My musings have moved to my substack. Go there for the latest.

I was really impressed with this article in the NYT.  Professor Luhrmann argues each person has a belief continuum, from what we absolutely never will believe to what we always believe (or even take for granted!).  He then says we all have a "boggle threshold," where any thing beyond this point on the belief spectrum is out of mind's bounds of comprehension.  Interestingly, he makes an excellent point that the more we define what we don't believe, the more we are open to possibly closer, less extreme beliefs.

Here is his conclusion, and the entire article is worth a quick read:

A friend told me about a neat little beach heading north from Lihue just before getting to the Wailua Golf Course (apparently the cheapest place for a round of golf on the island).  Turn Right on the dirt road just past the sugar cane field and right when you see the golf course lined with trees.  The road follows the canal (see map below) along the golf course and then out to the ocean.

On your way in there will be a gate on your right after the road makes a hard left hand turn.  This is where they dirt bike rallies from time to time.  I saw a guy 'grooming' the ground and found out later they were getting ready for a weekend race.

Beyond that are some cool trees with sporadic picnic tables and the beach, with incredible views looking north along the Wailua Golf Course.  You can't see the golf course very much since there is a buffer of trees, and lots of folks had driven along the rugged dirt road to park their vehicles overlooking the ocean and grill or fish (or both!).  It definitely felt like a local hangout, but I was told not to hang out there after dark due to drugs.

You can take that dirt road (I'd recommend a 4x4 or mountain bike) all the way up to the camping area of Lydgate Beach Park.  There you will find one of the coolest playgrounds ever!

A cool biking trip I plan to take is to ride down the Kauai Bike Path to Lydgate, then take the dirt road along the ocean south past the Wailua Golf Course and then come back the same way or along the road.

Another adventure I plan to take is kayaking in the canal that separates this little spot between the golf course and the Kauai Beach Resort.

On the other side of the Kauai Beach Resort is Nokolii Beach Park, apparently created and managed by the Kauai Beach Resort.  Turn off Kuhio Hwy at the Kauai Beach Resort main road and drive down through an astounding corridor of old banyan trees - quite spectacular!  As soon as these trees end and before the solar-panel-covered parking lot, turn right and head down a paved road until you reach the ocean. 

There is a small parking lot with restroom facilities and outdoor showers to rinse off the salt water.  I didn't see any picnic tables like the place on the other side of Kauai Beach Resort, but there was a nice mowed trail that loops around the area along the ocean and back through the field.  Other than a lady and her dog, I was the only one there!  A nice little find on an otherwise overlooked section of Kauai most people just drive past to get to other places!

I have yet to go to any of the botanical gardens on the island, but I did manage to snap some photos of some beautiful flowers while I was recently pilfering fruit in Princeville.  There are fruit trees everywhere and so much fruit simply falls to the ground for the birds!

Recently, I've been reading a lot about writing as I work on my first book.  I came across the site 17,000 Days.  The person's inspiration for the blog came when she calculated how many days she had left in her life.

She suggestions finding your age on this chart, then getting your remaining years left and multiplying it by 365.25 to get your remaining days.

I did it and got 17,017 (!).  Using this date calculator, my estimated day of death (D.O.D. ??) is... (drum role!):

I'm now going to use that date as a countdown on the main page of this site, as a reminder to make each day count!

How many days do you have left?

On Easter, Emily and I took my inflatable kayak (a birthday gift last year from Emily - best gift ever!!) out on the Kilauea Stream, which dumps into Kilauea Bay at Kahili (Rock Quarry) Beach (click link to see pictures and read about my adventure exploring the nearby lava pools).

She was going to lay out on the beach but then decided to come at the last minute, and I happily paddled along as she was even more content to lay down and be treated as a queen being paddled up river.

This excursion is not mentioned in most guidebooks because after a half-hour you pretty much reach the end of the river.  It's private property, but I explored just twenty yards upstream to find an ideal swimming hole with a rope swing.  It's a shame that places like this have been bought up and now people are prevented from enjoying some really cool, unique spots on the island.  Technically, rivers and beaches are supposed to be public, but increasingly people are buying up lands and preventing others from gaining access.  What a shame!

I took my mountain bike out for a spin behind the only mini golf course on the island in my local town of Kilauea.  It turns out this is private land that the public is allowed access to for a 5-mile loop for walking or biking.  There is a dog park, community food forest, farms, orchards, forests, a dam and more all to see along the way of the winding path.  I really appreciated the work of the Wai Kai Plantation run by Kauai Fresh Farms to maintain a beautiful space open to the public, especially when so much private land has become off-limits to locals and visitors.  It's easy to rent bikes from the Namahana Cafe right by the road.

Halfway through I stumbled upon what felt like the Garden of Eden on Kauai!  I'm sure the several botanical gardens on the island are even more beautiful, but the sheer surprise of coming across something so unexpected and beautiful was a real delight!

The perfect way to end this 5 mile loop would be to stop at Banana Joe's for a fresh, frozen fruit shake of banana and pineapple!  Unfortunately for me it was after 5 pm by the time I finished.  I'll have to return with Emily!

One of the worst-kept secrets near Kilauea on the North Shore of Kauai is Secrets Beach.  It's a long, treacherous hike down to the beach, but it's well worth it.

Most of the property above Secrets Beach is private and owned by multi-millionaires (if not billionaires!).  Emily cleans at one of the houses where several celebrities have stayed (although I'm not allowed to disclose which ones).  I found some trails that had not been used in a long while and explored up the hills as much as I dared without disturbing those in their McMansions.  Quite idyllic.

Next I went around to the left to explore up on the rocks to see if I could make it around to the Secret Lava Pools.  No luck this time, with the tide well in and the surf fairly strong.

In many towns on Kilauea there are Japanese Cemetaries, often perched atop knolls with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.  They're often hidden off an unmarked side road and are quite nondescript, yet tale of a bygone era of the island when workers were brought over to harvest the sugarcane.

I joined family friends Jane and John on the South Shore for a nice walk behind the Hyatt along Shipwreck Beach and the Makewehi Lithified Cliffs.  

We saw some really cool formations along the cliffs, unlike anything I had seen on Kauai.

After we returned to Shipwreck, I just had to jump off the well-known cliff-jumping spot.  Although it's hard to tell from these pictures, I estimated (and later confirmed) the height to be about 35 feet.