The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Cabin Fever
It has rained for close to 48 hours straight. On the north side of Kauai, they have literally evacuated people to a Red Cross shelter and there was at least one school closed. Roads are out and the flash flood warning – extended twice – is set to expire in 30 minutes.
I had cabin fever around noon and had to remove myself anyway so that housekeeping could take care of my room. I snapped this before leaving:
This standing water doesn’t begin to show what we have here. Anyway.
I thought about walking, but changed my mind by the time I reached the parking lot. I didn’t even make it to the campus entrance before I saw water so deep that I didn’t dare take it on in a rental. I parked the car and walked in the other direction – to the marketplace. A few stores were open, but I was the last person served in the last restaurant open before the locals headed home. Walking back, the wind was so bad that my umbrella was wrecked and my clothes still soaked through.
So. Things that happen at an island resort when it is rained out:
- “Cancelled” signs all over the lobby.
- Movie showing in the rec room.
- Multiple games of Bridge.
- People in the hot tub with umbrellas over their heads.
- We all reconsider the wisdom of Open Air lobbies and walkways.
Seriously, there is water in the hallways – on the floor and leaking from the ceilings.
The good news is that I finished The Winds of War on DVD – more on that later. And now we have thunder again. Moral of the story is always bring enough entertainment.
I head home tomorrow afternoon. There just might be enough time to see the Fern Grotto tomorrow morning. If it clears up.
How I Manage the Travel Expenses
Because I am still waiting out the rain…
I have been asked how I can afford two vacations a year. Part of the answer is that I budget for it. Part is that I work the rewards systems that are the perq of my business travel. Part is that I make conscious decisions about what I am willing to pay for.
Flights:
I am 95% loyal to one airline and have never paid for a flight to Hawaii. These trips are the very purpose of my frequent flier miles. My last two summer vacations were to Orlando and Toronto, so I paid for those out of pocket. (Actually, I may have had a voucher for the Toronto trip. But either way I didn’t use miles.) A plane trip to Hawaii can cost $1,000. The one to Orlando was in the neighborhood of $300. That makes a big difference.
Some people say the best use of miles is for upgrades, but as long as my Premier status holds that doesn’t interest me at all. However, I am hearing that it will only become more difficult to snag the Saver Awards using miles, so planning in advance is a big deal.
Hotels:
I generally stay at chain hotels because I like rewards programs and I know what to expect. I remember rejecting an inn on Kauai because the reviews suggested that “organic” meant “bugs in the sleeping rooms”. Not happening. Also, many independent inns required payment in advance, which I do not like. Cancellation policies are generally better at the chains, as well. Obviously, I do not have much experience shopping around for the best hotel deals and I understand that I am paying more for that reason. However, I always make note of whether I will be paying extra for parking (yes) and wi-fi (no).
Car Rental:
The question of where to stay often goes hand-in-hand with whether to rent a car. In Hawaii, I have been renting in order to see everything there is to see (and on my schedule). However, in Toronto, I skipped the car. I pulled it off by staying in a central location, taking the subway and paying for a day tour to Niagara Falls. I think that if I go back to the Big Island, I may stay in the town of Kona and skip the car. I can find a day tour to visit the volcano again.
Once these big budget items are decided, there is a question of how to spend time and pocket money. For example, some people want the foodie experience. I am not a gourmet, so outside of New Orleans I don’t care to spend my money on fancy meals. I remember being on a cruise ship with some friends once, and we all spent our pocket money in different ways. I was at the spa, Bill was at the bar, Rich was in the casino and Andrew went snorkeling (or something).
I do not go much for souvenirs and other shopping. I generally find one “local” book and that is it. I do not enjoy gambling.
On this trip, I spent $250 at the spa. It was a good decision considering the deal (BOGO 1/2) and the weather. I found it by taking a short walk off property, spotting the spa up the street and seeing a sign. I spent $100 for the boat cruise. The company was recommended by the concierge and I went online to find the deal. I think it saved me $20.
And if the rain stops I may spend another $50 on two nearby tours. It isn’t looking good. But just so I have a picture in every post, this is the Wailua River. I think I took this on the other side of the road form the waterfall. The Fern Grotto is somewhere near here:
The Sunset Cruise
“This too, shall pass” is not a mantra that works for me. It is for more patient people. However, “This will make a good story” rather does. Luckily.
So I embarked on the four-hour sunset cruise because:
- There is no other way to see the cliffs on the west side of the island.
- This is my seventh trip to the Hawaiian islands and I had yet to see a whale.
- It came highly recommended by Christy as well as the hotel concierge.
The issue is that I am prone to motion sickness. However, I had never gotten sick on a boat before. I figured if I stayed on the upper deck in the open air, I would be able to manage.
Strike One: Assuming that an hour on Lake Michigan = four hours on the Pacific Ocean.
When I arrived at the pier, there were plenty of anti-nausea meds available. The crew highly recommended it. I declined because:
- I had never taken them before.
- I knew I would have to drive the 40 minutes back to the hotel in the dark after the cruise and wasn’t sure of the effects.
- Bloody expensive stuff.
Strike Two: Ignored the warnings and declined the meds.
So we embarked. And I did, in fact, see some whales:
Even if good pics were hard to come by. Seriously, the experience is so much better when one isn’t trying to get the perfect shot.
And there were dolphins:
And it was awesome.
Strike 3: Trying to focus a camera.
Alas, about a minute after I took this shot:
I was throwing up all over the upper deck of the boat. After the crew quickly and quietly cleaned it all up, a young man came over to check on me. I said I was hanging in there. “Are you sure?” he asked. “‘Cause you really got some distance there.”
And then it started raining. I was afraid to move from that seat, even as it started to pour and we couldn’t have been more than 90 minutes in to the cruise. I wasn’t the only one looking green, so I was hardly alone up there. But I was the only person that vomited.
So I saw the famous caves, all Pirates of the Caribbean or whatever, but I wasn’t taking the camera back out. By the last hour, I was shivering and my feet were blue (which I knew because they ask you to go barefoot on these cruises). There was lightening before we disembarked. My teeth were still chattering when I got back to the hotel room.
Today, I was planning on taking the Fern Grotto cruise. Besides still feeling vaguely nauseous, it is still raining, thus the blogging. I ran to the grocery store this morning, so other than a 3pm at the spa, I am not required to move for the rest of the day.
If the weather clears up, I can do the Fern Grotto and the rum plantation tomorrow. If I pull that off, I will pretty well have seen all that is required for a trip to Kauai.
And now, there shall be ginger ale.
Kauai – Day Three
It is a good thing I packed two days of stuff into yesterday, because I will be doing absolutely nothing today.
I had reservations for a cruise up the coast at 1:30 and it takes 40 minutes or so to drive to the pier. I started early thinking I would take the meandering way. First, I stopped at Safeway for breakfast again. Then I headed toward Poipu, the southshore beach. I drove through it and didn’t stop primarily because the public parking lot I found was flooded out from the rain. But I did stop at a little shopping center that I quickly determined was was the newfangled hangout of the affluent transplants to Kauai’s first gated community.
Bleh.
Next, I found the coffee plantation. It is relatively new, having started with a parcel of land from the old sugar plantation that had been around since the beginning of time. Apparently, sugar is labor-intensive and became too expensive to continue. So they had a nice Visitor’s Center and coffee tasting and a short walking tour.
I didn’t much sample the coffee, but I tried one. I prefer Kona.
Once back on the road, I saw a sign to Waimea Canyon. I didn’t think I would make it over there, as the map made it seem pretty far off. But it was still early and the sign said 17 miles so I took it.
Seventeen miles up a mountain takes a pretty long time. And it wasn’t terribly well marked, so I actually had to stop to be sure I was still headed in the right direction. I was. It took so long that I decided that if I wasn’t at the top by 11am I would have to turn around. I made it at 10:45. And you guys:
I could have missed this. I hate to be a “take your pictures and leave” type, but it was necessary.
So I headed for the Pier, which is a whole other story.
Kauai – Day 2
I was up early and started moving, headed north to Hanalei. I was first delighted to see a Safeway where I picked up some breakfast and figured I could stop for groceries so as to not spend $25 on a dinner on-property that wasn’t even good. Then I was ticked that I’d been to lazy to find it yesterday.
The drive was about an hour and I didn’t stop at the tourist shopping holes. I did, however, stop at the lookout points. This was a wetlands near Hanalei:
And then the lookout to the lighthouse:
Where I was distressed to learn that the wildlife preserve I’d been hoping to see didn’t open until 10am. No matter, I thought. There were some shops up the road a couple of miles. I would entertain myself and come back.
Except the shops didn’t open until 10am either. So much for Hanalei.
I headed back to the east and decided to find the famous waterfall. I found the signs and parked, but couldn’t spot them. Or, oddly, even hear them. Apparently I was expected something next to Niagara. I walked around the bend and found them:
Except that I am not tall enough to get the money shot over the guardrails. And then I was sort of irritated at the Drive to One Spot to Take One Picture bit, so I took a turn that I hadn’t planned on to find an old Hawaiian village. The road was so bad that at one point, I actually put the car in reverse thinking that I misunderstood the way the sign pointed. But I had it right. It was $5 to tour the village, which I found very reasonable.
I was happy because it involved petroglyphs:
My tour guide was not happy because I was continually distracted by this:
That is not a zoom shot. Dude walked up that close to me.
I thought to go to the famous Fern Grotto after that, but it seems to require a boat tour and I wasn’t prepared to commit to it yet. Maybe Monday.
So the downside to my Up and Out the Door Before the Rest of the Tourists strategy (besides the attractions that don’t open early) is that it is 4pm and I am totally done. I was back on property shortly after 1pm, spent some time poolside followed by a short stretch at the beach. Now I plan to eat some hummus and french bread and watch some DVDs. With the balcony door open.
The Translator, by Ward Just
Book 15
Ward Just likes to explore (at least) two broad themes: how Washington messes up people and the expatriate experience. The Translator is about two expatriates – one German and the other American – that meet, marry and build a life in Paris. It is a post-War study with a hint of the post-Soviet world to come.
Sidney (whose name was originally Sigmund) was a child who lost his father in WWII. It seems his father was an army major that didn’t play nice with Nazis and his early memory of the army taking his father away was traumatic even to read. When he left the country as a young man, the Iron Curtain was dropping and his mother ended up going east to her home town. Going east.
Angela was somewhat younger and had lost her mother at an early age. Vietnam was her war – it took her brother and left her disillusioned with the States.
As in previous novels, Just asserts that all true expatriates feel, for one reason or another that they cannot go “home”. I love this description of post-War (West) Germany:
“As old Prussia was an army with a state rather than a state with an army, so the Federal Republic was an economy with a state – no wonder that the iron law of the German Economic Miracle was no inflation – and went about its business shyly, the least charismatic of nations, misshapen, a huge head on a short, powerful body, its hand on its wallet, a burgher’s wary smile concealing clenched teeth, its voice seldom heard. Ven vill da world vorget? Germany frightened people, it had been docile for so long, its situation unnatural. As a nation it resembled Chicago, central to its region, a furious engine that advanced on its own inner logic, closed in on itself, with resentments enough to fill all the couches of Vienna – yet beneath the surface there was faith, patience and an implacable sense of destiny.”
Yeah, so mentioning Chicago always gets my attention.
The “present day” was as the Wall goes down. There was so much a sense of history and foreboding that I had to check the publication date several times. It was 1991 and there were already hints of 9/11. The observation I remember is that (excepting the Balkans, where bad stuff was clearly going to happen) European nations were not going to go warring with each other again. They have figured out that if you win, you lose and if you lose, you win. The Middle East, on the other hand..
I can’t tell you how much I love this guy.
Something Slightly Different
Winter vacation in Hawaii, but this time in Kauai rather than the Big Island. I brought 1.5 books, two DVD sets and four back issues of Vanity Fair. After one travel day and one complete day, I have finished a book and two magazines.
Landing in Kauai was different in that it was pouring rain. Still pouring when we picked up bags. Still pouring when I picked up the car and argued with the rental company about whether I could do an effective pre-rental damage inspection. Still pouring when I drove the poorly lit and marginally marked highway to the hotel.
This is why I choose to stay close to the airport.
Of course, by the time checked in, I was wiped out and went straight to sleep. Woke up around 4am and went down to find some papaya around 6:15. View from my table:
For my first day, I needed a massage (seriously, my shoulders have been in pain for weeks) and reservations for a tour. I found both for deals which I will recount later.
The hotel has free wi-fi – which was not working last night – but I am paying $14 per day for parking which I find incredibly uncool. It is located in a campus-y place with other hotels and shops and long-term rentals. The room is small, and the balcony is tiny but it has a mini-fridge and a nice view:
And I took this yesterday morning while walking over to the shopping center:
So you can see that it is pretty, but there isn’t much of a beach on this part of the island. I do not find that to be a problem.
There aren’t all that many people here, which made it easy to book things. But even more annoying when people were talking on their cell phones by the pool.
Can I please add, “Poolside at an island resort” to the list of Totally Unacceptable Places to Talk on Your Cell Phone?
Oh, and Things I Forgot:
- Beach bag. I thought I was covered, but I need something bigger and waterproof to take on a four-hour boat cruise.
- Hat. Seriously, I forgot my awesome New Orleans hat. This mistake is getting expensive.
At Eleven Months
This past month, Gibbs has decided that he is personally responsible for tracking the whereabouts of Kiwi the Grey whenever she is out of her cage. This is rather funny on days when he is at Doggie Do Rite and comes home exhausted, as the birds come out during what should be his pre-dinner nap.
Before you even ask – yes. I am sure it is safe. First because Gibbs is a herding dog. There have been plenty of times when he could have grabbed her ass right out of the air. He does not. He has goosed her, though. Second, when Sigmund is on the ground, Gibbs is a perfect gentleman and stays out of his way. Mostly, he is fascinated by the flighted one being all flighty.
However, that I am a bit worried that when the next dog comes around he will be modeling some bad behavior to a somewhat less trustworthy animal.
Anyway, this is what it looks like when Gibbs is watching Kiwi:
She was on the back of the couch at the time.
So, about that second dog.
I’ve said that we were long a two-dog house. But after we lost Dallas, both Shadow and Spooky were getting older and we weren’t sure about adding another dog to the dynamic.
Once Shadow was gone, it was puppy time. When Spooky passed on last Thanksgiving we started thinking again.
Omigod is Gibbs a pack animal. There is nothing he loves more than other dogs.
Also, Gibbs is sorta my dog and I suspect my mother needs her own dog. And finally:
We can.
It would seem to be a violation of the covenant of..something..for us to be in a position to offer a dog a good home and not do it.
We are taking our time to find the right one, and are in no hurry. Our plan was in the summer when Gibbs is a bit older and it is warmer outside (in case housetraining is an issue again). But we are looking. Petfinder.com is a great thing.
Fragile, by Lisa Unger
Book 14
I read Unger’s Beautiful Lies awhile back and liked it enough to pick up two more. Fragile is a horrible-thing-happens-in-a-small-town story, where the horrible thing reminds everyone of that one other horrible thing that happened twenty years ago.
So, yeah. Flashbacks in the narrative. I liked the broad canvas of characters, although it was pretty heavy on the idea that everyone is exactly the same as they were in high school and their kids are like that, too.
However. The main mystery – the disappearance of Charlene – is decent. It even uses Facebook to pick up clues from those crazy kids. (Although I really hope that kids do a better job of picking passwords than this book suggests.) It makes a couple of interesting points about the way kids present themselves, as opposed to the way they really feel. Unfortunately, that story ties up about 75% of the way through and we are left with the guilt of the grown ups.
My biggest gripe with the plot is that (mild SPOILERS here) there is no way under heaven that a psychologist in real life would treat the recently raped girlfriend of her teenaged son. No. Way. The fact that said psychologist hesitates when the girlfriend asks if she can continue treatment with her is not good enough. You really gotta find a better way to move a plot forward than that.
Unger seems to have set up this book so that other novels might take place in this town. Since I seem to have liked the characters I am supposed to like, I think I can safely go back for a visit.
The Next Dark Age 