Low Mileage Day

Another sunrise in Paradise. (LC)

Before I write the story of Saturday-Another-Day-In-Paradise, I need to reflect on what is happening at home. Not the weather, and not on the farm, but in the lives of some of my closest friends. After several months in hospital and rehab, our friend Seldon, 86, has suffered another setback and is back in the hospital. This worries me deeply. He was making progress, slow and not steady, but we could imagine a positive outcome. You can always imagine a positive outcome. But the more stress that he and his family experience, physical and emotional, the harder the climb. This is the only -- and I mean the only -- thing that makes me wish I were home. It is hard to be helpful from 5000 miles away and it makes my heart heavy. We are sending our thoughts and prayers to this family that means so much to us.

Meanwhile, we continue our carefree existence on this tiny island in the Pacific. We decided to stay close to home today, exploring our own neighborhood, so to speak. Laura walked to the farmers market in Kekaha, about ten minutes on flat ground, and discovered that the market had decreased drastically in scope since she was here ten years ago.

Low-key and friendly. (LC)

This is quite a bit more then we would do
in Loudoun but the idea is the same. (LC)

She collected up some fruits and vegetables and we picked her up and went to the town of Hanapepe to browse. After 3 minutes, Jon and I could see that this town was not our style, as cute as it is. It has art galleries and restaurants and local this and that and it all feels like a place that a cruise group would enjoy. Laura shopped for a bit but decided it had become too expensive and Georgetown-ish, even for her. But I did find the hanging bridge that crosses the wide stream and we walked across it. It is the kind of bridge Jon imagines building in Loudoun.

It was really hot and sunny. I don't like to be hot enough to sweat if it is not a necessary part of working or exercise, so I voted that we stop walking around in that heat and find another activity. We went to Waimea on the way home --  much less cutesy -- and bought some lunch. Laura and Jon had some interest in watching football games in the afternoon, so that gave us an excuse to go back inside for a while. After some football and some delicious island tacos, we set out for the beach. Life is so rough.

We were headed for the beach that is at the 9:00 end of the road. The guide book warned us strongly about driving on the sand and other possible troubles, but it didn't say anything about how absolutely bumpy and terrible the dirt road would be. At the end of the paved road, you turn left onto a wide unpaved road that says it is 4.9 miles long even though the guide book said it was 3.2. We have experienced these discrepancies before and they mystify us.Those numbers are so specific. Anyway, with our little rental car with the normal sized tires we could only go about 5 mph (on the way back out, we timed it and figured out it was 6 mph), which was arduous and bouncy and certainly made me question the wisdom of this jaunt. Eventually we got to the big monkey pod tree and turned left, which turned out to be smart. That was the 3.2 mile choice. The beach is a long, long stretch of white sand with long, long big waves -- and nobody in the water. Plenty of 4WD pickup trucks and guys with surfboards, but no one playing in the water.

A very pretty beach, but a little rough. (LC)

As I have said before, this is a sure sign that I am not going in. None of us did. We retreated to the beach that is just a brief walk from our house.

Laura and I selected the section of beach that had the most children in the water and we ventured in. I am a scaredy-cat so it was still nerve-wracking but we dove through the waves and stayed out there for a while until I had used up enough adrenaline. There were plenty of surfers and boogie boarders to watch.

Jon went to get Rebecca at the airport while Laura and I tried to watch a movie on Jon's computer. Neither one of us has ever actually learned to use a PC to get to a movie and we laughed so hard I almost peed -- we were texting Becca as she was taxiing in on the runway, asking how to do it, and Jon simultaneously.  Eventually we successfully got to watch Little Miss Sunshine, inspired by last night's movie.

Becca arrived and happily ate all the leftovers from dinner, even though it was a pretty weird concoction of vegetables, held together as a Thai curry. She said, sweet potatoes?! Beets?!