Views from the Slow Lane

It takes way too long to get from Albuquerque to Hawaii. This time we flew to Phoenix (on Tuesday), spent the night (in a horrible Courtyard Marriott in Tempe), then flew on Hawaiian to Honolulu, changed planes for Kona, and arrived on the Big Island late afternoon on Wednesday.

Our cottage is lovely. The Big Island is very different from Kauai, where we go every year. The lava flows are amazing - fields of black rubble. You can see a 13,000 foot mountain with snow at the top! We drove through open fields at about 2500 feet - with cows and farms.

Our cottage is near Waimea, a town which so far is always covered in clouds and is cool. We are a bit down from Waimea, so sometimes it is sunny at our cottage, but cloudy in Waimea.

Today it was even cloudy at our cottage, so we drove down to the coast (15 minutes) and did a fabulous beach walk along one of the big resorts. We walked on coral and old lava along the water, then on paths in front of the hotels, then on paths through lagoons that are fishponds, then on paths cut into the lava in between the sea and a golf course. We walked out for about an hour, had lunch, then walked back.

At one point on the way back, we stopped to look at the ocean. I saw something on the sand that looked like a turtle. It was a turtle - and not dead as I immediately thought, but sleeping. They beach themselves just like the monk seals - to sleep. We have seen turtles every year, but always in the water. Never on the beach. We were able to walk up close to them. Later we saw another area with 15 turtles sleeping on the beach.

Steve is a big turtle fan. Today he was wearing his turtle t-shirt and his turtle baseball cap (purchased on a previous trip). Coincidence that today we saw our first turtle close up? I don't think so.

Steve and the turtle.

Pauline on the lava.

We have been on Kauai for a week. We had a few days of rain but then the weather turned perfect. Hot and wonderful. We got right back into our Kauai routine: long walk in the morning, out to the Hyatt for coffee and bagel on the terrace looking out at the water, walk back, lots of stopping to talk to people, watch turtles in the water and watch sleeping monk seals. Afternoon at the beach, reading and swimming for an hour or so.

I love staying in Poipu on Kauai. You are surrounded by the whole vacation thing. Feels like a big party going on and you are part of it. Everyone is out walking, watching the water, talking, swimming, watching the sunset.

Today we were sitting on the beach, watching the local kids boogie boarding. They do this thing where as a wave comes in, they run towards it, throw down their board, hop on and surf on the edge of the wave. It is great to watch these young boys and the groups of young girls on the beach watching them.

The boys like to stand their boogie boards in the sand, lengthwise, and sit against the top of them. Today there were 3 guys in a row sitting like that. Then more guys came and there were 10 of them all in a row with their boogie boards making a fence, each guy sitting against his board. It lasted for about 30 seconds, then some of them raced into the water. I don't think they even noticed how they had lined up.

A small gecko on our dishes.