Family Walk

Back in Wisconsin we were very dedicated to our family walk. Even the snow and bitter cold winds did not deter us from our mile trek everyday before supper. Up until last night we had not taken 1 family walk in Hawaii...why? I think it's been a combination of factors: 1)It gets dark around 6-6:30pm and before we had power that meant we were eating and cleaning up for supper all before the darkness hit...not so easy doing dishes by candlelight. Now we have solar power so this issue has been eliminated. 2)Transition...we're still transitioning, adjusting, moving...the boys started school and that has been a huge adjustment/transition. Now we follow someone else's prescribed homework assignments and strict due dates. 3)Neighborhood Uncertainty. We were VERY comfortable in Wisconsin. We knew our land, street, and neighbors well and there was no fear on our evening stroll. Here we're not so certain of our hood...neighbors here cherish their privacy. We don't want to spook anyone, the Raye Family walks aren't exactly quiet. It's a time for the kids to get their sillies out before we settle down for the evening. It will probably take years for us to feel that same level of comfort that we had in Wisconsin, but we decided last night we were going to get back into our walking rhythm.

 Above Picture: The scene before we left on the walk...Stella had been painting with watercolors, Kyle had been eating oranges (local navals = yum!), and Reeve had cranked up the hand-crank radio to listen to some good ol' NPR...namely Car Talk which airs at 5pm here and Garrison Keilor's A Prairie Home Companion. Our 3rd Favorite radio show is a Wisconsin Public Radio show called Olde Time Radio Drama and we will try to stream that on the internet tonight for the first time since we left Wisconsin. Reeve is very hopeful it will work! He was a dedicated listener.

We started out going in the kind neighbor's direction...kind meaning he consistently mows as much of our lawn on the road that he can. The pothole in the above picture is a baby...a lot of the pot holes are small ponds that take up the entire width of the road.

 There were only a couple of times when we thought maybe a neighbor we didn't know would get spooked, but overall it was a very peaceful walk. Stella stopped to pick some roadside orchids along the way.

 There was a sliver of a moon and some planets as we turned around and headed back towards home.

 Hopefully we can continue our evening walking rhythm and explore the hood without spooking anyone.