shared shopping tales, and it became very apparent that they shared my darling bride's keen interest in shopping!  They were all very interested in who shopped where for what bargains!  

We hope our paths cross again here at the Pono Kai, Munchie would love to prepare and share some wonderful Ukrainian dishes with you!

The Pono Kai housekeeping were able to get A102 ready for us in record time and we were moved in by 1:30 in the afternoon.  

You can't get any closer to the ocean than A102!

We had rain most of the day, so we didn't lose any beach time because of the move.  Things just seem to work out!

We got settled in the new suite and were sitting on the lanai, playing dominoes, when our neighbour poked his head around the corner, Jim from E106!  He and Christine were our neighbours for our first week here.

We had been talking to Jim in the lobby earlier and he had said Christine had to return to Ontario for work, but he decided to extend his stay.  He had bounced around different suites here and ended up in A103 for his final few days.  We had talked about him joining us for happy hour on our lanai, and he ended up right beside us, too cool!  

So we had a beer on our lanai, then decided to walk down to Jimmy's to check it out.

Jimmy's did not disappoint!  There was a fellow playing the guitar and singing, and he was awesome!  Munchie immediately attempted to set up a gig for the Spurs!  

(for those of you not familiar with the Spurs, they are a super star trio of retired Mounties, Gerry (Slash) Babin, lead guitar and vocals, Jean (JT) Turgeon, just a rhythm guitar player, and Chris (Animal) Carroll, drums and back up vocals)

I tell, you the fellow at Jimmy's was awesome!  A great variety of tunes and very good!

We had a cocktail, Munchie had a prosseco, in a regular glass on ice, no fru-fru sh#@! Jim and I had a Red Stripe.  Munchie had the fish (mahi mahi) & chips and said it was excellent.  Jim said he had the Jimmy burger before and was having one again.  I had the same.  The burger was great!

It was a very enjoyable evening! 

To be continued.........

What a wonderful world!

 January 19, 2022

You know, there is something to be said about ones environment influencing behaviour and emotions!  I mean how can you not be in a great mood waking up on an island in the middle of the south Pacific!  I guess our circumstances also factor into it, but I tell you, I'll take this to a cold January morning in Alberta!

I just got back from my morning ride (0550 to 0700), got the coffee ready, watched another beautiful

sunrise, then Munchie and I went for our morning walk.  We were rewarded with a great show put on by a pod of about 5 humpback whales breaching!  What a magnificent animal!  So large, yet so graceful.  

On our morning walk on Monday, we met "Jimmy"!  The owner of "Jimmy's", the food truck bar and grill.  Its a great spot that features good eats and cold drinks!  There is also live entertainment.  A great place for happy hour!  

We look forward to seeing Jimmy again for a Red Stripe and maybe some wings?

We also met Josh on our Monday morning stroll.  Josh was loading his surfboard onto his Subaru wagon and being the chatty pair we are, we ended up having a great conversation with him.  Josh is a teacher who moved over from Oregon recently and teaches middle school in Kapaa.  As Monday was Martin Luther King day, Josh had the day off and was headed off to join some friends to catch a wave or two.  Josh offered to set me up for a surf if I wanted one day (I have only surfed once before, Australia, 2009)!  We look forward to possibly getting together with Josh and Alayna for some appies and cocktails!

After our walk Monday morning we had our coffee and breakfast, homemade bran muffins, fruit and I chowed down on some Oat Crunch Cheerios with almonds!  Then we hit the beach for a deserved rest from our busy morning!  We got set up on the beach, Munchie with her kindle and I decided to try my hand at creating a good luck Hawaiian kokopelli.  So, after scavenging some appropriate driftwood, coconuts, and various flotsam and jetsam, I set to work crafting my creature.  I was able to do the construction with the only utility tool I brought with me, my Swiss Army Knife!  And voila: "Keko" is born!  

So Keko now watches over our lanai and hopefully wards off any evil spirits and negative karma!

On yesterday's (January 18) morning stroll we met Cam, from Australia.  We sort of interrupted his run, I noticed he was wearing an Ironman shirt from an event in New Zealand and when I commented on it, being the polite young man Cam turned out to be, he stopped his run and we ended up walking with him back to his hotel, the Coral Reef, just a hop skip and jump from the Pono Kai.  Cam mentioned he and his mate, Jordie, had to check out of the hotel today, but didn't have another place to stay yet.  We mentioned some of the places we knew in the area and offered our pull out sofa bed if they were stuck!  As it turned out Cam came by to let us know their plans had changed and they were headed back to Sydney that evening.  That was too bad, we were hoping to get together for a happy hour or two with them!  

So, also yesterday, I hooked up with Mike from Jersey and Dave from Kentucky for a bike ride.  We headed down the coast line to Lydgate Beach park.  It was a great leisurely pedal and we got to swap some great stories and enjoy new friends!  I headed back early and heard that Dave had a flat tire on his way back!  Today, I ended up giving him a hand changing the tube as I had my little emergency bike tool kit with me.  Dave still had to track down a crescent wrench as the rear wheel nuts were 18mm and the biggest wrench I had was 16mm!  In the end, we fixed up the flat and the bike was ready for action again!  Dave is on his way back to Kentucky tonight.  Save travels to Dave!

So when I got home from my pedal with the boys, Brenda and I walked into town to try another food truck, the Scorpacciata.  We wanted to try their Neapolitan style pizza.  We had a pepperoni pie and some parmesan fries served with a homemade pesto dip.  We loved the awesome thin crust pizza and the parm fries were really good too!

This is definitely a place we will hit again!  

I had mentioned my early morning ride at the beginning of this post, well there was an event on the ride!  I was attacked by a Rooster!  Maybe he was trying out for an Angry Birds movie?  Who knows, anyway, there I was riding along minding my own business when suddenly this rooster comes flying out of the bushes right into my face!  I felt his tail feathers brush across my nose!  I tell a lesser man or mere mortal may not have been able to survive such a sneaky and heinous assault, but I prevailed and was pleased to find no brown skid marks in my shorts.  What is it with birds and my bike rides?  I had a similar incident in Phoenix one time, but it was a pigeon and he flew full into my face and nearly knocked my off my bike!  That time I did have to spit out some feathers and ended up with a sore neck!

Last night Munchie spent a couple hours baking chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for our special little pals we met here.  We dropped them off for Milo and Mason this morning before our walk.  There was another batch for Jason from Regina too!  I told the kids that cookies were my favourite vegetable!

To be continued........

Routines!

 

Its Sunday evening, January 16 and we just got back from a trip up to Hanalei Bay on the north side of the island.  We hoped the bus right out in front of the Pono Kai.  The ride takes just under an hour.  We walked around a bit then had a bit of lunch at the Tahiti Nui.  We started with some coconut shrimp and the "oh so ono roll" (Fresh Panko & Furikake crusted Ono Drizzled with Wasabi Soy Aioli & Ponzu Sauce. Served with Steamed White Rice.)  Then we shared a plate of BBQ ribs & fries!  

I'll tell you the highlight was the ono roll!

Yesterday morning I was up before the sun rise, so I jumped on the bike and did an early morning ride.  I am all equipped on the bike for low light / no light rides, (I ordered a light/bluetooth speaker combo that works great! Amazon, got it in 2 days!)  I listened to a Spotify mix featuring "Louis Armstrong genre" on this ride!  Usually its Iheart radio classic rock for my rides, but Louis seemed to fit at the time.  

The sun was just coming up when I got back.  You know, there is no more skilled artist than mother nature, wow what a landscape scene she painted for me on this morning!

Shortly after the sunrise, Munchie and I did our 4 mile stroll along the ocean side shared use path.  This has sort of become our morning routine, I get up, go for a bike ride for about an hour and a half, get back, go jump in the ocean to cool down, get the coffee ready to go, then Munchie and I embark on our stroll.  When we get back, we put the coffee on, then sit out on the patio, have a muffin, coffee and a game of either Play Nine, Yahtzee or dominoes!  After that we usually end up sitting on the beach taking in the sun and relaxing, Munchie reading, me snoozing!

I went over to the court last night for another game of pick up bball with any who would humour me!  I ended up playing with a group of local youths for about 2 hours!  When I got home, after a quick dip in the ocean, I had no trouble shutting down and catching serious rem the moment my head hit the pillow!

So, we all know that Munchie knows her way around the kitchen and that she is also adept at a particular branch of culinary arts, and one of my favourites, baking cookies!  She has already made a batch of oatmeal raisin (with a large portion going to the front desk girls and the housekeeping/maintenance).  The other day she made me some ginger "chews" (ginger snaps, but they stay soft and chewy, another of my favourites!)  They have been a hit with our neighbours and especially with Riders fan from Regina, Jason who is just about 3 years old!  So did the 2 year old twins, Milo and Mason!

I've been exploring a bit further each time I head out on the bike and have found that pretty much anywhere I go along the coast, I see the humpback whales spouting and breaching.  It is pretty cool to watch.  There is one spot along the path call the old pineapple dump. https://www.kauaitravelblog.com/pineapple-dump-pier-kauai/  I was talking to a local fellow who said you will always see turtles feeding along the rocks around the pineapple dump and so far every time I have stopped there, I've seen them!

So we sort of slid into a rather wonderful routine here (including after noon happy hour on the patio!) and the beauty of our routines are they are not rigid at all and can be easily varied to whatever comes our way!

to be continued..........

Arriving on Kauai

 Aloha!

Well we arrived on Kauai safe and sound late Friday evening (January 7, 2022).  The flight and procedures (covid protocols) were not unreasonable given the current worldwide situation and the biggest effect we felt was a less than half full aircraft!  We had arranged for a rental car for our first 3 days on island.  As my Scottish blood surged through my veins, I opted for "Rent-a-Wreck" (substantially lower prices than the big guys)!  I found dealing with Adele (the franchise owner) and Peter to be very easy and amicable.  Peter had provided clear and concise instructions for the after hour pick up.  So after collecting our bags and hailing a cab, we arrived at Rent-a-Wreck, about a 3 minute ride. 

Our little white Toyota 2 door Echo was there patiently waiting for us to jump in and head to Kapaa.  Now this little Echo has seen a bunch of miles and showed it, but it was mechanically sound and great on gas!

After a 15 minute drive we arrived at the Pono Kai in Kapaa!  The gals at the front desk were awesome!  Checking in was efficient and painless, and in no time we were unpacking in our new home for the next 2 weeks, E105.  (on a side bar, our decision to come to the Pono Kai was kind a last minute thing and as a result, we will have to move units a few times!  But as we are just moving to different units within the Pono Kai, the mild inconvenience isn't really a big deal!)

You know how long days of travel and flights can take a toll on you, especially as you age, well we were not immune and were grateful for a good night's sleep.  The best part of our first night, was our first morning!  What a place to wake up to! 

The sound of the ocean, the sun coming up over the horizon filtering through the palm trees, and of course the roosters crowing! 

They started crowing with the first hint of sunrise, around 6am!  We had a coffee on our patio and the chicken greeting committee wasted no time coming by to say hi and see if we were the gallus gallus domesticus friendly types, but alas, we had nothing to offer as we had yet to get our supplies!  I think one of the roosters gave us a pretty dirty look as he strutted off!  

We spent the morning unpacking and settling in, then hopped into the Echo and headed off to Lihue for a Costco, Walmart, run.  When it comes to shopping, Munchie is the pro and I'm the cart pilot.  I tell you, Munchie knows her way around a grocery store.  She knows her prices and is always looking for the best bang for the buck.  Shopping completed for the day, back to the Pono Kai! 

Munchie set up her kitchen and prepared our first "happy hour"!  We sat out on the patio and soaked up the serenity and beauty of this place! 

I like to cycle.  Those who know me know this.  So I decided to get a bicycle!  Again, my Scottish heritage influence kicked in and I ended up finding a suitable bike just a few minutes away from our location.  The Echo had no trouble accommodating the transport of the bike back "home".

   I had brought along my basic bicycle tools and spent some time cleaning up the bike.  It took a bit of scrubbing, cleaning and rust mitigation (the spokes were red instead of silver!) but the drive train was in good shape.  A bit of tweeking, and my Infinity Boss 3 7 speed 700c hybrid was ready to roll!  

As I opened with, we got here on Friday, January 7.  Tomorrow we will have been here a week.  We have settled into a bit of a pleasant routine.  We get up in the morning, sometimes courtesy of the roosters, sometimes not.  We head out for a walk along the awesome shore path for about an hour and a bit (about 4 miles round trip).  Upon return we sit out on the patio, have homemade muffins and coffee and play cards, or have a game of yahtzee or dominoes. 

After breakfast, we will then make the 1 minute walk to our beach and spent an

hour or so relaxing on the sand soaking up the sun.  I take this opportunity to have a dip in the ocean!  

We have seen a pod of dolphins just off the point in the picture a few times this week.  Have only seen whales a couple of time, so far haven't seen any turtles or monk seals.  I'm sure we will sooner or later.  

We went for a walk downtown on Thursday and stopped at a little spot along the shore pathway about a 15 minute walk from our place called Jimmy's.  We had some appy's, and a beer, Munchie had a Modelo on ice and I had a Red Stripe! 

Last time I had a Red Stripe was at Montego Bay Jamacia, a long time back now, man how time flies!

I have mentioned I like to cycle, another passion of mine is basketball.  I picked up a bball on one of our supply runs.  There is a hoop in the tennis/pickleball courts and I've started working on my shot again!  We met a couple from Jersey, Mike and Shirley and Mike also likes basketball, so Mike and I went over to the local outdoor courts and hooked up with a group of locals and had a great run!  Although we held our own our 60+ years showed!

So until my next post, Aloha!