I can catch birds

I have woke up early every day since we have been here. Today was the first that it was raining at 4AM. We have had great weather so far which makes you take if for granted, until the weather changes. The rain actually cleared up by the time we usuallly run on the beach, unfortunately we, I mean Jeff had already turned in his rain excuse to sleep in longer. When he did finally get up and get rolling we were headed out to check out another property. This was due to the fact Bob was unsure if he wanted a tenant or just claim it as his own residence. So we checked out a townhouse in Ewa beach which is the cookie cutter community that is updated and new, parts of this are appealing. It has the big garage and many amenties that are not usual for the Hawaii area. The community center also has a nice size pool that I was glad to see was not busy. There are plenty of appealing sites yet it is close to an almost scary community and far from a beach we would feel comfortable parkng our car at. We then headed over to Ko'olina which is basically living on a resort, no really it is. We would probably have crowded beach time full of tourists, this may grow old. Yet the property is more updated, in a very safe area and we would have access to 3 pools, gym, tennis, beach. On the other hand, it's far from anything else. So back to square one and we are set on Hawaii Kai. Anxiously waiting all day for the phone call from Bob whether or not we have a place to live. We decided to go back to Karen's side of town for a late lunch and some decision making.

While we were back at Karen's we had another door bell incident. This is the second or third time that while we are at the house someone rings the doorbell and starts saying "Hello, Hello". Now this seems to always happen when we are the only ones at the house, since we have no idea who it might be and really wouldn't know how to deal with them, we have just ignored it thus far. It definitely makes for an awkward situation, as if there aren't enough of those already. After they went away we decided to walk down the beach to a restaurant across the street from the main parking area. On our way we got the phone call from Bob that his wife had found a job and they are moving back to Hawaii. This left us back at square one still looking for a place to live, fortunately we still have plenty of time. As we headed down the beach we found it very interesting to see our normal Kailua beach on the weekend, very different, yet the crowds were still small and entertaining. There was a huge gathering of kite surfers which I could only imagine how complicated that could get with several people all trying to control their giant kites in the same area.

Eventually we got to Buzz's where we had drinks and dinner. This menu was a little more pricey yet we had already committed on staying and this is the main restaurant in walking distance. At least I got my $10 out of the drink as it was very little mixer and a strong brew of spirits (they were not kidding when they called it a lethal Mai Tai)... we have been watching our money so a $10 drink better be worth it. The calamari steak "Pupu"(appetizer) was quite good except for it was in a somewhat rich sauce. Unfortunately I have to completely stay away from rich foods and in my absolute can not eat list includes any description that includes alfredo, rich sauce or cream based. We also shared a steak salad and finished the meal with a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. We over heard the waitress explain how dinner is completely different, the whole place changes and gets fancy, "they even add an extra fork". We thought this was an interesting description and may have to try it out?

After leaving the restaurant we passed many lazy Hawaiian birds. They don't seem as scared when a person either by foot or car are coming right in their direction. They just slowly walk across the path or street. With the boost of Mai Tai courage I was pretty sure I could catch a bird. Jeff after finding this gesture quite entertaining did convince me it was not necessary as we already have enough problems finding an apartment that allows cats, so birds would not help. Jeff was rather thankful that we did not come across a mongoose as it would have been hard to talk me down from trying to catch it. During this trip I had already decided on my mongoose catching strategy to zoom in by it's side and "catch it by the belly". Mongoose beware, I wonder how our cats would feel about a brother mongoose? Interestingly the mongoose are not Hawaiian natives but were actually brought into Hawaii for rat control. No animals were caught today and we continued our walk on the beach back to Karen's house where we sat out by the pool for a while. Karen came home while we were out there to inquire about the days events, we told her about losing the place in Hawaii Kai. We then told her how we had checked out Ko'Olina and we got the standard response "You're gonna hate it" we did get a little bit of valuable information from her about the area, which was nice.

We were then off to bed until Jeff's quick awakening at 1AM with the realization that we were not leaving until Wednesday 4/18 as he half asleep fumbled for his phone to confirm. I am glad he figured this out prior to us getting to the airport at 10 AM on Tuesday. Time to go back to sleep.

Please enjoy the pictures posted of Kailua beach, Karen's antelope, and a few peaks of Karen's house. Tomorrow we may share more pictures of Karen's house including the elephants on parade.