Good Day Sunshine!

High 79, low 61, light showers

As the sun tracks the sky gradually warming the day, so does yoga for my mind and body. The sun came  out today making everything more green, the heat feels good on my skin. Baxter catches the ball and immediately drops it, uninterested in  playing fetch this morning. I hope this doesn't mean he is already bored with it. Instead, we walk around the yard taking pictures, until he finds a chicken to chase.

Lazy Lucy

Papaya tree in our yard

Flowers wet with morning dew

This tree drops some big coconuts, watch your head!

The back of our tree house. The first window is the kitchen, then bathroom the last is the bedroom. 

Lucy licking the morning dew off her nose after some ernest sniffing around.

The way out.

Last June the water was 72 degrees, so we wanted to get a light wetsuit top for our surf lesson. Based on Mike's recommendation, we headed up to the north shore to the Hanalei Surf Shop. We picked up a hitchhiker on the way, it's good karma, we get to meet people and we get tips. Today, we got to meet Michael. Thin and youthful, Michael is actually 40, we mistook him for 30. His work is photography and web design and this takes him around the world. His next major trip is to the Himalayas. I ask him how to work around the contrast between a lot of light and shadow. His tip is to get my lights to the point where they are just overexposed and back off a bit, then, in Photoshop, tweak up the darks. You can check out his beautiful photography capturing the vitality of landscape and people here, it's worth the time. His goal is to get to the Hanalei farmers market before it closes and we take him there. We have never been, and the way he describes it, I want to see it. Surrounded by the towering mountains of the north shore and lined with beautiful, trimmed, green lawns and manicured flower beds the Hanalei farmers market is indeed beautiful.

Michael and Dan walking into the farmers market.

Dan pauses to check out these beautiful hand carved wood bowls.

Beautiful mountains surround the farmers market. There's Michael with a big bag of veggies.

View looking back from the farmers market.

As I have grown older, finding clothes that fit has become more and more depressing. To live here is to be healthy, lean, and vital. Most locals have about 10% body fat. I am looking for some bottoms to wear to our surf lesson and four stores later, I find some that fit. Even though we have lost some weight in the two weeks that we have been here, I am distressed, I decide when I get home I am going to go for a run! On the way to the car we stop and check out the tikis. A guy is sitting on the ground, carving intricate designs while another, under an awning, oversees the ones for sale. We stop and talk to him. It turns out that he is the guy we bought our tiki from when we were here for our anniversary. We chat, easy and comfortable shaded from the afternoon sun. As we leave he says we will do well here, the dentist said the same thing. I wonder what they see in us.

My first shot using Michael's advice and Dan's tutelage. No Photoshop though, I'm already averaging about 2 hours a day on this blog!

The ocean views in Hanalei are magnificent. The black lava rock in the foreground draws a stark line where the azure ocean begins and even that is contrasted with the white, billowing spray of the waves crashing against themselves. We found the perfect place for lunch, a cliff made up of large, flat lava rocks,  overlooking the ocean. In a careful controlled fall, we descend the narrow trail through the trees. There are seeds, the size of a small olive, littering the steep trail and if we are not careful they act like ten little marbles under each foot. Unpacking PB&J's, chips, water and the leftover chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies, (they were so big I could only eat half last night) we ate in astounded silence. Recovering from our reverie, we climb around the rocks and go down the road to check out the surfers.

Even though it was the weekend, we found a private spot.

Our lunchtime view

Contentment

Warrior 1 pose

That's about 40 feet down

Surfing in Hanalei Bay, waves were 6 to 8 feet high, 2 to 3 Hawaiian (Hawaiian's gauge by the back of the wave). 

We pulled into our driveway and as soon as Dan put the car in park, it started to rain. I guess I won't be going for that run! Instead, I halve some plum tomatoes and toss them with canola oil, salt and pepper and put them in the oven for a slow roast. They'll be part of dinner tonight. I blog a little and then we head over to Da Kine Wines for a wine tasting

Danny is happy to see us and gives us a genuinely convivial greeting. I tell him about my blog and he cheerfully poses for a picture. We talk some more and I learn that he is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, one of the premiere culinary schools in America. Having the qualifications of a sommelier but not the certification, he tells us he wants to teach wine courses for culinary school at the Kauai Community College, Dan and I agree that this is a great idea. The wine tastings are every Saturday and turn out to be a lot of fun. There is a terrific wine selection and in the 45 minutes we were there, about 30 people filtered through. We met several interesting people. Notably, a lady who used to own a restaurant and lives off our street and a mother and daughter. The daughter is moving with her little girl to Cambodia to teach english. The mother just returned from Laos, she was there for three months doing research for her first book on single females and travel.

Danny's motorcycle parked out front.

Danny

Back home we toss whole wheat pasta with the roasted tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil and jalapeno olive oil and crack open a bottle of Da Kine Wine.

Old Town Kapa'a

Cloudy, scattered showers high of 79, 59 for the low.

Getting up early and doing yoga is one of my favorite things. It's quiet. The only sound is my breath and sometimes Lucy snores. She and Baxter always follow me out, jump up on the couch, and sleep while I'm on my matt. Here it's even better; the fresh cross breezes rustling my hair. Bright morning sun signifying the start of a beautiful new day. A flurry of palm fronds and tree leaves rustling on moist, tropical breath. Birds greeting each other, happily chirping "Good morning! Did you sleep well? Isn't today a beautiful day?" I even enjoy the roosters calling as the sun rises. All of it makes for perfect morning yoga sessions. Just me, the dogs and nature. I'm looking forward to doing it outside, but this morning it was raining. That was even nice, the sound of rain falling. When I'm finished Baxter comes over to get some post yoga love, his favorite part about the whole affair. We are both on the matt facing each other. Me, on my hands and knees, he, in a stretch. If you've ever owned a dog, you know the kind. Their forepaws are stretched out in front and their butt is up in the sky, what the yoga pose Downward Facing Dog was named after. I look up, and Dan is laying in bed watching us with a smile on his face, he said it looked like we were doing yoga together.

It's time to get my implant dealt with, I have a dentist appointment at noon. I got outside and play fetch with Baxter until he tires and go inside to read. Dan is on the phone scheduling surf lessons for my 44th birthday. A few months ago Dan sent an email to Laird Hamilton, a world renowned big wave surfer, asking if he knew anyone who taught surfing. He was delighted to get an email back with a number for Mike. We knew Mike was going to be good, and, expensive. Dan researched local surf shops and learned it was $55.00 for 60 minutes, board included with discounted rates for surf boards thereafter. Mike, is $80.00, you surf until you are tired and, he'll rent us a board for how ever long we want with the option to change it out and try a different one. He also spends the first 30 minutes, on shore, teaching us how to read the water, giving us safety tips and showing us how to stand on the board. He says we'll definitely get up but may not make any turns. I feel a lot better going to him, even though he is more expensive. He isn't cranking the tourists out, he's doing it for real. The ocean here can be intense, since we've been here the North Shore has seen a 60 foot wave in a set of 40 footers. I want to make sure we are safe and Mike is the guy to show us that. We are going to Hanalei Bay, but Mike will decide what part of the bay based on the surf report that morning.

Laird Hamilton

Hanalei Bay

Dan and I are in shock as we leave the dentist. In Colorado, the implant was going to cost $1200.00, here, it's $3200.00!! I'm going to have one or two more consultations, from different dentists. I may end up going back to Colorado to get it done!

We decided to have lunch in town and have a walk about. Fish tacos at Mermaid's Cafe. A tiny, outside seating only, organic restaurant. Across the street, was Orchid Alley. We bought our first orchid, promising the super nice proprietor, Feyl,  (we talked for 45 minutes) that we were going to attend the monthly Orchid Club meetings. Then we strolled around, checking out the markets, restaurants and tourist shops that line the street, finding yoga for $5.00 on fridays, bought giant chocolate chip, macadamia nut cookies at Country Moon Bakery, and checked out a place to have sushi.

Ahi fish tacos, black beans, chai tea with coconut milk and lemon aid.

Orchid Alley

Some of these have a soft focus. All I had was my iPhone and they don't like to take close ups.

These smell like chocolate!

The orchid we bought.

A river runs through town.

Coconut Coast Bike Path

Where the river meets the sea.

Sleeping Giant Mountain in the background, a soccer field to the right.

We had a delicious brown rice stir fry for dinner and those cookies for desert. Thank you, my dear husband, for making dinner while I caught up on my blog.

We Made A Friend!

Cloudy, high of 72.

Last night was cold, down to 60 degrees and we broke out another blanket making three on our bed. I like to keep all of the windows open all of the time, so we could have closed those but, why?

We spent the morning reading and napping. My guilt for not finding a place to walk Baxter off leash drove me to read outside. He and Lucy sniffed happily around for about 30 minutes. Having tired of that, they wanted me to constantly pet them so I decided it was time to go inside. Dan, surfing the USGS website and checking out volcano videos, said he would get a tennis ball to play fetch with him in the yard, that would be sure to tire him out. I went right back to my book. Deb gave my the gift of an adventure book when we left. The romantic that she is, she imagined me reading an adventure while on an adventure. I LOVE THIS BOOK! Ahab's Wife, is beautifully written, even poetic. I read it in awe, wishing I could write like that. I can't remember when a book has touched me so. Coming in from outside I continued to read, fall asleep, read some more and finally fell asleep again before putting my book down for the day. 

              Lucy is happy just being next to us

We were feeling really lazy, we had planned to get some things from the store; the ball for Baxter, 6 birthday cards, and dog food, then go into town and have a walk about. It's so chilly, we have blankets over us while we read, so town didn't sound that fun for a day like today. Forcing ourselves to get off our butts, we made a quick lunch of PB&J's with Maui chips (the best chips on the planet, made for Frito-Lay o_O) and went to the store. Papaya's had the dog food, Foodland had the birthday cards and we dropped off our nephew, Austin's birthday present at the UPS store. I have been reading all the local papers to familiarize myself with the island and had read that Longs Drug was a gourmet store, we had a good laugh. But, it was there and so were we. We still needed a tennis ball for Baxter so we went in. It's pretty cool, a drug store with sections for grocery, booze, island made foods, tourist gifts and toys for the outdoors. 

Part of the wine selection at Longs Drug!

We are having spaghetti with eggplant, tomato, red bell pepper, capers, basil, garlic and olive oil (the yummy olive oil from Temecula) for dinner and wanted a nice wine to go with it. Da Kine Wines was a place we wanted to check out. A tiny little wine store tucked into the corner of a strip mall, Da Kine Wines has a small and well thought out wine selection. The owner, Danny, is a sommelier. He is tall, thin, about 28, with blue eyes and reddish blond hair. Growing up in the deep south he went to culinary school, became a wine merchant and moved here when a friend asked him if he wanted to run the store. We buy a Dominio de Eguren and a Venta Morales for $21.00. He is very passionate about wine, food, the island and music. When he finds out what we have done, and that we don't know one person here, he exclaims "you guys are crazy! But then again, I did the same thing!" He tells us that his eye just healed up after getting punched. A native, deciding he was a hippie and exclaiming "I hate hippies" had punched him in the eye. He gives us some tips on how to deal with the reverse racism here. I tell him I have been looking for a place to walk Baxter off leash (I have been putting in requests for this the past 2 days) and he calls up google maps and shows us a place close to home. He gives us a free CD by a local band called Acoustic Medicine and gives us his phone number. He tells us to call him anytime we want to know where to go or eat, or, if we want to do something. He works part time at Merriamn's, on the grill station so he can buy more wine for the store. I had read about Merriman's while I was in Colorado and learned they were opening their third restaurant in Poipu, thinking I would apply there. So our new friend works in a high end restaurant that serves local, organic food, owns a wine store, loves the outdoors and is in a band. Pretty cool!