Aloha!

Hello reader! We arrived in Lihue yesterday morning only two hours after we took off from San Francisco. That's really a five hour flight, but you know time diff and all. Did you all realize that Hawaii was so far away from the west coast? I sure didn't. It's just as far as going to New York. I didn't take many pics yesterday because I was so tired I could hardly walk straight. As expected from the pictures, our condo is wicked mid-80s decor, badly in need of a makeover. Kim, come quick--if this room doesn't get updated soon I may need to bust out my hot pink Vidal Sasson jeans and feather my hair.

Shortly after arriving, we went into Kapa'a for some grub. Armed with recommendations from Lonely Planet, we hit the jackpot. For me, amazing ahi sesame poke, cubes of buttery tuna with sesame oil and seaweed, and a side of seaweed salad. --for $5. This made up for the shock we got later at Safeway--anyone for a $6 loaf of crappy sandwich bread? No? How about a $17 dollar bottle of olive oil? You'll pass? Us, too. Then we proceeded to a funky outdoor cafe where Liz had a big chicken satay wrap stuffed with brown rice, veggies and peanut sauce, washed down with hibiscus lemonade. We are definitely going to eat well this trip.

This morning I took a walk to the beach and on the way were lot of cool birds running around and of course the ubiquitous and slightly scary wild rooster. They did not want to be photographed nor does PC have a telephoto lens so you'll just have to take my word for it and check out this huge, slow-moving and therefore very photographable snail: