3 kitten day, beautiful drive and sizzling yumminess

July 30, 2012

What a day! It started early. I woke up at 6 and got ready for work. This includes the :I so hate this" shaving the legs process. Mind you, I loathe shaving to begin with since I am blind as a bat without my glasses. So this means I can't just shave in the shower. I have to sit on the edge of the tub and shave my legs with my glasses on, so I can see and not cut my ankle off or something stupid.

So anyway, I got ready and headed in to work. I arrived about 7:15 since my ankle was hurting and I was walking rather slowly. However, it was worth it! When I climbed up the stairs to my office I saw not one but TWO kittens next door. These kittens are ferals (wild cats that are not pets) that live under a building next to my office building. They are between 3-4 months old. I don't see them every day and even when I do see them I usually only see one. Today I saw them BOTH. They make me smile, so to see both was an extra special happy start to my morning. You can't see them well in this picture, but I know where they are so it is a happy thought for me.If you can see them let me know!!! So it started as a two kitten day!

I spent the morning e-mailing professors and working on arrangements for the fall term. I then finished up cleaning the immigrant Filipino data and sent it to the contractor and Ann. That was done right at lunchtime. Lunch wasn't exciting. 2 small vegetable tamales with green tomatillo salsa, guava yogurt, and water. I had brought Cahill Whiskey Cheese which was revolting so I just tossed it. The afternoon was spent tinkering with data and answering questions Ann had regarding the charts, tables and graphs on the DVFR data. She is finishing the report now. Tomorrow I will probably get it to read through and offer suggestions.

I couldn't go home till after 5 due to the cleaner and exterminator coming to the house. So I stayed at work late. At 5 I went to leave and stopped in to ask Lisa if she had plans. Wayne had music practice so Lisa and Papa George were free for the night! My ankle was pretty painful so we set out to enjoy a drive. As we were walking down the stairs I saw one of the kittens again. So a THREE kitten day! I never ever see them both, or see them multiple times in a day. So a very special day indeed. It makes me smile just thinking about it. It is the little unexpected things each day I enjoy so much.

First we went to Diamond Head crater. The drive up to the crater was closed so we will do that another day but I was able to get some lovely photos from about halfway up the side in the parking lot.

After this we drove to Black Point. There were TONS of surfers there. The waves were really beautiful. 

After that we drove way way out past Waikiki, past downtown, past the Dole plantation, all the way to Haliewa. Here are some photos from the drive.

This is the beach at Haliewa.

 Lisa and papa George at Haliewa Beach.

After this we were all hungry so we stopped at Dot's in Wahiawa. It was super ono (delicious)!!! This place has been here over 70 years. Papa George was born and lived his early years near here till his parents passed away. This is a down home country cooking sort of place.

These are the windows from outside. I love the top sections. I know they aren't super clear in this photo but I liked them so didn't want to forget.

 The special board. Suffice to say, it doesn't look like back home. Grilled pork chops, leatloaf with gravy, and a couple of sandwiches? SURE... However, meat loaf loco moco for breakfast? Kalbi with fried rice kim chee, chicken squash with longrice (this is chicken with squash and a clear slippery noodle called longrice here), fried akule (a local fish), and shoyu (soy sauce) chicken... very different! I should have gotten a photo of the board for the next day on the way out. It had things like Tripe and tendon soup (GAG, just no).

 The menu. The pineapple I get, but NO IDEA what the circle with triangles is representing.

 Soup of the day - egg drop soup. NOTHING like egg drop soup at home (which I dislike intensely). This was a mushroom and chicken broth with celery, carrots and egg with large slices of shitake mushrooms. It was actually REALLY tasty.

 Heh, ok, don't get nervous. This is two scoops of mash (mashed potatoes) covered with brown gravy and a bunch of mixed veggies.

 This is the sizzling hamburger steak, smothered in brown gravy and onions. This is served in a VERY hot iron skillet on a plate. It comes covered in wax paper to keep the bubbling gravy and hamburger grease from spitting on you and burning you. I have a video of this. You can still see the gravy sizzling and bubbling in this photo. The hamburger is SUPER tender and has a wonderful flavor. This is a big patty. I ate the whole patty, gravy and almost all the onions and only had a couple of bites of the mash and gravy and ignored the mixed veggies. After the soup, hamburger patty, 2 cups of hot tea and a small dish of tapioca I was so stuffed I couldn't even imagine eating more.
This one was mine. It was so fun to watch them take off the covering and seeing it sizzle.

It was so much fun to watch that I too a video when they brought out papa George's sizzling hamburger steak so you could watch and enjoy!

After we ate they drove me home. I feel bad they had to drive me all the way home but Papa George fell asleep and Lisa and I chatted so it went quickly. I always feel bad they have a long drive home afterwards but I appreciate getting to go out. Super super big Mahalo to Lisa and Papa George. With my ankle messed up I cannot go walking like I did before so getting to ride in a car and see everything is just delightful!!!

What a wonderful day. A great start to the week. I didn't get home till 10 and after getting in, talking to Romi a bit, getting ready for bed and doing this entry it is 11:30. Time to get to sleep.

Aloha po, (Good night)
~Melissa

Big Island Trip Part 7 - Sushi and manta rays

July 21, 2012

So Romi finished her chocolate class and we met up to go to dinner at Kenichi. This was recommended as REALLY good sushi and I have to say I agree. It was happy hour and drinks and sushi were half off. Romi and I just shared everything so we could both try lots of different dishes.

 This was kona sea salt roasted edamame. Roasting the pods and crusting them with sea salt just made them utterly delicious!

Here is the sushi menu link. This is the "Kenichi special roll" on the left with tuna, snow crab, cucumber, avocado inside and smelt roe outside. The one on the right is an "Austin roll" with tempura asparagus, edamame paper (which I like a LOT better than nori), smelt aoili and teriyaki sauce.

 The left is an "Eel roll" with eel, cucumber, avocado, teriyaki and sesame seeds. The one on the right was my favorite of all, the "Super kakiage roll" with crispy mixed vegetable tempura, spicy tuna, hot aoili, edamame paper and teriyaki sauce. YUM YUM YUM.

 Dessert was a tempura fried pound cake with tempura fried vanilla bean ice cream and a raspberry coulis and chocolate drizzle. YUM. Super YUM.

After we ate ourselves silly we headed back to the resort. Romi had several adult beverages so I drove. Once we got back we hurried out to the ocean so we could see the manta rays. We paused to take some photos of us with the sun setting behind us.

Every evening they shine big lights onto the surface of the ocean behind the resort hotel. The plankton int he ocean head up towards the light then the manta rays skim along the surface of the ocean to eat the plankton. They are amazing. We saw them Friday and Saturday nights we were there. It was utterly fabulous. Manta rays are harmless, unlike stingrays. I was hoping to go snorkeling with them but I wasn't able to arrange that activity. I wasn't able to get photos or video but Romi did so I have asked her to send them to me. Once I get those I will post more. For now, here are some from YouTube.

The manta ray viewing is an amazing part of the experience in Kona. The Sheraton has a nightly manta ray talk and a viewing area where you can see them from land. They even have a web cam set up.

After watching these amazing manta rays we went and changed into swimsuits and went tot he bar. I got an adult beverage and we took it to the pool. We swam in the beautiful pool then made our way tot he hot tub and relaxed there while I drank my beverage. We were getting tired so we eventually called it a night. After showers we collapsed on the freaking awesome wonderful fantastic beds that the Sheraton has and slept. Here are some views of the pool.

Still more to come, Sunday we went snorkeling, shopping and to some REALLY neat places before catching the plane back to Oahu. To be continued...

Aloha!
~Melissa

Big Island Trip Part 6 - Sheraton Keauhou Bay

July 21, 2012

So Saturday I checked to see if I could take the chocolate class but it was full. I planned to go join it after lunch but I ended up taking a short nap instead. I spent the day exploring around the resort. We were staying at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay resort and it was GORGEOUS. I checked out the spa first. I didn't end up getting any spa services but I got to see where they do the massages, on a lanai overlooking the ocean. I talked to the massage therapist there at the time about his wonderful "office" and how nice that must be to look out on each day.

I took a lot of photos of the grounds.

This was the view from the lanai of the room. 

 This was some artwork as you stepped off the elevator on the ground level.

 I took a long slow leisurely stroll around the grounds. I would walk a bit, then stop and rest my ankle.

 The ash and toxic substances that are put into the air from the volcanoes are very toxic. The plants struggle to survive. As the toxic substances start to kill off the trees and plants they start gradually turning white and the leaves and flowers start to look sickly. You can see this happening on the large stretches of lava rock out by the roads. I saw this on the grounds and it seemed like this tree/bush (whatever it is) was slowly turning into a ghost. This reminds me of all the flora that tries to survive despite the volcanoes toxic effects. As spiritual and superstitious as the island folks have been through the centuries I can only imagine they see these plants giving their life to try to purify the air and provide life in the lava rock to create soil.

 These were seen frequently. The dots are raised on the leaves. They feel like braille.

 This is a carving in the main lobby area. This lobby is of course open to the air. The carving was lovely and I wanted to remember this art.

 This is the entry to the dining room.

 Pink Ginger. As I have said before, only in Hawaii do the flowers have flowers.

I also sat on some of the black lava rocks overlooking the ocean and took some videos. They are short, but it was my favorite view and I wanted to remember it. Here are photos and video of the lava rocks and the ocean on the shore.

After I enjoyed watching the ocean I met up with Romi after her chocolate class and we went out to get dinner.

To be continued...

Aloha!
~Melissa