Changes in the Scenery!

Hi, everyone!

When we were on Kauai two years ago, the pandemic was just beginning.  It was hard for tourists to come to Hawaii during most of the pandemic, and that made a lot of changes! One thing that didn’t change were my flower friends!  Every time I go outside, I see flowers that only grow in Hawaii climates.  I like making friends with them again every time I come!

The boogie boarders at Brennecke’s beach haven’t changed, either, although there seem to be more of them around.  There is a new sign reminding them all to be careful!

The signs on Poipu beach about turtles resting at night are new, too!  The volunteer told me that the turtles started coming to the beach to spend the night when tourists weren’t using it during the day.  Now tourists come to watch sunset at Poipu beach and stay to watch the turtles arrive for the night.

Puka Dogs has moved, too!  That move made me happy because they moved from Poipu Shopping Village into Brennecke’s Deli.  That means it’s now an easy walk to get a Puka Dog!  I still miss my friend the hula dancer sign, but everything else about Puka Dogs is the same — just inside instead of in the Shopping Village courtyard.

On Valentine’s Day, I ordered my Puka Dog with mild garlic sauce, mango relish and lilikoi mustard.  There’s a choice of regular or lilikoi lemonade now, too!  We went right across the street to Poipu Beach park to eat.  Everything was yummy!

Whenever we’re at Poipu beach, we take some time to look for whales.  When the water is choppy, it’s hard to see spouts and splashes against the white capped waves!  After we were at the beach, we went to the produce stand to get apple bananas and salad makings for dinner.  We took a ride through the tree tunnel, too.  The trees there seem older and thinner than I remember.

Tuesday morning was a lovely day at the beach!  Grandma and I had a marine trifecta:  we saw whales, a monk seal and green sea turtles all before lunch!  As soon as we got to Brennecke’s beach, we could see lots of whale spouts and splashes!  It looked like a pod of adult and baby whales.  At Poipu beach, we spotted a monk seal at the far west end!  On our walk back, we saw sea turtles in the surf at Brennecke’s beach.

When we got back to our resort unit, there was another change of scenery.  There were palm fronds all over our walk!  The tree crew was thinning the palm trees and removing the palm fruits before they fell down on anybody.  The palm fronds don’t look much like the tree branches back home, but the chipper sounds and works just the same way!

Because Puka Dogs had moved out, Grandma wanted to see what other changes there were at Poipu Shopping Village.  A lot of the restaurant spaces had names and menus I hadn’t seen before. There were a lot of empty stores, too.  I was happy to see that the gelato store was still there!  After we got back from our trip to the shopping village, we took another walk to Makahuena Point.  We didn’t see any whales, but the sea turtles were enjoying the surf in their cove!

This morning, we took another trip to Hanapepe to Midnight Bear Bread.  This time, Grandpa ordered in advance!  There was a line out the door when we arrived at 10 a.m.  The bread shelves were full, but the croissants and other pastries were running out.  After we picked up our pre-order, we waited in line to get two almond croissants.  We got the last ones!  All our bread is now in the freezer to enjoy during the rest of our stay.

My favorite food truck is Dim’N’Den Sum, in old Koloa town.  They aren’t open every day, but Grandpa saw on Facebook that they would be open today.  We ordered lunch in advance, so they knew I was coming!  I made sure to say hello to Lynell-san when we picked up our order.  We got a box special, so I had a chance to practice using chopsticks on the shu mai!  There was a happy surprise change in scenery at Dim’N’Den Sum.  My second most favorite food truck, Kickshaws, is parked right next to it now!  That used to be a much longer drive away!

This afternoon, I helped Grandma make sticky buns to bake tomorrow.  We made the dough right after lunch, then went to the beach while it was rising.  There were two turtles on the disconnected part of Poipu beach.  One of them was nesting!  I guess that part of the beach is quiet enough for daytime turtle use.  When we got back, I helped Grandma roll out the dough and shape the cinnamon rolls.  There’s no rolling pin here, but a white wine bottle worked quite nicely!

After dinner, we went to Lihue to shop at Costco again.  We’re getting ready for the biggest scenery change.  Uncle Steven’s family has arrived, and Uncle David’s family is coming late tonight.  I’m looking forward to being together with all my cousins!

Love,

Lion-san