People Along the Way

Jay and I were chatting as we were driving down the canyon from our campsite about what some of the highlights of the trip have been so far. Of course swimming in waterfalls is high on my list! haha! but one of the main things I've loved about this trip, is meeting all kinds of fantastic people. I wish i had more pictures to go with the names.

So... at the airport as we were waiting to get on the plane to come to Kauai, a gentleman sat down beside me, Pete. I started chatting with him, and it turns out he's from texas but moved to kauai 8 months ago, and runs a car rental business. We had already booked a car, but he gave us all kinds of tips and wrote up a map of all the places to check out. He even asked us if we do any church stuff and recommended a church to visit if we were interested. Then, as we arrived in kauai, at the airport there, he told us we should come stay at his place. His daughter left for texas yesterday and his wife today so... for these last two nights we've been invited into someone's home!! We met his wife before she left today, and they're just the kindest people! What hospitality, to welcome strangers into their home. And we've been invited over to his nephew's tonight for steak!! It's really an example of the type of person I'd like to be!

We met a couple guys in our campground, just hung out chatting with them one evening about hikes and things we'd seen or experienced. It's great just to chat.

Yesterday night at sunset we went to a lookout point which is spectacular!! And at the same time a professional photographer, dennis frates (www.fratesphoto.com) was up there to catch the moment. He was taking gorgeous photos, showing us as he went on his digital. We even got to talking lenses... polarizers and neutral density filters since i know a little bit about those in my profession! He even offered to send us a print from the evening if we emailed him!!

This morning we went for our last couple of hikes on Kauai. There was a police officer sitting at the trailhead/lookout when we left. He was still there when we came back and he started chatting with us... his nickname is "Bully" but he's really the friendliest person ever! In the Kalalau valley, many people live there illegally because it's so beautiful. They've rerouted water streams and made gardens, he was telling us that once they even found a "library" in a cave with 500 books! and of course their own marijuana grow-op. Just out in the wilderness, no houses, no electricity, no running water... so every now and then they do raids and many people have outstanding warrents and go hide in the "hills". He was giving us all the info of how they snuck in by boat really early this morning and were out to try and capture some people!! It was really fascinating!!

Well, we're off to get some steak and meet some more people!