The last couple weeks have been fairly routine with our newest volunteers, Sammie Jo & Marco settling in. We’ve had a couple group outings, featuring 5-6 of us in the Rav hitting neighborhood events / the beach. Our newest tradition is a Friday night harvest dinner: Something easy yet fulfilling and satisfying that we all collaborate on to celebrate another hard-working week. Once we all sit down with our food, we take a moment to be grateful for what we are all contributing and participating in (similar to a thanksgiving reflection). It’s been amazing to consistently acknowledge what we are gathered here to do: essentially grow food and live off this bountiful, continually gracious land of Mama Kauai.

Last Wednesday, Aaron and Jiva had a final paid landscaping job in Hanalei, and as tradition states, a late afternoon ocean session is in order. I brought Luna and Texas Tim with me to meet up with Aaron and Jiva at the Hanalei beach for a quick dip underneath overcast, misty skies. The water was warm and the beach deserted, as we individually danced, crashed with the waves and took some time to forget our weekly tasks, loosen the dirt under our fingernails, and let go.

Saturday Aaron and I walked again to Larsen’s beach for a quick evening beach visit. The waves were powerful and epic as we approached. The tide was high, and we walked the beach looking at washed up jellyfish until we found a bit of sun still hitting the sand on the north shore. We waded into the water ankle deep and — maybe not so surprisingly — encountered our first (minor!) jellyfish stings. About a minute after the wave receded, I noticed a spot on the front of my shin was rather stinging, and growing slightly red / inflamed — for a sustained length of time. Aaron also noticed a sting on his shin, though a bit less sever than mine. After reflecting on the previous visit to Larsen’s, which I saw a dead, tiny jellyfish in the water, and the larger jellyfish we just saw washed on shore, it didn’t take us long to deduce that we’d probably been stung. Yikes! That’s why no one else visiting the beach at the time was swimming or wading… haha. The stings healed without issue or discomfort, luckily!

Aaron touching a washed up creature (jellyfish?)

We left Larsen’s to walk home, and immediately encountered Sammie Jo & Marco on their walk home from their day of bus adventures. It’s nice to know people in the neighborhood 🙂

Check out the north shore waves!