Day 5

The days are softly weaving into the fresh, new tapestry of our lives. The colors are richer and the weave is tighter, stronger. Waking this morning we are both anxious. The reality of the precarious palm frond we are perched on is hitting both of us hard. Everyone was right, we were bold! We left good jobs, everyone we love, and everything we knew, were we crazy?!! We don't know anyone and don't have jobs. Plus, Dan is recovering from the stress of the past 6 months, trying to get us here. We talk about it and decide that we have 2 choices. We can stay holed up in our tree house and find a job, any job, and muddle through this, or, we can get out into the community, meet people, and look for work that we will like. After all, we moved here to start a new chapter in our lives; we were burnt out and bored. We needed to get out of the rat race and really live life. Of course it’s going to be uncomfortable, we don’t know anything, knowing what’s coming is comforting. In an effort to create fun, Dan decides we should drive to the north shore and see if we can find a beach that allows dogs, I’m game.






The dogs haven’t really been able to get out and run, besides chasing the chickens and roosters roaming around our yard.





Baxter chasing a rooster

Turns out dogs aren’t allowed on any county beaches. Stuck in a car, we decide to check out a yoga place I found on the Internet. Tucked in the hills of the north shore, the yoga center is in the ritzy residential area of Princeville. We walk past the owner’s house, down a hill, to the yoga studio, a solid structure with wood floors, open windows all around, and surrounded by mountains. The cool air and birdsong make it conducive to yoga. Michelle, a tiny, vital woman of about 50, just finished a class. Her long, dark hair now streaked with grey has traces of sweat. She is the owner of Mana Yoga and is friendly and knowledgeable. She is pioneering her own kind of yoga in which your body is never in a 90 degree angle (ie: forward bend, down dog), she says it’s not natural and that’s why a lot of people get hurt doing yoga. Her creased, animated face, expresses her frustration with the yoga community and it’s insistence on doing harmful poses, that she is convinced, are relatively new. She has 25 years of experience behind her, she makes sense, so Dan and I don’t argue with her. We’d love to take a class but it’s a good 30 minutes away.

We tool around the north shore, fantasizing about moving there. The east shore and Kapa’a, where we live, is like Aurora (metaphorically) the north shore is like Aspen or Vail, very rich, very well landscaped.






Downtown Kapa'a

Back in Kapa’a town, (they add town after all the city names) we check out the community center. They have a pool and soccer field right along the beach. Inside, 3 women are taking a hula class while the teacher sings a Hawaiian song and plays ukelele. Her beautiful voice and simple notes are soothing and I think about trying the class. The schedule says they have a yoga class on Saturdays. The community center is minutes from our home; maybe I’ll check that out this week. We try 2 other grocery stores before going to the farmer’s market. One is a health food store called Hoku. I heard it was cheaper than Papaya’s which is where we went the other day. It is cheaper but still too expensive, I think I’ll have to give up my organic quest, seems it’s for people with bigger budgets than us. The other is an Asian market; the prices are fantastic, but there is not a lot of produce.

The farmers market is the big score, one-quarter mile, lined on both sides, with vendor after tightly packed vendor. Almost all of it is organic, and the variety is unbelievable. There is a guy whose nursery is on our street 2 blocks away. We talk to him about gardening (we’d save a bunch of money growing our own food and almost everyone does it here) and learn that everything grows like crazy all year long. We leave totally stoked; making plans for our new garden. Our hands are full; 3 bags of pineapple, limes, lemons, tangerines, greens, lettuce, tomatoes, papaya, chili peppers, eggplant, green beans, zucchini, broccoli, grapefruit, cucumber, a big bag of basil, and a huge avocado, for $32.00. Score! I’m so excited. We can live off that for 3 days. With the jasmine brown rice I got at Hoku, we can have stir-frys, eat healthy, and cheap. Now, I just have to find a great place to get fresh fish.






Lunch at home



-- posted from my IPhone

Location:Kaapuni Rd,Kapaa,United States