February 2nd, 2023 Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii - David and Sue

I'm sitting at my Kauai resort condo dining room table gazing across the top of my laptop and out of the windows of the lanai and kitchen to the lush forest of flora behind our building. It's a balmy and breezy 70 degrees that wafts in scents of lime blossom, hibiscus and plants too numerous to count. The sun is warm and welcoming and all is quiet here on the garden isle. Princeville is on the north end of the island and is a destination for the retirement community due to its relative isolation, lack of noisy tourists and a distictive well maintained order that is attractive to those who've had enough mess in their lives that they certainly don't want it while on vacation. If you want more activity and a better guarantee of sunny days then you'll want to stay in the south in Poipu.

Lunch today is the spicy ahi poke from Foodland. It's the accepted "best" poke around by local consensus. We eat more raw fish during out trips to Kauai than we do the whole rest of the year at home. We're close to the source and the price is affordable. If you weren't already aware poke is marinated raw fish and ahi is tuna. I make this at home with flash frozen sushi grade tuna from Aldi's. But of course it's so much better here. Costco sells a seaweed salad that makes up the majority of our veggie intake while here as well.

We've been coming to this resort for decades and always meet the most interesting people in the hot tub. I love talking to the retirees and learning how they got to where they are in life and how they manage their retirement. Serious life goals. For example, just last night we chatted with David, a long time Cliff's vacationer from upstate New York. He and his wife just started their 3rd week here and will be here until the end of March. Goals! They rent their condo through VRBO and get a screaming good deal. He was telling us that we need to try this paved hike past the golf course that goes by what used to be Club Med. It was destroyed by hurrican Iniki and the many of the old buildings are still standing. This hike takes you down to the river accross from Hanalei.

Another hot tub bather was Sue from Los Angeles. She has a time share in Maui that she was able to trade to get a week here on Kauai. She had just done the Na'poli coast hike and was rather tired and sore. She said the hike was rated fairly easy and only 4 miles total but it was a bit treacherous and she'd slip and slide a bit.

I'll let you know what tonight holds. Last year we met a geologist and an agricultural scientist who were having a pretty crazy conversation with the conspiracy focused chiropractor.