daughter of latvia

Home, Then Gone

It's late and I am not getting to bed tonight. Even so, I have packing and such because tomorrow I leave for my first trip to LATVIA! I am very excited and very much looking forward to it. Even so, I haven't really recovered from Kauai yet, nor gotten all the photos up.

Meanwhile, here's a selection of Kauai photos... some from air, some from the sea, others just from "home" at Wahi Mana, or driving the red-tinged roads of Kauai. Just click on Daniel's feet and say three times "Take me to Kauai, Take me to Kauai, Take me..." and you'll be there!

Best of Kauai

Leaving Kauai

It's not quite 8 am in Kauai as I write this. I'll soon be packing to leave this little spot of paradise. I hear D shaking out his clothes as he has already started packing. (I am a much better procrastinator than he is.)

It's difficult to relate the feelings and experience of being here. (I know, I have to post those photos... there are just so many. Maybe I'll have time on the plane.) But aside from the visuals, just a few moments ago I was sitting on the lanai just listening to the bird calls, back and forth, for what seemed like the better part of an hour. The birds are very active here in the AM with their noise, but it's the most beautiful bird noise I have ever heard. Even the cat just sits and listens.

We got up a bit after 6 to watch our final sun rise of this trip. (Being up for sunrise was pretty much a daily thing, at least for D... I slept in some mornings). Yesterday we were down on the beach at 5:30 am and watched almost from first light, to sunshine. The sand crabs also kept us amused with their digging of holes and frantic watchfulness.

We have a few hours before we leave for the airport. That gives us enough time to still hang out on the beach and wiggle toes in the water. For this I am very grateful.

For anyone following the saga of Daniel and his eye, he saw the opthamologist on Tuesday, and got new drops. They have worked very well and his comfort has increased and the swelling has reduced. For the first time, he says it's feeling better! So it appears we are past that bump in our otherwise idyllic island experience.

Another Unscheduled Trip to Town

Daniel's abraded cornea is not getting better so we're heading into town right now for a second look by some medical professional--once he's off the phone talking to the insurance company.

We have some great photos to post later. Sorry for the interruption to our regularly scheduled dispatches from paradise.

From Na Pali to the ER

The day started out very early, as we had to walk along the beach to meet up with our boat tour by 7:15 am. The tour was of the Na Pali coast, meaning "The Cliffs" and these are among the most impressive cliffs I've ever seen. They really reminded me most of glaciers, only tropical and green. Photos will be online shortly and I'll post a link when they are up.

After the boat trip we went to Hanalei, a small town north of us. We shopped for ceviche ingredients and had our first shave ice, the quiintessential Kauai treat.

But we didn't have the most fun day after that. Yesterday D had injured his eye when a wooden flower on the lanai hit his eye when he bent over to get something from his backpack. Today it got progressively worse and when I saw some indication he had an infection, we decided it was time to seek medical attention for it.

Off we drove to Kapaa, pronounced Kah-pah-ah. There we found a nice emergency room with nice staff, not too busy, who confirmed that Daniel had injured his cornea. He was given antibiotic drops and instructions not to swim tomorrow--which is probably OK since we're going up the helicopter tomorrow AM. More on that, tomorrow.

Sun, Surf, Sleep

We arrived at our rental house on Anini Beach about 26 hours ago... we spent Friday up in Waimea Canyon the driving around the island here and there. Both D and I got a bit sunburned, not thinking originally about the need for sunscreen when in a convertible top car.

Since getting to Mahi Wana... what can I say. The place surpasses my best hopes. The water is amazing, the beach is clean and quiet. We literally just walk a short distance for swimming and snorkeling. The house itself is perfect.

To keep things simple I have put our photos online... they really say it all.

Optionally you can just watch this slideshow:

Kauai, Day One. The Floods

So, before I head to Latvia, I am visiting Kauai for a week with my friend D. Today we flew from SFO to Lihue, an nice 5+ hour flight. I had only gotten one hour of sleep the night before so really, all I wanted to do on the plane was sleep.

We landed in Lihue and D hosted lunch at a place recommended to us by the woman in the Hertz car rental office. She said this is where the locals eat. The place was very plain and "dinerish" but the menu was full of good sounding stuff. I got a salmon tempura salad (salmon rolled in nori, then tempura battered and fried) served on organic greens with a dijon/honey/macadamia etc. dressing. D got mahi-mahi stuffed with crab and other, well, stuff. We indulged in home made chocolate cake for dessert, and I mean home made. The highlight of the cake was that instead of the usual frosting this one was topped with what can only be described as pudding. Not too sweet, but very moist and good overall.

We made our way to the place we're staying just for the first night, the Garden Island Inn. I picked this place because it was a) cheap and b) the rooms have air conditioning.

So we ended up meandering across the road to have a drink and check out the touristy shops. By this time there was some rain, mostly sprinkles, but as we walked around the rain increased. By the time we'd had our drinks and D tried on some groovy island wear, it was a downpour. I looked back across the street to our lodging, and could see that the road had flooded.

In Kauai they have this 'red dirt' everywhere. It's so insidious it will change the color of materials that it comes in contact with. The traffic and flooding were such that we could see the rushing red rain water covering the roadway, and especially deep at the curbs (such as they were). There was too much water and too much traffic to attempt to cross the road... we were saved by a jovial shuttle bus driver who took us in and dropped us off.

Tomorrow the plan is to get up early and go to Waimea Canyon. It's supposed to be the "Grand Canyon" of the Pacific. We think getting up early will be easy because of the time change... we'll see.

The Temple to Janis

One of the places I most want to visit in Latvia isn't in any tour books or on most maps. My hotel will not list it in "sites to see." It's something I came across in an English language newsletter from LatviansOnline.

The place is called Valdeķi,a temple-in-the-making to the God Jānis. It is the creation of a man named Eso Benjamins. He has an English-language web site about this creation and its roots, and the context in which it was born. On this site, he writes:

Alas, so many inhabitants of our threatened Earth seem unmoved by the escalating violence, economic crisis, and global warming and are waiting for the waters of the melting glaciers to reach their doorstep before instinct wakens them to run for higher ground. If they manage to survive, they will have to create a community on a stronger foundation than that on which Rome was built.
   I wrote my book because of my own experiences with death during WWII, although luck was always at my side as death overtook many around me. The effect of the sudden departure of eight relatives for the gulags; the early death of five of them; the months-on-end roar of cannons on the distant horizon; the never-to-be-known course of torpedoes or bombs; the blaze of Dresden and the Weimar theater burning; the Buchenwald inmates, skeletons covered by skin and thin muscles, asking for jam sandwiches; years idling in refugee camps; wondering if Semper Fidelis was a good enough reason to find myself trained and armed and sent to Korea (asking why I lucked out once more by arriving there three days after the armistice);—all of these experiences have driven me. But I wonder if, but for the collapse of our planet’s climate and ecology—an in-your-face event that only the most determined can ignore—I would have awakened to the real causes propelling this crisis.

I have already written Eso, and he has put out the welcome mat for me to visit his farm, the land upon which is his temple to Janis. Latvians have long celebrated the mid-summer festival of the god Janis, much as Christians celebrate other holidays with pagan or pre-Christian roots. So I am sure I will write more about this once I arrive in Latvia.

Meanwhile, enjoy his site and read his story. It is not just about the olden times.

Rough Start

I had planned to begin my sabbatical with an overnight trip to Harbin Hot Springs tonight. I was going with the lovely BR and had planned a Watsu while at Harbin, so I could really have some wonderful deep relaxation and healing.

Then life got in the way. We had FETCH deadline on Sunday, then moved it to Tuesday because of a dog event in Walnut Creek all day Sunday. Then I realized that my work was not going as quickly or well as needed to make deadline. So I had to make the frustrating and disappointing decision to forgo my time at Harbin.

So BR had my Watsu and she'll be spending the night in the Domes at Harbin. I am hoping to still visit Harbin at the OTHER end of my sabbatical.

Sabbatical Eve

This is my last day at work... the final hours before I step off into 7 weeks of much anticipated time off. That's the good news.

The other news? Our helicopter trip must be rescheduled. We'd planned it for the 23rd, and the helicopter will be in for maintenance check that day. ARRRGH.

Now, back to work, getting my "out of office" and planning emails out to the right folks, gathering my belongings, heading home. TGIF!

Ready for Takeoff

Today I begin my blog... at the beginning it will be about my sabbatical adventures, but later it may morph into something else.
I decided to begin it today because it's Mother's Day and so much about why I am taking the trip to Latvia is about my roots, my own origins. My mother died in 1982 and I've now lived more of my life without her than with her. She died too young (59) so I think I tend to have my own fatalistic perspective on life at least in part because of that.
My sabbatical will be 6+ weeks, from May 19th through July 6. During that time I will be traveling about 3 weeks, first Kauai, then Latvia, Stockholm, and Amsterdam.
I will also spend some of my time off taking classes, doing art, and just thinking.
I welcome you to this place, where I will share the happenings, thoughts, and realities of my life during this time.
Finally, today I made one of the last remaining arrangements for the trip. I reserved our helicopter on Kauai.
We were given a choice of copters--the luxury, air conditioned ones with more people, or the doors-off, wind blown version, much smaller. Guess which one I chose?

If you are looking for a little more excitement during your helicopter tour, you may want to consider a doors-off tour in our Hughes 500. Imagine yourself zooming along with the wind in your hair as you descend through jungle valleys and smoothly pass through rugged canyons.

I decided if it's a little scary, so what. And if I die? This is the way to do it.