Author: Peg

Walked quickly to Tiki’s early this morning and made it back home quickly as well. Trying to increase my walking speed to get more cardio. Got 2.5 good quick miles in before 7 AM this morning. 

I decided that brisk walking is for exercise. But swimming is for fun. So, for fun, I went to the pier for a little swim. A very little swim, I didn’t even take my fins. Spent the last 15 minutes swimming around with this guy. He/she is a 3-4 foot cornetfish

The video is the last couple of minutes of our swim. This is unedited. Just me swimming around. Without fins. But, it was fun and he/she did the only color trick our cornetfish know how to do.  

It was a fine day here in exciting downtown Kailua-Kona. 

Finalized my San Franciso plans last night. After much consultation with Google maps.

Started out the morning with coffee, bananas, granola bars, and Billy at Old Airport.

The fire department put on a very fine water search show for us. We didn’t know if it was for real or for drill.

By and by we headed off for a small walk and a big breakfast.

So, what else did I do? I figured out how to get from the San Francisco Airport to near the San Francisco Amtrak Bus stop at about 10 PM (travel gods willing) on Xmas Eve. BART. The last BART leaves the airport at 11:30. The plane might land at 9:30 PM (the aforementioned gods willing) It has a good chance of working.

Next problem. How to pay for the BART trip. $10. But, of course, money is useless on transit systems. Well. GooglePay. I went to my trusty Google Wallet, and told it I wanted a “Clipper Card” with $10 on it. And slick as can be, it happened. Two problems solved.

Developed a Plan B. The 296 bus that will leave the airport at 5:45 AM on Xmas morning. It will get me to the Amtrak Bus bus on time. And, if Plan B fails, then I am totally screwed. It has happened before. It will happen again.

Now, All that remains is to optimistically get a hotel reservation in downtown San Fran. Don’t think it’s a really safe town for an old woman with luggage to sleep on the street. Getting to a hotel a couple of blocks from BART could be dicey enough. I could just get a car service pick-up. But, where’s the excitement in that?

Well, I wasn’t actually a complete slug today. I just don’t have a great answer to “What did you do today?”  

This exquisite paper was too fine to use.  However, it proved to be exceptional for folding elegant cranes. Despite the temptation to hoard such exquisite paper, I decided to put it to good use. After all, I had acquired it at Kona Hospice Thrift Shop, a place where many items come from the homes of the dearly departed. Perhaps someone had been saving this paper for a special occasion. And what could be more special than a Thanksgiving dinner invitation from a dear friend, complete with pickup and delivery service? So, that’s what I am taking to Thanksgiving dinner. A box of cranes. 

And, the crane project is in keeping with my “Use up the good stuff”  mission. 

Gratitude in The Twilight Zone

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Waiting a stop light returning from a 3 mile walk this morning a man says “You don’t know me but I knew your husband. We talked on the pier every day. I miss him. How long has it been?”

Would that I had just one minute, even 15 seconds with Carlton. I would say that I was the luckiest woman on the planet to have shared my life with you. I am sure I said those words to him when he was alive. But, I never really understood how very lucky I actually was until he was gone.

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The day was so lazy that I made a paper airplane and flew it around inside the condo. Also made some outstanding cranes. Well, the cranes were just normal cranes. But, I found 8 pieces of outstanding folding paper at the thrift shop. $6 for 8 pieces of paper. They know the value of good origami paper here. So, I am turning the wonderful paper into cranes. I may need to up my origami paper game. Which would require a trip to Japan perhaps.

Trying to get back into serious walking. Slacked off for 5 days on Kaua’i.

There’s more than just chickens on Kaua’i. There are about 400,000 chickens and 55,000 pigs. 

Happy to report:

1. 1. 1. Groceries have been acquired.
      2. Laundry has been done.
      3. Kauai photos have been sorta culled and cataloged.

And I think that’s pretty good.

Got the pictures off the GoPro. The water was too rough and too murky for good images, but when did that ever stop me?

I always like seeing Xmas wrasses. And Poipu had lots of them.

 

Gratitude

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Grateful for a really fine week.

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Everyone is safely back home. And the cats apparently survived being rudely abandoned.

More tomorrow. But wait “Nobody is Promised Tomorrow”. And if I don’t get tomorrow. It’s been a damn good ride!

 

Then Ryan picks the beach.

There were fish too. Ryan was happy to have some up close time with a snowflake eel.

I was glad that I brought my gear. I wasn’t too old.

We had lunch. Wandered around some. I came back for a shower and a rest and the younger people went in quest of ice cream.

Coffee was obtained from the nearby coffee truck. Thus fortified we headed north.

Sam was happy after five years in Hawai’i to actually see nene geese in the wild.

We are almost at the end of the road. And, parking is near impossible.

End of the road. Return to the hotel.

yesterday we went to the end of the road south and today we went to the end of the road north. There is no east or west road.

 

We also checked out the western most bookstore in the US and the western most Harley dealership.

And why is the island overrun with chickens. In 1992 Hurricane Iniki essentially destroyed Kauai, and every single chicken on the island escaped. There are no natural predators on the island so the chickens lived happily ever after. Mostly the residents like them, because they eat vast quantities of cockroaches and centipedes. But they are everywhere.Roosters, hens, chicks. Everywhere. 

Ok, so nothing went wrong. The cab showed up. The plane was fine and on time. The kids and car were waiting. We got into the one room early. Explored the neighborhood. Had lunch. Rested up from our hard travel day. 20 minutes for the kids. 60 minutes for me. Then we went to look at a waterfall.

The hotel is beachfront, but…

Well, there is no mention of sharks. Guess it’s too dangerous for sharks.

Oh and the island is overrun with chickens. 

I decided to dedicate today to fretting. Unfortunately, I seem to spend more time fretting and worrying than I spend planning and executing. So what did I fret about:

• • I am still fretting about the possibility that my taxi will not show up to take me to the airport tomorrow morning.
  • Suspect that I might be too old and feeble to keep up with the kids. They have physical outdoor jobs. They aren’t office workers who exercise in air-conditioned gyms. 
  • Fear that I am no longer a strong enough swimmer to snorkel in new locations.
  • Concerned that I have over-packed for my trip to Kauai.   It’s more than my little backpack. A little backpack is all that anyone needs for 4 nights on Kauai. But snorkel gear takes up room. Especially the fins. Should I take the wet suit too? See something else to fret about.
  • What if the kids get bored?

None of these things would have bothered me one bit 5 years ago. Well, maybe the cab not showing up. But my friend Lynette at the hotel would have bailed me out. This fiddly worrying is new for me and I don’t like it one bit.

So, leaving at 7:45 tomorrow if the taxi shows up. Should get to Kauai around 10:15. The Honolulu part of the family will already be there. Hopefully with a car. Then. Let the fun begin. They will snicker at me for bringing so much luggage. 

Sorta stuck in a little rainy spell. But, you take the weather you get. 

The dog wasn’t worried by a little rain.

Just think about “Walk ins welcome”.  Just walk in and let a stranger inject indelible pigment into your body? Seriously?

Yesterday when the power was out they rolled their clients out on the sidewalk to finish up the work. Apparently tattoo guns have battery backup. I so wanted to take a picture. But, it didn’t seem polite. 

Then, when I was coming back in after watching the sunset, the power was back on and business was back in the shop. There was a fine-looking man getting his fine bare-ass butt decorated.  I wondered about that. How long before he could sit down?  Or even wear pants.  Was he going to go home wearing a malo?