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| Finding bananas and any fruit growing while on a walk is always delightful. |
It’s hard to believe that in only 52 days we’ll be leaving Hawaii. As of today, we’ve been in the Hawaiian Islands for exactly 180 days when our ship, the Celebrity Solstice, arrived for a tour of the islands.
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| The pods from which bananas grow. We saw these in Madeira but they were a different variety. |
It was on October 5th, that we disembarked the ship when it docked in Honolulu, Oahu, where we spent 11 days in a condo in Waikiki Beach. Next, we spent six weeks in Maui, six weeks on the Big Island of Hawaii, and now, the time is passing quickly as we make our way into the final days of over four months in Kauai.
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| Queen Emma Giant Spider Lily. |
We’re confident that we visited the islands in the correct order. Kauai has been the perfect island on which to spend the longest period as mentioned in a zillion previous posts.
When we originally discussed spending four-plus months in Kauai, we cringed over the concept of such a long stay which proved to be the longest period in any one location since we began our travels almost 30 months ago. Looking to the future, we have no intentions of staying in any one location for longer than 90 days with the exception of Bali, where we’ll stay twice for 59 days with a two-month gap in between.
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| The condos on the right have a fabulous view of the sea and sunset, but the walk down to the beach can be difficult for some. We’ve done it once and may not tackle it again. |
The fact that we could take a cruise to Australia, rather than fly, making the journey itself an extraordinary experience, greatly contributed to our desire to stay in Kauai for this extended period.
Another influential factor was our desire to stay put for a while after the expense of the family holiday on the Big Island over Christmas. Staying in one location provides us with an opportunity to financially recover when moving about always ups the expenses.
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| Overlooking the ocean on a sunny day. |
Having paid, in part, as stipulated in various upcoming rental agreements and for upcoming cruises, we have less than $20,000 outstanding for rentals for the remainder of 2015, greatly putting our minds at ease. These sums are spread over a series of months as we near arriving at the various locations, making it not such a hard pill to swallow, all at once.
As the days quickly pass, in another month, we’ll begin thinking about packing, including the products we’re accumulating at our mailing service in Nevada that we have yet to be shipped. We continue to contemplate and research the availability of items in the South Pacific.
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| There’s always “vog” in the mountains, although, the stunning coloration of the hills can be easily be seen. |
Tom’s three pairs of jeans, cargo shorts, a staple in his limited wardrobe, are threadbare. We tossed one pair a few days ago and once the three new pairs arrive, we’ll probably toss the rest. Jeans are heavy, adding greatly to our baggage weight.
Several of my tee shirts are being beckoned by the garbage can as well as some of my old shorts. When recently, I’d purchased and had shipped, four new pairs of shorts from Old Navy I ruined one in the laundry when I’d left two gel cap magnesium pills in the pocket which I take with dinner each night.
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| On a walk by myself, I was enthralled by the view as I approached our condo (not shown in this photo). |
We’d gone out to dinner and I’d stuck the two pills in the pocket, hoping to remember to take them at the restaurant. We were having such fun that I forgot to take the pills. When checking the pockets before washing, I didn’t reach deep enough into the pocket to take them out.
Alas, the pills ruined the shorts in a bleach-like manner. Thank goodness, they didn’t ruin the remainder of the dark-colored laundry. Gee, and I swallow these?
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| Pink Ginger plant with colorful leaves. |
I’m stuck wearing these ruined shorts around the house almost daily in hopes of wearing them out enough to give them the “heave-ho” before we leave. I’m not about to pack a pair of ruined shorts in my luggage when space is limited.
With more supplies yet to arrive in the next package from our mailing service, we continue to search online and consider the availability of certain products we frequently use in our travels that may not be available in the South Pacific; our special toothpaste, a few cosmetic items, a few adapters suitable for the upcoming locations (lessons learned from burning out the old adapters).
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| This was the first time we’d taken photos from this side of the Pali Ka Kua condos in our area. |
Tom is still wearing his original batch of tee shirts. He, unlike me, will wear the same tee-shirt over and over again (while I wash it every other day), until it finally bites the dust. You’ve probably noticed this in the photos I’ve taken of him.
In our old lives, we’d only wear a tee shirt one time and wash it. Now, we wear them twice, extending the life of the shirt by 100%. It’s the washing and drying that wears out clothing. In the South Pacific, our clothing will be hanging outside to dry, again extending their life by about 25%. Clothes dryers are seldom used outside the US.
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| The Makai Golf Course runs through many areas of Princeville, creating beautiful scenery. |
Whoever thinks of this stuff but us? None of this ever entered our minds in our old lives; the long-term preservation of clothing. If a sock had a hole, we tossed it and the entire pair if it didn’t match any others.
All of our socks are of the same brand and style. If one sock is tossed, we save the mate which goes into the flow with the others, eventually finding a mate.
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| Considerable amounts of lava rock exist in Kauai, although most beaches are sandy. |
This may all appear to fall into the mindless drivel category. For us, what may appear to be trivial and unimportant falls into a category of mundane conscientiousness that somehow, we both manage to address in our daily lives.
Today? Soon we’ll be off to the pool and fitness center and later, the market. Saturday night is yet another outdoor Full Moon Party, hosted by dear friend Richard. We plan to show early to help Richard set up the tables and chairs in the vacant lot used for this event, the second month in a row.
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| We’ve seldom seen such bright colors as there are in Hawaii. These appear to be a type of Plumeria, flowers used in making leis. |
We’re deciding on which pu pu we’ll prepare to bring to the party. Many of these events stipulate that guests bring a pu pu to share, I’m running out of ideas. I love it that my big challenge of this week is which pu pu to make! Any suggestions?
Photo from one year ago today, April 2, 2014:
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| Taking a cab in Marrakech, we wandered through a neighborhood with many shops and restaurants. For details from that date, please click here. |