My Life Blog

Three words you don’t want to hear or say while on vacation are "salvage the trip".  Such a statement means things have probably gone very wrong.  But alas, we heard them today.

But don’t worry, its probably not as bad as it sounds.  A least that’s what my mental dialog is all about. 

I haven’t mentioned this previously, but both of us had a couple of sicknesses in the weeks that preceded our trip.  I had a stomach bug for a week and then Suzanne had a sinus infection.  In fact, she’s still shaking off the cough that went with it.

Two days before the trip, I started waking up with a sore throat.  But that was the week that I pounded out a 73-hour work week, so I figured I had just worn myself down.  The day that we traveled, I woke up with the same symptoms and a bit of an ear ache too.  And then the flight to Kauai pushed the drainage deeper into my right ear.  For the last several days, I’ve been dealing with a popping feeling whenever I swallow. 

I thought I was getting better, but today I dipped into that scary area where you know you probably need to see a doctor.  And that’s what we did this morning.  After failing to find the Hanalei Medical Clinic open, we drove to Kilauea to visit theirs.  They were able to work us in where I was diagnosed with a sinus infection. 

I must say, the doctor was probably the coolest one I’ve ever had.  Sneakers, Puka shell necklace, and a Hawaiian shirt (of course).  And pretty recently out of school as he seemed really young.  It was he who issued the statement that introduced this post.  So I’ve got an antibiotic and a steroid prescription.  The latter is to provide me a boost in energy so that we can do the things that we want to do during the days.

But today is a recovery day, so all we have been able to accomplish is a little bit of tangential shopping to bookend the visit to the doctor.  While we waited for the pharmacy to fill my prescription, we visited the Island Soap & Candle Works and picked up 10 bars of soap.  Its a tradition for us to take the soap back home with us as daily remembrances of our visit to the island. 

And finally, after three days of trying, we were finally able to get a meal in at Tropical Taco.  Its as good as I recall and hopefully we’ll somehow squeeze in a second visit.

So while I’m resting at the house and truly testing the healing power of the island (this is not what I had in mind!), Suzanne is off getting a neck and shoulder massage in Hanalei.  This necessary from our kayaking trip yesterday.  More on that in another post.

Today’s not over, so maybe there will be a legitimate highlight.  We have already successfully rescheduled our romantic dinner on the beach for Thursday night.  Steak, chocolate decadence, and sinusitis just don’t go together…even on a romantic beach.

Sunday was our first official day on the island.  The day you arrive just doesn’t count since you are mostly having a jet lag-induced out-of-body experience. 

As alluded to, Sunday was a day of rain on the north side.  We were actually okay with that as we didn’t have much planned.  Given that it was our first day, we thought we’d take it easy anyway. 

We were up at the crack of dawn and were out the door by 9:30am.  We went into Hanalei to have a Java Kai offering and wander through the shops.  Suzanne got on the shopping scoreboard first, scoring a "cute sun dress".  Her words, not mine. 

I had decided that this trip I wanted "different" pictures.  You can go on Flickr and find anyone’s Kauai pictures and they look mostly like yours.  Well, that’s no fun.  So I decided that while in town, I’d capture the signs.  I really love some of the sign art work that I’ve seen, so I wanted to capture them.  A previous post has a link which filters for the signs that I’ve capture.  So in our wandering, I was occupied a great bit of the time with taking these pictures. 

It didn’t take us long to get to the Spinning Dolphins Designs shop where I bought a long-sleeve t-shirt last year.  Last year we had a nice, long chat with the proprietor and discovered that they are real animal lovers.  So much so that they collect pictures of animals and post them underneath the glass counters within their store.  Since it was Mother’s Day, the proprietor was not around, but we had a nice, long chat with her husband.  And we presented him with a picture of Autumn, our cat.  I purchased a similar t-shirt to end our visit and it came in useful last evening as it dipped down into the 70s.

We had lunch at Mixed Plate and both were pretty happy with the food.  The lady there is quite chatty, so it was fun to visit with her as well.  We recall meeting her last year and hearing her tell how she had just walked right up to Bill Clinton while he dined at the Postcard Cafe.  Needless to say, she’s not shy.

We closed out our day in Hanalei with another dress and t-shirt purchase each.  We thought the rain was breaking, so we thought we might be able to make it to the beach for some late sun.  Unfortunately, we made it to the beach, but we saw little late sun.  Instead, we saw enough rain to chase us away.  In our brief time there, we did watch several kite surfers.  I would guess that if I were on the island for any length of time, this would be one of my hobbies as it looked fun.

We closed the day we a long walk through the gardens around the house.  Many of the flower pictures were taken during this walk.  I hope everyone enjoys those pictures as they were not taken without significant sacrifice on my part.  The mosquitos swarmed relentlessly in some parts of the garden and struck early and often.  I think I’ve given less blood at a blood drive.

So all in all, a good first day despite the rain.

I was thinking of this quote by Ferris Bueller that began, "Life moves pretty fast…" but I can’t seem to finish it.  Sure, I could Google it, but its not that important.  The point is that its been eight months since we’ve been able to stop down and smell the roses.  Its been all work and no play makes Bill a dull boy.  And well, you know what happened in The Shining, right?

But this is Kauai and we’ve yet to see any roses.  But no complaints here, allow us to share these with you.

One of the things I love about Kauai is its cool signs.  Some are retro, some are groovy, but I find them all to be really cool.  If you want to take a look at the assortment of signs to be found, click here.

In case anyone is interested, we are collecting a set of pictures on Flickr at this address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billeisenhauer/sets/72057594134652801/

Or you can return to this post to see the three most recent pictures:

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You probably think I’m going to tell you about revisiting the beach where we got married.  Well, that will be done, but that’s not what I’m thinking.

What I’m really meaning is that its raining chickens and ahi over here!  The amount of rain reminds us of the day we got married when it cleared just long enough for us to jog through the ceremony and the pictures. 

The good news is that we went to bed last night at 9pm (2am body time) and the rain began sometime a couple of hours later.  It made for great sleeping weather.  Just imagine the gentle breeze and the sound of the rain magnified by its impact on the palm leaves.  Very restful and just what we needed.

If the rain continues, we plan on simplifying our day by going into Hanalei,  walking through the shops, and enjoying a frapuccino.

After 12 hours of travel, we’ve made it once again to the Garden Isle.

Our day began promptly before 5am as we rushed to get ready before our 6:15am taxi.  We made it just fine and were virtually the first to arrive for our 8am flight.  We always seem to over-estimate the time we will need.  American Airlines has streamlined the check-in process so well that we only lose time in the security check-in.  But even that went quickly.

On the flight to LA, we had an extra seat in our row, so that made for a more comfortable flight.  The only hitch was that we sat on the ground in LA awaiting our gate to be freed up.  Every five minutes or so, they would tell us that it’d be just a few more moments.  One of us had to go to the bathroom and didn’t appreciate the delay.

On the flight to Kauai, we weren’t so lucky as our row was totally filled.  Curiously, the "extra" was traveling with his wife, but sitting in a separate row.  Maybe that will be us in a few years?  But anyway, there were extra aisle or window seats to be had, but he never budged.  In fact, a couple of lucky people got to "rack out" (lay down) in a row that they had to themselves.  As a long-time AAdvantage member, this made me slightly crazy.

Suzanne will tell you that the cramped row was secondary to the kicks in the back that she sustained from the 2-year-old sitting behind us.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her lurch forward on occasion. 

But alas we’re on vacation and we’re here, so everything is rolling off our backs.  Upon arrival, we decided to stop off at Duke’s to have beach-side hamburgers.  The picture you see is representative of the view.  This locale is one of our favorites and quickly put us in the vacation mood. 

We are now hanging out in our familiar rental house.  Our bodies tell us its 11:15pm, but the local time is 6:15pm.  So we’re battling to stay up to combat the jet lag.  Of course, its still beautiful.  On the way in, we saw the waterfalls that spring up after a hard rain.  The Koi appear to be thriving in the pond.  But sadly, the mosquitos are still as thirsty as ever.

So upcoming trip highlights are:

• Kayaking on Monday.  No, not the whitewater kind.  Think about the log ride at Six Flags except its even slower!  If we have trouble navigating it, I won’t be telling any of you here.

• Dinner on the beach on Tuesday.  This is not marshmallows and a fire, this is steak and several courses around the steak.  If we’re lucky, we’ll get a great sunset to go with it.

• Couples massage on Friday.  I’m 41 years old and have never had a massage.  Last week I told Suzanne to schedule herself a spa day.  Instead, she scheduled us a massage on the beach.  Without my prompting, she requested that I get a lady to do my massage.  I’m such a homophobe.

• A guided hike by this guy.  This will be the following week and we’ll be on the West side of the island toward the Na Pali Coast.  We expect to get great pictures.  And Andy, the tour guide, is an interesting dude.  We’ve exchanged several emails along the way and follow his blog.  He’s a former mainlander, but works remotely from the island.  This is something that we’ve dreamed about, so it should be interesting to hear his stories.

Around those events, we’ll get a few Java Kai (the local Starbucks) episodes in.  I’m particularly looking forward to lunch at Tropical Taco sometime soon as well.  And then, of course, we’ll beach ourselves and maybe actually get in the water!

In early April, I had a friend pass through DFW airport the enough of a layover to allow us to have lunch.  Its been a while since I drove through the airport and so I hadn’t yet taken advantage of the integration of our toll tags with the airport toll system.  But as I tried it, it didn’t work for me.

So this prompted some research on my part.  As it turns out, I had an expired credit card attached to the account and the balance had run to zero and the account was unable to replenish itself.  But in my research, I discovered that I had a second toll tag attached to the account.  I had totally forgotten that a former girlfriend had obtained one while we briefly lived together.

As I continued my research, I noticed that she was using the toll tag services more than I was.  And this had been going on since 2002!!  So I wrote her an email requesting that she stop using the tag and drop it in the mail to me.  She wrote back and agreed to do so.

So now two days short of a month has gone by and still no toll tag.  To make matters slightly worse, the toll tag has been used since my original request.  So I decided to write again and ask for the tag or a clarification on whether the tag would ever be coming back.  A few hours later, the reply I received let me know that there had not been a moment’s time to drop the tag in an envelope and lay two stamps on it.  And further, her note said that the toll booth that was used only accepted toll tags.  So lame.

So I will be reporting the toll tag as stolen which I guess is technically correct now.  And with that, I’m hoping this bit of past history is in my rear-view mirror…