I Visited Tropical Kauai Today From Fort Worth Texas Where It Is Not Tropical

I'd not heard from the Temporary Scrabble Queen of Hawaii, currently stationed on the island of Kauai, for a few days. I was worried she'd had a bad snorkeling encounter with a shark.

Instead she was busy hunting for the perfect puka shell necklace.

The latest message from Kauai did not torment me, too much, with mental images of tropical splendor, in dire contrast to my current state of frigidity in Arctic Texas.

I had asked the Scrabble Queen for the address of her tropical location so that I might make a virtual visit via Google Earth and possibly get a live snapshot of her snorkeling in her bikini. The Scrabble Queen did not know the exact address, but said she was across from the only Safeway on the island.

With that info it was easy to locate the location of the Scrabble Queen's latest Scrabble victory over me.

She was not out in the Pacific swimming when I visited. She was in the pool. Satellite images can make identifying small details a bit difficult, but I believe the Scrabble Queen is on the right side of the pool. And she is not in a bikini.

I also started off my day in a pool. However, there was no ocean to look at and no palm trees overhead and no 80 degree temperatures to keep me warm. It was below freezing, again, this morning in the Arctic Cold of Fort Worth, Texas.