Aloha 2011

Day twelve-  

Last moonset of the trip. Awesome waves again this morning.

 

Today we have to be out of our condo by 11:00 a.m. but not at the airport until after 8:00 p.m. So we plan to spend afternoon driving around and killing time while we keep an eye on our car and luggage. 

We went for our walk before sunrise this morning and spent the rest of our time doing laundry and packing and listening to the ocean while we work. We've managed to fit everything back into our bags! We've tossed all our restaurant left-overs loaded the last of the dishes into the dishwasher. We didn't finish all of our eggs, veggies and juice and we left those in the fridge. We'd like to think the condo cleaners will take it home and use it, but it will probably just get tossed.

Ready or not (mostly not),  land of winter- here we come.

 

Aloha 2011

Day eleven-

We started today by watching some nice waves. Then we went on our usual morning walk along Ali'i Drive and the ocean.

This is the seawall that we walk by at the far end of our walk. The barricades are always there to warn people that waves might pop over the wall and get them. The sidewalk there is almost always a little wet, and sometimes a lot wet. We walk to the far end of the seawall, cross the street and walk back along the road past shops and restaurants. The walk from the condo to the far end of the seawall and back to the condo is about 2 1/4 miles.

After that we spent today just hanging out, thinking about packing but not doing much about it, blogging, emailing and reading. We went for another walk in the early evening before we made a stir-fry dinner with the broccoli and some leftovers in our fridge. 

There were several of these little birds by the condo when we left for our walk

This is another stretch of Ali'i drive, closer to the condo. Nice waves this evening.

Enjoyed another pretty sunset. Then we watched whales breaching just outside the bay as dusk settled in. Nice end to the day!

Last sunset of the trip

Aloha 2011

Day ten- Today is another farmer’s market day. We also found a new shave ice shop. SF’s favorite shop went out of business a few days ago and this one will take it’s place for now. Not the best location so I suspect it will be out of business next time we come. Too bad. They have a clever idea for their little shop. In addition to shave ice and smoothies, they sell frozen yogurt by the ounce. You get your yogurt cup and fill it with whatever yogurt and toppings you want in whatever amounts you want. Then they weigh it and tell you how much to pay. They even have a soft-serve sorbet. Hope they make it until we come back.

We connected with an acquaintance from Etna, CA who now lives in Kona and made plans to have dinner with her at Huggo’s tonight. Then we got a call from an organic vegetable farmer (thanks for your help on that DD) who said that this afternoon would be a good time to come check out his farm. So off we went to Waimea. Again.

The farm was interesting and we had a good visit there. He grows several kinds of lettuce, cabbage and broccoli. His is not one of the farms that serve the restaurant community. He sells to Whole Foods and a couple of other big buyers. 

We talked about his challenges, his organic strategies, his propagation techniques, his family, politics, etc, etc. Then he sent us off with some of his lettuce and broccoli. Yum!

Here is a picture of one of his lettuce fields, with a crew doing some weeding

We got back to town just in time to change our clothes and meet our friend for dinner. We had a really nice visit, plus good food and service. And we had a nice table by the water where we watched another great sunset.

 

Aloha 2011

Day nine

Tuesday in Kona is always a temple day for us and that’s what we did today. Here is a picture of the orchids near the entrance to the temple.

We came back to the condo, changed our clothes and hit the road to go to Hawi, a tiny town on the northern end of the island. There are a lot of artists up there and we enjoy browsing the shops.

As we turned at a highway junction, I noticed a sign advertising a woodworking competition/exhibition about a mile away. Lucky us! The show was right next to one of our favorite restaurants and we had a little bite for lunch before we checked out the woodwork.

When we walked into the little gallery, there was the cabinet that SF had admired in Hilo. It was a traditional Japanese Tea Cabinet. It was amazing. Every surface, inside and out, was smooth as glass and the woodworker had done it all with a traditional Japanese wood plane and not one bit of sandpaper. So, so beautiful! So, so expensive! But when we went back to admire it later, it was gone; purchased by someone with an extra $6900 and space for an exquisite piece of woodcraft.

There was lots of other beautiful woodwork to enjoy, and then we headed for Hawi. We browsed our favorite shops for a while and then headed back for Kona.

We stopped in Waikoloa and decided to eat at Roy’s. So tasty. We usually eat at the Roy's in Waikiki on our way home, but this year we aren't going to O'ahu, so we're glad there is a Roy's on the Big Island. It's definitely worth your time if you ever find yourself near a Roy's.


Somebody's Father figured out how to take some shows from our TiVo and hook his laptop to the TV, so we enjoyed a little TV before bedtime while we listened to the surf.

Aloha 2011

Day eight- We snorkeled again today. Had another ‘best ever’ time. Then we came back to the condo and showered and just hung out until dinner. Tried the Restaurant Kai. Not terrible, but didn’t live up to our expectations.

Aloha 2011

And here's a little something that we thought a certain smoked meat fan would enjoy. Right in downtown Hilo. Who would have thought?

Aloha 2011

Day seven- We caught the 9:00 block of meetings at the local chapel and then spent the day lazing around. We grilled steaks (that stayed frozen all the way from home) and ate them with more farmer’s market salad and brown rice that we also brought from home.

We brought our stove-top popcorn popper with us this year and we popped some corn and spent the rest of the day watching videos. A fun, relaxing day that ended with a beautiful sunset that we watched from our lanai.

Aloha 2011

Day six- This is our new adventure day. We hit the road early and headed down to the southernmost part of the island. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park increased in size by 50% in 2003 when the park service partnered with Nature Conservancy to purchase a large ranch by the park. The Kahuku unit of the park is mostly undeveloped, but now open to the public for a few hours a day on weekends. We reached the Kahuku entrance just as it was opening for the day and spent several hours hiking across lava fields, hills and pasture land, and driving up some rugged stretches of road. It is beautiful there. We went along a primitive airstrip for a little while. The surface sparkled, and when we looked closer, we could see that it was covered with olivine, a green, glass like sand. So cool. We also went past the remains of some support buildings for a secret military radar station, a cinder quarry and out to a sunken, forested crater.

 

Someone had a little extra fun building this cairn

 

View from the top of a hill

 

Flowers on the hill. Too bad they're invasive species.

 

Some hitch hikers from the invasive clover. I had to change my socks before we went into an uninfested area of Kahuku

 

Looking across the sunken pit crater

After we left Kahuku, we ate our PBJs, tangerines, chips and fresh-baked cookies while we drove into the other section of the park to take our tradition stroll through the Thurston Lava Tube. I love this little walk because there are so many birds singing in the rainforest here. It’s especially nice early in the day when there aren’t so many people around.

We also made our traditional stop at Akatsuka Orchid greenhouse. So many pretty flowers. Somebody’s Father (SF) likes the tiny Oncidium orchids. 

I love the  spicy cloves and cinnamon fragrance of the Cattleya hybridMaui Plum ‘Volcano Queen.’

We hadn’t been to Lava Trees State Park for a few years so we took a side trip to see how the park renovations turned out. It’s a beautiful little park.

The ground in Hawaii can be uneven and I’m frequently looking down to watch my step. Sometimes it pays to look up! I almost missed this cool silhouette.

When we passed through Hilo we stopped to look for a cabinet that SF had admired. The cabinet was gone, but we noticed a little restaurant supply store where we did some fun browsing.

We stopped in Waimea to eat dinner at the Red Water Café again. We had eaten there on our first trip around the island on day 3. It used to be Fujimama’s and I’ll miss the wonderful food of the old restaurant, but Red Water Café has nice food and they won SF’s loyalty with their excellent sushi rolls. On day 3 he had a delicious roll of tempura Ono- cucumber roll wrapped in soy paper with crab on top. Even I thought it was tasty, and I’m not a fan of rolls. I don’t care for nori- a seaweek wrapper, but I liked the soy paper wrap. Tonight I had a nice Thai Caesar salad with calamari, shaved root veggies and lemongrass-Caesar dressing. Yum!

Aloha 2011

Day five- We started today by sleeping in. Tough work, but somebody's gotta do it. Then we went for a long walk through the National Historical Park by the boat harbor and out across a long stretch of beach. We saw one smallish turtle from a short distance.

 

Don't know what crawled out of this hole, but I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a beach gopher. My vote is some kind of crab.

After a shower we went out running errands, visiting favorite shops to see what was new and restocking our supply of macadamia nuts. We also did a lot of just driving around the back roads. We stopped for lunch at a new burger shop called ‘Ultimate Burger.’ They use local, organic ingredients whenever they can- beef, mushrooms, tomatoes, fruits and greens. It was tasty, but pricy for a burger. I’ll be interested to see if they are still there when we come back next year. We also stopped at a local quilt/needlework store and I got stuff to make a little wall hanging. 

 

The colors and fabrics won't be quite the same, but it's going to be something like this. Just not as professional and perfect.

 

Neither one of us was very hungry this evening, so we ate in for dinner, snacking on left-overs and fruit.

And btw- there are lots of nice things about staying at a nicer, well-maintained condo complex. This morning when I looked out by the pool and BBQ cabana, there was someone out there scrubbing all the BBQs. Someone does that every day. Nice!

Aloha 2011

Day four-

Today was snorkel day. Since Somebody’s Father doesn’t swim, and Somebody’s mother only swims well enough to say she sort of swims, we don’t go off snorkeling on our own. We have a snorkel cruise we really like and always use. So bright and early we headed out to Keauhou, just down the road a few miles, to catch the Fair Winds II morning snorkel/BBQ. Sun lovers head for the upper deck of the catamaran and we head for the shade in the airy main-deck cabin. Conveniently, this is also where the fresh fruits, eggs, muffins and bagels are located. The boat was only half full this time. Nice. We had a great time seeing all the fish and coral, and then enjoyed our grilled burger lunch. Tasty.  
Somebody’s Father had such a good time he decided to do it again next week.

Napping after snorkeling and lunch

After lunch swimmers and sliders.

We got back to the condo with plans to have a lazy afternoon and evening. We’d been treated to the ‘fragrance’ of the durian the night before, wafting into the condo on a tropical breeze until we’d closed the lanai doors to go to bed. No doubt every passerby also got to 'enjoy' it while we were gone snorkeling. And there it was, calling to us as we opened the lanai doors when we got back.

I decided we didn’t need to wait one more day to test out the creamy, custardy flavor. It was time to take back the patio! We’d been relieved to find that our car smelled just fine once we unloaded the durian the night before, but I didn’t want to bring it into the condo, so I took a knife out onto the lanai and did the deed there. 

We each took a tiny taste and agreed there was some potential there, but we couldn’t get past the smell and it’s affect on our sense of taste. I wrapped up that culinary adventure, tied it in a plastic bag and Somebody’s Father marched it straight out to the dumpster.

  We went turtle watching on the beach by our lanai for a while. They are always fun to see and watch.

 

We ate in for dinner, grilling shrimp from Costco and enjoying it with a salad made with things from the farmer’s market and ciabatta with balsamic and evoo brought from home. Dessert was cookies made with homemade frozen dough that we had brought from home, too. Tasty.

Aloha 2011

Day three- Today we drove around the island, visiting three farmers markets and checking out a few favorite shops along the way. In Hilo, we picked up a durian, a fruit that we had never seen or heard of before. Then we had lunch with an acquaintance from the Utah Dept of Ag, who recently moved to the Big Island to work with local beekeepers. We went to her office to see the work she is also doing with invasive pests. Next we stopped at the local extension office to see how it’s done in the islands. We took the saddle road between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea to get back to Kona and enjoyed a really nice sunset. 

  

There is plenty of snow on Mauna Kea right now but the telescopes kind of blend in in this picture.
 
 
And by the way- DD was disturbed to hear about our durain and the fact that we had it in our car. “No problem,” I said. “We have it in the trunk.” Not good enough, according to DD. There are evidently two groups of people when it comes to the durian: those who have a deep appreciation for the fragrance, and those who find it overpowering and disgusting. It's politely referred to as distinctive, strong and penetrating. We can attest to that. It was penetrating, in a rotting flesh sort of way. Somebody’s Father considered ditching the thing beside the road somewhere, but curiosity about it's reputation for amazing flavor won out and we ended up driving all the way back to Kona with it (for three aromatic hours),rolling down the windows frequently and then putting in on the lania to ripen. As far from the door as possible.  Here is an exterior view of the durian. And yes, it is as fearsome and spiky as it looks. The market vendor had to wrap it in a thick layer of newspaper so that we could carry it.

 

Stay tuned for more on our adventures with the durian later.

Aloha 2011

Day two- This is our temple day. After a session at the temple, we did our grocery shopping, stopping at Costco, Safeway and a local grocery store. We spent most of the afternoon doing that. Dinner was at Huggo’s, one of our favorites- nice food, good service and pretty sunsets.

 

Aloha 2011

I know, I know! We've been here for 8 days and not one post.

We'll have to do something about that. And eventually, you'll be all caught up. I make no promises on how far off 'eventually' is.

Day one- Our trip started with a little pre-flight excursion in the Sky Club. We had arrived at the airport early to put MoreBacon on her flight and had a few hours to kill. Then we figured if we were going to pay for internet so that Somebody's Father could exchange vacation hours for work hours and save the vacation hours for later, we should put the internet fees toward a Sky Club membership- internet, food and comfy chairs included. And that is how we ended up computing and eating muffins, bagels, Greek yogurt and juice while we waited for our flight to board.


The flight to LA was full, but on the LA-Kona flight we were next to an empty seat and enjoyed spreading out. We landed in rainy weather, got into our condo and unloaded all our stuff (frozen food still frozen, btw. One of the perks of flying in the winter). Then we wandered along the waterfront looking for a place to grab a little dinner.