4/30/13 – End of the Road

Today we decided to go and hike the trail at the end of the road.  When I say end of the road, I mean that with all literalness.  If you tried to keep going you’d have to have an amphibious vehicle because the ocean is right there in your way.  We decided to park in the parking lot and go for a hike rather than keep driving as we were fresh out of amphibious vehicles and driving your normal car into the ocean is frowned upon.

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4/29/13 – Perfect Day

There are not an over-abundance of perfect days.  One might come across one every now and then, but certainly not so often as to be able to call them commonplace.  Some perfect days are obvious, like getting married, or winning a game.  Some are more subtle.  In fact one could miss them if they were not paying attention.  Today was of the latter sort.  We got up early as per usual and exercised.  Today was different though because M had found a new route on which to run, or in my case walk.  It was quite nice to have some different scenery to view as the bike path through Princeville, though excellent, can get old after a time.  This particular road led us by a different golf course and through a neighborhood that contained some what I shall call more “normal” housing.  Once through that neighborhood however the housing changed again back to beyond most people’s means. Those houses do make one dream as they seem to be perfect in every way.  Architecturally beautiful, well thought out and in the most spectacular location, location, location.  Of course it is beneath them to have any pricing or info on the “For Sale” signs, but if one has to ask, one most certainly cannot afford.

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4/28/13 – Big Day

Today began with an early breakfast.  Mainly because we have found that neither of us can sleep beyond about 5:30 am although we purposefully stay in bed just due to the principle of the matter.  We did want to get an early start though because we had decided to head down to the south and west part of the island and we had no idea how long it would take to get there.

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4/27/13 – Lazy Days

Today was a lazy day but it was not without some productivity.  We started with some fairly vigorous exercise and then our usual leisurely breakfast.  For the first time in many years of coming here we finally made it down to the Hanalei farmer’s market.  The place was packed and parking was hard to find even though we got there about 10 and it had just opened at 9:30.  There were mostly white folk selling stuff and not as many natives as I expected.  I think though that transplants out number natives up here on the North Shore.  This lack of natives did not detract from the many excellent wares for sale.  As usual, although this still baffles me, there were just as many crafts for sale as there were foodstuffs.  I have noticed this at every single farmer’s market we have ever attended.  Nevertheless this farmer’s market did not disappoint.  There were many fresh veggies and fruits and more importantly, Island Sol bakery which makes lots of really good gluten free foods.  We bought a couple of pizza crusts and some gluten free cookies from them along with veggies and fruits from other vendors.

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4/26/13 – The Condo

Today began with an adventurous hike up one of the inland mountains here on Kauai.  It began easily enough for us hearty mountain folk, but soon became quite treacherous with seriously slick mud and very steep terrain.  Lucky it wasn’t raining or the trail would have been more useful as a muddy slip-n-slide.  M and I reached a point where it appeared the trail ended.  At least it appeared that way until we noticed the rope that is supposed to be used in order to get down the 12 foot cliff to where the trail took off again.  M and I decided that was a bridge (or rope) too far and turned around at that point.  We had M’s GPS watch and we noted that we went from an altitude of 93 feet to 1350 feet in 1.75 miles.  We had great views of most of Kauai.  The only part we couldn’t see was the far southern end of the island.

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4/25/13 – More Sun

We have now mostly completed our day here in Kauai and it has been spectacular.  I am going to try and attach a couple of pictures to this email, but we will see if that actually happens.  We began the day with a nice 4 mile walk, some of which was in the rain.  Unlike back home, this rain just felt nice and added to the ambiance and had stopped after about 10 minutes.  Being the attentive athletes we are, we of course stretched after doing various push-ups and core work.  This is interesting because we had an audience.  Two geese decided that we must have been giving an abs and stretching class. They joined us, however they mostly bathed and made funny noises and did no push-ups or abs.  They got to within 2 feet of us and we decided that was close enough and shooed them a little further away.  Later as M went out to look over the cliff, one of the geese gave chase until M turned around and said, “Stop it!,” which oddly enough it did.

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