After checking in at Waimea Plantation Cottages and getting settled, Matt and I went for a walk. We found this tree conglomeration.
And then walked along the beach to this pier.
We walked back through town and found a good place to watch the sun setting over Ni’ihau.
All in all, a very good first day!
Having eaten, we still had time to kill before we could check in, so we found a cemetery nearby and drove out for a look.
I love cemeteries in general and my last trip to a Hawaiian cemetery on Lanai had many interesting things to take in. This was was no different.
Flowers and garlands.
Tidy and not-tidy gravestones
And excellent offerings.
There was also this cacti. I wouldn’t wish the vandalism, but it’s interesting how it scars.
We won the airplane seat lottery and had an empty middle seat all the way to Kauai. I recently heard this described as “poor man’s first class” and a truer phrase has never been spoken. When we left Portland, it was in the 30s and I got cold and was cold for the whole flight, hence my jacket blanket.
Once we arrived in Hawaii, we got to bypass the long line because we had bracelets (a thing we almost didn’t have because I never saw any notification, nor discovered any information about bracelets in my pre-trip research) and I was starving. So we found a place and I ordered a Loco Moco, which was a hamburger patty, on top of rice and topped with a fried egg and a lot of gravy.
Given that it was my only meal of the day, it hit the spot. Matt got fried shrimp.
Matt and I went to Trader Joe’s and bought a bunch of snack food (plus some Indian meals to eat for breakfast) so we won’t have to eat out for every meal when we are in Hawaii. Buying snacks for the trip was the first time I felt like we might actually go on the trip. The pandemic has made travel so iffy.
When the pandemic started and no one was doing anything or going anywhere, Matt and I decided that on Saturday we would have our date night and our date night would involve buying a frozen pizza at Fred Meyer. This would better distinguish the date night from the other nights we also were at home.
In addition to a frozen pizza, we also picked up a pint of this delicious ice cream. This isn’t our preferred flavor (that one has Belgian chocolate in it) but it still has the Magnum magic: a hard shell around the outside of the ice cream and drizzles of chocolate throughout the pint.
The directions say to let it sit out for 10 minutes, then crack the sides with your hands (this breaks the shell) and then dig in. It’s incredibly delicious.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem to have taken the rest of the country (or our area of the country) by storm and it’s shelf space has been diminishing. I fear it might soon be gone forever.
But it was damn good while it lasted.
I’ve bene wondering where the bits of fiberglass insulation have been coming from. They’ve been appearing with regularity on our sidewalk.
On the way home from the library, I took a closer look at our flowering plum tree from across the street and suddenly got it.
Some intrepid squirrels were using the materials they had. I don’t think hanging out in the insulation was very good for their health, but it was probably warm.
I had a worry that it was coming from our house, but I think it came from the motel being open to the elements after the fire.
As I’ve finally realized that putting a gas stove in my house isn’t ideal, I have also discovered an inexpensive way to try my hand at an induction cooktop. It’s also a bonus because that burner doesn’t really work anyway.
So far, I’m impressed at how much faster it heats water, and am on a learning curve about scrambling eggs.
Yes, that’s right. For the third birthday celebration, we took the day off work and went to a corn maze! The one on Kruger’s Farm, to be precise. We arrived just as it was opening and were the first ones there. There was one other couple that came after us, but other than that, we had the place to ourselves. Here’s what we found:
Timer photo from atop a bridge with views.
The view:
There were many of these. We had fun solving them.
My previous visit to a corn maze in October taught me that footwear choice is key to comfort and enjoyability. I walked through while Matt walked around.
This was a big bonus to being the first ones in. There were many of these patterns on top of the mud made by some critter. We asked, but the person who worked there hadn’t ever seen them before.
Mushroom!
Some gross corn. The person working said it was a kind of fungus.
The inaccurate ruler puts Matt at over six feet.
And me at 5’4″
We traded off so we could get our faces in all the holes.
And used the timer to take this series:
After that we went on a different hike (really a walk, but less muddy than the corn maze) on Sauvie Island
And then, wandering around looking for someplace to eat, discovered that Broder is where Laughing Planet used to be on Mississippi. Big win, as I love Broder!
Here’s what my activity tracker looked like for the corn maze.
When the drops bounce up onto the window like that, you know it’s a big rain.
Tonight was the night when the Orange Door broke out Fast & Furious Highway Heist.
As board games go, it was about medium easy to pick up. The important point is that both occupants of the Orange Door were positively interacting with the Fast & the Furious franchise.
We also played Nidavellir which was medium hard to explain and has entirely left my synapses.
