Hawaii

Aloha, family!

I went to Hawaii with my travel buddies Ben & Lindsay Schilaty, and Dianna Nichols. Adam came, too. We went to the island of Oahu for a week, and stayed with Kim, a friend of Ben's. 

 

We did a lot on this trip. We all like to do different things, and we tried to pack it all in.

Tuesday, July 12th

Adam and I left my parents' house in Denver at 3:30am. We flew to LAX, had a layover of several hours, then flew to Honolulu. Lindsay and Dianna had arrived before us, and Ben was arriving about an hour after us. Lindsay and Dianna had our rental car and were out doing errands, so Adam and I found a lovely garden within the airport to hang out in while we were waiting. 

 

Garden within the airport!

Once we were all together, we drove to a famous bakery, first getting lunch next door, and then picking up some malsadas, which are some kind of Portuguese donut.  Then we drove to Koko Head crater, which has a defunct tram rail leading up to the summit which people can climb like stairs. I knew I was not going to want to do that, so I took my book and wandered around the park while Ben, Lindsay, Adam, and Dianna climbed. I saw lots of new birds, and also discovered that a colony of feral cats lives there. When it started to rain I sat in the car and read about the feral cat problem on the internet, as I watched a woman walk along feeding all of the cats. Also a lot of mongooses came out to eat, which are also a problem on the island. When it stopped raining, I went to the foot of the stairs and waited for folks to come back down. 

Koko Head Crater 'trail'

I was going to walk up this street, but the feral cats made me think twice

 

When we had all regrouped at the bottom, we drove to Laie, on the north side of the island, where Kim lives. We got to her house about 9pm, which was 1am Denver time, which means Adam and I had been awake for about 23 hours straight- I napped pretty well on the plane, but we were still very ready for bed. 

Wednesday, July 13

I slept so well, and I slept for about 10 hours. We walked a couple doors down from Kim's house to the Hukilau Cafe and got brunch- I got a beef teryaki with rice and potatoes breakfast dish, which really hit the spot. We sat in Kim's backyard and ate and chatted. 

After brunch we headed to Waimea falls. We walked about a mile up through the gardens, which were lovely, to the falls. At the falls, you put on a life jacket, and can swim in the natural pool at the bottom. It was a hot day and the falls were popular. I swam for just a bit. Our group of five walked back down together, and took pictures of the flowers and plants along the way. 

 

We had tickets for a luau at the bottom of the gardens, so we first got to see some 'traditional' Polynesian activities like Poi, coconut husking, etc. They did a traditional cooking demonstration for us, and then we went to our tables, inside a pavilion. There was a greeting ceremony that was kind of fun, and then we were served our meal. I thought it was very good. We had Hawaiian sweet rolls, pork, Hawaiian BBQ chicken, a macaroni salad, fresh fruits which included a coconut gelatin, green salad, and a slice of coconut cake for dessert. After the meal they did a show which had dances and stories from all over Polynesia- Samoa, Tonga, etc. The show included a fire juggling demonstration at the end. I enjoyed the show. When the show was over, we went back into the gardens and wandered around for about another hour. 

Photo by Ben

 

 

Photo by Adam

We went back to Kim's house and then went right out on an evening walk. We went down to the beach by her house, and Ben and Lindsay swam a bit. We watched some local kids bring a tall ladder into the ocean to make a jumping platform. Then we walked over to the LDS temple and walked up the hill behind it which has a good view of Laie. We got caught in the rain for a bit, then walked around to the front of the temple to see it from that side, then came home. 

Observing the sea near Kim's house: Adam, Lindsay, Ben, Kim, Dianna

Photo by Ben

Thursday, July 14

This morning we took an adventure to Goat Island. Kim's son, Kaleb, came to get us and we walked up the beach to a point where you can walk across a very shallow, rocky channel, and come to an island (Mokuauia Islet Seabird Sanctuary).The walk across was pretty difficult, because the rocks are uneven and sharp, and you can't really see that well. Dianna had a very hard time getting across. I did okay, but it was tough, and I did cut my knee once when I fell. When we got to the island, Adam and I explored the beachy part. It is a nesting site for Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, and we saw lots of them sitting on ground nests in the green grassy part of the island, which was amazing. We watched these teeny little white crabs run across the sand sideways, really quickly! We collected some shells and coral and looked at the rocky part of the island. After a while we all went back, which was a little easier this time because I used an inflatable boogie board as my balance board. 

We got cleaned up and drove up to a food truck area nearby. So many choices! Most of us decided to get shrimp from Giovanni's, which is apparently quite a famous food truck. I got half lemon butter and half garlic, and it was delicious. Great decision. After this we went over and got Hawaiian shave ice, also very good! 

In the afternoon we went to Shark's Cove (Pupukea Beach), to go snorkeling. I went with Adam, Ben, Lindsay, and Kim to the deep part while Dianna set up camp under the trees and watched our stuff. I tried the goggles and looked underwater at the fish a couple times, but I didn't like it very much because I was getting slammed into rocks and cut myself again. So I went back to where Dianna was and lay on a towel and read my book. After a while, they came back, and I tried the goggles again in a shallower pool. It was okay, but the pools there were quite crowded with people, and I don't love having my head underwater, so I didn't do too much looking around. We all regrouped, and then the adventuresome Four decided to walk to a place nearby and jump off the rocks, and Dianna and I decided to stay on our towels and read. Another good decision! 

Shark's Cove

 

They came back, we went home and took showers, and then we went to a shopping mall strip nearby for dinner. I got a teriyaki pineapple burger from Seven Brothers, and Ben got a burger there too, where he was recognized by the only other customers in the restaurant, and he chatted with them for a while, as he does with all his fans.

Everyone else got their food from a Chinese place and we ate at some nice tables set outside the strip mall. Then we went over to the Polynesian Cultural Center and got ice cream at a place called Sweet As, which is one of the many stalls and vendors they have outside the PCC in the 'Hukilau Marketplace'. I just got an empty waffle cone. It was bit stale.  

Friday, July 15

Another great night's sleep. I'm sleeping so well here. Maybe it's Kim's huge king-sized bed, or the pillow-top mattress, or the cool air, but it's great. 

I grabbed some French Toast from the cafe and all 6 of us headed to Honolulu. First stop was Diamond Head State Monument, which is a crater you drive into and then hike to the top of. It was hot and there were a lot of people hiking up. The top was cool, very neat views and some WWII bunker infrastructure to walk through. But it was a really hot hike. 

Yay! We did it!

 

A view from the top of Diamond Head

Then we drove to Waikiki and got takeaway sushi and poke bowls for lunch, and sat on Waikiki beach to eat. Lindsay needed to buy closed-toed shoes for the ebike tour tomorrow, so she went to look for shoes and the rest of us visited the Moana Surfrider Hotel, an historic hotel. We looked at their old photos and artifacts, and sat out on the veranda. When Lindsay got back, we drove home, about an hour and 20 minutes. 

Waiting in Waikiki

 

Quick turnaround, and we were off to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Ben got us steeply discounted tickets through a friend that works there. We started by visiting the 'islands' which is a kind of EPCOT type cultural experience. There are islands for Tonga, Tahiti, New Zealand (Ao Tearoa), Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii.  Each island has shows, activities, and demonstrations, put on by BYU-Hawaii students who come from around Polynesia. 

 

We started at New Zealand and went to their cultural show, which included a demonstration of Poi, the Haka, and songs. It was very good. Also it took place in a traditional meeting hall which had been built and carved in New Zealand and then taken apart, shipped to the PCC, and reassembled. After the show, we went out and participated in a game where you had to hold up a staff, and then let go and grab the one next to you, according to the caller's instructions. They did an elimination game and Adam got to second place! I eliminated myself the first time the instructions included spinning around and grabbing the staff again. 

 

We split up a bit, but I ended up at Tahiti with Kim and Adam and Dianna, and Kim and I got matching tattoos! They were rolled on with a kind of stamp, so it came off in my next shower. But it was cool while it lasted! We went to their cultural show, which was about drums and dancing, and they had the girls stand up and do some hip dancing, and then the guys stand up and do some knee-knocking. 

 

Ben really wanted to paddle his own canoe, so he got in line to do that, and we watched him from the bridge.  

After this we got a special treat- Iesse, Ben's friend who works there, gave us a private flatboat tour around the islands! He did his tour guide spiel for us, and took us around in the canals that surround the islands. It was great. When that was done, we went out to the marketplace and got dinner. Adam and I shared a veggie crepe, and then Iesse's friends who work at a shave ice place gave us free shave ice! 

 

Finally, we had tickets to the show called Ha: Breath of Life. It was another Polynesian Cultural show, featuring dances and stories from the featured countries. It was good, but occasionally was slow, as there was very little English and lots of dancing. 

When it was over we came home and went to bed!

Saturday, July 16

Grabbed some breakfast at the cafe- bacon egg and cheese sandwich. Very good. 

In the morning, the 6 of us took a hike. I do not know where we were- Google maps tells me it is Pu'u Ma'eli'eli Trail; but all I really know is it was by the McDonald's in Ahuimanu.

The hike was pretty vertical, and somewhat muddy. Dianna and I slowed way down from what those athletic, long-legged people were doing, so we sent them on ahead and we made it about 3/4 of the way to the top. It was a pretty hike. 

Halfway up, Dianna and I took a break and formed the Gentle Hikers Club

The view from halfway up is still pretty good

 

Then we went straight to our ebike tour at Kualoa Ranch. This is a huge ranch (cattle ranching) that has been the site of many movie and TV locations. LOST filmed here, and Jurassic Park. Our tour guide Robert, had lots of interesting information about the history of the area as well. We really enjoyed the bikes, they were super fun. It rained on us quite often, but it's more of a heavy misting and it's warm, so you just kind of ignore it and keep going. 

Laura, Adam, ebikes, Ocean

Dianna, Ben, our guide Robert, Lindsay, me, Adam

 

We had a lot of fun putting dinos into our pictures

We got to mess around with the set of some King Kong movie that was filmed there!

We looked around the ranch a bit at the end; got some souvenirs and snacks, went to their farmer's market. 

Back at Kim's house, we rested and Kim made curry for dinner. I made a fried egg and had rice and chicken with it. 

Kim also made us cookies and I made her a photo with a Kangaroo

 

Sunday July 17

Day of rest! Everyone else went to church and Adam and I had a lazy morning; had cereal and leftovers for breakfast, and sat around reading. 

When everyone got back, Adam, Ben, Lindsay, and I walked up to the nearby Malaekahana State Recreation Area to look for a letterbox, (found it!) and walked home along the beach. Dianna was feeling very sick and stayed in her room most of the day.

After lunch, Ben, Kim, and I went to the Laie Temple visitor's center. We watched a history of Laie video and looked at the information. Some fans of Ben talked to him and got their picture with him. 

 

In the afternoon, Kim had a party for Ben to meet all her people- her kids, their spouses, guys from the church. She made great Hawaiian food!

Food:

Musubi casserole- rice, spam cooked in teriyaki sauce, furikeke seasoning (made of seaweed, salt and sesame seeds). Scoop up spoonfuls of this and wrap it in small seaweed leaves. This Musubi is usually made as a sushi kind of thing, stacked with rice, spam, veggies, wrapped in seaweed. 

Kalua pork- made in crock pot imitated of the ground cooking of pig. Pork butt, liquid smoke, hawaiian salt (rock salt), cooked 8-10 hours.Hawaiian sweet rolls to make sliders. pulled pork.

Fresh pineapple with li hing mui powder, which is like a plum powder, or a hawaiian tajin

Ulu (breadfruit) cooked in coconut milk and onion and baked it. (Iesse made this and brought it)

Mochi which is sweet rice flower, coconut milk and sugar, baked. Kim's was blue. Also Brownies. 

Adam and I enjoyed the food, but we sat in the backyard so the Mormons could all socialize in the house without us. 

After the party, Ben went up to BYU Hawaii to give a talk; Kim, Lindsay, Adam and I walked up there. The ladies went to the talk, and Adam and I walked around campus for a bit and then walked home. 

The view of the road up to the Laie temple

BYU Hawaii

 

Ben's talk went well and they brought people home to play games- so I ran a Disney Trivia game for them from my Games Magazine. Everyone enjoyed it. 

Monday July 18

Dianna was still not feeling well today, and so she and I decided to stay home and do a jigsaw puzzle while Kim, Ben, Adam, and Lindsay did another hike and another beach. When they got home, we went (minus Dianna) to the food truck place for lunch. Adam and I got Thai. 

Next we went to Pap'loa Beach, which is an almost secret beach that Lindsay and Ben knew about where you could see sea turtles!! A lot of the edge of the beach is a rock shelf, and the turtles just float around in the waves there. It was amazing! Some came so close to us! Those that went swimming actually swam next to one, but even Adam and I, standing on the rocks, had one wash up next to us and then go right on back into the water. Part of Lost was also filmed here, so Ben enjoyed that. The sand was nice, too, and we lay around for awhile. Seeing the sea turtles was really so cool, definitely a highlight of the trip. 

 

After coming home and cleaning up, we went back to the Polynesian Cultural Center and got a letterbox, then got some snacks/dinner at the marketplace. We also went to Longs Drugs to pick up some macadamia nuts and stuff like that to take home. 

We went back to Kim's and ate a quick dinner, because Ben wanted to go out to Laie point to catch the sunset. Laie point is a rocky outcropping that was very pretty. Also extremely windy! I was actually cold, I wish I had brought a sweatshirt. We didn't really catch the sunset, either we were too late, or on the wrong side, or whatever. But we looked around and got some pictures and it was pretty. 

Laie point. Photo by Ben

 

Adam working on capturing that same shot

Tuesday July 19

Flying home! Kim graciously drove us the hour+ to the airport very early in the morning (5am) and Ben, Adam, and I caught our flights back to the mainland. Nothing much to report about the trip, got home about 11pm. I enjoyed our trip, and it was nice to have a place to stay with a local. I didn't love the humidity! 

Michigan

Last week I took a short trip up to stay with Adam and his mom, Sue at their family cottage on Lake Michigan. The cottage is in a cottage association founded ~100 years ago on the Western edge of Michigan, near the town of Whitehall. 

 I was there from Saturday-Wednesday, and it was a very relaxing vacation. Most mornings we sat on the porch and read and had breakfast and watched the birds and squirrels at the bird feeder. In the afternoons, we went for walks in the woods at local places - Duck Lake State Park, Flower Creek Dunes Nature Preserve, Clear Springs Nature Preserve. We spent some time in the towns of Whitehall an Montague- we visited the Book Nook, a wonderful book store; had lunch at Peckadill's, in their amazing backyard garden, went to Fetch brewing, visited an historic lighthouse and found a letterbox at an old one-room schoolhouse. We did a jigsaw puzzle, crossword puzzles, read our books, and took naps. The weather was perfect, not too hot and humid yet. It was a lovely little vacation.  

Look at this cute squirrel!!! Photo by Adam

Hammock + book + view everyday

Sunset at the cottage

Lake Michigan at sunset

Morning supplies- binoculars, book, and porch swing

White River Light Station

Family of Sandhill Cranes walking around in Whitehall

San Diego!

 Spring Break! Adam's Birthday! Less Covid! San Diego!

I wanted to plan a secret trip for Adam's birthday on April 2nd, to somewhere warm and pleasant. I have some old friends in San Diego with a new baby, and it wasn't too expensive or too long of a flight, so we went!

 

Wednesday, March 30

Adam didn't know where we were going until we go to the airport on Wednesday morning. We had a short, uneventful flight to San Diego. Got a Lyft to our air bnb in the North Park neighborhood, just North of Balboa Park, and a couple blocks from Yaw and Helene. Yaw and I went to college together. 

We headed out for some lunch- Helene had provided a list of lots of good food within walking distance, so we started with Dunedin, a New Zealand restaurant. It was really cute, the sun was out, and they serve brunch until 2pm! I got a delicious breakfast sandwich croissant. 

We wandered along the shopping area for a bit, and discovered a used bookstore called Verbatim Books. It was amazing! It was so cool inside, and we spent probably 40 minutes in there and left with 3 books. 

We walked back to our place- the neighborhood of North Park is just beautiful. It has lovely homes, amazing plants, the yards are so cool. I stopped to chat with some people on the street and got a picture in front of their gorgeous bougainvillea. 

 

We rested for a while, our air bnb had a great patio to sit out on. In the afternoon, we explored the north end of the park, just walked around the part closest to us.

For dinner, we went back to the shopping area and got some pizza. It was getting chilly by now, and we hustled on home. We discovered that our place had a PlayStation and the game Portal 2, which is a puzzle game I've wanted to play for ages. We started a new game and spent some time solving levels with our helpful and not evil robot guide. 

Thursday, March 31

Today was chilly and cloudy. Yaw and Helene came by our place at 8, with their daughter Lexi on her scooter and Cora strapped to Helene. We walked to a restaurant called Breakfast Republic and had a terrific meal. I had a flight of pancakes- Churro, Lemon Coconut, and Strawberry Cheesecake flavored, and a scrambeled egg, and some of Adam's brussels sprout fried potatoes. He had an omelette and some of my pancakes. 

 

After breakfast, we went to the park with Yaw and fam. Lexi ran around, showing us the different features of the park, like drums you can (but are not supposed to) climb on. We headed back home for a bit, then went to Balboa Park.  

Lexi on drums!

Balboa Park is the coolest place. It's the main thing I wanted to visit while in San Diego. We wandered through the Spanish Village, which is a collection of small artist's studios/shops. We walked through Palm Canyon and the Alcazar garden, and had a snack outside the Japanese Friendship garden. Then we went to the Museum of Photographic Arts, and wandered through the exhibits there, including a juried exhibit from area students. 

 

When we were ready to go, we tried to use some electric scooters to scoot on home, but I was having problems making one work, so we walked. It's not too long of a walk, it's just down a canyon, so you really only want to walk down it, not up. 

We were pretty tired and took naps. In the late afternoon, we headed out to the North Park farmer's market, that our new friend with the bouganvillea had told us about. We got some snacks and then went to a bar called Pretzels and Pints- I had a pretzel and Adam had a pint. 

It was not warm, and I was not looking at the camera, despite being the one taking the photo.

Back home, we played some more Portal 2!

Friday, April 1

Today we slept in a bit, then took an Lyft to Mission Bay and got some breakfast at a coffee shop. We walked along the waterfront for bit, then we met Sara, our guide for a bicycle tour around Mission Bay. In my mind, I call her "eccentric Auntie Sara". She was probably around 65, and instead of saying "on your left!" approaching people, she would ring her bell for about 20 seconds straight and yell, "Good morning!! Thank you! Lovely Day! Have a nice day!" 

She took us along the bike path on the ocean in Pacific Beach and then in to Mission Bay. We biked along there for a while, which was very quiet and peaceful. The weather was great- sunny, a little breeze, not too hot. There was lots to look at on the ride, in the water, and vacation houses built alongside. We had a good time. We also got sunburned.  

 

After the bike ride we went to a beach bar and had some cold drinks and quesadilla. Then we took a walk along the beach. 

I had a Mango Margarita

 

Here's a conversation I'm sure happened: 

me: "I can't tell if it's going to stay sunny today. Are you bringing flip flops for after the bike ride? I can't decide if I want to haul mine around or not."

Adam: "no, I'm not bringing mine."

Here's a conversation I'm sure did not happen:

Adam: "Actually I'm bringing my flip flops."

In conclusion, I did not have flip flops for walking along the beach and Adam did. Hopefully he does not read this blog, he thinks both 'conversations' happened. So I went into a little shop near the beach and (Adam) bought (me) some flip flops, and I taught the term "flip flop" to the guy working in the shop who did not speak English but complimented my Spanish and was pretty baffled at "flip flop". 

 

 

The beach was nice! I understand why people like it, I think. We walked for a while, and we also saw several birds enjoying the surf. I wish we had chairs or blankets or towels or something, it was a lovely day to sit out at the beach, and there were not very many people there. But the weather had looked in the low 60s and iffy sunshine, so we just did not plan to spend time at the beach. 

 

 

After taking a Lyft home and taking showers and naps, we headed to the Harbor front area to have a fancier dinner. We went to Fish Market, which disappointing for few reasons. The food was only okay, and we didn't get a seat outside, which we had been hoping for but didn't think to ask for specifically. Dinner could have been better, but now we know. 

We did walk along the Harbor for a while, saw the Midway aircraft carrier which is just HUGE, and yachts and things. We walked to the Gaslamp district which is supposedly full of old buildings and interesting architecture, but on a Friday night there is really only one reason people go there: Alcohol, lots of it. It's now a party area, with tons of bars and clubs. The street was closed to cars, so it was kind of fun to walk along among all the people having fun. But it was very loud and crazy. We did not stay long.

Saturday, April 2

 

Adam's birthday! We thought we were really close to finishing Portal 2 on Friday night, but I fell asleep on the couch, so we didn't finish it. We had most of the day to do whatever we wanted, and so we started by playing Portal 2. Turns out, we were a long way from finishing it. We played for an hour or so, but definitely were not close to finishing. 

It was raining and cool, but we walked to Atypical Waffle Company for breakfast, after dropping our bags off at Yaw and Helene's house. It was fine. By this point we were pretty tired of eating out.

We took a Lyft to Balboa Park. On Saturdays, the international cottages are open- they have a bunch (30+) little cottages, each one run by a country, for example "Friends of Peru" runs the Peru cottage. They have volunteers to talk about their countries and answer questions, and lots of arts, crafts, books, and things on display. They often have food you can try for a donation, or activities to do. This Saturday was Scottish Tartan Day, so the Scotland cottage was extremely busy, and there were dozens of booths set up from different clans and things. We explored most of the cottages. I was still hungry, and wanted something not made of only sugar, so I left Adam to hold a spot for us to watch the bagpipe and dancing show and went back to the Scottish Cottage to buy a meat pie. I also secretly bought a piece of chocolate cake- for later! 

 

At the Wallace tent, they INSISTED we take photos with the sword and shield. So we did!

 

We shared the meat pie, which really hit the spot, and we watched the pipe band. But really, how much bagpiping is enough? For me, it was enough when he said, "our next number is..." and so we left. It was kind of misting, not really raining, and not unpleasant, so we decided to walk down to downtown and go to the Central Library to snag a letterbox there. 

 

 

 

It was kind of a long walk, but all downhill, straight down one street. The library was wonderful. We go our letter box, and sat and rested for a while in the Baseball Research Center. (?) Then we took a Lyft to Yaw and Helene's. 

 

At their house, we sat around the firepit, played with Lexi, and I got out the chocolate cake and birthday candles I had brought from Denver. We sang Happy Birthday to Adam, and between 4 adults and a 3 year old, we had plenty of cake (it was a very rich, quite large, slice). 

 

Laura and Cora

 

We said our goodbyes, and headed to the airport. A late, uneventful flight and we were home! Good trip overall!