Walking Day

[liralen]

 On Wednesday we walked.

Right after breakfast, we put on our walking shoes and headed north on the trail. There's a trail right behind the complex we're living in, and it goes fourish miles in either direction, along the coastline, so it accesses a lot of different beaches. I didn't want to go for more than half an hour, as we'd have to make our way back. John had a meeting around lunch time, so we weren't going to go too far this morning anyway. 

It was fun to just walk and discover what we could see. The structure of Kaua'i, as an island, is fascinating, as it's the oldest of the Hawaiian islands. It rains constantly at the top of the mountain, and there are countless streams that come down off the top of the mountain. A lot of those streams ate into the rock and made valleys, breaking down the stones into earth, and the plants break down to make it all fertile. So much green. But everywhere there are rivers that just cut right down to the sea, and nearly nothing can stop them. Out north, they just let them run over the road, in more developed areas, they're bridged and canaled. 

There was this forest, obviously planted, as the trees were regularly placed, but they were so old, they had to have been planted a very long time ago. It turns out that this was also an archeological site of some of the early Polynesians who first discovered and populated these islands. Kaua'i was the first island that they settled on, and they planted these trees. The leaves are long, slender, and almost like pine needles, but softer, feathery, and the ground under them was carpeted in their saplings. Just the next lot over had been cleared and new palm trees were planted in modern rows. These were planted to stop the wind, staggered to provide the best coverage. 

We ended up out on the coastline by a restaurant and hotel combo, and right at the half hour we turned back and saw this rainbow. It was, of course, raining over half the island, and we made our way back without getting showered on. We also went by and looked at the menu of a Kenji's Burgers. It has nothing to do with Kenji Lopez Alt, it's a local chain of local burgers, and we figured we'd be back.

Once back to the condo, we packed up, and went to Lihue, where we hit a truly local grocery store, that was half filled with Japanese groceries. I got a Kewpie Yuzu Pepper salad dressing that looked amazing. We then went to a different part of the same run down mall, to a newly renovated area that housed a Boba spot, a sushi store, and the Kauai Bakery, which had half a dozen kinds of Malasadas, a Portuguese sweet bread dough based donut that we'd had on both Maui and Hawaii. John got a mango one and I got a black sesame one, and we saved them for later. 

Because for now, we were going to Konohiki Seafoods, which was an amazing mashup of deli, Japanese sushi to go, and all the plates you could think of. They had wild combinations, a whole table filled with pre-made sushi including pickled mackeral, cooked rolls, and all kinds of goodies. They had a whole tray of just inari, 2 dollars each. 

We got the Toridon, which was ginger fried chicken and spicy ahi poke served with rice and a beautiful, slender macaroni salad. We got that combination along with two inari as I love those things, and we headed home to eat all that on our back patio, with the chickens watching us eat. Then John had his meeting. 

I did some of my physical therapy exercises along with my wrist exercises while he met. When he finished, we ate our Malasadas. I loved my red bean one, as it was just filled with a good, solid chunk of red bean paste. John's mango one also had cream, and it was very nice as well. Then I geared up to go for a walk, and we walked out into a downpour. 

So we changed plans, and instead of walking to the post officer for first class stamps for the big postcards, we took the car. We also did grocery store stuff, and then, we veered over to Lightwave Pottery. Jon Singer had called it out as a great place to visit, and we wandered into a studio filled with what looked like just colorful pottery. But one of the artists asked if we wanted to know what they did and when we said, "Yes." She explained what they really did.

Instead of painting designs on clay, they take clay and infuse it with colors. They then take the colored clay and make patterns with it, but wrapping it around other colors, shaping it, extruding it into custom shapes, and then putting it together puzzle style with other patterned pieces. This is a foot thick block that is a foot by a foot, all built by hand. 

Then they slice a layer off the block and layer it onto the surfaces of various pieces of pottery. They paint all of it with a single, clear glaze, and then fire it in a waste vegetable oil kiln to set everything. All the artists in that particular studio do the same technique, only each does it in their own style. It was fascinating to see them work and to see what they'd made. 

By the time we were done with our errands, the rain died, so we went out for a walk. We did some other looking into shops, and at the far end of town we found the Farmer's market for Kapa'a. They were all selling vegetable for the table, eggplant, green onions, bok choy, and all kinds of fruit. We found a lady who was selling Keitt mangos, ripe when green, and she had several that were too ripe, so she was selling them at a discount. I also got a guava, bananas, and a dragonfruit on a whim,

We'd gotten a dragonfruit in San Diego at Specialty Produce, and while it was creamy ripe, it wasn't tasty at all. Not sweet, not nothing. So I wondered if it would be better from the source. We'll find out another day.

We walked home, and then went back out to the Kenji Burger for dinner. It was well worth the walk. This was their regular Kenji burger with furikake fries, which had rather more than just furikake on them. They were also deliciously slathered with Kewpie Mayo, Teriyaki sauce, and sesame seeds, which might well have been part of the furikake. That was delicious. I might have to do that with In and Out fries when the In and Out gets built a few blocks from our neighborhood.

I'll admit the ketchup was not used that much. It was a great dinner, and worth the walk. We ended up with more than 20,000 steps that day. A solid day.  

But then we got a call from old co-workers who happened to have been in Poipu for a friend's wedding. They actually live in Boulder, so they're normally less than thirty minutes away. We almost never see them, though, now that we were both here... we met up for ice cream after they finished with their dinner. 

It turns out that they actually run a rescue for Old English sheepdogs, so Mona knew all about the "borrow a dog for half a day". They'd taken a dog out for a walk as well. That was a cool thing to know. And it really was nice to see them and really catch up for a while. We all now want to do that again. 

Of course, there were chickens at the ice cream place. They were chicks, teenagers, not quite grown, not quite babies anymore, and these two ran everywhere together. As night fell, and the shops started to close, a lot of the chickens hopped up onto wires. These two perched together, balancing on the wire reflexively, mostly asleep.

It was very cool to watch, and to realize that, yes, chickens to reflexively find high ground and sleep off the ground if they can. Roosting. 

We headed home late, but we'd already eaten and everything, so sleep came easily.