AncienTrails

4:35PM  Overcast.  75.  Ocean slate gray and calm.

A full vacationing day today.  Got up, got dressed and drove to Mango Mama’s.  I went there thinking waffles, eggs and bacon, but when I arrived I discovered it was just a step away from vegan.  They did have an interesting food, Acai, billed as the Amazon Super-Fruit.  So, if I couldn’t have bacon and eggs I chose Acai.  This is a berry of some kind and tastes as the guy behind counter put it, “Somewhere between blueberry and blackberry.”  He was right.  It was tasty. They put it on granola and bananas.

Superfood No. 1: Açaí

Nature’s Energy Fruit

It may seem odd to start this list of superfoods with one you’ve likely never even heard of. But studies have shown that this little berry is one of the most nutritious and powerful foods in the world! Açaí (ah-sigh-ee) is the high-energy berry of a special Amazon palm tree. Harvested in the rainforests of Brazil, açaí tastes like a vibrant blend of berries and chocolate. Hidden within its royal purple pigment is the magic that makes it nature’s perfect energy fruit. Açaí is packed full of antioxidants, amino acids and essential fatty acids. Although açaí may not be available in your local supermarket, you can find it in several health food and gourmet stores (often in juice form). A new product featuring the unsweetened pulp is now also available, and I highly recommend that you choose this form of açaí.

There you go. The guy that wrote this appeared on Oprah.  How’s that for authentic?

After Mango Mama’s I slipped down the switchback to the taro farm, then into Hanalei.  My destination Lumahai Beach.  A website said it was the best beach on Kauai for unusual shells.  Doesn’t say much for the rest, I can now tell you after 2 hours beach combing.  I did find some good shells, but not many. 

The beach itself is wonderful.  To reach it I clambered through a forest of Pandanus trees and some sword like plant that left little splinters on my leg, this all while headed precipitously downhill.  When I broke out of the forest, I was on a crescent shaped beach with lava extrusions and wild waves.  Lifeguards call this Lumadieya beach because of the number of drownings here due to a vicious rip-tide in winter.  This is winter. 

Next to the crescent shaped beach was a longer, more gently curved beach that ran for over a half a mile.  When I arrived, I could see only 4 people.  As I began my search for shells, I did stumble, almost, on a naked sun-bather, well-hidden, but still visible when I walked up on him. Later on I saw this same young man, maybe early 20’s, walk down to the ocean, starkers.  He appeared to be presenting himself to two bikini clad women who had just walked by.  They did not seem impressed.

Immediately after this I went to Limahuli gardens a ways on down the road toward the Na Pali. (Na makes a noun plural in Hawi’ian.  Pali is cliff, so this means cliffs.)  The tour I took their got me on another topic I’ll write a bit about later. 

4:45PM 75.  Cloudy.  Ocean breeze.  Languid is the word.  Da Fish Shack has a languid atmosphere right now; I feel enervated by the languidness of it all.  Or something.

Outta here around 11:30 AM headed for Hanalei.  Traffic was good and I got to Hanalei about 20 minutes after I left.  I ate lunch at the Hanalei Dolphin on the banks of the Hanalei River.  Had opah, but it was not as good as Mama’s Fish House.  Guess that’s to be expected. 

Drove through Hanalei to locate the farmer’s market again.  Found it and drove on to find the Lumahuli gardens and check out the surfing.  Found no surfing at Pinetrees or the Pavilion.  Went on to Black Pot Bay.  No surfers there either, but there was a lifeguard.

He had hand printed a list of questions and answers.  Where is Hanalei? 7 miles back down the road.  Where is Ke’ee beach.  Next beach down the road.  Sort of a lifeguard FAQ.

Not on his list was anything about surfing.  I asked him why nobody was surfing.  “It’s junky.”  Oh. “What does that mean?”  “It’s not clean.”  Oh.  Not a chatty sort.

What I took from it was that the waves broke in several different places, there was no clean line for a surfer to catch.  He suggested I look at Hanalei (Pinetrees and Pavilion).  I said thanks and continued on looking for Lumahuli Gardens.  Found it not too much further up the road.

I drove in and went up to the visitor center.  I wanted to buy a guide to the self-guided trip.  The woman was reluctant to sell it to me.  “We think it makes more sense if you see the plants as you read the guide.”  “I see. Still, I want to read it before I go on the trail.”  Still she hesitated. “I’m a gardner.  I think I’ll get something from it.”  She reached behind her.  Yes.  “You know you’ll still be charged $15 for the tour?”  Yes, indeed, I did.  That was more difficult than necessary.

It was close to time for the Hanalei Farmer’s Market (which I had read about in the New York Times.) so I headed back toward Hanalei.  When I arrived, at about 1:55,  a line of cars waited to make a turn into the grassy parking lot.  I was on the right side, so I parked.

It looked like a county fair.  There were several, maybe as many as 11, rows of cars parked 10-12 in a row.

The crowd stood patiently, like good Minnesotans, behind a blue rope.  Well, almost all were patient.  An older with broad shoulders and a Maryland Football t-shirt walked up to the fence and in a gruff voice said, “Come on.”  Nobody paid any attention. Promptly at 2 the rope came down and we went in as a group. 

As farmer’s markets in Minnesota go, it was small, but the choice of foods ranged from the ordinary to the exotic.  There were wax beans, green beans, lettuce, flowers, rambutan, pineapple, avocado, banana’s, tangerines, oranges, more pineapples, more tangerines.  One woman had a whole stand of tropical fruits, most of which I had never encountered: lingons and a fruit I bought that she advertised as having a cinnamon taste.  It does.  But I didn’t pay attention to the name.  Just tried to find it.  Couldn’t.  It’s good and does have a cinnamony, custard type flavor.

I bought those whatever they were and a pound of rambutans, lychee nuts convered in a red skin with little soft spikes all over.  Very cool.  Discovered these at Mama’s.

That was the day.  After that I drove back to Da Fish Shack.  Tried to take a nap, but it didn’t take, so I started this.

Tonight?  Who knows.

Sunny.  Shirt sleeve weather heading toward swim suit.  From the back lanai I can see rollers coming in that have curl, places for surfers to ride, but they’re all up on the north shore, Hanalei and westward toward Na Pali.  That’s where the  black diamonds are today. At least in surfing and skiing, black diamond means, “Come to me, all you who are skilled and eager;” instead of, as the Hawai’i Beach Safety website says, “Extreme Hazard.”

Got my groove back.  Slept till 8:30 AM.  Then, I put the little table on the back lanai, cooked up some eggs, toast and bacon, made myself a cup of Darjeeling and dined al fresco.  Directly in front of me is the neighbor’s yard, hammock strung and festooned with abandoned bumpers (boats).  At its edge next to the beach is a fir of some kind, aloe and ilia, a low, fronded plant and a small tree that looks like our magnolia.  Beyond these plants lies the ocean.  Out where the coral reefs protect Anahola Bay, the rollers I mentioned hit the reef, throw up spume and curl toward shore.

Yesterday I felt lonely, not alone, a huge difference for me.  This makes me yearn for something other than what I’m experiencing.  I don’t always recognize it when it creeps up on me.  The symptoms are vague dissatisfaction, an urge to wander, to do something, realize a goal.  Of course I miss Kate and always find life lighter and easier with her, yet I also love to be alone, on my own, but there are times when I seem to be adrift, goal-less and clueless.  Like yesterday.

Today I’m fine with breakfast, the table outside, the ocean in front of me.  Must have been a transition to an alone on vacation state, a transition from two weeks with Kate.  Now the same things that seemed dull and similar appear fresh and unique.  Plenty of time and happy to be here.

I’ve reduced my planned activity today to one:  the Hanalei farmer’s market at 2pm.  Might try to catch some of the north shore surfers.  Might not.

Happy on Kauai, at Da Fish Shack.  Aloha for now.

9:23PM.  Night.  Clear sky.  Orion stands over the back of da fish shack.

Saw a mule with an egret on its back.  So.  I looked it up.  Cattle egrets pick parasites off the backs of cattle and apparently some egrets do the same with horses.  These are not cattle egrets, but, then again, these weren’t cattle.  Found a picture on an Austrailian website with egrets on feral horses.  Whatta ya know.  Balance.

Tomorrow is the Hanalei farmer’s market so I’m going to take in the farmer’s market and the Lumiha gardens on the same trip. 

The shells I found were tiny, but I saw another Nihau shell lei today and these shells aren’t the same kind.  Still, we can do something with them and I’ll get more of them on Wednesday.

Had long noodle soup, summer rolls and black sticky rice for supper.  The black sticky rice was yummy and I found a recipe.  It is a black rice made with coconut milk and tapioca.  It’s tasty. 

4:35 PM.  Winds 17 mph.  Waves break on the reef and the palm fronds flutter toward the southwest.

Slow day.  Went into Kapa’a and had lunch at the Wahoo Seafood Bar and Grill.  In fact, I had Wahoo.  Wahoo!  Not bad, but not as good as I expected from an “award winning” restaurant noted as Kauai’s best for seafood.  It has bamboo slats for wainscoting along the outside, waist high wall.  Inside its primary distinguishing feature is a well-drawn fish-hook, the Wahoo’s graphic.

After lunch I puttered over to the Coconut Grove Market, a place I recalled from our visit ten-years ago.  Then, it must have been new because I remember it as modestly upscale, now its crowds seem to come from tour buses and cruise ships.  Many shops have closed and whoever owns the place is not wasting money on upkeep.  Shabby.

I did buy some music there, an Island themed Taj Mahal CD and a well-known Hawaiian singer, Keali’i Reichel’s CD, Kawaipunahele.  Buy two, get one handed to you.  Volume 2 of Paradise music.  Guess folks my age are the only ones who buy CD’s anymore.  Gosh, first vinyls, now CD’s.  Can DVD’s be far behind?

Tomorrow I plan to go Lumahi Gardens just beyond Hanalei.  Was gonna go today, but they are closed.  This is part of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens and focuses on native Hawai’ian plants, many of which are now rare, or extinct in the wild.

Looked at the hometown weather this morning.  0 with a -10 windchill.  Kate said she had to blow 4-5 inches of compacted snow off the driveway.  A welcome home to Minnesota ritual.  She also picked up the dogs who were very happy to go home, though they had a good time at doggy camp, too.

Trip’s not as much fun without Kate.  Realized today that living here might get old.  Either that or I’m at nadir for this trip, which I think is the case.  It happens.