The essentials

It has occurred to me that I keep meaning to talk of everyday life here on Kauai and I have yet to do so. I was cleaning my studio today and ran across a bunch of touristy publications with some good information on the island:
Nickname: the Garden Island
Population: 58,463 (2000 census)
Breakdown: 21,042 Asian, 17,255 White (haole), 5,334 Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 505 other, 212 American Indian, 177 Black, 13,938 Mixed or didn't respond (typical Hawaiian way--procrastination!)
Visitors: 16,000+ on any given day! (So, if I do my math right, that's nearly 1 in 5 people on the island are tourists!)
Size: 555 square miles (depending on tide)
Length: 33 miles
Width: 25 miles
Coastline: 90 miles
Highest Point: Kawaikini Peak (5,243 feet)
County Seat: Lihue (pop.~6,000)
Largest city: Kapa'a (pop.~9,000)
Ocean temperature: 72-80 degrees F
Geology: Oldest and 4th largest of main Hawaiian Islands. Formed approx. 5 million years ago by volcanoes dormant for hundreds of thousands of years
Local Paper: Garden Island

We have a Wal-Mart and a K-mart on the island; no Target. A few malls, though all are outdoor open-air. Between Lihue and the end of the road to the west there are 3 stoplights. The highest speed limit is 50 mph and there is no interstate or 4-lane highway, only the occasional truck lane up a hill. I spent part of my Saturday learning how to pronounce the name of the state fish: humuhumunukunukuapua'a (and I didn't even have to look up the spelling!). The Hawaiian language has 12 letters: a,e,i,o,u, and h,k,l,m,n,p,w. Though some Hawaiian words are used in everyday conversation, Filipino is more prevalently used (at least at work--isn't it odd that people from the Philippines are called Filipinos, with an F?). Everyone speaks pidgin, or loose English, where da kine is mo bettah, bra.

It's funny--Rausch came over from Oahu (she lives in a suburb of Honolulu) the other day and commented how different Kauai was. I think the shock has worn off and this is life, just in a different place. I wonder if I'll be amazed when I go back to Iowa at the Interstate and shopping malls and supermarkets. Gas stations where you can buy both gas and a candy bar. Food that I can afford and actually looks good to eat. A place where SPAM isn't worshipped (seriously, these people can't get enough of it!).

And one day, perhaps soon, I will find a decent map that will be worth posting. It's just so hard to find a good one...

To be a true dork, my sources were The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook by Doughty and Friedman and the October edition of the Essential Kauai publication. No, I will not put that in MLA format.

It's getting colder--was 60 on the way to work this morning. Lighted Christmas parade tomorrow in Lihue and houses are decorated with snowmen and Christmas lights. Performance evaluation at work yesterday--they're gonna keep me, so that's refreshing. And the corn is starting to die off, just in time for the new nursery to start flowering. It never ends...