Day 6: Thursday, June 7, 2001
Horseback riding near Wailua

I woke early and called the Esprit de Corps Stables. Yes, there was room at the 1pm ride, so that was great. The woman seemed very friendly - she turned out to be Dale, the owner and leader of the trips. She asked me about my experience level and gave me the rates. It was $99 for a 3 hour ride, which was fine.

Walendo sent mail to the Ebay woman who was selling the rare book and paid for it via PayPal. It's great that he could do all this while away on vacation. We had a leisurely morning. I went to return the movies while Walendo showered. Then we went out to the beach, again taking the football. We threw it around for a while, having fun. Then we walked all the way up the beach. At the end of the beach, the river lets out into the ocean, so there's an interesting spot where the water is flowing in multiple directions in thin sheets over a bit of a sandbar. It was cool to watch. There was a man who was throwing a tennis ball into the river area for his dog to fetch.

Walendo at the beach outside our condo

The dog happily splashed into the water, fought the current, and grabbed the ball, eagerly returning it to his pal. Of course we thought of Libby and smiled. On the walk back, we passed some more surfers who also seemed to be learning. They were catching rides a bit more than the others had. Looked like fun.

When we got back to our end of the beach, we lay down on the straw mats we'd bought on the first day and relaxed. After a little while, we went into the water and played around a bit, and then let the sun dry us off. I love that feeling. After a bit, the sun went into some clouds and we decided to head in. I didn't want to get that much sun anyway. We continued relaxing out on our lanai, both reading our books.

Esprit de Corps horse stables

A little after noon, I got ready for my horseback riding. The stables turned out to be only about 15 minutes away. It was located well inland from the ocean, past a bunch of neighborhoods surrounded by pastures. The directions on the flyer were easy to follow. I arrived at the stable and was greeted by two workers who got me set up. They provide riding boots, which is nice, as well as a helmet, a little backpack and some water. I got signed up and waited, petting two of the three dogs wandering around and chatting with one of the other riders, Laurie. She lives in Southern California and has a horse of her own, so she clearly knew what she was doing. It turned out she had just gotten married this past weekend, and she and her husband Brent were there for a ride. He was still learning. There was another woman, Christy, who had ridden a lot in the past but hadn't done so in about 7 years. She quickly made friends with a pretty paint horse as we waited. It was just the four of us. Soon Dale, the owner and trail leader, arrived.

Dale & co. helping Brent get on his horse

When we were all ready, Dale gave us a little bit of instruction, demonstrating with a saddle straddled over a barrel, which was helpful. She seemed very pleasant and patient, so I felt comfortable. She seemed to remember each of us from our phone conversations, and adjusted her instruction to each of our level of experience. She went through it quickly with Laurie and Christy, and more slowly with Brent and me. I was glad to be reminded about how to hold the reins and how to steer. Then we all got mounted on our horses and went into the corral. My horse was named LuLu, and she assured me LuLu would take care of me. I felt pretty good getting back on the horse and LuLu was indeed responsive and easy to ride. We walked around the ring and then Dale led us through some stretching exercises on the horses.

Warming up in the corral

At one point I got a little too close to Laurie's horse and we had a little bit of a collision, so Dale told me to watch my position without scolding me. I tried to be more careful after that. We did a little trotting and I felt pretty good about staying in the saddle, and more so, getting LuLu to trot when I asked her. I was happy to be back on a horse. Brent was having a bit more trouble getting his horse to go where he wanted, so Dale spent some time working with him. He was good about persevering, saying "walk, walk, walk," as he kicked the horse to get it to go. I was glad I wasn't having that trouble.

Ellen on her horse, LuLu

When we were all ready, we walked up out of the stables and onto the road. After clopping along for a bit, we came to a horse trail that led into the forest. After walking a bit, Dale led us all into a trot and then quickly into a canter. It was great fun! The trotting came back pretty easily and then, as we transitioned to a canter, I bounced around a bit in the saddle but then quickly was able to get into a groove where I could hug the saddle and move with the horse. It felt wonderful! We stopped after a bit and Dale asked how I'd done and I kind of let out a little "yippee," saying it was GREAT! She and Christy laughed. We took off into a canter a few more times, and each time I felt like I was learning a little bit more. I was definitely exaggerating the motion to make sure I stayed in the saddle, but I started to get a glimpse of how you could relax and feel natural riding at that gait. I'd really love to do this more and get good at it. Somewhere in here it started raining a bit, but each of us had a rain poncho tied to our saddle, so we put them on and continued. It didn't really get in the way.

Another shot of Ellen on LuLu

After a ways, the trail started to get narrower and muddier. We walked the rest of the way in. As we went, Dale chatted with whomever was up front. It turned out that Brent was a landscape architect and was interested in the plants, so Dale told us a lot about the trees we were passing. She seemed to know a lot about it. At one point we stopped at a tree with what she called Rose Myrtle berries. Brent plucked some and gave them to the rest of us. It was really good! Sort of like a blueberry. Dale said they make pies from them. Dale offered to take pictures of us on our horses overlooking especially nice views. At one point, I was a little too far from the right spot for a picture. I had seen Laurie get her horse to back up, so I did what she did, pulling back on the reins and LuLu obeyed. I think Dale was impressed that I'd done that. She was very encouraging.

View from horse trail

As we walked, Dale called out instructions about where to go, and giving some advice as we went. We went through some deep puddles, one of them up to the horses' thighs! Dale asked us to try to stay on the muddier part to leave the less cut up land for the hikers. The horses (understandably) didn't want to go in the muddier areas, but I wanted to insist that LuLu go where I wanted, practicing staying in control. Dale also said it was okay to let the horses eat when we stopped, which I was glad about. It doesn't seem like a bad thing. She pointed out that it's part of why they don't mind going out on rides - they know they'll get snacks!

Another view from horse trail

Our route took us inside the crater at the center of the island. We looked down over some beautiful views. It was drizzling on and off and a bit overcast, but still you could see nice views. I was more focused on enjoying the ride than on enjoying the view, but every now and then I'd remember to look around me. Eventually, we turned around and went back the way we'd come. There were some steep muddy parts and now we were going back down them. I just tried to relax and let LuLu find her way. At one point, she wanted to hug the side and she lost her footing and slipped. I just stuck with her and didn't panic. I figure she knows what she's doing and isn't going to fall down. Brent also did quite well, and Dale had relaxed about making sure someone was in front and behind both of us. She could see that we'd all do just fine.

Yet another view from horse trail

We walked the whole way back. I was a little bummed we didn't canter again when we got back to the more open area, but I guess she didn't want to get the horses used to running on the way back. Instead, she continued to point out interesting plants and chatting away. She moved here about 15 years ago, after working as an executive somewhere back east. She said she's able to make a reasonable living and she enjoys what she's doing. She seemed very happy. When we got back, Dale said I'd done very well, and I believed her. It really was a pleasant day, and I enjoyed the feeling of going out with a small group where everyone was friendly and supportive of each other.

I drove back, relaxed and happy, eager to tell Walendo about it. When I got back, Walendo was trying to call me. He thought I'd be back an hour earlier, forgetting to calculate the time to get set up. I gave him the report. He said he'd basically been sitting on the couch and reading the whole afternoon. He'd brought a book called Last Call and he'd gotten caught up in it, racing through to the end, and he'd just started it the day before.

Kintaro Japanese Restaurant, Wailua

We decided to go out to dinner. Dale had mentioned that Thai Thai was a good place, and that it was going to be closing down soon, so we should go there soon. We looked on the web to find it, and it said it was in Kapa'a, so we got the address and went there. We hadn't noticed it before and we'd passed by there a lot, but we figured we'd try. Indeed, it wasn't there. So we decided to go to a Japanese steak and sushi place called Kintaro in Wailua. Once again, as we drove back it started pouring. We again sat in the car until it died down enough to race out. We made our dash when we could and sat down. I had an assorted sushi meal, but too many pieces were calamari-like, and the rest were only okay. Walendo got tempura which he said was also only okay. Oh well.

We went back to the condo and hung out, reading and napping. Later we watched an episode of ER that we hadn't seen during the regular season and then went to bed.

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