My Yoga Retreat Day 2

Day 2 I did Yoga in the early morning, and it was very nice, as I got to stretch out my calve and legs as needed. Then we lingered at home doing this and that: I wasted a little time online, and Jack was reading from his ipet - the name I gave to his iPad.

At around 11, we left home and drove toward Poipu beach to see the Shrimp Lady, Susan. We ordered two Bahia (coconut garlic shrimp), and Susan asked if we live here on the island. We said, no, but we came every year, and the last time we came was December 2010. She said you were lucky to be able to come every year. As she was quite busy, we didn't stay to offer our sympathy about the not readiness of her new shop.

We took our food and went to spouting horn to have a picnic. A bold rooster drew by the smell of the food, and he paced around our picnic table, crowing proudly responding to another rooster's challenge. Jack gave him a bit of rice, and he took it with his beak. He got bolder with the simple invitation. He jumped up on the picnic table came next to my food.

Jack told him: "My wife is very stingy."

"That's because I am very hungry." I enjoyed my shrimp slowly, sucking all the coconut and garlic flavor out of the shells.

Jack said: "how come you always get more shrimp than I do?" Looking at his own plate with what became more of a pile of shells, and the reduced number of shrimps.

I said: "It does look like that way, doesn't it? I think we each got 10 pieces and I think she told you how many pieces there were in each plate on the menu. I just ate slowly."

Jack finished his food and left me alone with the rooster friend - who was standing on the picnic table inches away from my plate, starring at my food with interest - when I still had 3 pieces of shrimp left. The rooster was very valorous.

I have to admit I was intimidated by this rooster, because I had this unpleasant image of being pecked by chickens in my mind. It would be very stupid to be pecked by a good looking, colorful rooster on my annual visit to the island. Since I already finished my rice, I had nothing else to give him but some pieces of shells and bits of coleslaw. I gave him bits of those while I quickly finished my shrimp and felt a bit ripped off. I wished Jack stayed with me when I ate!

After lunch we went watch the spouting horn for a while - it was windy and wavy, and there were big spouts. We then walked passed the souvenir vendors on the way back to the car. I am proud to say I didn't spend a penny there this time - so far. When we got back to the parking lot, Jack stood in front of two identical looking white Nissan Sentra and asked: "Which one is ours?" Before I could answer, he recognized the hotel parking permit on the dashboard, and jumped into the right car.

After we left spouting horn, we wondered where we should go next. We didn't want to go to the botanical garden, which was on the way back, because it would be very troublesome to have to put on bug spray aka deet on our skins. I always felt that I was poisoning my skin when I used that stuff. So we decided to go to check out the Ukulele shop at Old Kaloa Town - Larry's Music.

We walked into the small shop, where a middle age man was playing his Ukulele. We looked around and find different sizes of Ukuleles made of different kind of woods and in different size shapes hung on the walls. After a while the man stopped playing and asked us: "Can I help you?"

SO the conversation began. Jack walked toward him and said: "We don't know squat about Ukuleles. Can you tell us something about it?" He first told us the different kind of Ukuleles - concert, soprano, and tenor. Then he explained different kind of wood, and how their Ukuleles were made. He also went on to tell us how his son had to work with the Chinese manufacturer and make their 3rd rate product become top of the line - "The trick is all on quality control, now we know it, but it sure was painful when it first started." He also told us about his friends who were famous Ukulele makers or players. He went over all the local famous players, and their stories. He told us about his wife, his son's wife, and his grandson who also plays Ukulele with his own style. This guy was so friendly, if we didn't inch our way toward the door, for we got bitten by bugs so badly, we would probably stay there for dinner. Anyway, three hours later we left the shop with no Ukulele. But feeling like soaked sponges full of knowledge about this miniature guitar looking instrument.

This was a guy who entrusted his life's story to two stranger, tourists from the States, who just happened to stepped into his store when he had no other customers. He called this season the newly weds or nearly deads ... Which we didn't appreciate, but he quickly added: "of course you guys are exceptions."

It was a full day for us. We went home, and I made BBQ chicken fried rice and stir-fried bok choy for dinner. Then we fell asleep while watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

My Kauai Yoga Retreat Day 1

My Thursday night Yoga teacher Jean is on a Yoga Retreat in Mexico. She advertised it many months ago, but it happened to be on the same week I would be in Kauai. So I didn't have to debate whether to join her retreat.

On this annual Kauai trip, we didn't have anything planned. We thought maybe if we were super bored of doing nothing, we could go hiking and try out paddle boarding, but we didn't have any specific plans as to when to do what in what order. After the second time here, we gave up scheduling many exciting events to fill up everyday of the week. We just want to lounge and enjoy doing nothing for a week for a change.

Inspired by Jean's Mexico Yoga Retreat, I thought I would try it on my own too. So on Tuesday - the day after we got here - after I got up at 7 AM, I did my Yoga. I played New Age musics from Pandora, and it put me in the right mood. Usually when I tried to do Yoga at home, I found it difficult to focus, and I never felt like I stretched enough. With the music, it was so much easier for me to focus on my practice, and it slowed my mind down a lot. I didn't try to rush from one pose to another, but rather flowed from one pose to another with ease. The sound of the waves and the breeze for sure helped calm me down too.

After Yoga, we got out of the hotel at around 10:30 AM. Went to Kapaa to have breakfast at our favorite breakfast place - Kountry Style Kitchen. We en-routed to get some local fruit and vegetable at the Sunshine Market in the Coconut Market Place. I bought 2 papayas, some tomatoes, a small bunch of fragrant basil, a bunch of big bok choy. When I saw the bok choy, my eyes lit up, and the woman said immediately: "it's $2 each" - hitting the iron when it's still hot, so to speak. Jack got 3 packages of home-made coconut powder. People there were so friendly. One woman asked if I was a Japanese, and another guy asked if I was a Chinese. The day started to be really fun already. But it was also too warm, so we left and head over to breakfast.

We got to Kountry Kitchen at a little before 11 AM. Wanting to have some local food, I ordered 2 scramble eggs with rice and Kalua pork. Jack ordered his usual, 2 eggs breakfast with hash brown and toasts. I love Kalua pork!! It was moist, nicely roasted, spiced just right and very well made. I love to have Hawaiian food, which just means some kind of meat with rice instead of potatoes and some veggies. It's so Asian in that way. :)

After the delicious breakfast, we headed north toward Hanalei/Princeville. We stopped by the lighthouse to visit the bird sanctuary. We stayed there when I tried to take pictures of the birds. We also made a detour to stop by Anini beach, which was one of the kiting spots on the island. The beach was surrounded by reefs, and it was made like a big protected pool. It was windy and cross shore. The water was clear and beautifully blue or turquoise in different spots. I made a tree pose in the water, and actually looks pretty good.

We went northbound, passing Hanalei's famous tourist village. We didn't make another stops until we got to the dry cave and wet cave. At 2 PM, we got to the end of the road, which was also the trial head of a famous north shore hike. We made an impromptu decision to go for a short hike since we were already there and we had time. The whole hike would be 11 miles one way, but we decided to just go for a couple of hours. Luckily, we both had our new hiking boots with us. They were truly my best friend on this hike, because it was challenging all the way. There were rocks of different sizes paved the path, and you had to be very careful not to mis-step, as it would have been easy to twist an angle or slip. We went up and we went down. There were places where we were among lush forest, and there were places where we were at the ridge looking out the beautifully blue ocean and sky. After we got to 1.5 miles, Na Pali Coast was right in front of us, and it was breathtaking. We stopped there to admire the view for a while before we decided to turn around and face the challenging way back. This hike made us all sticky, sweaty and tired, but it was worth it!

At night, we made BBQ chicken and had rice and caesar salad. It was a wonderful day already, and the best part was we didn't even plan anything.

Golden Retrievers

Golden Retrievers

Valentine's Day Dinner

This Valentine's day was on a Monday, some people chose to celebrate it early over the weekend. Since I spent Sunday with my mom, leaving Jack alone all Sunday, and I had to work all day on Monday, I decided to ditch yoga and went out for dinner with Jack.

Usually I would have to reserve a table at some fancy restaurant many weeks in advance, and expected to spend lots of money, and ended up super stressed out because of the great expectations. But this year, I put that worry behind me, and decided to take the risk of not planning at all.

So after a long and stressful day, I quickly wrapped up my work at around 5:30, and we left home to head out to the Peninsula. Before we left, we quickly talked over what we wanted to eat for this special night. Since we enjoyed similar foods, it was not a big problem coming to an agreement. The key was to go to a place we both we like, so we wouldn't be disappointed.

Jack wanted to have Indian since the weekend, so we went to one of our local favorite in Foster City, Tabla. The name of this restaurant already changed twice since we started going there 3 years ago, but it was basically the same place and waiters, so we prefer to keep its old name, at least between the two of us.

I was a little reluctant about going for spicy food, because I secretly promised myself to reduce the amount of spicy food to see if it's better for my skin and health. Oh well, I could always change my diet after Valentine's dinner.

We were the first customers there at 6 PM. The waiter was very happy to see us, as he put on his best friendly smile. He even 'reserved' the only window seat in the house for us. He said he especially saved us this nice seat with a view.

They were playing American romantic love songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Most of them I was very familiar with and they were my favorites, because I used to listen to romantic love songs all the time when I first came to San Francisco from China some 20 years ago. It helped me learning English. Tho recently, I was very shocked to see in a music video that one of the songs was sung by a man, when I used to think the singer was a woman. That was a little creepy.

We ordered all of our favorite dishes and some plain yogurt on the side. The food was a little on the salty side, but right then I had a discovery. I put yogurt in the salty and spicy food, it blend in really well and gave a special milder balanced taste that added more flavor to the food. It was the epiphany of the day, and I was very delighted with this finding.

As we enjoyed our food very much, we were also amused that someone kept adjusting the volume of the music, high and low. As if he was the DJ trying to bring the best romantic atmosphere to the guests.

More people came in after us.

The waiter gave us 5% discount on the food - by this time, I wasn't sure if he was just a waiter or the boss.

When we left, he smile beautifully and kept repeating: "See you soon, see you soon." What a nice guy, what a nice dinner.

A haircut

The Chinese New Year was on Thursday, Feb. 3. Chinese believes getting a haircut before Chinese New Year brings good luck for the rest of the year. Something along the line of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. This year, getting a good haircut is not easy as it used to be, ever since my hair dresser moved back home to Ventura County.

Having a good hair cut, like having a good massage or facial, is a very personal business. I have learn not to choose a new beautician lightly, or I would end up being upset for a long time. So I did plenty of research before calling for any appointment, and once I picked a beautician that I like, I wouldn't let go unless he/she let me go.

The weekend before Chinese New Year, I was so desperate that I called all the hair-dressers close to home, to see who could give me a haircut on Sunday. Most of the spa/salons nowadays don't have any receptionist and the professionals are independent contractors to the salons. This is either something to do with the economy, or it is just a new way people do business now, I am not sure. So instead of calling the salon to make an appointment, you have to call the hair-dressers' phone number, leave them messages indicating your need and the time you want, then wait for them to call you back.

I did that on Saturday when I was waiting in the theater to watch The King's Speech, which turned out to be an absolute delight. I must have called 5 different ladies. A couple of them called back saying they didn't work on Sundays and suggested someone else or suggested a time during the week. I reluctantly made an appointment for Wednesday, which would be New Years Eve just in case.

Sunday was absolutely miserable with rainy weather, so we stayed home instead of taking the dogs out for their runs. Around 3 PM, after I finished all of my house chores, I bit the bullet and called a salon in Half Moon Bay downtown to see if anyone was working there. I was pleasantly surprised that I got an appointment for 5 PM with the owner of the salon. I was excited.

I had a good hair cut, but I am not sure if I would go back to her. The salon was nice, and I was offered tea when I got in. The people there were way too chatty. There were totally 3 hair dressers working at the time, and they were having so much fun making 'smart' remarks about people. The other two stylists seemed to kiss up to the salon owner a lot, and the owner surely enjoyed the attention. After all, she did own two upscale salons around the neighborhood. As for me, I am just happy that nobody messed up my hair.

The search for my stylist shall continue.

The magical ice

During my snowboarding trip to Lake Tahoe over the MLK holiday weekend, I jammed my thumb twice, and was saved by ice!

The first time was on Saturday. When I pushed myself off the lift chair, somehow my left thumb got caught on the edge of the chair and it hurt! It was the beginning of the day and I was already injured. It wasn't fun, because the rest of the day I fell many times on my arms or my butt, and I needed to be careful not to hurt my thumb any more.

It was definitely a workout. Since I haven't gone snowboarding for two years, I started to realize what I "missed". In this regard, I much prefer kiteboarding, as in kiting, I fall into water. Not that kiteboarding didn't have its moments.

That day when we got back to our hotel, both of us were so exhausted we didn't want to move a muscle. Jack told me I should ice my thumb to see if it helped. I was like: "Do I really have to?"

"For all I know, you might have broken your thumb." The scare tactic works on me every time.

Reluctantly I dragged my aching body out of bed and went to get ice from the ice maker on the other end of the building. I put some ice in a towel, and wrapped it around my left thumb.

"How long does it take?" I asked.

"Until your hand freezes." Jack said.

"Oh bugger. My hand is already freezing after 1 minute." I grumbled.

"Then hold it for 7 minutes and rest, then do it again."

It actually worked!! I was totally amazed how this simple, annoying treatment worked like magic.

The second day we went back to the mountain. Toward the end of our day when we got off the last chair lift to go back to the gondola, I fell on my left thumb again, ouch! I boarded down the mild slope and got out of my snowboard. This time I just picked up some snow and put it around my twice injured thumb. One the way down the mountain, I was relieved to feel that I survive this snowboarding trip, and I very much enjoyed the view of Lake Tahoe from the gondola.

The next morning we got up early to pack for home. Jack slipped on the ice by the car and he screamed. He hit his shine on the car while balancing himself on it. We got back to the room, and put some ice on his shine for 10 minutes.

In fact, everyone should always remember the rule of thumb for treating muscle injuries: ice within 48 hours and heat therapy thereafter.

Yogurt is the new rice

Yogurt just beat rice to become my new number one comfort food, at least for now. For a southern Chinese girl, that means a lot. It is our habit to eat rice in every meal, and it is a part of our lives.

Recently I started to have frequent upset stomach. No matter what I ate - home-made or otherwise - my stomach would be unsettled afterwards especially after lunches. Other than that my health was fine: I kept exercising, had normal sleep, and no other abnormal problems.

I pondered about it for a while, read some books about healthy-whole food diet, but couldn't find any answers there. I even thought about seeing medical help.

Last weekend we went shop at the local Indian market. I looked at the pint size plain yogurt in the refrigerator and wondered if that would help to calm my stomach. Well, yogurt is basic, so it can't be any harm. So I bought a pine of plain yogurt and just to try it out.

I never really like yogurts, because most of them were too sweet. The plain yogurt wasn't very bad. I ate 3-5 table spoons of plain yogurt everyday for the last few days, and amazingly, my stomach was fine ever since! I could even eat at restaurants and no problem. It worked like magic.

Indian buffets always include some kind of yogurt side dishes, and as a habit, my Indian friends always eat it to to accompany their food. Now I know the reason for it and I will eat yogurt everyday religiously.

There is a reason why people say yogurt is a super food.