The Decompression of a Boomer

January 17, 2018. We’re headed back to Kauai! We’ve made this 10-day trip to visit my sister Stephanie and husband Victor at their home in Princeville, Kauai, every January, for seven years running. I’ve blogged about it every year, too – written 42 blogs, covered every topic imaginable. (Go to the main site of my blog to the Kauai category and you will find them, ALL of them.) So of course I wasn’t blogging about our trip this year, couldn’t possibly!! Yes? NO???? YES!! How else to return home and fend off the Idaho winter blahs? Can I drag this series of blogs out till spring? Maybe…

We hit the road from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake in David’s truck Wednesday evening, January 17. Husband David is driving, my brother Eric is riding shotgun, I’m in the back seat. I snap a photo as we fly past Pocatello, Idaho, near sunset…

Pocatello, Idaho

It always takes a while to decompress and relax into the trip. After 2 1/2 hours of driving we stop for dinner. And make a toast!!

Yes, we are happy!

Get this party started!

We fly to Kauai the next morning,Thursday, Jan 18. Most important order of business: The Kilauea Farmer’s Market!

Oh oh-hope we can find a parking space

It’s raining, but that puts no damper on the crowds.

Stephanie and Victor shopping for organic produce

Eric totes the goods.

We circle the fountain in Princeville on the way to Steph and Victor’s house. We had heard that it might be replaced with something a little more, shall I say, ‘Hawaiian’ but we are glad it is still here.

Princeville fountain (made famous in the movie “The Descendants”)

We enjoy a changing sunset from Steph and Vic’s back patio

The first thing every morning is to walk! Hike. Get that heart pounding. What better plan than the hike to Anini Beach? Just what the heart doctor ordered! (Maybe not) The trailhead beckons….

Oh joy …

Which message should we take more seriously? The original?: CAUTION DANGEROUS CONDITIONS PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK or CAUTION ANGER US CONDITIONS …blah blah blah … ‘PIS’?

We’re headed down. Me, because my hubby is. You can glean a little perspective on how steep the path to Anini Beach is by the person ahead of us?

Do we really have to do this?

We actually don’t hike this every morning. Because you have to hike it back up. I did it, maybe, three times this whole trip. Why make myself angry?

Instead, let’s stay up high, on the golf course, (possibly illegally? As tourists, we don’t know for sure…) The top of the golf course overlooking the ocean is a world of rainbows, hearts and …. Nene Geese and Albatross!

Here, I take a picture of David taking a picture of the rainbow.

David and I photographing the rainbow

That is an albatross in flight and those are Nene Geese – an endangered species that doesn’t seem as afraid of humans as they possibly should be (??)

We passed a Bird of Paradise a few feet beyond the rainbow

That’s a bird, alright

Do you see the Nene geese (goose?) in the background of the photo? Gorgeous tropical flowers adorn the paths along the Golf Course and the Westin resort in Princeville..

A solitary egret welcomes us (maybe a stretch)

and a rooster alights from the bushes as if to escort us off the premises.

Which reminds me of a joke:

‘Why did the rooster cross the Road?’

???????????????????????

‘To see his friend Gregory Peck’

‘Who?’ What? I know. Anyone under the age of 60 totally doesn’t get this joke. It’s one of about two jokes (both of them ridiculously stupid) I can tell from memory.

Well that pretty much puts a wrap on my first blog of our 2018 Kauai trip.

Got you all revved up now, don’t I?

Tags: Anini beach. Princeville, Kilauea Farmers Market-Kauai, Nene Geese-Kauai, Princeville Kauai

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