Last of the Hawai'i pictures...

I wore my kukui nut lei to Mass & Religious Education Classes today. It reminded me that a week ago was our last night in Hawai'i. Kukui nuts are very useful little items...they were used as 15 minute 'candles' because of their hard shell and high oil content by the ancient Hawai'ians. The paste of the seed is a traditional ingredient in 'poke', it can be pounded into a paste that is like a soap, the charred nuts are used as an ink for tattoos, and leis are made from the polished seeds, too. The Kukui tree is the state tree of Hawai'i. Ya learn something new everyday!
Anyhow, we spent our last night in Kona at the Kona Islander Inn.

 This was a really pretty place! It's made up of individually owned condos that are rented out like hotel rooms. The top picture is the view from the lanai on Rich & Aarah's room and the bottom is the view from our room.
We had an amazing sunset to see on Saturday night.
And I took a pretty cute picture, too! So did Kevin :)

This is a photo of Rich and Aarah together! We loved our time with them on this beautiful Island!

On Sunday before we flew out, we went to a white sand beach just north of the Airport in Kailua, Kona.
It's a private golf community, with a public beach. It was absolutely beautiful. Yes, I could live here.

We drove to the airport afterwards and said good-bye to Hawai'i. I did buy a Plumeria and White Ginger plant to plant in the house (of course) so I can remember the scents that so captivated me! I'll post pictures if they sprout.
My only complaint on the whole trip is that in spite of all the fruity little cocktails I drank, I never got a drink with an umbrella in it.
While in the airport bar, waiting for our departing flight, we of course, had a drink. I was lamenting the lack of an umbrella in my drink to the bartender. She popped a umbrella into my pinot grigio and made my day!

Farewell, Hawai'i! We will be back! I hope you all have enjoyed the pictures and blog about Hawai'i as much as I have enjoyed actually visiting the Island!
Aloha!

13 of 20 micro climates in the world...Hilo area

We made a trip on our 'round the island' drive to the Hilo Area. It's not really representative of the entire area, since we only really drove through Hilo. OK, after 6 hours in the car, we were pooped out. Can ya blame us??

There are 13 out of the 20 micro-climates in the entire world on the Big Island and we visited most of them...Hilo is the rainforest and cloudy area.
These Banyan Trees are not native...but these particular trees were planted by famous people back in the 30's...like Amelia Earhart.
We went to the famous Rainbow Falls.....OK, it was cool, but it was in a residential area and there were lots of bugs. I wasn't too impressed.

And I was kinda unhappy I got bit by a skeeter...as did Kevin, and Aarah! Bad show, Hilo, bad show. But it worked out OK since Rich and Aarah carry some kind of miracle skeeter bite stuff that makes it all good. No huge swollen lumps (since I am allergic to bug bites- no epi-pen, but it's not fun) just a tiny reminder of my visit to the rain forest.
We arrived back at Rich and Aarah's to find a freakin' CENTIPEDE!
This one was dying...they get the house sprayed on a regular basis, so the critters are all dying when we actually see them...he's pretty ugly. If he bites you, it will hurt like hell. Thankfully, we didn't get bit...argh! 

 This was our dinner that night...a nice thick fillet of fish, with garlic, EVOO, pepper flakes, salt and pepper on the grill for 3 minutes per side, along with broccoli tossed in olive oil roasted for 15 minutes in the over and some fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden...YUM!

 And, more wine on the lanai. It was a good night. The view from the Hasse Home....just hanging out.

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!