Tropicality at its Finest

Hi all,

It's so great being lazy on vacation. Sleeping in, lounging around, doing whatever we want... ahhhhh. We did leave the condo a few times, though:

On Wednesday we went to the Kauai museum in Lihue. T's a history buff, so it was right up his alley. They allowed photos, so I played around with my new camera a lot, which was right up MY alley. :)

We also drove ourselves around the East side of the island and explored some more. More waterfalls, more scenic views of the valley and the Waimea River. We kept talking about Jurassic Park, because of course it was filmed here. Once we got back to the condo, we popped it in the DVD player and watched it! Every rental condo must come with its own "claim-to-fame" copy.

Yesterday we went on a cultural culinary tour in the Waipa Valley. We learned a lot about Taro, and got to see the fields close up and learn about everything from planting, to tending, to harvesting, to preparing & cooking, to eating! We tried Taro in several different ways. My favourite was the dessert type that they mixed with coconut milk, brown sugar, and butter. It was yum. :)

The woman who led our tour was SO informative. She knew so much, and was passionate about bringing Hawaiian culture back to the people (locals, and visitors). It was a great experience (and of course I went camera crazy!). My only complaint is that it was too long. If they want to keep my attention for five hours, they have to feed me more regularly! Haha. We did have an amazing lunch at the end: organic chicken, vegetables, poi (taro paste), kim chee cucumbers (too spicy for me), kale salad, and iced tea. It was pretty good. Then came dessert: lilikoi cheesecake (passion fruit). It was the best thing we'd eaten so far on the trip!

In keeping with the Hawaiian culture theme of the day, we then went Hanalei for a guitar concert. But not any old guitar concert. This type is called "slack key" guitar which is named so because when the Hawaiians were first given guitars, they did not know anything about key, or notes, or chords, or anything. So they just made up their own tunings and went from there. Also, because of the scarcity of instruments, they learned how to play rhythm with their thumb, while their fingers of the same hand played the melody/harmony. That's crazy! Anyways, it was beautiful guitar music and we are coming home with a couple CD's.

However, it was on Thursday that we've had our best experience so far. We headed to Princeville on the North Side of the island to a ranch. We went horseback riding through amazing landscape with killer views. My horse's name was Poi, and T rode Makai. T easily had the biggest horse of the bunch, and it was a stubborn one! Poi was stubborn too, but I eventually showed him who was boss (the teacher in me!). I'm just glad he didn't show ME "natural consequences." Haha.

It was amazing. We rode down to the edge of (I can only describe it as) a jungle, where we hiked down to our own private waterfall. Swimming in there was delectable. It was truly paradise. Plus, it had been stinkin' hot, and it was perfect. Perrrrrrfect! Then we had a picnic, and relaxed some more. Ahhhh. Then we hiked out of there, including a mini rock-climb which T scoffed at because it was so short and easy. Then, a horseback ride to the start. It was a super highlight, and so far, one of the best things I've done on this trip, maybe ever!

Gosh I feel spoiled.

Today we are going on a sunset cruise, and we are thinking about doing a river cruise as well. Tomorrow we leave Kauai and meet up with friends on Maui!

Cheers and love,
E & T

Aloha From Kauai!

Hello everyone,

T and I have arrived in Hawaii! We made it unscathed, despite the plane being filled with 20 school-aged girl guides (there was lots of giggling), and a couple of small kids in the row behind us who were coughing and sneezing into the backs of our heads. :P

Our first stop was to pick up our rental car. This was actually our second stop, too, since we never actually left the airport with it - we had to exchange it for a model that didn't make a thunk-thunk-thunk noise as we drove around. For our inconvenience, they upgraded us to a "full-size" vehicle. Turns out "full-size" is exactly the same as "mid-size." T insists we did get an upgrade though; we went from a Chevy Malibu to a Nissan Altima. Whatever...

Arriving to a strange place and trying to find your accommodation in the dark has its challenges, but we figured it out. By the time we got to our condo, we were starving. Since when don't they give you a meal on a flight over 6 hours?! Also of note, no more TV sets in the backs of seats - now, you pay $$ to rent tablets for the flight.

Anyways, we found a grocery store that was closing in 5 minutes (11pm here, 2am at home!) and we raced around getting groceries. I got sandwich stuff, fruit, & yogurt, and T got milk, OJ, AJ, & beer. Of course. :P

We woke up this morning to two roosters trying to prove to each other whose voice was louder. We named them Isaiah and Thomas. Isaiah won. We soon discovered that chickens and roosters are running all over the island. They especially like tourist parking lots, presumably because they get fed there. Many cute baby chicks following mom around! We really wish they wouldn't congregate underneath the car though. Nobody wants a smushed chick.

T and I started our day by going for a walk around Poipu Beach. Turns out we booked our place in a really great spot. The weather is gorgeous and it's warm, but not too warm. Lovely. We had lunch at a beach house on the deck overlooking the ocean. We were enjoying our drinks and meals while watching whales breach in the distance. Pretty awesome.

Then we went for a drive around the South and West part of Kauai. It's no wonder they chose this place to film Jurassic Park. So green and lush, and mists/fogs roll in from the sea and transform an area in a matter of minutes. I got pics to prove it! (I also got lots of pics of birds. Chickens and roosters mainly.)

We visited Waimea Canyon, which apparently is the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" or something like that. Having been to the GC, I can say this one isn't as big but it is just gorgeous and also very impressive. We also visited a Russian fort, a Captain Cook monument, an ice cream shop, more scenic lookouts, and the Spouting Horn park, known for its blowholes which make eerie growling noises.

Homemade dinner tonight. Tomorrow we will explore again!
Cheers and love,
E & T

Awesome #4 - Going somewhere hot when your home is rather cold

There's something to the whole Seasonal Affective Disorder thing. Waking up and going to work when it's dark out, and then getting home when it's dark again, sure doesn't make you feel like you're having a worthwhile day. Indeed, you may not even see the light of day - and forget about getting your Vitamin D.

So when you get the chance to head off to somewhere warm & sunny, even if it's just for a few days or a week, it's a little like paradise. You're transported into a new world with warm breezes and the ocean and sunshine that you didn't even know you were missing this badly. Home is great, because it's home. But a vacation during the darkest & dreariest part of the year is awesome!!

Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree

Hello everyone,

I can't believe it's only Monday and I have only been here for 2 whole days (well, not counting Saturday...). We've already done so much!

Saturday night after I last wrote, Lisa & I had dinner at the hotel restaurant, called Drago's. Apparently it is famous for crabcakes so we made sure to order that, some salad, and some "surf n' turf" to share for dinner. It was fabulous. Our waiter, Richie, filled us in on the places to go in the French Quarter (which our hotel is right beside).

We also decided that each night we would walk up the stairs to our hotel room, which is on the 18th floor. No really, we think it's a great idea since we'll be eating rich food every day. Right?? Right?!! Riiiiiight....

Yesterday we had breakfast at the hotel and booked some tours. We went walking along the Mississippi River, past the Holocaust memorial, Moonwalk promenade and ending at Washington Artillary Park. Then we headed down into Jackson Square where the famous Cafe du Monde is located and we had beignets and drinks. Beignets are French donuts - square and deep fried and served with heaping powdered sugar on top. It's quite an ordeal to eat them; we got pictures.

Then we headed into Jackson Square where there were tons of local artists and psychics and people selling their wares all around. Music everywhere. Hotter than hot. Humider than humid. We explored Pirates Alley and walked throughout the French Quarter. There were streets blocked off to cars and bands playing really cool music. We looked in some shops and wandered around a bit until the start time of our first tour!

We chose to go on a Cocktail tour. Now before you go thinking that this is some kinda pub crawl, think again. Drinks are not included, and the tour guide took us around the French Quarter talking about the history, and yes, stopping in several establishments to tell us about the drink specialties. A bunch were highlighted: Pimms Cup, Fleur de Lis, The Green Fairy (made from absinthe), Bayou Bash and the Sazerac. We tried a few but I refused to drink the ones that tasted awful. Yech!

And do you know about "go cups"? You can drink in the street here. So you can get your drink to go and walk around with it. Very handy.

Our tour guide was named Joe and he is a Hurricane Katrina survivor. Katrina is everywhere here. You see it all around and the locals all have stories about where they were and what happened and how it affected them. Most (that work in tourism) are pretty happy to have people to tell stories to - they are glad that we came. :)

Joe lived in Gentilly, which according to him, had the largest death toll of all the New Orleans' neighbourhoods. He said a wave of water came at him and lifted him up high enough and he had to scramble to get on top of a roof. All of his neighbours one street over were elderly and died. He and others stayed on their roofs for 5 days, with no food or water, swimming from house to house to scavenge whatever they could. Sometimes they had to break through roofs to rescue people stuck in their attics. He said that they spent so long up there and nobody had any news, obviously no TV or radio, and they didn't know if anyone even knew that they were there. When they were finally lifted out by helicopter, they were put on a bus and spent 7 hours trying to cross a bridge to get out of the city (along with just about everyone) and he said that people died on the bus, but there was nothing anyone could do about it. You just had to ride the bus with people that were dead & dying.

Let me just say right now that I am so happy to live where I live. Katrina aside, New Orleans isn't the place I would choose to live. Those of us on the west coast are SO LUCKY. Okay, I'm done. :)

After the tour was over, we had jambalaya and shrimp remoulade at a restaurant in the Quarter and it was delish! Then we went to another bar of Lisa's choosing.

Today is Monday and we spent most of our day at the Oak Alley Plantation. It is this totally awesome plantation that lies on the Mississippi River and there is a walkway from the river to the big house that is lined with 28 Oak trees. We got AWESOME photos - Lisa especially cause she has the skookum camera! It was gorgeous there. Our tour bus driver's name was Bryan and he was basically like Eddie Murphy, the same huge laugh and cracking jokes and being comedic all the time. It was funny at first and I must admit, got a little tiring by the end.

Okay, that's enough for now. This internet cafe is about to close! Tell you more later. :)

Cheers

E!