As many of you know who communicate with us on FB, Jim and I have decided to stay in our condo in Waianae (it’s on the west coast of Oahu so it has a great sunset view). We feel the isolated location (about an hour’s drive from Honolulu), along with the warmth and humidity, is a much safer place to be than the Seattle area, which as you know is one of the USA’s biggest coronavirus hot spots.

Our Wainaiae visit began February 3rd and we are pretty sure we will be still be here throughout April and possibly May. And compared with our Snoqualmie Pass home where the ski area is closed, the snow is melting and it’s raining all the time, this is a much better place to be “sheltering at home.” I’ll share some thoughts and pretty photos as I’m moved to blog and I hope you will engage with comments and thoughts as well.

Before the quarantine we got to catch up on our scuba diving and heard some amazing whale sounds. We’ve heard them while we were underwater, and it was an exceptional experience. The whales were very close and we heard the sounds for the entire dive although we never saw them while we were underwater. However, when we got back on the boat they were only 100 yards away.

Our nickname for our condo building (The Hawaiain Princess) is “Camp Oahu” because its like a summer camp for older campers. It brings us great joy when we get to see our “snowbird” friends (mostly from Canada). This year we met two new friends: Stephen and Kaysi Kushner. The two of them are excellent pickleball players so they taught us how to up our pickleball game and we were able to teach them how to play bridge. As the virus spread and most of the public pickleball courts on Oahu were closed, we were still able to play on the private pickleball court here at our condo and often shared dinners at each other’s condos. But all good things come to an end eventually, and when Air Canada said it was going to stop flying to Hawaii for the next six weeks, they felt they had to go home. Now they are watching the snow melt in Edmonton, Alberta as they sit through their 14-day mandatory quarantine for Canadians returning to Canada from overseas.

Now we have transitioned to singles pickleball by ourselves, quiet meals and of course the beach and the water.

Jim and I braved Costco for some senior shopping last Tuesday. It was quite an experience, but ultimately successful. Although they were out of toilet paper we procured a giant container of hand sanitizer, lots of good food, and adult-beverage popsicles. Combined with the food Kaysi and Stephen gave us when they left and we have abundant food for quite a while.

In hindsight, Jim’s retirement couldn’t have been better timed. Jasmine and her team are doing a stupendous job running the family business in this time of uncertainty. Here is a link to the beautiful letter she wrote and sent out to our customers that was shared on social media.

Saul has continued to work on the SXSW (South By Southwest) program which of course was cancelled. He pivoted amazingly quickly to NXNW and brought bands and panels together in a virus-safe way, video recording them while they played at Seattle’s legendary London Bridge Studio. The music and informational panels start streaming tonight on line. You can watch through live streaming on FB on the Dick’s Drive in page. https://facebook.com/events/s/the-pnw-live-stage-a-concert-f/551793268783477/?ti=icl. Saul says you can get the best experience when you use an HDMI cable from your computer or “mirror” the broadcast onto your TV using an Apple TV box if you have one.

I’m sure many of you are incorporating more Zoom and video chats into your lives as are we. Today we learned how to use the app called “Bridge Base Online” and we were able to play bridge remotely with some of our Rainier Club buddies from Seattle. We hope to play more in the future. Let us know if you play bridge and want to join us and we’ll help you get set up.

That’s all for now. Stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy!

Love

Fawn & Jim

Quarantining in Wainaiae