VOG, Kilauea, Ka'u Coffee and Volcano Winery

So, I mentioned "VOG" in an earlier post. Vog is 'volcanic fog' and it is pervasive and a health hazard. It is a result of Kilauea opening up a vent in 2005 and spewing tons and tons of volcanic air pollution. From the www.konaweb.com site...
"Madam Pele is a mysterious goddess. She can sleep for years, but when she wakes up, one of the ways she lets everyone know it is by sending a plume of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide reacts with other gases, moisture, dust and sunlight to form vog. Molten lava flowing down the flanks of Kilauea often pours into the sea, where it interacts with sea water to produce hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, and other chemicals."
This 'vog' really hit me hard the first couple of days and it has really impacted the flora and fauna of the area. Since I am an asthmatic I am very careful to bring my emergency inhaler and I do take daily medication to prevent asthmatic bouts....but sometimes, it just hits me pretty hard. The first couple of days were a little bit of a struggle to breathe!
I eventually adjusted but I was very surprised that this even existed in Paradise!
 We spent one whole day walking on the wild side of Hawai'i- checking out the area of the Kilauea Volcano. This is one of the active "young" volcanos that continues to erupt on Hawai'i.

Hawai'i is the youngest of the islands...except for the newly formed Lo'ihi Seamount (a submarine volcano). In about 10,000 years it too, will become another of the Hawai'ian Islands. We also could see Mauna Loa (the largest of the active volcanos on the Island) with snow on it!

 We toured the Jagger Museum, which was pretty cool and told us a lot about volcanoes in Hawai'i. We actually know a lot about volcanos and calderas, living near Crater Lake and skiing for 35 years in Mammoth, but Hawai'ian volcanoes are very different. 
Kilauea was pretty awesome.

It was a sunny but cool blustery day so we warmed up near one of the steam vents.

And then, we were ready for a drink, and lunch!
We stopped at the Volcano Winery. The wines were pretty sweet, because of the climate, so while the wine tasting was fun, we didn't buy and of the wines. Here are their vineyards and Kevin and Rich goofing around in front of the winery! Rich was the DD that day!

We did eat at the Lava Rock Cafe. The food was fantastic! I had the shrimp and crab salad. Aarah had the shrimp and crab rolls, and Rich and Kevin had burgers. The food is very good, but the service is 'Island style'. When they get there, they get there. Oh well, we weren't in a hurry.

We also stopped at the Ka'u Coffee Mill. This is a plantation that took over some sugar cane sites and let me tell you, the coffee is better than "Kona Coffee". We had a lot of fun tasting the coffee (after wine tasting! ha ha) and actually brought some of the dark roast home to remember the scent of the delicious coffee!

That morning we decided we needed to have some pizza....so I made a whole wheat pizza dough. We had a Pizza Margharita (Kevin and Rich had some ham and leftover sausage on their side) but it looked so beautiful with the fresh mozzarella, garden fresh tomatoes and garden fresh basil I had to take a picture! It was delicious! Not paleo, but heck, it was VACATION!!!!

Of course, we had salad...and wine. I think wine is paleo. It's made from grapes, right??

Whale Watching, Black sand Beach and Turtles!

One of our days we spent whale-watching. Supposedly, this is the season when the whales come to the Big Island to give birth, feed their babies, play in the surf and give us people great opportunities to see them. This is Whittington Beach.

There were quite a few people here watching for whales...and the scenery was incredible. All of these pictures were taken with my iphone. We never saw a whale, though. We looked really hard!

We also went to a very cool 'black sand beach'. Our friends who live nearby sort of lamented that they hadn't really been to a white sand beach in quite a while- I guess the white sand beaches are all near Kona and Hilo and that trip usually entails and all day shopping venture to Costco, Target and a quick stop for lunch before the 2 hour return trip to the southernmost tip of the United States. There are consequences to living in Paradise away from the tourists!

The black sand beach was pretty gritty and HOT...it was only about 75 degrees but the sand was a little too hot in places where the surf didn't moisten it down...seriously, the 'slippahs' (flip flops in pidgin Hawai'ian) were only off for the one picture!
It didn't keep the sea turtles away! We could see a lot of them in the surf, but not quite ready to lay on the beach and cook...except one very large fella!

 We spent that late afternoon driving around on the golf cart on the award winning golf course immediately adjacent to Rich and Aarah's house. It was beautiful, but it's sort of a sad situation. It shut down a few years ago and the owners never restored it. They let the club house and tennis courts go to overgrown weeds and the greens are only mowed by the snowbirds who stay in Discovery Harbor during the winter. This course is awesome and has so much potential...but the 'people against everything' have stopped any development in the area, to the dismay of the people who own homes and lots nearby. It's a shame because it could really bring home and lot buyers to the area if the golf course was actually operating.

There is also a very sacred site to the Hawai'ian people on the golf course incorporated into the landscape. It's called a 'heiau' and it's a temple to bring offerings to the gods. This was pretty cool. Rich and Aarah said that native Hawai'ians sometimes leave offerings wrapped in leaves to this particular one.

It's made out of lava rock and supposedly was also used for sacrifice -animal or maybe human. We don't know.
We also had some amazing meals each night at home...so here's one of our dinners/recipe Island style...

2' thick firm fish fillet or a nice petit steak
olive oil
red pepper flakes
salt & pepper
garlic powder

one whole pineapple, peeled, cored and sliced into rounds.
brown sugar

torn lettuce leaves
home grown tomatoes
home grown basil
home grown avocado

 toss the fish fillets (or steak) with the olive oil, pepper flakes, salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Sprinkle brown sugar on both sides of the sliced pineapple.
Toss the fixings for the salad together with your favorite dressing....or not. Trust me, the avocado will make it's own dressing!
Heat the BBQ. Brush the grill with some oil and put the Pineapple on for 1 minute on each side. Remove to a separate place.
Put the steak on the grill for 4 minutes on each side. Put the fish filet on the grill for 3 minutes on each side. Serve.
Oh yah- open a big bottle of wine and sit outside in the moonlight, drinking wine and laughing with friends. 
Repeat each night for a week.
Aloha!

Na'alehu, Hawaii

The base for our Hawai'ian dream was in Na'alehu, which is located near the southernmost tip of Hawai'i and also the southernmost tip of the United States.
Our friends live in Discovery Harbor...a gorgeous development based on an award-winning golf course overlooking the ocean. Everywhere you look, there are amazing views.

I spent a grand total of about 30 minutes over several days sunbathing with SPF 30 sunscreen in this beautiful backyard....and I am very tanned! (I don't burn- it's that Frenchie in me. Thanks, Dad)
We went to explore the local area and I know, BIG SURPRISE, I checked out the local Catholic Church.

 

I wept when I saw it was also a 'Sacred Heart'. (I work at Sacred Heart in Klamath Falls, OR-coincidence?? I think not!) It was founded by the order of priests from 'Sacre Coeur' from France who went to Hawai'i in 1827.
I met a wonderful lady who runs the food bank who told me the history of this tiny but beautiful Church! They have a Statue to honor St. Damien Joseph de Veuster of Moloka'i...the famous American civil war veteran who went to serve those who suffered from leprosy and died when he contracted the disease himself.

Rich and Aarah have a beautiful back yard and they grow pretty much anything they want...that the bugs and 'vog' let them harvest. More about 'vog' later...the bugs apparently, are legend. Rich has the yard sprayed on a regular basis to keep the really evil little bastards at bay (see the centipede photo) but the other plants have to be protected in cages that looks sort of like our chicken coops. Yep, chicken coops for the veggies. We did really enjoy the fruits of their labors- home grown super sweet pineapple, lemons, oranges and incredible tomatoes and basil.

They have neighbors that trade enormous avocados (seriously 10 inches in diameter and delicious) and macadamia nuts for pineapple and citrus. Kevin and I both picked a small but incredibly sweet pineapple, and harvested the ugly green shells for mac nuts (as they say in the Islands) to eat fresh, nutty and tasty nuts!
Oh, yah, Rich and Aarah bought a couple of cases of Longboard specialties beers..a locally brewed but nationally known delicious Island beer...hence, the beer Kevin is holding with the pineapple. The green hull is what the mac nut is encased in when it falls from the tree. You can't pick them green- they aren't ready.
We also visited one of the local ranches. Southern Hawai'i is known (as is Waimea in the area north west of Kailua-Kona) for their ranching and raising of longhorn cattle. Who knew?

 We spent that first day at one of the most beautiful places in the world- South Point, or Ka Lae.
This is where the first people who ever came to Hawai'i moored their boats and stepped foot on dry land. It's a very wild area, with very high winds that usually don't die down, EVER.

This is also known as the southernmost tip of the United States.
I can't tell you what an amazing experience this was for me! The ocean was endless! It was wild! It was...powerful. I actually saw the holes bored into the lava by the first people on Hawai'i to secure their boats.
Stunning.
Here is me getting my hair blown sideways!

We ended that night in a very solemn way- looking at an amazingly full moon.
The 'vog' was not so bad that night so it looked clear and calm.
"I see the moon, and the moon sees me. God bless the moon, and God bless me. Amen."
I'm not sure who wrote it, but it was very appropriate that night.

A Week in Paradise...Wish You Were Here

My husband, Kevin, and I just got home from a week in Paradise...aka Hawai'i. We found a terrific rate out of Oakland through Delta (on Alaska Airlines!) for $300 each round trip! Holy Smokes!!
We have some very dear friends who live on the Big Island (Hawai'i) and we haven't seen them since they moved there....around the same time when we moved to Klamath Falls, OR. They were our neighbors in a very unique So Cal neighborhood.

There were 11 homes on our street (Via Olorosa) and we all moved into our brand new neighborhood in January 1987 -all of us with a couple of little kids and great hopes and dreams for the future! We all raised our kids together on the same street for 20 years, all our kids played AYSO and roller hockey in the street (the Whiners and Crybabies were the two teams) had a lot of great times, consoled each other during bad times, had a LOT of block parties and spontaneous 'almost every night bbq's' in the middle of the street and nearly nightly cocktail hour with a portable firepit all year round...that's a whole 'nother story...and have stayed close and in touch since the last of us moved to Hawai'i in 2007. One family moved to Trabuco Canyon, one moved to San Clemente, one moved to Mission Viejo, one moved to Oceanside, two (us) moved to Klamath Falls, and one moved to Hawai'i. a few still live there...a couple lost their homes in the housing market downturn and drifted away and didn't stay in touch- but most of us, we are still connected! Some have gone to their eternal home sooner than they should have- RIP Nico and Richard- but the rest of us are still around!

So we flew to Kailua-Kona (apparently you have to designate every city in Hawai'i because they repeat the names on every island) and were met by Rich and Aarah, our friends! They drove 1.5 hours to meet us with amazing plumeria (me) and Ocean Vodka (Kevin) leis to greet us!

Then, they immediately took us to one of the best places in Kona- the Canoe Club Restaurant.

This is the view that greeted us in Kona on the Big Island! Amazing! Thanks for the tip, Art Sayles!
I took this picture from our table. It was 79 degrees when we arrived. Yah. We were freezing our asses off in Klamath Falls....so this was wonderful!
I had the most delicious quick fried calamari salad with Liliko'i dressing ( made from passion fruit-very sweet!) and Kevin had a bucket of peel n' eat sweet shrimp. Yah, no pictures because we scarfed it down so quickly! The Mai Tai was also fantastic (I had...um, two?? or three) and Kevin had Red Ale (some local Hawai'ian delicious blend). 
We also stopped here on our way to the airport when we were leaving....this is the picture I took when Kevin was trying to call Delta to move our seats for more legroom...isn't this great? Oh, of course, more Mai Tais on the way out, too...

I think it was about 80 degrees here....
Aloha!