Monday, November 30, 2009

kauai 2009 :: overcome

i was overcome with awe whenever i saw sunsets like this one.

i decided to camp at anini beach the night of november 9th. so i walked over there with my pack and plopped myself down at the beach. (which i later realized was the wrong side of the beach...the side no one camps at).

good thing i struck up conversation with a nomadic hippy collecting seashells. we sat next to each other while she told me her story. when her partner met up with us, i asked them if i could go with them to their campsite to set up camp. they gladly welcomed me - a stranger - to their situational 'ohana when we arrived and i was welcome into a group of people i don't normally find myself spending time with: nomads, permanent campers, alaskan ganja farmers, homeless, hippies, travelers, ... except, despite our varied backgrounds, what we all had in common was that
we are all explorers in search of meaning, adventure, fun, ... pieces of ourselves.

let me show you some of what i saw and a couple folks i met ::

i set up shop here.


this is where dear girdwood #2 was set up. why girdwood? b/c there were at least 5 people from the small town of girdwood there at the same time. trippy, no?

saw old beauties with exposed roots

here's bonnie from washington, a fellow adventurer. she is in love with kauai. she's 72 and still very much alive & well. she's blind in one eye but can see more clearly than some who have sight in both eyes. bonnie, her traveling companion april, and i spent the most of the next day together. they generously showered me with rides, time together, good eats, honesty, and laughter. then...we departed ways.

met a little one who has quite an interesting pair of parents who birth him into the world. they welcomed me to eat with them that night (along with half the campsite).

the sun begins to set.

view from inside the tent at sunset.

at way-too-early-o'clock, the campsite patrol folk came by to check for my permit.
i pay my $5 and enjoy the rest of the sunrise. the moon was still out!

and this is what it looked like a little later in the morning.


and so it was...
beauty at anini.
'ohana.
awe.

3 comments:

  1. Definitely a "light coming through" flow in all of these. What I have noticed is that all of the people you photograph seem to be lit from within - not the lighting of a good photographer or a photoshop program - but the light of a soul.

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  2. I was in Girdwood!

    We went hiking, I hung over the river, got motion sick and threw up, left my friends at the river to pack raft and I hiked back alone yelling out for bears every 10 seconds. I got lost in the Alaskan wilderness and had to hitchhike back to my car. Found my friends after exploring an old goldmine and shared some good deep dish pizza. Good times.

    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139800&id=591309433&l=c260fae32a

    ReplyDelete
  3. felt like i was there with you -- thanks for the beautiful photographs and your insights...

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