Waterfalls, Old Shoes and Satisfaction

We hiked to two waterfalls. For the first one, we kayaked inland up Wailua River before hiking into the jungle. This is the same forest where Indiana Jones almost got stuck with darts at the very beginning of Raiders. It is easy to see why so many movies have been filmed here -- Kaua'i is covered with primeval forests, and they are both psychologically transporting and quite easy to get lost in. We did get lost on our way back -- only for 5 minutes, but they were my favorite 5 minutes. Our kayak matched the gorgeous blended colors of the most common flower in the trees -- and the Tevas I'm wearing are the same ones that took me through West Africa and down to southern Mexico. They belonged to Mom before me and are such good friends that taking them out of service would lessen the experience of travel. They're only a decade old; time to replace the velcro again and I'm sure they'll see me to another continent.

The second hike was much longer, took an entire day and involved no tour guide; definitely the more dramatic and satisfying of the two. We wore our bathingsuits and left the car at the end of the island's one big road. Brian is standing in front of the beach half way to the big falls, Hanakapi'ai. The cave with the breathtaking water is directly behind him in this shot. It was spooky -- the water was gorgeous as far as the sunlight reached, and then the cave was pitch black -- but the water continued through like a tunnel. You can sort of see it in this picture, but it was like swimming through a lava bubble -- floating on my back looking up at the black jagged angles of the ceiling, it was very easy to imagine the volcanic birth of the island. The edges seem so sharp, just barely weathered.
Very exciting -- enchanting, transporting, and now part of a memory already.

These beautiful columbine greeted us upon our return to our home, where after a day of confused exhaustion we are successfully recalibrating to life as normal. We will have been together 7 years as of tomorrow, 5/20/2008, and married 3 years as of 5/25. It was truly wonderful to dedicate a whole week to enjoying each other, with no obligations to distract us from that priority -- the greater challenge now is how to navigate work and life while maintaining the enjoyment of the connection.

Super dooper ultra fantastico -- no, really :o)

The last entry was two months ago -- with good reason. Since I last wrote, I made it into the CU Linguistics PhD program, signed up for the double PhD in Cognitive Science, and got a grant that pays my tuition for the next two years -- making a conversational database of Arapaho. The same grant is flying me to London in June to be trained in endangered language documentation at the University of London's School for Oriental and Asian Studies (oddly enough) -- my first international trip paid for by my career (which rocks). My first presentation at a professional linguistics conference was in April, and since then it's been a mad dash for May 9th, the last day of semester.

My semester ended ended a touch early because at 5am on May 9th Brian and I were waiting for the AB bus to DIA, to fly to Kaua'i, which is where we are now -- we finally are going on our honeymoon, and just in time for the 3rd anniversary of our elopement over lunch hour. Despite the enormous frustration of postponing the honeymoon for a dog surgery, a new air conditioner in a Colorado summer, a new clutch -- my new conclusion is that waiting 3 years after a wedding to celebrate intimacy via a week of utter relaxation may well be more productive (and certainly more... needed) 3 years late.

So there's what's going on, and here's what we've done so far:The view from our condo, compliments of our fantastic friend Nancy; a baby sea turtle swam right up to check me out while I snorkeled here yesterday.

We went snorkeling here, but Brian's feet and hands got cut up on the coral.

The ocean is amazingly meditative. This is the sunrise, right outside our condo, since the sun rises at 10am Colorado time.











Went snorkeling again down in Lihu'e, found some really... distinctive sunglasses.








And here's today, the Na Pali Coast where lots of movies were filmed. Spinner dolphins leaped in twisting arcs out of the bluest, clearest water I can remember seeing.