Mountains and Islands

It's not really my birthday anymore. That was yesterday. I had fully intended to log on last night to tell you all about it, but a) it wasn't all that eventful and b) I ate so much for dinner last night that once we arrived back home, it wasn't long before I was zonked. Dinner was lovely. We at at Kilauea Lodge. I think it's one of the best restaurants on the island. It broke da bank and broke the mout'! The soup was a delicious puree of peas, cabbage, cream and curry. It had a name, but I can't pronounce it. For our main course we had Duck l'orange and Seafood Mauna Kea. The seafood dish was scallops, shrimp, fish and calamari with an assortment of veggies, topped with a sauce of creme fraiche, on pasta. The appetizer was to die for; coconut crusted, fried brie served with fruit salsa and fresh bread. And the dessert? Onolicious. A custard with raspberry sauce topping. It was all good. The lodge is so cozy, with a big fireplace, vaulted ceiling and koa wood...

"Each time Honolulu city lights stir up memories in me. Each night Honolulu city lights bring me back again...." (Keola Beamer) Ron and I did something crazy on Sunday. We went to Honolulu for the DAY. "No we're not the jet set..... We're the old Chevrolet set....." (Tammy Wynette) Ah yes, life is just one song lyric after another. Anywho, we flew to Honolulu to have lunch with one of Ron's clients who was on vacation on that far away isle. It's just a one hour flight from Hilo. (I wonder if there's a Hawaiian word for boondoggle?) We spent most of our time on the bus, traveling between the airport and Waikiki. That's because we aren't even the Chev-ro-let set. We ride da bus, brah! Hey, isn't using mass transit one of the best ways to help curb our use of greenhouse gases and stem the tide of global warming? Besides, it only cost $2 each way rather that $40 by cab. So there you go. I used the money I saved to buy a new aloha shirt ...

Aloha from the biggest cyber-slacker in Hawaii. I know I've been remiss these past few days about posting. The weather's just been so nice that I just had to ride the tractor! We were finally able to get it back to the upper reaches of our property and it looks largely clearable, except for the forested part. That can be cleared too, but will take something a little bigger than my little John Deere to do it. Ah but first things first. Most of the open area is covered by tall ferns, not grass. The ferns are easy compared the the grass. So I've been mowing them into fern dust. Poof! It just started raining ten minutes ago. In fact, it's pouring. On Sunday, we made our quarterly pilgrimage to the west side to get some sun. We ate at a place called Quinn's Almost By the Sea, which served the best fish and chips on the island. It was ono. It was also ono; that is to say, the fish they fry is called ono, one of my favorites. You gotta appreciate a fish that's so good ...

I can't believe I actually forgot to mention our most recent homeowners' adventure. Last weekend, our hot water heater died. It sprung a leak, big time. So off to Sears we drove. Before leaving, however, Ron had the chance to talk story with our neighbor and tell him about our latest mishap. "You'll have to install the new one yourself," said Leonard. "Oh no," replied Ron. "I think this time I'll just pay a few extra bucks to have the guys at Sears install it." "You'll end up installing it yourself," insisted Leonard. Leonard was right. Sears is short-handed with very few employees available to perform appliance installations. Apparently, this is always the case. Sears has been short handed for the past 20 years here. So they said they had nobody available to do the installation any time soon. If we wanted to wait, we could, but it could be several weeks and the cost would be $250. Since the unit itself only cost $350, it seem...

Shine on me sunshine, walk with me world it's a skipidee do da day.... She's the happiest girl, in the whole USA.... Ah but the question remains; is she actually in the USA? Oh sure, Hawaii is technically a state. But there are those here who contest that, since the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy was illegal. They've got a point. Bill Clinton officially apologized. It occurred to me after my last post that Lucy has, by far, gotten the most face time on the blog of late. So today it's Hoppsy's turn. Isn't she adorable? Speaking of sunshine, we've actually seen some throughout the last two days. I'm glad for the reprieve from the rain, however brief. Yesterday, Ron and I went to beautiful downtown Pahoa to check out their newly developing restaurant row. Funny thing is, most of them are closed on Sunday except for our old standby, the Mexican food joint. So, Luquin's it was. We had fish nachos. Never had those before. Very tasty. We also dropp...

No self-respecting cat can resist a box. Lucy is no exception. If she's not in a box, she's sneaking into cupboards or closets. She is quite the little explorer. Today at work a man came in to ask for the key to the lua . Clearly he was a local. One test of a person's knowledge of the islands is whether or not he or she knows the difference between a lua and a luau. A luau is a feast. The lua is where you go sometime after the feast. We are experience substantial rain lately. Or, as they say locally, "We get plenny da kine ua ." Not much is new. It's been raining so much and so hard we haven't even considered any yard work in weeks. The coffee trees are still doing well and the vegetable garden is protected by our Puna Style greenhouses. It's somewhat treacherous just getting to town and back. Yesterday, I actually slowed down to about 20 mpg along one stretch when the rain was coming down so hard I couldn't see much of anything in front of th...