The jet lag from our Hawaii trip has passed. They say to recover from a trip, it takes a day for every time zone, so in this case, that’s five days. I always double that because my typical posture in life is lag. It’s been over two weeks now, so I’m back to normal – just my regular, daily lag.
My current issue is that I haven’t gotten over not being in Hawaii. That’s different from failing to get over any other trip or struggling to adjust to regular, day-to-day life. Hawaii gets a hold on me and won’t let go. Part of it is the island pace. I was made for island pace – nice and slow and whatever pace you like works. Perfect for me. So, it’s going to take a while.
To prolong my issue, I’m constantly faced with reminders about Hawaii, including a separate section in my closet which is devoted to t-shirts from Hawaii. The oldest is a Crazy Shirt (Crazy Cat shirt at the time of purchase 25 years ago on our first trip there, so it’s considered vintage). I also have a ballcap with the state fish stitched on it, including the spelled-out name, humuhumunukunukuapua`a. It wraps around the cap and is a conversation starter here on the mainland. It’s a big name for a little trigger fish.
My Facebook account still thinks I’m there and is constantly suggesting I take a snorkel tour off the Napali Coast or go pick pineapples. Speaking of pineapples, I have become a pineapple snob. Our tour of Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple Farm was eye-opening. These are the best pineapples I have ever eaten and now I’m ruined for any others. You can even eat the core! They are more addicting than M&Ms, and that’s saying something.
We planted, picked, and partook of pineapples at Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple Farm.
Wailua Falls pictures show up on my Facebook more than pictures of my grandchildren! I’m also becoming obsessed if not addicted to Kauai Coffee, at least it appears so by my feed. I have no idea what my friends and family are up to because my feed is laced with surfers. It’s insane watching them hang ten at Pe’ahi Jaws Surf Break. I know what Jaws is because, you know, I’m obsessed with Hawaii. By the way, don’t go surfing there. I think it’s safe to assume that anyone reading my blog should not be attempting 60-foot waves.
After an intense session of surfing, it’s time to relax and watch sunrise over Kauai, or sunset. I’d keep expounding, but it looks like it’s time to take a hike in the Waimea Canyon. Or maybe a nap. Either is good.
But this goes deeper. I’ve been so consumed with Hawaii that now Facebook thinks I live there. Hawaii News Now just informed me that all public schools in Maui will be closed until Friday due to severe weather. I may or may not have a problem. But, whatever, dude.
Today was a day of rest, but that didn’t mean we stayed in our condo. A little exploring was in order. We are in Princeville on the north side of Kauai, which is the wetter side of the island. Most of our activity has taken an hour’s drive to the Lihue area. Today we set out to find a quiet beach within 15 minutes of us.
Anini Beach was a mere 13 minutes away. We turned off the main road and meandered down towards the beach with lush foliage giving way to beach views. Mostly we watched the road though.
The potholes had potholes.
This was possibly the worst road I’ve ever been on. What an adventure! It was worth compromising the suspension of our rental car because we found a lovely, quiet beach with very few people.
The lifeguard stand was unattended.
After our walk we grabbed lunch with a rooster. It’s what you do in Kauai where there are five chickens for every person. They’re everywhere and, just like in Peter Pan, they gotta crow.
Have you ever thought about the things you have intentionally or even inadvertently done that influence people in your life, especially your children? I attribute my fascination with Hawaii and my love of national parks to my dad. When I was about nine years old, our family of six camped across the country in our modified VW microbus. We stopped at some of the biggies – Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Sequoia, and Rocky Mountain National Park. I loved being in the parks and still consider them high up on my list of happy places.
Bob and I have made this trip with our four children, so we now understand what an undertaking it was and how we probably had more fun than our parents did, though they appreciated it more.
My dad and little sister Linda posing in front of one of the iconic signs. My nine-year-old self took this with my brand new camera.
I think my love and fascination of Hawaii came about a bit more subliminally. Dad made several business trips there and took lots of pictures, which were viewed as slides. That was the choice medium of the day – I don’t know why! Believe it or not, sometimes we kids would ask our parents if we could watch home movies and slides. If you can remember a time before the internet and cable TV, that makes more sense.
The problem was, every time we’d ask him to set up the projectors so we could see how cute we all were when we were younger, the first thing he would show us was Hawaii. He loved Hawaii and communicated that well and often, but when you’re a kid you can only sit through so many landscapes and beach scenes before you mentally check out. Something must have stuck in my brain though, because as an adult, Hawaii was on the top of my list of places to visit.
Fast forward to the year 2000. Bob and I celebrated our 25th anniversary with a trip to Hawaii. My dad was very excited to help with the planning. He had saved every brochure from his trips there in the 1960s. He presented them to us, I’m sure, with joyful memories hula-dancing through his head. We stared at them in only slight disbelief that he saved these black and white relics from over three decades ago. “Thanks, Dad!”
Fast forward another 22 years and Hawaii was calling us again. We had two major things in Maui that were unfinished from the year 2000 trip – both involved the spectacular Haleakala National Park, which we visited then. It’s a big park, and it is famous for its sunrises. People make reservations to be transported to the summit for coveted glimpses of the sun rising and then a bike ride down the mountain. On our 25th anniversary trip, we opted out of this because we would have had to leave our resort at 3:00 in the morning to get to the top on time. Sunrises are not dependable, as clouds and rain can quite literally put a damper on them, so you go with that in mind as well. In that season of our lives, we had four kids at home, and there wasn’t much to entice me out of bed at that time of day – not even Haleakala. We have regretted this decision, so when we booked this trip back in January, we determined to embrace that adventure.
That was before I broke my shoulder in February. Would we embrace the biking adventure? Could I embrace the biking adventure? Could I even keep a good hold on the handlebars? Can we wake up at 2:30 in the morning? We decided to hold it loosely – kind of like I would have to hold handlebars on a bike.
My shoulder was doing pretty well, definitely well enough to ride a bike, but my stamina was another thing. Plus, we would be riding along the side of the mountain road for a few hours and my entire body, much less my shoulder, was untested in this arena. Add to that I was beginning to suspect that Hawaii was trying to kill me as everything was just so hard compared to 22 years earlier. I was beginning to lose my drive.
Could 22 years make that much difference? YES! Throw in the broken shoulder and lack of movement for so much of this calendar year, mix it with altitude and elevation changes, and that could be a recipe for a last meal. Even Bob, who continues to mock me by playing pickleball three times a week, was hesitant on this one. We talked about it for a few days and then opted out. It was the mix of getting up early and riding down the mountain all the while remembering that our main goal of this trip was not to injure ourselves. And, we were tired. We were managing to keep up the pace of this trip only by fueling with coffee and diet coke. So, unlike our anniversary trip, we have no regrets.
Where there are sunrises on a mountain top, there must also be sunsets. We’d simply have to look the opposite way. Yep, we’re sunset people, so we headed to the park late morning to do some hiking and would arrive at the summit in time to get a good spot to relax and watch the show.
Our first stop in the park was Hosmer Grove, which was advised for birdwatching.
There is something special about feeling small in the forest.
After hiking through the forest we came to a clearing looking down on a tree covered valley. The birding here is mainly small song birds so I didn’t get any good pictures, but this place was a real treat. We did see several beautiful, red I’iwi and a few yellow ‘Amakihi flitting from tree to tree. This was a most relaxing hike. Bird watching takes my mind off of what my feet are doing.
Photos are from Hawaii.gov online guide to Hawaii’s birds. These beauties were too fast and small to capture with my iPhone.
Thankfully, driving up Haleakala is relatively easy. It’s a slow drive but the landscape is fantastic. We got out periodically and did little off the road hikes and were afforded breathtaking views along the way to its 10,023 foot summit.
This cliff at Kalahaku Overlook had interesting vegetation popping up from the rugged terrain. I loved how the blue sky gave way to the clouds. Literally one minute later we saw this:
Fogbow – I had never heard of them. Fascinating!
Not only are there lots of paths up mountains, Hawaii likes to throw in stairs, too. I guess they like to mix it up.
We made it to the summit and took in the views while walking slowly as the air was a little thin. Also, this was our moment of truth. Would we stay for the sunset? We arrived here at 4:30, over five hours since this journey began, and people were setting up chairs and blankets. We got one of the last parking places.
Japanese Quail
I think this looks like something out of a science fiction movie. It’s the Haleakala Observatories on the summit.
This picture was taken from the top of Haleakala at 4:50 PM. Doesn’t it look like we’re in an airplane? There was still more than an hour until official sunset time not including the beauty that would follow until dark. But, as had become the norm for us in Hawaii, by this time of day we were very tired. Our resort restaurant was having prime rib night. Hummmmm
The trip down the mountain would be over three hours if we waited until the sunset was over. We would be driving in the dark on roads without guardrails in traffic. We would miss prime rib and probably grab fast food. What should we do?
Prime rib? Beautiful sunset? Prime rib? Sunset?
Well, the prime rib was delicious.
The drive down the mountain was lovely. There was no traffic as everyone was heading up. We stopped and took in some great views. And, like I said the prime rib was delicious.
We drove down to this area and were blessed with more beauty and fog bows.
I was enjoying some final views near the top of the mountain when Bob started heading back to our rental jeep. It’s not exactly walking into the sunset, but it’ll do!
Life on the Lighter Side 