A Sampling of Culture
It’s amazing how fast the days can pass by when you are doing a whole lot of relaxing! We have been having a really nice, mostly low key time (with a couple unthought of twists!).
Crab Wars!
I think my new favorite activity is reading a book on the beach, soaking in the rays and the sounds of the ocean. Oh, and also watching the ‘crab wars’ that take place in the sand on some beaches. The other day I was enthralled watching the ‘crab jockeying’ in the wet sand. You see, each little crab has their own hole that they scurry back to when a big wave comes up. Sometimes a poor little crab will not be able to make it back to his hole and his hole ‘disappears’ so he can’t find it. Well then they try to steal another hole of a fellow crab- the other crabs do not like this. This is when you have crab wars! I watched one poor little guys who was homeless try relentlessly for over 20 minutes to try and steal a house from the 9 other crabs close by. It didn’t work out for him and he was still homeless when we left the beach that day.
The nice thing about these beaches is they are not crowded at all (except for the little crabs). I never realized that Ryan has never really visited a busy, bustling Southern California Beach. So he has no reference to how packed beaches can be. I will appreciate that aspect for both of us then.
Ride ‘em Cowboy
As a part of this trip we really wanted to get a better feel for how the locals live here. So in order to do this we have been attending different events and activities that the locals enjoy. One, last week was a Hawaiian style rodeo. I have never been to a rodeo before so I have no point of reference to compare it to. However, it was a good cultural experience. I think the biggest thing I got from the event is that the locals are really good at just being in the moment and enjoying what they are doing. You could tell that none of them felt rushed or flustered because the Rodeo was their event for the day-the whole day. There was a cute little girl, probably about ten, that was just happily riding her horse around the outside the rodeo arena. She would give other younger kids a ride as they asked. Ryan told me I should have asked her for a ride-haha! Everyone seemed content with just enjoying the event and each other. I think there is something to be said about this way of living.
The ‘Normal’ Church
Another ‘cultural event’ we wanted to experience was going to a local church. We picked the cutest Church in Hanalei (the closest big town) and said ‘that one’. It’s actually a very well known church, photographed a lot for its beautiful stained glass and charm. The outside charm matched the inside service- sweet and unique! We thoroughly enjoyed the service, that had parts in both Hawaiian and English. They really seemed to welcome visitors as they had a whole tradition of having all of the first time visitors stand up and share who they were and where they were from. There were a good number of visitors from all over the place. They also gave each female visitor a handmade fresh lei. That was the nicest welcome I think I have ever gotten at a church. They then proceeded to lead all of the visitors in the hula dance! No, not really- the lei part is true though. Ryan and I both agreed that we would like to take the little Hawaiian church home with us. We will definitely go back next week.
The ‘Not-So-Normal’ Church
We actually went to church twice on Sunday! Haha- the second one was not really a church service though. It was a documentary that was made about people traveling the Kalualua trail, which is the trail along the Na Pali Coast that is 22 miles roundtrip. We kind of figured it was going to have some religious bent, being that it was being shown at church. Nope. It was just shown at a church because that was the spot they rented to show it. We wanted to go in the first place because our hope was to do a backpacking trip where we went at least one night along the trail. Problem is, we didn’t realize you have to get the permits months and months, even a year in advance. I guess we will have to just do the 4 mile day trip again (oh darn, I was really looking forward to crawling-yes people crawl for real- on the cliff because it’s so narrow and steep further down the trail).
The documentary was interesting, nonetheless, but it really featured the ‘hippies’ who live back in the Kaluaualu Valley that is at the end of the trail. I have heard about this phenomenon, as I had a friend I worked with years ago that had gone back there and lived for a while. She would tell me of these people that lived back there all of the time. Of course, this is not legal but they try to evade the rangers. Sounds like a crazy, carefree life!
During the showing the computer they were playing the dvd from froze a few times. The producers of the film, who were there, didn’t know how to fix the problem (a producer that is not tech savvy...hrmmm...only in Hawaii). So the night and shining armor, Ryan, came to their rescue! The show went on and at the end of the show the producer wanted to thank Ryan. I was asking if he knew of any ways to get last minute permits to hike/backpack the trail. He asked, ‘do you kayak?’ ‘Yes, yes we do’ I said, unbenounced to his next offer. He said he and his film crew were going to kayak down the coast to the Kalualua Valley in the next week or so and he asked us to join them. A somewhat interesting proposition but from seeing the film we could tell that we would not quite ‘fit in’ in the valley. Plus, we had just met these people who were, obviously, a little more ‘daredevilish’ than us. Then after getting more of the scoop from a local hairdresser (Ryan needed a haircut and the 30 minutes of inside info was helpful too) she said that the kayak down the Na Pali coast (which is illegal) can go smoothly or, literally, very choppy. Her friend had all of her teeth knocked out by a wave out there trying to get past the break to the shore...um, no thank you! I think we will stick to our day hike, thank you! I like my teeth too much. 🙂
The Golden Pineapple
Yet another local event we are enjoying are the weekly farmers markets. Our favorite one is in a big, majestic field surrounded by jutting mountains. Last week we found the cutest little pineapple, a beautiful Hawaiian bouquet, sweet limes and juicy cherry tomatoes. The markets are a mix of locals and tourists and we are quickly finding out that there are the ‘tourist trap’ booths close to the front. We saw a pineapple at one such stand for $27!!! Oh, that’s nothing, I got four of them-not! I should have asked if there was a gold nugget the middle of it! We also met a local farmer who use to work for BP in, none other than Kenai Alaska. We were just there and have family from there! Small world, huh? The man is trying to sell his farm here in Kauai...an interesting thought to buy a local farm. I know a good farm advisor in the family! Maybe we will ask him the price of his farm this week. 🙂
More to come soon on our Kayaking adventures, the death of Old Redd and running into a celebrity! Stay tuned....until then, Aloha. I was wrong before- Mahalo means ‘thank you’. Oops!
