June 30, 2009 at 10:08 am · Filed under Travels
We chose camping over a hotel. At $3.00 per night per person how could you not camp? The only difficulty was having to apply for permits to camp a few months before our trip. Well, not really difficult at all – you send in a form and money order – but there was some anxiety while we waited for our permits to come back (I admit some lack of faith in the postal system).
The first three nights we stayed at Salt Pond Beach Park (with the cats). The area behind our tent is where salt is harvested from the ocean (the only natural salt pond left in Hawaii):
Campgrounds were different from the ones we are used to here. You don’t get your own private nook in trees with picnic table and a place to pitch a tent. Instead you park off the road and choose any spot in a grassy park area for your tent. The campgrounds were not very busy so we had a lot of room but it was by no means private room.
It was quickly obvious that the public campgrounds are where locals come after work and on holidays to BBQ, play cards, drink, watch tv (somebody brought one to entertain a group at one of the picnic tables), and so on. This was a little unsettling because before going I read and heard so much about how the Hawaiians are not particularly fond of the tourists running around their islands. Driving up in a PT Cruiser and stepping out with marshmallow-white legs, there was no way I would blend in. But during our second night and morning a few men came over to chat with us and that was really good. We were from totally different worlds and lifestyles but they were interested in us and they seemed to enjoy telling us about themselves.
One came to our breakfast table around 8 a.m. We were eating pineapple and mini wheats and he had a beer in his hand. He told us that it’s really tasty to cut up pineapple and put it in your cereal. Then he told us that when they eat pineapple they often dip it in salt (from the pond) to subdue the sweetness so that you can taste the pineapple’s real flavour. You can’t buy the salt in stores but he brought some over for us to try. It was…salty. I think I may have over-dipped but I could taste what he was getting at.
After Salt Pond, we stayed one night at Haena and the rest at Anini Park. All three parks were next to the ocean.
Spending the whole week outside with the exception of car driving time, grocery stores and sitting inside restaurants a few times made sure that we saw most of the early sunsets. From Anini:
And from Polihale Beach:
The Polihale sunset was cool to experience because it’s the furthest west you can go in Hawaii and you really get the impression that you are at an edge, saying goodbye to a day that millions have already had their last words with.
June 26, 2009 at 12:17 pm · Filed under Creatures
Kauai didn’t have too many crazy creatures like monkeys and alligators and panthers but it did have visible creatures. Ones that seemed used to co-existing with humans and didn’t hide in trees and ground holes. Maybe this is because all the creatures we saw are descendants of pets brought to the islands a long time ago.
First – the rooster (and chickens).
They say hurricane iniki (1992) took down farms letting all these chickens and roosters loose. Now they are everywhere. There was not a single place we went to that didn’t have a rooster strutting around. Quite entertaining actually, until you’re waken up at 5 in the morning by 3 roosters cawing over and over and over again.
But I got used to it. And then I met the chicks. I even rubbed one on its little head and then was worried that its mother might smell my scent and eat it but I was assured that wouldn’t be the case. So the chickens and roosters were great.
The second creature was more localized. Wild cats roamed the first site we camped at – Salt Pond Beach Park. By wild I mean stray domestic cats. Or maybe they are pets to the park. They would certainly be given food and water and be able to stay familiar with the same locals who come every day for a beer and/or game of poker.
We spotted the third creature while driving the dirt roads from Polihale at nighttime. Faron noticed one on the side of the road and then another and another. Toads. Frogs? I never know which. But they sat on both sides of the road, all the same distance from the edge of the road with their backs to cars and about 2 feet between each toad/frog. Had the king frog decreed that this be the best spot for road sitting? His decision would be reinforced by the splattering of the few unfortunate enough to sit closer to the middle of the road.
We had pulled over and Faron walked up to this guy and easily picked him up. As we looked at it, it started to inflate itself. The inflating then turned into a high pitched panicky whining sound that I didn’t know toad/frogs could make. It was really interesting but we also felt bad for it and let it go quickly. Saved by whining – heh.
The last creature that I have a photo is the gecko. But I’m not positive it’s a gecko. I have a feeling that it could be some lizard that’s always mistaken for a gecko but is really a salamander…or something like that. Anyway, I liked seeing these guys because I was told about a cockroach problem on the island but that there was also a gecko (problem?) and the latter took care of most of the former. Most of my sightings were in the campground bathrooms at nighttime. Those geckos had turned a pale browny-yellow to match the plaster walls. The first time for me to see an animal do its camouflage thing and it was pretty cool.
Other honourable creature mentions (I wish I had pictures) are:
The common myna that looked like the most awkward bird walking around but in flight was gracious with beautiful red and white plumage under its wings.
The red-crested cardinal is an awesome bird to watch. It is comical looking but smartly so and if I were a super hero maybe I’d want to be red-cardinal girl.
The rock dove that was about as interesting as a pigeon but had a really weird sounding call that had me and Faron referring to “the laser bird” before we figured out who it was coming from.
That’s it for creatures. But wait – I’ve said nothing about fish and things in the sea! That could be a whole other post and, not having a waterproof camera, one without pictures. I might get to it…for now – off to my grandma’s 90th birthday party in Humboldt, SK.
June 24, 2009 at 7:05 pm · Filed under In the Kitchen and Foodstuff, Travels
I lose the right to talk about my Hawaii trip at the end of this month so I’d better hop to it! I continue with my presentation of Kauai in categories. Today we talk about an exciting one: fooood.
If you forget the overpriced Mexican food our hungry souls settled for as a first meal and the cheese and cracker supper later, our first real Hawaiian meal was pineapple for breakfast:
(…and mini wheats with soy milk.)
All winter we looked forward to fresh tropical fruit and we were not disappointed. We found fruit stands on country roads operating on the honour system and masking tape prices:
I learned how to eat lychee (not whole like below):
and was astounded by how bananas grow:
We went to the Kauai Coffee Company to buy green beans for friends that roast their own. The samples we tried were good. Surprising given the coffee served by cafés on the island. It was pretty bad and made us proud of what we could produce with store-bought grinds and a coffee filter held over a travel mug.
On to cooked food…
The first distinctively Hawaii meal we had was the teriyaki burger from Duane’s Ono-Char Burger. Note: when I say Hawaiian in reference to food I don’t mean Hawaiian as was originally on the island but Hawaiian mixed with Japanese and American. Hence the teriyaki burger. We waited for 20, maybe even 30 minutes at the small road-side kitchen with order window. It wasn’t waiting in a line-up, just for a delicious burger to cook so it was worth every minute.
That would have been my fill of burger for the trip but I had promised myself that I would try the loco moco. Oh boy. Rice topped with two hamburger patties, gravy, and two friend eggs. It came in a plate lunch so there was the traditional side of macaroni salad (I substituted a regular salad that was essentially iceberg lettuce swimming in macaroni salad mayo-dressing) and a side of noodles. I ate wondering what people on the island do to burn these calories. Probably something that I wouldn’t be doing that day so I saved half for dinner. My conclusion was that loco moco was tasty and satisfying in a carb-meat-fried-sauce way but I felt really out of character eating it. Like I do if I eat chicken pot pie or other meat and pastry combinations.
Later in the trip we tried plate lunches from Fish Express (a place you have to try if you go to Kauai). I had the kalua pig:
Kalua means to cook in an underground oven and Kalua pig is shredded pork from a salted pig cooked underground all day long (think luau pig). To me Kalua now means the best pig you will ever ever eat.
Faron had the Laulau. This is pork wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in the underground oven. It was tasty but if you try it, don’t eat kalua pig first because the laulau will not compare.
The pink cubes on the side are salmon and tuna poke: an appetizer of marinated cubes of raw fish. Common marinade ingredients are salt, soy sauce, nori, and sesame. Another must try in Hawaii.
A final dish of note was the saimin, a noodle soup dish much like ramen. We had it at Hamura’s Saimin Stand so I assumed it was mostly from the Japanese but it did have wontons in it. Wikipedia: “The dish is composed of elements taken from each of the original sugarcane and pineapple plantation laborer ethnicities of the early 20th century: Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Hawaiian, Portuguese” Ahh. I was worried that I’d compare saimin to ramen but it stood strong as a noodle soup of its own. Plus the atmosphere at Hamura’s was great. U-shaped counters and closely packed stools always occupied by tourists like us or locals.
Okay! That was a lot of post. I guess we ate a lot of food in a week. And still made room for dessert:
Shaved ice. I think this is the Japanese kakigori but in Hawaii, particularly at JoJo’s Shaved Ice in Waimea (not the newer one run by the punk white guy but the one around the corner), they have perfected ice shaving so that the treat melts in your mouth (of course) but like butter. I can’t remember the name of this combination but it had vanilla ice cream on the button, strawberry cheesecake, vanilla, and banana syrups, and sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top.
I’m waiting for a plane in Calgary. Michael Jackson died and when they show news reports everyone watches. That’s impact.
June 17, 2009 at 11:59 am · Filed under Creatures, Dreams
Animal filled dreams last night. In a new house that isn’t mine but was in my dream and looked suspiciously like the house I grew up in but not quite. I was shooing a wild cat out of the family room and looked outside to see birds and strange animals claiming the backyard. There was a terrier with the body of a chicken. That was too weird so I woke up.
This part is not a dream: I went for a jog around 7am. Down Windsor St around 20th or so there is road construction going on. Two men in bright orange vests were walking my way and then…and then! One of them laughed at my double take.
Waaaahh! A deer! There was a young deer walking down the road. They were following it. I never thought it would look so out of place but it did. It no longer had white spots but it was still young and fresh looking…and somewhat confused. What a darling animal. It kept walking West.
The construction workers had called a wildlife control group and while waiting, were trying to make sure the deer stayed off the road and particularly away from Kingsway, a busier street. The deer seemed to be getting used to them and by the time I continued on my jog, it had stopped in someone’s yard to chew on a tree.
I wonder where it came from. East? North? How far had it walked and what did it think of the city? Can it be brought back to its proper home? Maybe not.
Imagine if the consequence of walking in one direction would be to end up somewhere where you are totally out of place to be taken back to a place like your old home but not. I could be found in Walla Walla, WA and the next day be living in Seattle.
What a surprise.
June 11, 2009 at 2:47 pm · Filed under Travels
During the cold and snow of this past winter Faron suggested a surf trip to the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
It took 3 seconds for me to respond “Yes”, we booked our flights and that’s how I made it through the long stretch of dark evenings and frosty roads.
Faron’s choice of Kauai was informed by his sister who lived there for a period and learned how to surf from a man name Ambrose. Ambrose has a shop on the East side of the island where he builds, paints, and rents/sells boards. He’s also a pretty wicked artist as you will see below.
We rented two boards from him that we got to pick from the surfboard tree:
While we were choosing, some other guy dropped by to check out a board that Ambrose was working on for him. The artwork was incredible:
I was pretty jealous and thought, “if it means being able to eventually ride something that looks like that, heck I’m gonna be standing up by the end of this week!” (I would also browse skis at MEC to motivate myself to learn.)
The swell was fortunately on the smaller, beginner side. It was also so so nice to be out there without a wetsuit and to look into the water and be able to see the coral-covered bottom.
But the coral could also be a bit of a hazard – a number of times I wasn’t careful getting off my board and my feet got pretty scraped up. I’m still not able to stand but my paddling and catching waves and general relationship with waves are all getting better. It was a little sad leaving Hawaii not fully “able to surf” yet but it will come.
June 8, 2009 at 2:06 pm · Filed under In the Kitchen and Foodstuff
Friday evening we fed on Vietnamese food and then had a beer listening to blues from a man with white socks, bare knees, and a weathered face. Not a lot of time for a Portland tour but Faron’s parents suggested ending the night with a stop at Voodoo Doughnuts.
They knew exactly what would impress me.
Pink boxes?!! And cereal covered doughnuts…?!!
A 24-hr doughnut shop somewhere downtown with a line-up (but a very short, quick, tolerable one) of people seeking after-bar/club calories. A rotating case displays the insane creations; some look too good to eat, some to strange and others confirm to you that yes, love does exist.
We bought half a dozen:
* a bacon maple bar
* a plain donut with a blue (fruity) glaze and pink sprinkles (hello, simpsons donut?)
* what they call “Triple Chocolate Penetration” (chocolate doughnut, chocolate glaze, and cocoa-puffs)
* a fruit loop donut
* a captain crunch donut
* AND what I think they call “Dirty Snowball” (chocolate cake doughnut covered with pink marshmallow glaze and surprise filling)
I tried every one and they were all glorious. A few a little weird (Dirty Snowball) but wonderful nonetheless. I give them 2 sticky thumbs up!
June 8, 2009 at 9:27 am · Filed under Travels
The week before last on a sunny Friday I went straight to the airport after work and boarded a plane to Portland. Part of me was hoping for rainy weather that I could say a satisfied farewell to but in the end I was lucky for the amazing view.
Mount Rainier:
Mount St. Helens:
Alaska Airlines serves complimentary microbrew and wine. I counted the contents of my airline snack to make sure they were not skimming the fat elsewhere to make up for the cost. Nope, it all looks good.
We double thanked them on a comments card, blinked two more times an then we were in Portland.
May 30, 2009 at 6:18 am · Filed under Travels
This morning…so excited just had to say.
May 26, 2009 at 10:43 pm · Filed under Experiences, Mundane
Odd. Vanilla ice cream with black sesame powder tastes like reese’s pieces. Wonderful things like this cause late reporting.
Maybe 2 and a half weeks ago now I left the Kommune.
To start a new home on another side of town. This is the front porch:
When I first checked out the place I was standing where those white chairs are and was greeted by two cats: Bob and Pumpkin aka Tuna aka Crumbs. It was sunny outside and I was high on the realization that this was absolutely where I want to live.
So I moved in and hopefully I’ll have more pictures and home projects to share in the future. Right now things have been a bit crazy organizing and stocking all those important but missing pieces (can opener anyone?) It doesn’t help that I’ve been spending weekends practicing beaches and camping for Hawaii (omigosh I didn’t mention that yet…3 days!!!!)
For the time being, meet the mother-to-be:
Still tiny mother-of-millions plants that had a growth spurt after the move (maybe because it’s warmer now). The one on the top-right is winning. These plants will produce little “plantlets” that fall off to produce more plants. Probably why they are considered a weed in some parts but in my living room I cheer them on.
May 22, 2009 at 12:24 pm · Filed under Experiences, Travels
There was no time in this last short week to write about the long weekend before. But there were a few realizations made in my surfing and it’s important to get those on screen. That and I took some pretty pictures.
We drove down to Oregon for visiting, surfing and (for me) to see where Faron is from. After staying in Portland Friday night we headed straight west and spent the rest of the weekend playing on the coast and in Newport.
The beaches were amazing. North-west getting a bit warmer. Sand lighter and oceans brighter greens and blues.
Sea lions have invaded the Newport harbour and lounging and barking tell you who is really the king of the sea.
I got into the water 3 times. Faron another time on foggy Saturday (I excused myself for a jog due to fog-chills-can’t see waves coming-excuses-excuses).
My second time out I was riding some waves or should I say the long board was riding the waves and I was on top of it? From there, standing up had always seemed a long way off. I can jump to my feet but I stay on all fours. But this time I had a moment where I realized something stopping me from standing: I’ve been using the board as something to keep me afloat and because of that, I never want to lose my hold on it.
Instead I need to use it as a vehicle.
I was able to stand for, okay just a second. But it was a totally different and amazing sensation. Free.
Of course the next day my body still felt like this:
The other realization? I think I’m afraid of being under water. It might have something to do with tubes in my ears for years and childhood years and doctor’s orders to always keep my head above water. But whatever the cause – I need to work on that.
May 15, 2009 at 1:51 pm · Filed under Experiences
It was Bike to Work Week this week. For me, like most other weeks but with a sweet ride logger:
Personal Stats
Trips during BTWW, MAY09: 9
Distance: 125.491 km
CO2 offset: 21.2 kg
Calories burned: 3768
I would top it off with trip 10 on the way home from work but today Faron is picking me up and we’ll head to Oregon for the weekend…there goes my CO2 offset.
Anyway, during the week the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition (VACC) set up commuter stations around Vancouver and Greater Area to connect with, help out, and cheer on commuters during their rides to and from work. I helped out at stations in Richmond on Tuesday and Friday morning. Early *groan* and cold double *groan* but it was great to meet other people I share these roads with (and especially great to see various bike + gear setups).
One thing that made me go “hmmm” was that the majority who came by were people already in the habit of bike commuting. I expected to meet many giving it a try. Maybe there would have been more people if the skies would have been more blue.
But even if this event does not generate legions of fresh cyclists, it did provide recognition and a place where current cyclists could voice what’s not working for them with existing cycling infrastructure. The more voices there are, the sooner can get better and that will increase the number of future riders.
You probably already knew that but if you want to see it in effect, participate in the next bike to work week.
May 13, 2009 at 2:56 pm · Filed under Thinking, Work
It’s possible that I just never noticed this but I do believe that they’ve installed hand sanitizer in my office building since the whole swine flu deal-e-o. On the first floor between two elevators.
Way to take action!
May 4, 2009 at 10:41 am · Filed under Travels
A few days ago I was getting dressed and about to put a sock on when the nail on my second biggest toe fell off. I had guessed that would happen a while ago. Then I painted over the evidence with bright red polish, forgot about it and when it finally happened, was surprised…and happy. I consider it a little tribute to efforts at learning how to ski this past winter; the falls, the twists, the tears, and the “there’s no way in hell I’m going down that”. But it’s also a little sad. May being as busy as it will be I think the season is over for me.
Let’s move on to try something else. A complement to skiing: surfing. We went to Tofino last weekend and despite the rain and despite standing on two feet being a possibly long way away it was great medicine. Though the one thing the showers discouraged me from doing was taking a lot of pictures. So I’m going to cheat and pull some from our February trip out there as it was pretty much a sunnier version of this past weekend.
Waking up in the volvo on Saturday morning.
Drying wetsuits on Sunday morning. (Didn’t have so much drying action this weekend but the warmer weather made it less painful squeezing into damp skins.)
Another jay! A stellar’s jay who came to watch us make macaroni and cheese for a late beach lunch. Not as friendly as the gray jay.
It was hard to come back and made me nostalgic for summer holidays from school and long weeks spent at the cabin.
May 1, 2009 at 7:30 am · Filed under Thinking
This winter I’ve been learning how to ski. Last Sunday we skied out to Elfin Lakes and back. It’s a good area for beginners, “mellow”, but I’m learning that often there’s quite a wide range of “mellow” that has nothing to do with how easy or hard I think a certain terrain is and all to do with boosting my confidence.
But this place is really mellow. And the head count was down quite a bit from the trip we made there in February. It was a sunny day and really hard to leave a city we could bike around and enjoy cherry blossoms in but, once we were up there, the bright sun blazing off white snow and crisp clear views of mountains so far around made it all worth it.
The highlight for me was a friend we made while stopping for a snack:
I know, it’s pretty easy to make a gray jay friend, but this is my first and it made me feel so good and warm inside to have a creature so bold hanging around. I think it liked my ski instructor a lot (I like him to :”) ).
The not so great highlight but good lesson was the large blister that shortly became a hole in my left heel. The blister tape was forgotten and I learned about sock liners but…it was too late. Never again.
April 29, 2009 at 9:51 pm · Filed under Creatures
Home invasion!!! And this time it’s not ants.
A few weeks ago I woke up in the early morning hours to here scratch scratch scratching sounds coming from what seemed to be inside the wall I sleep next too. Then a few clatters and more scratching. Rats? Mice? I forgot about it later the next day.
A few days later the lady next door pointed out the problem. She invited us to view from her deck the hole torn open in our roof right above the gutter. “I’ve seen this guy, he’s big! A raccoon!!” she exclaimed. The rascal…
He (she?) didn’t show up for a while and the hole was patched up.
I just realized that it’s very likely the raccoon could be female AND she could be trying to build a nest to give birth. Oooooohhhh…I’m conflicted. Raccoon in house but…baby raccoons!! Internet research leads to more gn’awwing over baby raccoon photos.
Anyway, last week the raccoon came back. This time not so late at night and I was sitting in my bed looking out the window to see a shower of shingles fall to the ground. I gave it a holler, “hey you!!” (What else are you going to yell?) It looked at me for a few moments. Then jumped onto the roof. We found it waiting there:
It’s amazing how these guys *know* when they are safe. You yell and they look at you kind of like, “oh yeah…and what are you going to do about it?”. We couldn’t do much then but last weekend we wrapped stove piping around the beams it was using to get to the roof.
So far no more scratching. Good but…oh geez I still love these guys.
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