Lunch at Duke's

After hularobics, three of us went out to lunch at nearby Duke's.  From the parking lot, a bridge crosses the little stream.

Kalapaki Beach:

L-R: Katie, Hua, me.

Thais' family in October

It's not easy loading the dishwasher when you're not quite one year old. Avery:

Sophia already knows how to count to 10 in English and Spanish. Here she demonstrates she can also do it in Hmong:

Eoe Emmalani I Alaka’i

 

A festival celebrating Queen Emma’s 1871 mountain trek.

 

Halaus (hula schools) from all the islands come each year (for the last 23 years anyway) on the second Saturday to the meadow near Kokee Lodge. Presentations began at 10 am and lasted until about 4 pm. Cindy, one of the ladies who comes to hularobics, participated this year and invited the class to attend. Lucky for me, Hua and Katie wanted to go, Hua would drive, and I could go along.

The only live hula I’d previously seen was on tv or at luaus where the dancers were always young and beautiful. In real life, people of all ages and sizes get together to learn a wide variety of dances and enjoy the grace and beauty of hula.

Queen Emma - it’s a huge honor to be selected to represent her - arrived at noon on horseback accompanied by two attendants.

She welcomed everyone and sang a pule (prayer):

 

 

A gift about to be presented to Queen Emma before this halau performs.



 

Auntie Hannah, seated, composed the songs, played the ukelele and sang:

From the Kona side of the Big Island, a men's halau performs:

From the same halau, keiki (children):

Gifts were presented to Queen Emma's attendant

Queen Emmalani, 1836-1885.

At the end of the day, my personal water taxi driver came to pick me up:

Thank you so much, Hua and Katie, for inviting me.  I had a great time!  With this post, I also accomplished another blogging skill: posting video.  Yay!

Around the neighborhood

The Coast Guard plays chase in the bay as they practice their interdiction strategies with guns drawn and orders delivered by loudspeaker.

 

It's amazing what Dick is able to carry on his bicycle.  The ladder will be transformed to improve boarding the boat from the stern (picture of completed project to follow).  Of course the scraps will be saved for some unknown future project. 

It's about 1/4 mile of rowing to get to shore.  L-R: Coast Guard station, dinghy dock, boat ramp.  The cruise ship is on the other side of the bay.

No landing on the shore in Lihue, but climbing in and out of the boat is better if someone holds it close to the dock.  Otherwise, it's hold the painter (the line you tie to the cleat), put your knee on the concrete dock and move fluidly, no hesitating, get on all fours and slowly stand up old-lady style - that's my way.  Dick just stands on the seat and steps onto the dock. 

There are two kayak companies nearby.  This one caters only to tour groups, here receiving some basic instruction before heading onto the Hulei'a Stream.

Everything is uphill from Nawiliwili Harbor.  This hill is particularly steep and slow-going for big trucks and bicycles.

Yay!  The new genoa sail arrived.  Heavy!

Health note:  Dick hurt his back last Wednesday loading the dive gear from the dinghy onto the boat.  He's been on an ibuprofen cure and resting ever since Greg and Nicole left last Friday.  As of this morning, I think he's turned the corner and starting to feel a bit better.

Greg and Nicole: goodbye

Friday morning: time to say goodbye.

After the airport, I hung out at KAC while Dick returned the rental car and rode his bicycle about 10 miles back to Nawiliwili.  We met up at Kalapaki Joe's to

have a beer and watch the debate.  A good combination, I think.

On the way back to the dinghy dock, Golden Princess (fanciest cruise ship we've see yet) was just leaving the dock.

Another beautiful sunset to end the day. 

Greg and Nicole: day 5

Special coffee to start the day:  Kopi Luwak from Indonesia.  It can cost as much as $300/pound.  The Luwak, also known as a civet cat, lives wild on coffee plantations and eats only the ripest coffee cherries.  Unable to actually digest the coffee bean, it's "deposited" on the jungle floor and later collected by locals and thoroughly cleaned.  It's said the civet cat's stomach acids and the enzymatic action involved in this unique fermentation process produces a most special cup of coffee. 

When Greg and Nicole were in Indonesia, they tried a cup ($9 each). There are several steps to properly serve it.

Photo by Nicole, April 2012

Wailua Falls:

Lunch at Hamura's saimin.  It's a bit dumpy but a legend on this island.  The service is not the best and the menu choices are few.   

At peak times, it's very crowded therefore you wait in line and grab the first available table. 

Order the special saimin because there's more stuff in it:  chicken broth, noodles, won tons, pork, vegetables, fish cake (pink and white coil), ham, boiled egg.  Yum!

Next stop:

We had the Portuguese malasadas (a type of donut) - they were so fresh and delicious.  We're absolutely stuffed by this point in the day, but know we have to try one more treat on Greg and Nicole's last day.

Opaekaa Falls:

Hee Fat General Store in Kapa'a:

Lava Flow shave ice:  fluffy ice, pineapple and strawberry syrup, vanilla bean melted ice cream on top.  In the bottom of the cup, a scoop of macadamia nut ice cream. 

Yikes!  What a day of good food!  After all of the above, I still had one more dinner to make to use up the food we'd already purchased:  chili and cornbread.  We are so stuffed - only Nicole can afford to eat all this as the baby went from the size of an avocado to the size of a turnip.   

Rio Linda in the news

Thais sent me this link this morning to a nice story about our home town. 

http://www.capradio.org/MArticle?id=178214

I grew up on a chicken ranch with 35,000 laying hens in cages. My parents also raised their own baby chicks in floor houses until they were ready to begin laying eggs.  Other family on my father's side also owned chicken ranches:  Bill and Marion, Fred and Mary, Ida and Robert, John and Emma.  Rio Linda is celebrating its 100th anniversary on October 5-7.  More information can be found at http://www.riolindaonline.com/.