Welcome to the jungle, we have sun and shade. For those not into 80’s Hair/Metal bands that was a little tribute to Gun’s n’ Roses. I decided to title today’s blog, “Welcome to the Jungle” because of the place we are staying. If you want to see a little about what I mean, surf on over to VRBO.com and look for 3786 Punahele Road, Kauai, HI. Also try Sh’Zen which is the actual name of the house where we are struggling to abide.
As you walk through the front gate (yes, you have to walk through a gate), you enter a garden with a Japanese motif. As if there weren’t enough oxygen here at sea level, you are now confronted with plants and flowers that are big enough to eat you. And since I am a brilliant guy I will name these flowers with their technical names. There are lots of, “Big Red Flowers,” followed closely by, “Big Pink Flowers”, “Giant Purple Plants,” “Trees with Huge Yellow Flowers,” and countless palms.
On the short walk through the garden, which only takes about 10 minutes before you get to the front door, you will also encounter several Buddha’s and other Japanese art work along with a 40ft. lap pool. Once you have survived that death march, you open the front door and confront the terrible view in which there is not a bit of snow. There is the Makai Golf Course straight out in front of you and the Pacific Ocean just past the fairway. And of course MORE plants and flowers along with Bali Hai the famous local mountain. You have to look at all this through massive windows that surround the living area on the main floor. I know what some of you are thinking and you are right. It is truly a burden to have this view from the main floor, master bedroom upstairs and the garden suite downstairs, but somehow, we are managing. To worsen things, there are no true window shades on the huge windows in the master bedroom, only some see through shades, so when you wake up in the morning there it is…the view.
We were thankfully able to rend ourselves away from all that this morning and go for a quick run around Princeville. Unlike the snow and rain that we love to run in back home, here it was sunny and warm even at 7 in the morning. Due to that weather malfunction, instead of our normal running gear of tights, warm socks, warm top, jacket, hat, and gloves, we had to run in shorts and t-shirts which caused our pale skin some consternation as it was not accustomed to so much sun. After that we had to have breakfast out on the main deck but just so we didn’t have to suffer too much, we quickly managed to come back in and get ready for the beach after only an hour and a half.
Hanalei Bay still suffers from the same conditions it has since the first time we made our way here 15 years ago. Turquoise blue water (which doesn’t always come through in Iphone photos), warm soft sand and a tropical breeze. Somehow we managed to lie there on the beach and do a lot of nothing but as usual we had to force ourselves.
To top it all off, this evening we have to drive over to Kilauea and get fresh tuna for dinner. I’ll let you know tomorrow if we were able to eat it and I’ll try to include some not quite as random photos.
