Going to Town, Part Two

Here we are, standing in the tourist section, looking at these cute tiles. I think I like the "Hale, Sweet Hale" tile with the little shack, but tell me which one you would like.....hey! Where'd you go?? Trying to sneak off to the fabric section again, huh? You're hopeless. But let's get going. Do you feel like lunch?

We'll turn down this road from Wal Mart and go down to Nawiliwili Harbor. The mountains around the harbor are looking fine today, but there is still some vog in the air, as you can see. We've had vog for a couple of days now, and it makes things a little hazy. What is "vog" you ask? When the winds are occasionally blowing Kona, volcanic fog--a "haze" really--drifts over from the active Kilauea volcano on the Big Island. You can't smell it, but you can see it a little bit. When the normal tradewinds resume, the air gets sparkling clear again. It doesn't happen very often, luckily. We should get our normal tradewinds back tomorrow.

Surprise! I brought you to J.J.'s for lunch. That table over there looks good to me, how about you? I think I'll get the French Onion soup and the Grilled Ahi salad. How about you?

(I didn't take pictures of how much we ate--or that fabulous dessert you had all to yourself. I didn't want to embarrass you by showing that you ate that whole Hula Pie by yourself. How on earth do you keep your beautiful svelte figure? You're amazing; I don't know how you do it!)

As you recall, we came into town because...hey! Wake up! Perhaps you shouldn't have had that third Mai Tai. Oh well, you're on vacation. I'll drive.

As you recall, we're on this outing because I heard an amazing rumor via the Coconut Wireless (that's how we get all our good gossip) that our own Ben Franklin may have gotten in something unusual. Let's just peek down this aisle. Lei yarn, lei yarn, lei yarn...

Looking....looking...aaaaaaauuugghghgh!!! There it is! The rumor I heard was true!

Wool...REAL WOOL...has landed on the Garden Isle. I'm nearly dizzy with excitement! What colors do I want!?? Rats! I should've brought my mitten and hat patterns! Oh my...this stuff IS as soft as they say! And look at the colors! This is Cascade 220...is that good? Okay...I shouldn't go overboard, I'll just grab me up some orange and yellow and scram before the dream ends and I wake up at WalMart surrounded by acrylic!!! Whoo hooo.....ack...I think I'm hyperventilating....

Wow! All this excitement has tuckered me out! Let's get back out on the road again.

Ahhh...back to Lydgate for some swimming and sunshine.

I hate to leave my yarn in the car; perhaps I'll just take it with me to look at. I wish I would've brought some knitting needles with me! I'll just sit here and pet it. Wha...no one else brought their wool to the beach with them?

If we look out on the ocean, we're sure to see some whales swimming by. Peak whale migration season here is February and March. It's easy to see them when they swim by. Sometimes they do the blowhole thing and sometimes they breach right in front of you, closer to the shore than you might imagine! The shore drops off quite steeply here on Kauai, so the whales swim relatively close to shore. Well, it LOOKS relatively close to shore anyway. Whales are big, you know. Just like that piece of Hula Pie you ate for lunch. But you still look darn good in that bikini for a 29-year old!

Uh oh...another family is moving in on our spot.

Mr. and Mrs. Chicken and their peeps. No...these are not the same chickens we saw at WalMart or the library. And no, I'm not transporting chickens in my trunk just to make my point. There really are a LOT of wild chickens here. And as you can see, they like the beach, too!

Ah...I'm feeling so relaxed! I feel so free....I'm starting to doze off....but uh oh. Did I remember to turn off the iron in my sewing room?

Gee, look at that. You can see my beach dream on your screen. Good thing too, because I was challenged to show both my ironing board and iron on my blog. I made my board myself--it's a piece of wood that I covered with a couple of layers of cotton batting and two layers of mattress ticking. When it gets ratty, I just re-staple some more ticking on. I put the board right on top of my ironing board because I like it at that height.

My iron is a Rowenta. I used to like my other Rowenta before this one, but now I have this one and I'm conflicted. I hate/love the automatic timer feature. I hate it when I'm quilting, but I love it when I forget to turn my iron off. So I really never lay on the beach and wonder if I turned off my iron.

I stick with the auto off feature because electricity is so expensive here on Kauai. Our electric bill last month was over $400 and we don't even have air conditioning or an electric stove. Four hundred is what we pay for lights, appliances, fridge, hot water, and washer/dryer. And yes, I have all energy-saving appliances and I only do one hot water laundry load once every two weeks!

Whaaaaa? Did I fall asleep and dream about our electric bill? I need to come up with a better beach dream! Where's my yarn....ahhh...there it is.....zzzzzzzz.......

Our outing continues tomorrow....

Reminder! Be sure to comment on the post "Hawaiian Rainbow Basket Giveaway" by Saturday March 8th at nine p.m. Hawaiian time to be eligible for the giveaway. One comment per person, please.