Strike one!

So yesterday I went to the nursery with M and spent the entire time there. At first, we just sat by ourselves on one side of the cultural hall and M eventually found a car to play with, but still off by himself. When they got out the play dough, I helped him make his way over to the activity table and he stayed pretty involved after that. By now you are probably wondering why his isn't on the Grand Nana blog. The reason is that it's really all about me!
 
You see, for the last 15 or 20 minutes of nursery, they were doing bubbles and I was helping. At one point, I decided to make a wide arc of bubbles for the kids to chase. So I swung the wand in a big, wide swoop just as one of the nursery leaders walked past me from behind.

I plastered her, hard, right in the face with my gloppy, goopy hand- clenched into a fist around the drippy bubble wand. Sure hope I don't see her sporting a shiner next week.


I can't remember what appalling thing I did in October, but I'm sure I must have done something. What with this, and the full-on mooning of that unsuspecting woman at the Grand Canyon in September, it's been a really stellar autumn for me. Look out New York, here I come!

How high are the mountains, how wide is the sky, how narrow are the lanes?

  from Somebody's Father

Living in the west is usually a great experience. When people come to visit our office they are totally blown away by the mountains right out our door. To be really honest it is stunning to see the mountains rise up right against the city. While we are at about 4500 feet a 12,000 foot mountain still means 8,000 feet of what appears to be almost straight up. I guess anyone from a place without mountains would be impressed. Even if you come from a place with mountains like California, these are so close to the city they seem bigger.

    Also in the west is the low humidity. Of course that means less rain, more irrigation and very few of the days where sweating provides no relief from the heat. Low humidity also brings one other amazing thing. The last few days we have had almost perfect blue skies from east to west, north to south. My office window is perfectly positioned to see the highest mountain in the area with 180 degrees of beautiful blue skies.

    Another western thing is our love is our cars and given a lower population density we glory in our roomy freeways. But, not so much right now in our town. They are rebuilding 25 miles of freeway and by my calculation my exit is right in the middle of the project.

    But you have to give them credit, they have tried very hard to minimize the pain and suffering during the 3 year construction project. The project is 14% complete and every day is a new adventure as they continue to move the traffic from one side of the road to the other.

    They seem to have settled the traffic on the West side for about 5 miles of my commute and on the East side for the other 3 miles. Now you have to understand they have made the road a bit wider (10 feet or so) but they now have 6 lanes of traffic (three in each direction) where three lanes were just a few months ago.

    Bottom line: the lanes are not large size or even medium size. I drive a little Prius but sometimes it seems like the lane is 6” smaller than my little hybrid car. Needless to say I always stay in a side lane so I can’t get caught between two trucks. This nightmare scenario has played out for me in the past when I occupied a center seat from Boston to Salt Lake sitting between 2 people who could only very kindly be described as “generous”. I didn’t like it on the plane and am pretty sure I wouldn’t like it on the freeway.

    So, every day I enjoy the beautiful mountains and the vast blue sky outside my office window, with bookends of terror on each end as I commute 9 miles through the ever changing landscape of construction.

Walking- It isn’t just for fun any more

    I don’t remember when I started to walk. I am pretty sure I was there but no remarkable memories are recalled. There is some anecdotal evidence that I must have been very enthusiastic about the effort since some family members referred to me by the nickname “horsepower.”

    However it happened, I did get to the point where walking has become one of the joys in my life. As far back as I remember, walking is something I can do well. I can remember being 3 or 4, slipping out of my bed at home, sneaking out of the house and walking the 50 or so yards over to my Grandma’s house. I knew she would be up, even if my mother wasn’t. At that early age walking gave me independence at least equal to, if not greater than, the independence I later felt when the first driver’s license was in my pocket.

    Growing up on a farm gave wonderful opportunities to walk. Everything is so open on the farm. From the house to the “bottom” of the home place was a half mile of wide open fields. When I was little, sometimes I would be sent to get the dairy cows and bring them to the barn to be milked. This would mean walking to the field where they were, finding the one farthest away and encouraging them to head up the lane to the dairy barn. It easily was a half mile round trip on a good day. I didn’t appreciate the joy of walking (in fact I may have been known to complain from time to time)

    As I got older moving sprinkler hand line was one of my big tasks. I was good at it. After all, it is just walking, picking up a pipe, walking, putting the pipe down and walking. No great mental effort required (except to keep the line straight) and lots of walking. A great combination for me.

    Now, when I look at my Dad having trouble walking, worries come into my mind. I remember my Great-grandmother in a wheelchair and my Grandmother in a wheelchair when we went to visit her as I was older. I have to face the possibility that I may have problems walking as the years continue to pile up. Some days my legs hurt, sometimes they even wake me up. So, I worry.

    There is a very positive side to this “hyper sensitivity” to everything leg related. I have discovered that if I get out and exercise every day, my legs hurt less. So, I push myself to get out, even on those days I would rather stay in bed for just a little longer.

     I don’t know how many years I will continue to have the joy of waking with my sweetie up the shady canyon trail, along a beach in Hawaii, or down into, across and up out of the Grand Canyon, but I am not taking one day for granted.
--Somebody's Father

And now...a few words from Somebody's Parents (AKA somebody's father)

Blogging and NPR Pledges
This is pledge week at our local public radio station. It appears that the preferred technique to solicit funds is a very technical process called “guilt”. Today’s afternoon drive time guilt message solicitation was from the “This American Life” host Ira Glass. Ira’s piece pointed out the fact that 9 out of 10 NPR listeners do not pledge to the station they enjoy.

    He has decided that NPR was going about it all the wrong way. He said his new plan was to just be happy with the current one supporter in 10 by reducing expenses to 1/10 their current levels. To illustrate he called the newspaper in his home town of Chicago and ordered 10 papers offering to pay for one. Obviously that didn’t fly, so he concludes that more people need to pledge to NPR. He conveniently gave the phone number to call and pledge your financial support at the end of his piece.

    Someone close to us has requested an increase in the rate of blogging. They even threatened to withhold their witty, imaginative and entertaining blogs as “hostage” until others delivered new blog entries. Obviously, they could develop a career as a NPR pledge shill if they weren’t totally invested on the path to become an attorney. (similar but slightly different career paths)

    But as I do with NPR near the end of the pledge drive when I cave and pay up, I have buckled under the social stress and pressure. Here is a blog entry. There actually may be others tucked away in my keyboard if I can just find them.

    So for the rest of you, get with it and BLOG. While you are at it, you better pledge to your local NPR station as well. Sophisticated entertainment like “Wait, wait, don’t tell me” doesn’t come cheaply you know. (Well maybe it is cheap, but there is an unwritten obligation)

    I only wish the my actions were motivated by my altruistic desire to blog and not the intense guilt heaped upon me by some unnamed “bacon” blogger.

Closing in on the end

Hello readers!

Lots has happened since my last post. I've been to New York and back, discovered two inches of water in my basement when I returned, tended to all the details of getting rid of the water and getting things back to the way they were before, spent three days at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival and hiked across the Grand Canyon from rim to rim. And I might tell you about all of those things, but not today.

Today, after four weeks of having six beds, two dressers, a desk, assorted household goods, eight doors, several extra dining chairs, a large, old TV and miscellaneous food storage items crammed into our family room, we finally got the replacement carpet installed so that we can start putting some of the stuff back where it belongs.

We have to leave space around the edges of the rooms so that they can install the coving ('baseboard' made out of carpet). They are cutting and binding the coving today and tomorrow they will come and install the coving in two of the bedrooms. Then it's, "Hello family room and goodbye clutter." Whew!

I am determined to get rid of some of the stuff instead of putting it back (Anyone interested in some used kids paperback books?).

Wish me luck!

About that bruise on my leg

So I have been sporting a pretty impressive bruise on one leg, just below and to the side of one knee. The kind where I have to wear capris or long pants or a dress that is at least mid-calf length so that I don’t have to constantly explain “what on earth happened” to cause that big bruise.  It was really a bizarre case of one little thing leading to another. And a certain future lawyer finds the explanation of the “incident” so entertaining that I have been instructed to post it here for all to enjoy.

So last week, I went to Girls’ Camp. As the cook. Cooking meals for 150 people. For 5 days. But that isn’t where I got the bruise.

You see, Girls’ Camp cooking requires lots of advanced planning, shopping, preparation, cooking, freezing, etc. And I spent lots of time doing all that planning, shopping, preparation, cooking, freezing, etc. But that isn’t how I got the bruise.

You see, because I was so busy doing all that stuff for Girls’ Camp, a lot of other things went undone around the house and yard. A lot. And most of it is still undone. But one thing did get done, early in the morning on the day before Girls’ Camp.

You see, there is this shrub bed in the back yard, up against the house. And in this bed there is a nice drip irrigation system. And two days before Girls’ Camp, I could here a noise in the shrub bed, early in the morning. The sound of water spraying out under high pressure. I went out to check it and saw that a distribution head for several drippers had cracked and water was blasting away the soil near the base of a little tree that I planted last year. Clearly, something needed to be done. But that isn’t how I got the bruise.

You see, I didn’t have time to fix it right then, so I hurried into the garage to the control box to turn off the drip system. The garage was full of piles and boxes and coolers of Girls’ Camp stuff that I had to navigate my way through to reach the controller. But that isn’t how I got the bruise.

You see, I had to hand-water the potted plants that would have been watered by drippers before I went to church and turn the controller back on after church to water the rest of the yard. And I knew that no one would want to do that little watering job while I was gone. And I knew that my new poinsettia plant, and my big old poinsettia tree, and my one little rosemary plant and my two very large rosemary shrubs would not survive Girls’ Camp unless I did something about the problem. But that isn’t when I got the bruise, because I didn’t take care of it then.

You see, I waited until the day before Girls’ Camp to fix it. I dug out the parts that I needed and went out to the shrub bed, early in the morning, and unhooked everything from the distribution head. And I took the cracked distribution head off of the riser. And worked and worked to get the connectors all plugged into the head so that I could screw the head onto the riser and hook on the drip lines. And I leaned over the edge of the porch to screw the new distribution head onto the riser. And that is when that particular circuit turned on. And a large, tidy column of water rose into the air. And I backed up a little to get out of the way. And I was out of the way of the tidy column of water. But I wasn’t out of the way of all the very untidy water that hit the underside of the eave of the house and came splashing and splattering and pouring back down on me. And so I got out of the way of all that water. Quickly. Actually, so quickly that I kind of lost my footing as I stood up and started to lose my balance at the top of the porch steps (only two steps high). And as I staggered down the steps with water showering down around me, trying to keep my balance and avoid the water, my leg hit the corner of one of my big pots of rosemary. And after two or three seconds of something that must have seemed like a clip from a slap-stick movie, the action came to a stop with me, still on my own two feet, my 4’ potted rosemary plant completely off the porch and on its side at the bottom of the steps and water still showering down around me at 6:00 in the morning.

And that's how I got that bruise on my leg.

Dear fellow traveler

To the person who reached her destination yesterday only to discover that she was mysteriously missing a nearly-new looking athletic shoe:


It's under the drinking fountain by the women's restroom near the end of concourse D in Salt Lake City.

A classy Lady!

Today we got to use our Thursday tickets for the Statue of Liberty for the ferry and a tour of the base/monument and displays. Tickets to climb up into the crown are sold out weeks in advance, so we couldn’t reschedule that part. We spent so much time in the monument looking at things that we ran out of time to go to Ellis Island. Maybe we’ll have a chance again someday.

Looking back at Manhattan from Liberty Island

Replica of one of Lady Liberty's feet

The original torch

Looking up from the monument base into the inside of the statue

Liberty's shadow in the harbor

Headed back to Battery Park

After we took the ferry back to Battery Park, we walked over to the World Trade Center site and then over to Times Square to check it out and also have a “real New York dining experience” at a place called Junior’s. Good food, interesting people and classic New York cheesecake for dessert.

Then it was back on the subway to catch the LIRR back to Babylon.

Babylon, oh Babylon!

Here we are in New York. We were among the lucky few who were able to fly from SLC to JFK on Wednesday. Our flight was the only flight the entire day that wasn’t cancelled due to the big Northeastern Seaboard storm the shut down much of Washington, D.C., New York and points in between. Our flight was delayed for an hour, so we actually flew out just before 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, but we weren’t complaining. By the time we reached JFK, one runway was open and roads were being plowed. So things mostly worked out for us.

We arrived at our New York family's home (actually North Babylon, on Long Island) just in time to help finish up with shoveling the driveway. School was delayed for two hours, and the kids headed off to school when we were done.

After some visiting, and phoning to confirm our suspicions that the Statue of Liberty- our big event for the day- was among the many things closed due to the storm, we adjusted our plans and took the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) into the city to take a look at Brooklyn Law School and just get a feel for the transit system. We also took a peek at a little corner of Central Park, stopped in at the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue and headed back to catch the LIRR for the Babylon station.

Hats off and lots of appreciation to Emily, Lily and Jacob. The girls gave up their bedrooms for us and Jacob slept on the floor and let his sisters use the beds in his room. So after over 40 hours on the go, we finally headed to bed for a cozy and welcome night’s sleep

iPhone tip

In a pinch, when it's cold and you don't want to take your glove off, you can work your iphone with your nose. But it's a lot easier if you can use someone else's nose.

Chicago, Chicago!

Here are a few interesting pictures from Chicago:

That's right- our very own photo-op with Carl Kasell! (Eat your hearts out, "Wait, wait..." fans) Great fun. Gotta do that one again some time.


Part of the downtown skyline reflected on a massive scuplture in a park along Lake Michigan. That's me in the middle of the reflection.

Below are some pictures from a snow sculpture contest in another park further down the street. We were there before the sculptors were finished, but it was still pretty cool to see everything they were doing.






There was a dog sled demonstration next to the sculpture contest. The dogs were all so excited and eager to run and pull.

This guy and his dog are Chicago's only Iditerod finishers

It was a fun trip. I liked the part of Chicago where we stayed and I loved, loved, loved the public transit.

Here's a tip

Here's a little tip:

If you're having trouble sleeping, don't turn to a spell-binding mystery novel to help solve your problem.

You'll regret it the next day. Trust me.

Chicago

8 degrees. Feels like -4.

Friday, day twelve- Aloha 'oe

We stayed at the Waikiki Parc. Slept in. Walked down Waikiki beach. Repacked our luggage because we picked up a new carry-on suitcase. Then we checked out and drove out to the Dole Pineapple Plantation, a classic tourist trap with demonstration gardens, a huge maze that we’ve never gone in and a very large gift and snack shop with all things Dole and Pineapple. If you can think of it, Dole has found a way to put their name or pineapple logo on it.

We split a Dole Whip and then headed back to town for dinner at Roy’s. As we got closer to the Parc, where we had left our bags checked at the bell/valet desk, traffic was terrible and the tiny streets around our hotel were jammed with cars. A line of buses, bumper to bumper, nearly blocked our access to the hotel. A broken water main a few miles away had diverted traffic right down the street by the hotel.

We finally got down the little road and the valets said we could leave our car there while we went across the street to dinner. By the time we were done with our delicious dinner and Roy’s famous chocolate soufflé, traffic was a little better and we were able to make our way to the airport.

The beautiful fresh flowers in the ladies room at Roy’s. Typical of the entire restaurant.

By the way, the staff at Roy’s and at the Parc are great. Everyone at the Parc was professional and attentive, every time we needed something. And every employee at Roy’s says hello if you pass by them on your way to your table, and thanks you for coming if you pass by them as you are leaving. And the service was great between the coming and leaving, too. So impressive at both places.

Miles, the best valet/bell staffer in Honolulu

The plane took off in 75 degree weather at 10:15 p.m. Hawaii time and we arrived in chilly Salt Lake City at 6:50 a.m. Saturday morning.

Thursday, day eleven

We flew to Honolulu today. The handle on one suitcase broke when we got it from the luggage return.

There are lots of things to do on the island of Oahu- beach stuff, Pearl Harbor, Polynesian Cultural Center, snorkeling, hiking, gardens, watercraft thrill sports, museums, etc. There are also lots and lots of people. And lots of restaurants, bars, clubs and nearly limitless opportunities for shopping- from cheap to appallingly expensive.

We prefer the other islands, but the overnight visit is totally worth it because we get to visit with the H family, admire three amazing and darling kids and catch up on what’s new in their busy lives. It’s a tradition that’s probably coming to an end. Papa H is graduating from medical school this spring - hurray and congratulations!- and they’re just waiting now to find out where he’ll do his residency. We’re rooting for any place where we can still come for a visit now and then.

These pictures give you an idea of why we prefer the Big Island

Beach next to our condo in Kona

Waikiki beach in Honolulu

Wednesday, day ten

This is basically our last day of real vacation. We fly to Honolulu on Thursday morning to see friends and fly home on Friday night. Any day that you have to get yourself and all your stuff to and from an airport isn't really a vacation day.

Novell needed O for the morning so we swapped our early morning beach hike for an afternoon one. I took a few pictures and did some packing while O worked. One of the cruise ships was offshore today.

Our cell phones don't work in the condo, but the internet is great. When he is working and talking to Boston at the same time, O sits on the lanai with his phone resting at the far edge of the table where it can pick up the signal. There's no electricity out there, so we've stretched the power cord from a living room outlet, through the door and over to the computer on the little table that we've scooted to the side to put a little slack in the cord. One perk- the best office view around!

This is the little beach beside the condos. Perfect for kids and families.
You can see our condo building in the last picture.

The Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park is just north of the boat harbor. There are the ruins of ancient villages, areas with petroglyphs and a coastal trail that goes out along the beach from a fish trap to a fishpond and then inland across some lava fields. We parked our car at the trail head side of the parking lot and headed out.

We started here

And walked along here

And through here

And looked at petroglyphs here

To get here

and here

and here (another perfect little beach for little kids)

Then walked to the far end of this beach

Passing birds like this

And this turtle

Before we looked at sea urchins in tidal pools

And then we turned back and retraced out steps. Before we left the park, we talked to a ranger who told us that the turtle is a repeat visitor to the beach. She is exceptionally large. Her shell alone is 38” long.

We went to Huggo’s again for dinner. I had a nice little Caesar salad with local baby romaine lettuce, just like last time. O always has the heirloom tomato and sweet onion salad. Huggo’s has lots of nice fish dishes and they are famous for their teriyaki steak, too. Last time I had fish served with a yummy Hamakua goat cheese polenta. This time I went for the teriyaki steak and asked our server, Francisco (from Santiago), if he could get it for me with the kabocha squash risotto instead of the steamed rice. He did and it was nice.

There was a vog haze that made the sunset very colorful.

Tuesday, day nine

Today is another Temple day. Last Tuesday there were only a few people, but this time there are lots of people. We recognize some of the people we met at church and they recognize us. Traditional handshakes/kisses to the cheek are exchanged.

After the Temple, O spends a few hours at Novell, and then we decide to give the shop in Hawi one more try.

Novell West. . . Way, way west

We call the owner on her cell phone. Yes, she is feeling much better and is at her shop today. So we hit the road again. Just like our previous two trips to the area, there is an intermittent light and misty rainfall as we get closer. But since it is late in the day, the sun is low in the sky and shining through most of the time and we get to enjoy a spectacular series of rainbows as we approach the little town. As with most beautiful things, a camera can’t do it justice, but I have O pull over and give it a try anyway.





At times, the rainbow approaches an intensity somewhere between iridescence and neon brilliance, and for a few minutes forms a complete half-circle, touching the ground on both ends, and far too wide and close for my little camera.

We’ve pretty much decided against the Koa bench before we get to the shop, but get the Koa and driftwood floral stands that we admired and head over to Waimea for dinner on our way back to the condo. As we drive over the rolling pastures and ranchland between the two towns, we see our first double rainbow with the bows so close they touch and look like one big rainbow with a repeating series of colors. The camera can never catch what we see, and with no safe place to stop and take a picture in the winding road, we just admire it and make it a memory.

Monday, day eight- A whale of a tail

We spent the morning whale watching with Captain Dan. We’ve gone whale watching with him many times and always had a good time. This was another good excursion. From past experience, we knew how to snag our favorite seats above deck at the front of the boat.

All whale watches follow pretty much the same routine. Motor around looking and listening for signs of whales, and then stop and watch when you find one. Most times you’re lucky, and a few times your not. We were reasonably lucky this time. We saw several whales and spent time at each sighting to wait for them to come up again before moving on. At one point, Captain Dan cut the engines and put a hydrophone into the water, warning us that there probably wouldn’t be anything to hear. But we could hear one whale, quite a ways away. Not as spectacular as the recordings we’ve heard, but still a pretty cool real-life experience.

The other highlight of the cruise was seeing three flukes at once. We saw three whales together and they all started to dive at about the same time. Just as the first fluke slipped beneath the water the other two whales had their tails up, too. Sorry folks, no picture of that. If you’ve ever been whale watching, you know that most of your pictures turn out to be vast expanses of water with a tiny, shiny black spot somewhere if you’re lucky. I had decided not to try to catch everything with my camera, since it is mostly wasted effort. Even with a really nice camera, by the time you see the whale, and then find it in your viewfinder, the whale is frequently back under the water. My camera is a little pocket-sized cybershot. And at the time, I was peering between two people who had scurried to the front of the boat to stand in front of me with their cameras.

Typical whale shot- look carefully, there really is a whale there!

This is what another shot like that looks like after it's been cropped- a lot.

At one point, we were cruising past the opening to the harbor and noticed that there was a lot of dolphin activity so we paused there to watch the spinner dolphins for a while. They are so interesting to watch and were very close all around the boat so that we could hear them surface, breath and splash. Fun!

After the whales, we spent a little time with Novell and then headed up to Hawi (1-1½ hrs.) to look at a piece of furniture. Aargh! The shop we had browsed in on Thursday was closed. The shopkeeper next door said the owner was sick. We killed time by slowly, slowly browsing every other little shop in the tiny, tiny town of Hawi, and then headed to Waimea for dinner at Daniel Thiebaut’s. Nice food but not the greatest service. We also decided that this was the place where one of our credit cards went missing when we couldn’t locate it later in the week. Couldn’t convince the restaurant to check the places we thought they should check. Decided to let the cc company deal with it for us.

Sunday, day seven

We started the day with buttermilk pancakes at the condo and went to church 9:00 (We usually just have fruit from the farmer’s market for breakfast, and generally skip lunch, because we like to have dinner early while we watch the sunset, but we splurged with the pancakes today). Then O spent some time “at the office.” We ate the leftovers of different restaurant meals for a mid-afternoon lunch. In the late afternoon, we walked into town. They have a sort of street fair every third Sunday and close a section of the main drag, Ali’i Drive, through the old part of town. We saw several bands along the street and this one made me think of a certain lady I know who’s looking to make a career change. She used to be quite the drummer, so I thought I’d offer her this little bit of inspiration.

Great climate, casual dress code and you can set your own hours!

Watched the sunset from start to finish while O communed with Novell.

Saturday, day six- Hellooo, Mama!

After our morning walk and some Novell time for O, we drove around to the Hilo side of the island. That’s right- again! But this time we went south around the bottom of the island to get there. Here is a picture of a turtle that we saw by our condo when we started our walk.

Our first stop was at Kimura’s, and old-fashioned, old-time fabric store in the little town of Kealakekua. It’s a fun shop, crammed with literally thousands of bolts of fabric filling every nook and cranny. The walls are lined with built-in wooden shelves with all sorts of notions and odds-and-ends (ranging from cookware to cosmetics), ancient and modern, familiar and mystifying, that are organized in a way understood only by the proprietors. No electronic or automatic anything (except the register and card-swiper). Everything is measured on a single little table by hand. If you want to see what fabric stores used to be like, before they became design superstores and craft centers, check out the H. Kimura Store- a genuine blast from the past. We got another piece of Hawaiian-print fleece (yes, there really is such a thing) and some tablecloth material. Then we headed on down the road. After another 30 minutes or so, we were back into the long stretches of bleak, barren lava that cover so much of the western and southern part of the island.

Shortly before reaching Naalehu, we could see South Point, southernmost point in the United States, through the vog (volcanic smog), and just faintly make out part of the wind farm there. Then we pulled in to town and stopped at the Naalehu Bakery, southernmost bakery in the United States. We had a little local ice cream and hit the road again, driving past the southernmost Post Office, the southernmost church, the southernmost...well, you get the picture.

We stopped in Volcano National Park for a quick walk through the Thurston (Nahuku) Lava Tube. It’s always a nice little hike because of the rainforest birds that are always singing. Their songs echo and fill the secluded little pocket of trees and ferns (We tried recording their songs with our iPhones. Check back later to see if it worked). It only takes about 15-20 minutes to hike down, through and back up again. It’s hard to believe that the wet little rainforest tucked into the low area of the lava tube is just a few hundred yards from areas that are a lot drier and almost barren. It’s one of my favorite spots on the island.

After leaving the Park, we pretty much cruised right up through Hilo and along the Hamakua coast and over to Waimea again. This time we stopped in Waimea to have dinner at (insert the strains of the Heavenly Choir here....) Fujimamas. That’s right, they’re back! (Yes, this is another food posting. Part of our fun when traveling is eating at favorite restaurants. It’s amazing we don’t have to hire someone to strap us to furniture dollies and roll us around town while we’re here) Anyway, back to Fujimamas. They’re an Asian fusion and sushi restaurant. We were disappointed to see that they were no longer open in Kona last year. Then we heard from our hiking guide that there was a nice restaurant in Waimea called Fujimamas. Our ears perked right up! Apparently the owners were tired of commuting from Waimea to Kona for work every day, so they closed the restaurant in Kona, spent a few months looking for a location closer to home and then reopened in Waimea. They had actually been in Tokyo before Kona and Waimea.

We split some wok-seared asparagus and a shrimp/ avocado roll. Then O had a tasty ahi entrée and I had an amazing seafood chowder- shrimp and scallops in a velvety sweet corn, coconut and lemongrass “bisque.” Absolutely, amazingly onolicious! I actually toyed with idea of getting some as takeout a couple of days later, when we were in town again, but restrained myself.

After dinner, it was another drive through the dark, with more “Wait, Wait...”

Friday, day five

Today we had planned to go to the Vanilla Farm on the Hamakua Coast (northeast) for the “Vanilla Experience Lunch and Tour” and then we were going to drive down south of Hilo for a boat ride out to see the lava from the ocean side before we came back to Hilo to eat at one of our very favorite restaurants, Café Pesto, in the S. Hata building right in town on the bay. We decided to cancel the boat tour because the lava had stopped flowing into the ocean after a small earthquake a couple of weeks ago and hadn't resumed yet. Maybe next year. But that did take off the pressure for dashing from the farm to the boat.

Our day started with a little Novell time for O, and then we headed up through Waimea and around and down the Hamakua coast.

We enjoyed our time at the Vanilla plantation. Lunch was delicious- vanilla everything. We enjoyed “orange-vanilla marinated chicken breast and caramelized onions atop herbed focaccia bread with Vanilla-Mango Chutney aioli, Way South West roasted red potatoes, farm fresh organic greens with Vanilla-Raspberry Vinaigrette, crumbled feta and Vanilla-Honey-Peppered Pecans, Vanilla Lemonade and Hawaiian vanilla bean ice cream." The grower talked to us about his farm while we ate. Then we went down to one of the shade houses to see how they grow their vanilla. Tasty and interesting visit.

We didn’t go into the shade houses that had blooming or fruiting vines, but here are pics from a house with vines that are about a year from production. Vanilla orchids are an understory plant, climbing on trees where they are partially shaded. The pvc stands take the place of the trees and give the vines a place to climb.

On our way down to Hilo, we made a stop at Akaka Falls State Park for our traditional hike to the falls. To get there, you take a road through the little, tiny town of Honomu and out across the abandoned cane fields where there are now a few houses and small farms. You would never guess there is this fabulous little park because it is actually a ravine out in the middle of the old sugar cane fields and you can’t even tell there is something there when you reach the parking area. Once you leave your car and start down the trail, though, it is a completely different world with lush tropical vegetation covering the walls of the ravine, and smalls streams, gentle cascades and mini-falls all along the trails. Every step of the way, you can hear the gurgling, trickling and burbling of the water that is draining into the ravine. There is another nice waterfall along the trail called Kahuna Falls, but we didn’t take any pictures of it this year. Here are a few pictures of Akaka Falls from our hike this year.

For the past couple of years, the falls trail has been partially closed while they renovated the trail. Finally this year, we were able to walk the entire loop trail again.

We had time to kill when we got to Hilo so we drove on through and out to Akatsuka’s Orchid house (on the road to Volcano National Park) to look around before dinner. There are always interesting things to see there and you can look around for free (sorry, orchid junkies, but we didn’t take any pictures there this year). Then it was off to Hilo and Café Pesto.

Enjoyed and early dinner at Café Pesto. They have absolutely the best calamari appetizer ever- thick, meaty pieces of coconut-crusted calamari on an arugula/won bok and pickled ginger slaw with a honey-mustard dipping sauce. O has been anticipating this for months. The portion is generous and as usual, he had the calimari appetizer and one of their excellent, local-fresh salads to make a meal of it. I had my favorite, the half-moon shrimp nachos with a local sweet corn relish in a mild chili dressing.

The nachos are actually flat, crispy wonton wrappers topped with smoked mozzarella, shrimp and cilantro sour cream. Spoon a little corn relish on each nacho and Mmmmm! It’s just amazing. Pesto’s is also known for their fabulous pizzas and they have assorted pastas, salads and a few meaty dishes as well. A little upscale, but worth it! We left with a piece of their coconut tart with vanilla cream sauce to enjoy later. A very foodie day.

We made the drive back around and through Waimea, at the bottom of the northern part of the island and down into Kona in the dark, listening to “Wait, Wait....Don’t Tell Me!” podcasts, laughing and enjoying the lights of the different small towns and resorts along the highway.