I've made it back. There was much sunshine and drinks with umbrellas in them. I do expect some items on Mr. Kerry soon. I did NOT catch the garter, in fact I was luckily spared the whole enterprise, meaning I didn't have to hide.
One quick comment: Kaua'i is full of chickens. That was the single weirdest thing for me. It was the first thing I noticed taking the shuttle from the airport, and it was definitely the first thing I noticed every morning. (In case you were of the same city boy impression as I, roosters don't crow a couple times at dawn and then quit. The don't ever quit. )
I heard several different stories (bordering on legend) as to why this is. The simplest one is that Kaua'i is the only island without mongoose. They were brought into Hawaii to kill the rats, but as mongoose are diurnal and rats nocturnal it didn't work. The legend has it that when they were taking the mongoose to Kaua'i, one of them bit the captain of the ship and he threw them overboard. So chickens flourish on Kaua'i, and run wild everywhere on the island (but especially in places that have tourists with Cheerios).
More coming soon, however, at the moment I have been awake and on airplanes for far too long.
Posted by ktismael at March 6, 2004 8:27 AM