We decided to go to a beach that’s off the beaten path, Pu’u Poa beach. If you are staying at the Princeville Resort, there is an elevator that takes you down the cliff. Public access requires climbing down a steep path.
The first part is not bad. But then it turns downhill.
There are ropes to hold onto as you back your way down steep, often slippery ‘stairs’. This is Jack when he declared he couldn’t do it. I went on down to see what came next. The path got worse but the beach was lovely!
I was about to go back up when Jack and Steve appeared! Jack decided he could do it, and he did. (Steve thinks the teenaged girls who passed them and told Jack it was worth it had something to do with the decision making :-).)
The beach had just enough people. The water was clear and clean. Tomorrow we’re going back with snorkel gear!
We flew to Kauai on Wednesday. We’ll be here for 9 days, 5 on the north shore (staying in Princeville) and 4 days farther south (outside of Lihue).
On our way north to Princeville, we stopped for supplies at Walmart in Lihue and then went on to find the BEST shave ice we’ve ever had, at Wailua Shave Ice.
The story behind Wailua Shave Ice is a good one. I watched the video (below) and thought more about the importance of finding balance in your life. We all want balance and it’s different for each of us.
Next we stopped to pick up dinner (for later) at Chicken In A Barrel in Kapa’a, where there is BBQ that even Texans can love. The sauces are superb!
We got to Princeville and checked into a fantastic condo called the Nihilani, #22C. Click here to look at the slideshow. It is bigger than our house and the views are (dare I say better?) than the views in Sherman. This is a photo taken nearby.
We went to Hanalei Bay on Thursday. The crowds were light, the water was cooler than it was in Waikiki. Jack made sandcastles and we walked the beach looking for shells.
We set up two umbrella structures! The one on the left is ours, from Walmart in Lihue. The condo came stocked with the chairs and smaller umbrella…
After a few hours on the beach, we found lunch at a lovely food truck that specializes in local, organic food, followed by more shave ice. (FYI: Wailua Shave Ice is better.)
We are enjoying the freely ranging chickens and roosters. I’m not sure I’d love them if they were all over Sherman, but maybe I would. Who can say?
There are lots of nene (Hawaiian goose) on the golf course. And there are small lizards in great abundance.
Unfortunately Jack tore up his toe nail Thursday evening. He did learn a valuable life lesson about always watching where you put your feet when walking down stairs. It’s a lesson I’ve had to learn myself, the hard way. I’d share a picture but, no. He’ll be fine but we are taking it easy today (Friday). Tomorrow he should be better and we’ll be out and about.
Oh! I almost forgot to say that I went to a hot yoga class this morning. One woman said it was actually just warm yoga but, dang, I would not want it any hotter than it was. In fact, if I could have heard the instructor, I’d have followed along from the porch outside. I disliked it enough that I might just have to do it again :-).
We spent two nights at the Moana Surfrider… the first hotel built in Waikiki. It was lovely and gracious, not inexpensive, but there you go. The saying goes that you get what you pay for and we did :-).
We have stopped for drinks at sunset at the Beach Bar in this hotel many times. It was so nice to be there as guests of the hotel! If you step out of the bar onto the beach and look left, you can see Diamond Head in the distance.
We were under umbrella #4 for most of Tuesday. Relaxing, except for when we swam or shifted our chairs to follow the shade.
The Royal Hawaiian (aka The Pink Hotel) is next door. That one is still on my bucket list.
Relaxing, when you aren’t used to it, takes getting used to. But it’s worth doing, even if you aren’t in Hawaii. We all carry a certain amount of stress and learning to let go of it is important for our mental and physical health. I can feel myself feeling better. This is a skill I am going to work on at home.
We moved on to Kauai on Wednesday. I’ll write about it in my next post. Aloha!
Caroline Doyle is this week’s winner. She will receive a Sewline Marking Pencil loaded with white 9mm chalk. It is a nice pencil to use when you need a fine line that you can see. I like it especially for tracing around small templates and circles.
Thank you for reading my blog! Come back next week for another giveaway.
Sharon Rutledge sent me this photo of her quilt and her story about it.
This quilt is from one of my favorite Piece O’ Cake books. I see various quilts from the past shown on your sight and it dawned on me that I have one too. Duh! It’s not the fanciest one but it’s my personal favorite. I had fun making this quilt and quilting it myself. Quilting is not my biggest talent. I was able to handle this one. I’m now working on Leaves and Strings which is similar.
Sharon, I think you have plenty of quilting talent! Your quilt is lovely and I thank you for sharing it with us.
Barb Glaeser sent this picture of her recently finished Tree of Life quilt.
Here is the story behind the quilt:
I loved the project and it traveled many places with me over the years. I did make a few design additions. I added a butterfly because my right side wound up curving out too far and leaving a void, when I washed it after doing the quilting one of the red wool flower centers bled, so we had to have bullion bumble bees! Since it is the tree of life I thought this was appropriate! My daughter decided she like the tree of life quilt but wanted it smaller to hang in a certain place in her home (which she no longer lives in!!). I decided to make it the size of the pattern in the book (i.e. not enlarge at all). This was a 5 year 10 month on/off project (I know because I started when my grandson was born and finished last month and he turned 6 yesterday!). It finished at 36 x 36.
I love the way Barb made this quilt her own. Well done and thank you for sharing!
This week’s winner is Jacqueline Bower. She will receive a pair of Elan’s 5″ Embroidery Scissor. I don’t use these for anything like embroidery. I use these smooth-bladed scissors to cut paper and templates. You can also use them for fabric… and for embroidery :-).
I’ll be back next Wednesday with another Giveaway. In between now and then I hope to post some photos from Hawaii! Happy stitching, Becky
