The Decompression of a Boomer

Saturday, January 25, 2014 – our last day in Paradise. This evening we will catch the Red-eye from Lihue – land in L.A. tomorrow morning and then travel back home to Idaho.

We’ve washed up our tennies and have to be light-weights today – no vigorous muddy hikes!

David, Eric, and I start the morning in Princeville with one last hike down to Anini beach –

Trying to stave off melancholy….

We huff our way back up again

and take one last stroll along the Princeville golf course.

Oh, how we’ll miss Kauai!

The beaches…

The exploding surf

The birds of paradise – the Albatross and Nene geese…

the ‘bird of paradise’ and last, but not least (in numbers, anyway), the mighty foul, uh, fowl.

We’ll miss all those goofy, nearly indecipherable warning signs to tourists:

(Yes, we’re very afraid.) Snow boards?

We’ll miss the police station on the road to Hanalei

with that sign out front. It imparts such a feeling of … comfort?

We’ll miss the NO-GMO movement gaining momentum in Kauai –

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These GMO FREE signs pop up everywhere. No Genetically Modified Organisms! Have you heard of ‘Roundup ready’ crops? GMO corn, soy, sugar beets, cotton, alfalfa, and canola are designed to withstand huge applications of roundup. The same company (Monsanto) that makes the seeds also sells the herbicide (surprise, surprise). Except the weeds have adapted into super weeds which, in turn, has caused a steady increase in the use of roundup on the crops. There was a huge “March Against Monsanto” in Kauai on March 9th of this year – (check it out here). Because of the experiments taking place with pesticides and genetically engineered seeds on the west side of the island, Kauai is considered ‘ground zero’ internationally in the fight to stop these bio tech companies.

Here is a link to a you-tube video posted by a member of GMO Free Idaho(!!) entitled “Is Glyphosate Killing our Gut Flora?” You might want to watch it, especially if you or someone you care about suffers from a digestive illness or disorder. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is not harmless to humans, contrary to what Monsanto would have you believe.

While we’re on the subject, here’s another link to an article just published, “5 Reasons Monsanto’s Science Doesn’t Add Up” including the toxic effects of glyphosate, specifically in relation to kidney disease and failure.

I’m on a roll here!

Anyway, oh my goodness, we’ll miss the tropical hikes

Albeit, some of them kicked our butts. Bug-wise, we really only worried about close encounters with Kauai’s ferocious-looking garden spiders.

We’ll miss Eric ‘pouring on the charm’ – you know, like, when we’re out to dinner:

Okay Eric, so what’s on the agenda for this afternoon, our grand finale adventure on our last day in Kauai? How about a beach walk or something where we don’t injure ourselves or get our feet all muddy?

“Larsen’s Beach.”

“Huh?” My ears were expecting something a little more, you know, ‘Hawaiian’ sounding, like, Pu’u Poa Beach, or Po’ipu, Waipouli, Kaweonui, Kaluapuhi, Waiakalua, Kekaha, Nawiliwili … this being Kauai and all.

“You’re kidding. Larsen’s Beach?”

“Yep. At Larsen’s Beach there’s a nice walking trail that runs parallel to the beach.”

It’s early afternoon by now. We all pile into the car: David, Eric, Steph, Vic, and I. David is driving, Eric is navigating. After several wrong turns, Victor and I are scoping out the route to Larsen Beach on our i-Phones. Mostly out of a process of elimination we hang a left on this dirt road (this has to be it!) and drive till it ends – at this sign:

Yeah, we know, we know. Deadly unseen currents, the whole nine yards. We’ve found Larsen’s Beach.

It extends along the shoreline below.

We spot the trailhead and hike the trail through the grassy area to the end of the beach.

Wow! There’s even a picnic table. We pile around…

Surely Eric has beer in his back pack. We’ll know to bring a picnic next time. Hey, too bad we didn’t wear our bathing suits – we could’ve waded in the ocean one last time.

You know, like that guy.

Huh? … Hey, wait a minute, he’s naked!

I zoom my camera in a little, you know, to make sure my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me…

Well, he’s not completely naked. Did you notice his cap? See any tan lines? His vitamin D level must be sky-high. Yeah, like I’m going to go up and ask him…

“Eric, you rascal, you led us to a nude beach!”

“Yeah, and have you noticed that young nude couple over there near those bushes?”

“No, Eric, not particularly. Not until you pointed them out…”

Walking back out, Steph couldn’t remember where she had shed her sandals. That’s the extent of the clothing that came off of us.

Well, all I can say is, while vacationing in Kauai, you can learn a lot. And you will likely check some things off your bucket list.

You might even check some things off that weren’t on your bucket list.

Especially with Eric along.

Tags: Albatross, Annini Beach, Glyphosate, GMO Free Idaho, GMO Free Kauai, Kauai, Larsen Beach, March 2014 Kauai March against Monsanto, Nene Goose, Princeville

This entry was posted on March 2, 2014 at 9:49 pm and is filed under Kauai, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.