Acai

 Hawaii has some advantages I had not considered when dealing with COVID. There are lots of food trucks and often outside dining. I know there is a fancy name for outside dining, but I can'[t remember it at the moment. Whatever it is, there is lots of it here. We have yet to indulge in many of our staples, but we did visit the Wishing Well for an acai bowl.

Acai (pronounced ah-cy-e or at least they know what I am asking for when I say it this way) is a red berry that grows on one type of palm. You don't see it in this picture because it has been mushed up and makes up the bottom of the bowl. My favorite version is then topped with granola, peanut butter, and bananas. They put coconut and coconut creme on top but Cindy thought I should try it this way rather than ask them not to add the coconut. It is a great breakfast or lunch item. I am pretty sure you can get an inexpensive version of the acai bowl at COSTCO in the plastic cups they use for ice cream and floats, but I may have just imagined this was possible. It would cost less there but probably not include the peanut butter.

There are lots of things to see and do here, but I know I am repeating writing about the Wishing Well from a previous year. This is probably fine because I doubt those who take the time to read this blog bother to look back. Cindy did cut my hair yesterday. I have crossed barbers off the list of mandatory services for a while. While less interesting unless the event would have been recorded on video, that would count as a new Hawaii experience. 

Cute until they are not

 

These are Nene the state bird of Hawaii. Online sources claim that the Nene was nearly extinct in the 1950s with a total population reaching about 30. Now, I can usually see that many in front of our condo. Like the chicken they seem to have no natural enemies. Does that make the Nene the apex predator. Resources claim some are taken by cats and the ferocious Mongoose, but I have not seen a Mongoose and Hawaiians seem more dog than cat people. Doesn't it always look like there are too many vowels at the end of Hawaiians. My spell checker says that is correct. These folks need more letters of the alphabet to work with. 

The NeNe is a distant relative of the Canadian Goose and looks the part. The sound and coloration are a bit different. These geese share one other characteristic with the  Canadians that come ashore at our lake cabin. They poop a lot. You must constantly remove your shoes and check so you don't bring anything into the house. There is a sign beside our front door that says "Mahalo for removing your shoes". I am used to doing this without a request, but maybe this is where that practice came from. 

Bee Guy

 I was taking a nap and there were workers outside my window. Someone was cutting the siding in our building with a electric saw and talking with a buddy about how much more he would have to remove. Then I heard a workman talking with the lady from the adjacent condo trying to calm her concerns. He said she would be fine and if they took off they would go up and not down. After a bit, I got up and put on a shirt and went outside.

I had guessed what the issue was and the excitement was over by the time I was able to take some photos. The ladder had been lowered and no one was in their bee guy suits anymore. The two workers were just standing around watching. I tried to make conversation with the guy in charge and told him the story of trying to have squirrels removed from the walls of our Wisconsin lake cabin. I explained the concept was similar - get them to come out and then trap them to take them away. He thought he would rather remove bees.

The bee guy's business must be dealing with bees. If you can read the ad on his rig, the first service on the list is "extraction". I decided bee extraction must be a common need in Kauai because he could afford a pretty nice work vehicle. Who knew there were people who specialized in bee extraction? You do learn some things when you keep your eyes open. It occurred to me few probably guess you could make a living getting squirrels to come out of the walls of people's houses, but that is Wisconsin and I have learned to expect unusual occupations up North. 

Contraflow

I think I write about this experience every time I am in Kauai, but now it has a name. The island does not have many alternate routes to get from one place to another. There is a main road and lots of side roads. Traffic can get heavy and most seems to flow in one direction or the other depending on the time of day. It is something like the lake effect traffic in Minneapolis. It goes North on Friday and South on Sunday afternoon. The situation here is similar except that the change happens each day.  

Much of the road is three lanes wide. With the steep hillsides, building another lane was probably regarded as prohibitively expensive. The solution is evidently contraflow. Now, one way to create the ideal contraflow would be to physically separate three roads with entry points for the middle controlled at the entry and exit. With this approach, you have the cost issue again. How about this idea? We will pay a road crew to separate two lanes from the third lane with traffic cones. They will do this as long as the road is used. Put the cones down in the very early morning (4:15) and pick up the cones to reverse the flow in the early afternoon (11:30). Talk about job security.

identification apps

 I explore tech applications wherever I am. Apps that identify flora and fauna are useful when you are in a unique location. iNaturalist is a good example. You take a photo of what you want to identify with the app and then allow it to use its AI to guess or just leave the photo unnamed in your collection and someone will likely take a look and try to help out. The photo I submitted (not this one) had some local geese in the background and someone wanted to know if I needed to know the name of the geese (Nene). 

I usually am more interested in the sophistication of the technology than the identify of a tree so I pick something I recognize. This is a plumeria. It is interesting because it loses its leaves and often flowers before new leaves grow. It produces the flowers that is typically used to create the leis tourists and Hawaiian dancers wear around their necks. I thought it would be a good test for the app because my photo has few leaves.

I have found the best identification can be obtained with the nonspecialized Google Photo. If you bring a photo into Google Photos and open the image, you should locate this icon below the photo. This will apply Google lens. 

Lens seems to work as well as the specialized identification apps and has the added benefit of allowing immediate search for what it returns as possible identifications. Click on one of the matches and it takes you to the source for that photo.

Here is what the Plumeria flower looks like. Early in the season it can be difficult to find one on a low branch to photograph. People have this need to pick them and when I see one often it is not there when I walk by the tree again. I assume this is an annoying tourist thing.

Anahola Cafe

 It may seem I write many posts about food. Kauai is small, but is populated by so many cultures that there are a wide variety of dining experiences. This is the Anahola Cafe. Because of COVID we mostly eat in open air spaces which luckily are common on Kauai. Anahola is an old community with a unique new area constructed of shipping containers. The cafe is unique in relying on native Hawaiians and focusing on local resources.

My food choice was Saimin - a noodle dish I have enjoyed in the past.

Cliff Hike

 I am more a walker than a hiker. Rough trails with roots and rocks are difficult because lifting my feet high enough is a struggle. I am always stumbling along and this is before I get tired. Walking is different and I will trek a couple miles or so as long as there is a coffee shop I can spend some time at before coming back.

There is this short trail that begins near our condo. It is only .3 miles long, but I have avoided it for years. The trip down took 20 minutes. That is moving at the pace of one mile per hour. The trip up did really get the old heart pumping. 

B-

 Sunsets and sunrises seem to be a big deal here. There are sunset cruises on the ocean and a golf cart sunset tour originating at a nearby country club. Folks pay to follow a guide cart that takes the participants across the course to a cliff with a good view of the same mountains I watch for free. I have to supply my own drink. At our location, the tourists walk past our lanai with their glasses of wine, horderves, and lawn chairs to take in the daily event from the cliff edge vantage point.

Not all sunsets are created equal. On the Big Island I remember trying to photograph the green flash. There is supposed to be a green flash at the moment the sun sinks into the ocean. I continually tried to photograph this flash even resorting to video so I could go frame by frame looking for the flash. I never saw the flash, but I believe it exists because the Green Flash was the name of my favorite coffee shop on that island. If you search this blog for "green flash" you should find the story of my search for the flash.

I have taken to grading the sunsets. Sometimes there are clouds and nothing to see. The best in my rating system happen when there is a cloud bank with an opening just before the sun would sink behind the mountains. This offers some interesting colors. The event last night was pretty "meh". I give it a B-. At least, there was something to see and the view of the ocean and mountains is always impressive. 

If sunsets are your thing, I think the small lake in northern Wisconsin where we have a cabin has some of the best. The colors are spectacular with some reds nearly any evening. Here is a special case. We had lots of smoke in the air from fires in Canada and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Not only was the sky red, but so was the sun and the reflection on the lake.

After the rain

 Rainbows are a big deal here and finding one to photograph is not difficult. This morning offered a unique opportunity - both ends visible and disappearing into the ocean. If you look closely, you can even see a second rainbow parallel to the first. I kept trying to get a panorama, but I could not get the entire rainbow and some ground into an image. This one will have to do. Double click the photo to see it as a larger image. 

Not a selfie stick

I decided I was going to try to take more video this trip. I have been watching/listening to a new podcast - The iPhone Photo Show. This podcast focuses (photography reference) to the potential of the iPhone for serious photos and video. I suppose my efforts would not be considered serious, but I thought I would use my iPhone for more of the images I capture this trip.

The equipment recommended in the first episode I was able to order through Amazon. This was the less expensive of the options that were recommended. It could be a selfie stick, but it is intended for this trip to serve as a tripod.

I discovered one interesting thing immediately. You can control your iPhone with your iWatch. I know it looks weird, but I was watching myself on the watch.

Here are my initial video efforts with the phone/tripod.

Not bad.

 

Seaside

 The jet lag is wearing off. Here are some photos to situate our location for the next couple of months. We are housed in a condo that is part of the Pali Ke Kua complex near Princeville, Kauai. This is the same area we have stayed in during our previous visits, but we are on the ground floor this year. The lanai (patio is  ten yards from the cliff overlooking the ocean.

Google View

Ruth and Kenny Young will be staying with us for the next few days. Ruth is my sister.,

Coffee filters and shaving creme

Kauai is four times zones removed from Minneapolis and it takes some time to adjust. We ended up getting to bed about 2 in the morning so we were really tired, but still I woke up extremely early. 

My mind keeps working on issues and I find it hard to stop. This morning the focus was on coffee filters and shaving creme. This may seem the type of thing most people don't focus on, but I did figure out just why it was the case. In Kauai essentials are very expensive. Very expensive. COSTCO has made the bold move of opening a store here which must have really annoyed the local merchants. Gas alone is worth the membership fee. The difference is 50-60 cents a gallon. You drive to COSTCO from pretty much anywhere on the island and the cost savings would pay for the trip to fill your tank. We buy nearly everything at COSTCO.

We have nothing here to eat or drink.  I knew morning coffee would be an issue so I brought some with me, No filters - the round type 12 cup. The host left one Kauai coffee ready pack for the coffee maker. I also should get some shaving creme. I should shave every few days or so Hawaii or not.

What do coffee filters and shaving creme have to do with COSTCO. I am not certain you can get coffee filters there and shaving creme comes in four packs (enough for about a year), I could buy shaving creme, but I don't want to pack it out. I decided I could give a can to guests as a welcome to Hawaii present - better than a lei. I worked all of this out while most people were still sleeping. 

Aloha!

Travel in the time of COVID

 Nearly two years ago we were on a plane flying from Kauai back to Minneapolis. We were leaving Hawaii two weeks before the end of our planned stay because of the first concerns about COVID in the United States. That was the last time we flew. It seems a long time ago in some ways and as if so little has changed in others.

We are headed back to Kauai again today. I am writing this while waiting in Los Angeles for our flight. We feel a little uneasy flying again, but we have done all we can to protect ourselves. Hopefully, if we catch COVID it will be the new variant and less severe. People are nearly all masked as we travel and this is far different from what we would experience during a regular day, but we are exposed to many more people. I guess we will know in 5 days or so if we picked up something on the trip. We hope to have many guests in Hawaii and understand this is more a concern than the native Hawaiians we would encounter most days. Those staying with us will be more likely to represent the source for an infection. We will just have to trust everyone to be careful. We are the old folks on this outing.

Hopefully, I will be able to post some interesting content in the next few weeks. We like Kauai because it is relaxed and more rural.  I try to avoid the sand when possible and get my tan by walking. From where we stay it is about 2 miles to my favorite coffee shop. The seating area is outside, but I have no idea if it is still open or what opportunities we will find. Life is an adventure I am told so whatever happens it will be far warmer than Minneapolis