Walk with me: the hula cat and the haoles.

Dateline: Poipu, where everything is perfection.

We’ve been here more times than I can count but we’ve never had a room with this view before:

So here we are, a million miles from everyday life. But at least one thing remains exactly the same: our morning walk. We’re lucky to see the ocean every morning on our walk at home, but not like this!

Oh, what a walk this is! We go two miles every morning and part of the fun is that much of the path goes through a residential area

so we get to meet the locals:

Almost like home, right?

We’ve also made friends with the pair of corgis that rule the neighborhood. Don’t tell Lily that we’re cheating on her!

And, speaking of cheating on our pets, on our first morning walk this visit we came to a place on the path that sparked a memory.

“Just past here is where we saw the cat!” I reminded the CE.

Each morning on our visit three years ago we were graced with a a greeting from a black and white kitty that seemed to wait for us to show up and say aloha. All he needed was a lei and some sway to be the perfect hula kitty.

Would he, could he, be waiting for us again?

We paused on the path, searching for him. No sign of a cat. We peered in the bushes. We dallied, hoping against hope. But no, no kitty. Well, it’s been three years plus a pandemic, we said. A lot of things could change.

Next morning we set out on walk number two.

Rolling waves, check.

Rooster and family, check.

Corgis, check.

We told ourselves not to hope for the cat, but we couldn’t help but slow on the path and look around. Sadly, neither hide nor hair of him.

But just as we turned to head back, I glanced to the side, and there, resting in a perfect meat loaf pose, he was! And, as if he had spent the last three years waiting just for us, these silly old haoles, he hula’d right over to hop into the CE’s lap:

Most people come to Hawaii to spend a vacation that’s as different from home as possible. Somehow we end up making ours as much the same as at home, where it’s all about the animals: chickens, dogs and a cat.

Ah what simple creatures of habit we are. Guess I’d better order a mai tai or two to mix things up a bit!