7o. Sunny. Surf seems higher today. A breeze. Palm fronds wave off the back lanai.
Up early after what seemed like a restless night, though I seem refreshed, so I must have slept more than I thought. At some point I got worried about someone breaking in since only screens separate me from the outside if I want to have any air in here. Then I thought, why am I afraid? Nothing has happened. I went through several iterations with this, finally concluding that fear was a displacement of awareness of the unknown. I know I can deal with the unknown, so that was that. I went back to sleep.
Ate breakfast at 6:50AM, just as dawn cracked the horizon off to the southeast. The pale orange flavor of the dawn radiated South Pacific. Calm. Colorful. Cyclical.
Da Fish Shack compares to the Hyatt this way: better, much better, internet connection; a kitchen, on the water, private, no kids screaming down the waterslide and costs about 1/8th of the Hyatt rack rate and about 1/4 of our discounted rate. It has a flavor and a presence, light living on the land. The Hyatt changed the land, landscaped and lit it, put buildings and restaraunts on it and tried to make them pretty. And they did. But. Here the land and the ocean are beautiful without aid. So, guess which I prefer?
Out the door at 7:30AM to hike along a new trail developed by Kauai County. It ran for about 600 yards then ended at dirt road which ran further than I had time to hike. Perfect. The road, part of the long county park, ran just above the ocean with wonderful views of beaches and ocean only 300 yards or so below.
Along the way I met a lithsome young lady on a mountain bike. She had on a helmet, but road slowly. Two men, chunky, and a boy wandered at a saunter and a dog walker with four leashed dogs and two loose passed me in the opposite direction. Further on I saw a woman doing the yogic sun salute on a spit of sand projecting out into the bay. Above me, up a hill stood two homes built in what looks like it will be a very exclusive development, 25 lots, all on the crest of a hill near the highway with stunning ocean views.
On the way back, when I go slower, I took pictures and meandered down to beach level at different points. Near the trail head I took down from the parking lot near the highway, I dropped to a long, crescent shaped beach. When Kate and I were ready to leave, we stopped to look at shell necklaces an aunty had for sale. Aunty and Uncle are terms of respect for the elderly here. A good idea.
She had many Nihau necklaces. “Nope. Not for sale. I tell young people not to do what I do, buy the necklaces, then have no money.” In essence she sold shell necklaces made in Polynesia so she could buy necklaces made on tiny Nihau. She also told us that the very small Nihau shells sometime wash up on North Shore beaches. The beach I went down to investigate is such a beach. These tiny shells are there by the hundreds. I plan to spend an early morning doing nothing but collecting shells, then Kate and I can try our hand at making $2,000 necklaces.
Had a more ambitious plan for this morning, but I’m feeling slow, so I may just stay here and read.
