R and I have been in Kaua’i for a little over a month now – how is that even possible? The clock has somehow sped up since we have been here. I don’t know if it is because the days are a little bit shorter here than we are used to compared to Colorado summers (sunrise 6:15 a.m., sunset 7:00 p.m. in Kaua’i) or because we are just getting into a work/life rhythm. Maybe it is just because we are busy and aren’t taking time to appreciate our days here as much as we should. Richard has made some major progress with the crazy electrical and shoddy rooms on the outside of the house and I’ve been buried deep in work and school with projects and scholarly articles. I’m excited for a little more time to focus on my thesis and getting that sucker done before my December defense date, but more on that later.

I had hoped that moving to Kaua’i would help us slow down and find a little more balance between work and play in our lives, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case. On top of the work, school and renovations we are also trying to get acquainted with the island and new friends. With all of these things comes quite a bit of stress – especially with our beloved pup, Ellie, set to make her trek across the Pacific on Tuesday! (If you are the praying or good vibes sending kind of person please, PLEASE send some positive energy out into the universe on Tuesday for Ellie’s flight, I get sick to my stomach with nerves just thinking about it!) So, to bust some of the stress we are both feeling we try to make a point of getting out of the house and onto a beach at least a few times a week. It doesn’t have to be for very long, just long enough to take a deep breath and let go of some of the daily stresses we are facing. Tonight was one of my favorite nights on the island yet and it was oh so simple.

After working all day on school and chores we decided to have our dinner on the beach so that we could get out for some fresh air. We chopped up a quick salad from farmer’s market produce that R picked up on Thursday and threw in some delicious teriyaki chicken marinated in our homemade ginger syrup and soy sauce (I promise I’ll post a food blog soon – food here is ridiculously good!) We threw the salad, some bread, cheese and wine into our cooler and headed to Salt Pond Beach to watch the sunset and chow down. The beach was way more crowded than we thought it would be for a Sunday evening, but it calmed down and people left as the sun dunked into the Pacific.

Then the really good stuff happened, we brought our little beach grill and some marshmallows, chocolate and cinnamon grahams and made some oceanside s’mores and watched the stars put on an incredible show. Stargazing in Colorado is fantastic, stargazing in Kaua’i is out of this world! There is so little light pollution you can see the milky way with the naked eye and so many stars it is hard to distinguish even the brightest constellations. We geeked out and downloaded star maps to our smart phones and spent an hour just watching the night sky. It was good. It was relaxing. We needed it. We’ve got a busy and probably stressful week ahead (again – think of Ellie on Tuesday!) but the good news is we’ve also got Kaua’i and each other.

R+T

(P.S. I know you have that catchy Coldplay song stuck in your head now. You’re welcome.)