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........