Happy Valentine's Day from Hawai'i

To you, Dear Reader, and to yours, a most happy and sweet Valentine's Day. Aloha.

Pahoa---Days 6 & 7

On Friday we flew from Honolulu on Oahu to Hilo on the big island of Hawai'i. It was only about a 50 minute flight but in a sense, it was like flying back in time. The eastern side of the Big Island is sparsely populated and although Hilo is listed as the second largest city County. I read somewhere that Hilo is like Honolulu before the jets arrived and that about sums it up! I like the slower pace and the not-so-touristy feel.

Yesterday we spent a good part of the day in Hilo. We went to the Farmers' Market in the morning and then to the Chinese New Year celebration. Hilo's Farmers' Market is a big one, full of an amazing collection of booths and stalls, selling everything from fresh organic fruits and veggies to prepared foods and baked goods. There are jewelry stalls and Kona coffee is on sale. If you can't find something to buy here, you're just not trying!

We bought some rambutan on the advice of a couple of tourists and we certainly weren't disappointed. You cut through the outside shell to reveal a white inner fruit with a big seed in the middle. It is rather citrus in flavor....well, it's tropical and sweet and very tasty! I can highly recommend them even if I can't explain exactly how they taste!
Many of the food stalls were selling prepared foods of all descriptions. This beautiful lavender colored tapioca soup caught my eye, along with the "noddles" soup. It looked really good.

I bought a pound of Kona coffee from this fellow. His brand is called Buddha's Cup. How can you resist that?
There were lots of fruits and veggies one of which was an apple banana. I have no idea what that banana actually tastes like, but I could hazard a guess.....

Oh, how much I wanted to buy some mochi! I love, love, LOVE mochi but having made it myeslf I know it is about half sugar. Not exactly on this diabetics menu.

Everything looked so good! I could have just grazed my way though the market. I did get some locally made chevre, cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas that we had for our pupus before dinner.

But, to be totally honest, I think what "hurt" me the most were all the orchids for sale. Prices were between $ and $8 for the most gorgeous orchids I have ever seen. I was foaming at the mouth with orchid envy. If I lived here there would be no room for furniture in my house as it would be filled, from top to bottom, with orchids.

We had lunch at Puka Puka Kitchen, a tiny little restaurant we discovered yesterday, right smack dab next to the Hawaiian Candy Company (an evil shop if ever there was one). On Friday I had the lamb pita and it was fine. Yesterday I had the ahi don plate and it, too, was really tasty. VERY tasty. The salad that accompanies the main course is crisp and fresh and the tomatoes taste like vine ripened ones, something I hardly ever get anymore. (Even in summer in the Seattle area it's hard to find a vine ripened tomato.) I could happily eat my way through the menu at the Puka Puka Kitchen.

Nonie ordered the lamb pita the first day and the barbecued chicken pita yesterday. She is in complete agreement with me that the food here can't be beat. Nonie even offered to stand out front as their tout, funneling in passersby....but they don't need it. It's a constant stream of locals and visitors, coming in hungry and leaving full and happy.

Never did get a photo from the outside as I am always on the inside---eating!

After lunch and another stroll through the market, we headed off to the Chinese New Year celebration in Kalakaua Park. It's a beautiful park just a few blocks from the harbor and yesterday it was jammed with people, food booths, craft stalls and lion dancers!

There was a booth where you could get something written in calligraphy for good luck in the coming year. I got a slip of paper that reads "Great Prosperity, Great Wealth" or something close to that. The gentleman and lady who were doing the calligraphy were fun to watch. They were both very precise and careful but each had their own style.

On the drive back to our rental, there is a very beautiful section of road on Highway 132 (or maybe it's Hwy 130---somewhere along there!) that has huge trees arching over the roadway, making a green tunnel for you to drive through.

We had a lovely steak and potato dinner on lanai---a fitting end to a beautiful day.

Honolulu---Day 4

Ah.....

It was another relaxed, pretty much non-productive day here in Honolulu. We did some walking, some shopping, some eating, swimming, lolling and just plain ol' relaxing. It was a fine day!

For lunch we stopped at the Moana Surfrider, a luxury hotel in a beautiful old Colonial style building. We had their high tea. very proper, very old-school and very good. I can highly recommend the jasmine pearl green tea and the egg and shrimp sandwiches. A little nibble of dessert or two might have been taken, but we were careful and did not over indulge. I really enjoyed the experience.

And we had bird sightings. I have no idea what kind of birds these might be.

And for our last night in Honolulu, fireworks! I don't have any idea what the fireworks were in celebration of, but it was a very beautiful and surprisingly long show...something to do with the Chinese New Year or a wedding perhaps? I guess I'll never know. But to whomever the sponsor was, thank you! We enjoyed the show.

Honolulu---Days 2 & 3

Two more lovely days in this Hawaiian paradise. I am delighted to report that this morning at 7 am it was 30 degrees F. colder at home than it was here in Honolulu. I know my daughters are hurling insults my way after reading that statement!

We treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at the Royal Hawaiian. I can highly recommend the tempura lobster roll.....Nonie used to come to the Royal Hawaiian with her grandmother when she was last here in Honolulu. Let's see, that was 51 years ago!

A nice view of Diamond Head from the beach.

We found a lady outside the International Market doing charcoal portraits after dinner. We each had one done. Nonie's is very good, as is mine. (Although she made me look not only younger than I am but prettier! I'm not complaining.) I like Nonie's, which is pictured above.

I really enjoyed watching this talented lady work. How she can do such a fine job, on the street under the harsh street lights in about thirty minutes is waaaaaaaaaay beyond me. Besides being very talented, she's very nice.

We took an eight hour tour to Pearl Harbor. Visiting the Arizona Monument was a sobering experience. Both of our fathers served in the US military during WWII and being at this place, this monument, that was ground zero for the beginning of the US involvement in that war, was more of a connection than I expected. I have been to the Peace Park at Hiroshima. Both of these places feel the same to me...somber, sad and profoundly heart wrenching. I kept wondering why, after all these thousands of years, mankind can find no other way to work out their differences than kill each other?

We also toured the USS Missouri. I had the opportunity to tour the Missouri in 1998. My DH's company made the power cords for the ship before it was towed to Hawaii. (See the photo below!) We were able to go all over the ship in '98 and did!---I think we spent about 5 or 6 hours aboard at that time. What I remember the most was seeing the quarters for both the Navy sailors and the Marines that were stationed aboard. I noticed that there were a great number of mirrors on the walls (bulkheads?) in the Marines' area and just a few mirrors in the Navy area. I'm not saying anything in particular, but you might come to the conclusion that one group was much more vain than the other.

Our plugs and cables.

You can see the Arizona Monument off the left side.

And, to end on a lighter note, here's a sign we saw on our way to Pearl Harbor.

Honolulu---Day 1

We arrived in Honolulu in early afternoon and were met by a car and driver-with orchid leis for each of us. That was lovely. I love orchids and the leis were very pretty. (They are now decorating the light fixtures in our hotel room.)

Our hotel, Hotel Renew, is only about a half block from Waikiki beach. It's a nice, small boutique hotel. It's modern and Zen and crisp. I like it a lot. The location is fantastic. We are, I gather, at the Diamond Head end of the beach.

We had lunch at the Tiki Grill. The food was good but the pisco sour was divine! Nonie and I fell in love with pisco sours when we were in Peru and it is not often we find them on a drinks menu.

Auntie Bella's Lei Shop....one way to know you've arrived in Hawaii!

And just in case the lei shop wasn't a big enough clue, the surf board lock up along the Waikiki beach would be a dead give away. I've seen ski lockups before, but never one for surf boards.

This is going to be a great trip!

Pre-Hawaii "Housecleaning"

I am leaving for Hawaii on Monday and in preparation for the trip I have been cleaning house, both literally and figuratively. I found a few photos I have been meaning to share with you and thought now might be a good time to do so. The photo above was taken near my cabin. I love the winter sunset when viewed through bare branches. It always gets to me and this group of trees is on my way into my little house in the woods. I often stop to just take in the sun setting behind these winter trees.

And here we have the covers and inside covers for my China journal. I will be leaving on that trip in late April. I can't wait! China has been on my dream trip list for many, many years.

I have treated myself to a new watercolor palette and a few more tubes of Daniel Smith watercolors. I love the DS paints. I am not much of a watercolorist but I like to travel with watercolors as they are easy to pack. My new palette is small and holds a lot of paint. I think it's going to be perfect.

And, finally, I have to share a picture of my "helper." My cat, Orcie the Great and Terrible, calls this lolling by the computer, soaking up the heat from the infernal machine (his words, not mine)"helping." I'd have to say, not so much. Really. He's not helping. (Please ignore the terribly messy desk. It's one of those things I should be cleaning instead of blogging!)