Aloha!

I arrived on the beautiful isle of Kaua'i, where the trades blow clean and warm like baby blankets, the air smells of sweet pikake (plumeria), and coconut palm fronds flutter in sync with crashing waves. I bought a one-way ticket to try and get set up to live here for an indefinite amount of time. As long as the tsunamis stay quiet, or hurricanes, sharks or gnarly surf don't chase me back to the "mainland," I will begin living with my sister who has lived here since September, as she has the luxury to work from home via her laptop. I feel blessed to take up this opportunity.

For my fifth trip to Hawaii, a five-hour flight from San Jose, California, my name was picked from a stack of agricultural declaration papers. The stewardess announced two winners for a contest, and right before she called my name, I had a funny feeling I would win! I nearly jumped out my seat with serendipity to claim my kukui nut and shell lei, which I eventually gifted to a neighbor, who by the way, wears it nearly every day with such "manao," or the "spirit and feel of the true Hawaiian."

My lovely hula sister welcomed me at the airport with much aloha. Aloha can mean hello, goodbye, and love. And love she had: she adorned me with both a purple orchid lei and a macadamia nut lei, which is a traditional act for visitors. I hadn't seen my sister in seven months, since I had been traveling in New Zealand and Australia for most of 2010. She was glowing, tan and surfy, with her long blonde lustrous hair. We rode in her brick-red, funky 1993 Volvo, nicely named, "Wa'ela." My sister had packed four style of ahi poke on ice, along with a cool mai tai in a hibiscus pink canteen. I gobbled up the ahi poke, which is a Hawaiian style raw yellowfin tuna salad or "pupu," (appetizer). We drove to her super cute condo/bungalow in Princeville, near Hanalei on the north shore of Kaua'i. Her Christmas tree was lit up and decorated with hand-picked and hand-made seashell decorations. She even had little gifts lining the tree trunk, including a giant boogie board wrapped in Christmas hibiscus wrapping paper. That one was a dead give-away for a beach bum like me.