Hawaii 2009 -- Installment #1
Lots of gear to pack on Saturday. We were really at it all day. I worked on finances and some other admin chores at home, then voted, while Kelly ran errands in Ballard and Downtown. I got started on packing the bike around 11:00 and then she came home, we had lunch, and then I went to the paint store. Paint in hand, I went past Bartell's for last minute sundries and Tootsie Rolls to augment the diminishing (hmmm...delicious) Almond Joys, and Lo! sunset was near. We packed our clothes, then the golf gear, including Kelly's new bag and then made dinner. Clumps of trick-or-treat'ers were spotted between 6:00 and 8:00, and we quickly ran out of candy. I closed off the house, turned out the lights and we watched TV until 9. Then we packed, then moved my office in to her office in anticipation of the remodel work that would go on while we were gone. We went to bed around 11:00, iPods charging and the like, and both slept very well.
Our cab was at 6:30 and we got up at 5:45 for a pretty leisurely morning ritual. The cab driver insisted on speaking at the top of his lungs until I finally persuaded him that our neighbors would appreciate a little quiet. Sheesh. It's bad enough we didn't get their permission to even go on vacation, let alone take a cab somewhere. The driver of the minivan told me that his hatchback handle had come off in the Halloween fracas, so loading the car was quite a hassle. 1 Bike case, 2 golf boxes, and one large suitcase, as well as the limit of two personal items. At drop off we realized we were over the weight limit for our 1 bag, so another $25 was needed. I need to go back and see if two bags would have been cheaper, but so be it.
Check-in and security were dead simple. We spent less than 10 minutes with the sky cap and were at breakfast by 7:15. Kelly went to the magazine shop afterwards, and we hustled to the gate too late, but no harm done, as we took up our excellent exit row seats. The plane was a brand new 737-800, which only deepened my love of Alaska. I rented a Digi player and watched two awesomely ridiculous movies. Shout out for _Taken_ and that chase scene in the rock quarry "near Paris" which was adorned in fifty gallon barrels with open lids; half with gasoline, the other half with bonfires. Even watching Liam Neeson run around the Quai's of the Seine in four munched-together clips while sweating profusely wasn't as funny as that. Then I watched the opening season of Top Gear, which by the way is going to be awesome. Then touch down. I am skipping over the small excitement--a woman passed out two rows behind us and we had some theatre around giving first aid. Oddly no one from the medical profession stood up to help, if they were in fact aboard. Let's say 35 rows at 6 people each and 16 in First Class for a total of 226 people and none worked in the medical field? I am personally going to say that 3MM people are EMTs, nurses, doctors, or qualified first aid givers, based on 755k doctors in the US. Where were that lady's 2.3 people to help her? Another funny outcome of her not-so-funny episode was that the flight attendants forgot to give everyone their complimentary mai-tai in time, so when they were hastily handed out, the purser then came on the PA one minute later asking people to please gun their rum drink. Oh, and then we all went to the rental car counter. Yikes.
We got a Nissan Murano, which was a pretty nice SUV, actually, but for two key problems. The throw on the accelerator is hella fast and extreme, and the doors are low enough that Kelly has twice brained herself getting in. And she's short. We headed south and made our way to the Kona Wine Market. I have to say, that place is great. Nice woman from Queen Anne sold us wine from a poor assortment (the grocery store near the Mauna Lani is better), but we still walked out with Valkenberg Kabinett from '06, Billecart-Salmon NV Brut, their Rosé, a nice $14 all Sauv Blanc white bordeaux (AOC Bordeaux), and Bredif Vouvray. Not too shabby. Their cheese section was poorly stocked, alas, but we had a nice time anyway. She recommended the KTA super store in Hilo for our groceries, and she wasn't wrong. More on that in a minute.
The drive south was awesome. Light traffic, beautiful vistas, as we made good time. We stopped off near South Point to get a snack (ice cream for me, kit kat for Kelly) and to replenish our water. Now a bit of gastro-intestinal information. Don't worry--it is G-rated. Kelly couldn't stop burping after our flight, and neither could I. The woman behind us passed out and there was a baby that was going crazy during the flight. I posit that the cabin was over-pressurized, which was hard on everyone and stunning to one. What does this have to do with our snack? That is just when I had my revelation.
The weather was glorious and evening was coming on. When we got to the KTA in Hilo, I started to regress into endless shopping and browsing during our nesting of our rental house. Kelly's precison, efficiency, and "when are we leaving" were the right foil. We decided on ingredients for just one big dinner, thinking leftovers and a walk into town would be the right blend. It was hard to know what to buy until we saw sashimi-grade, caught-that-day, Ahi Tuna for $6.99/lb. We bought a 1.5 lb piece and returned last night for another. Yum! We made our way to the Reed's Island house, which was as amazing as I remembered it. We snacked on Diamond Baking soda crackers from Honolulu and hummus, plus the pink champers. Dinner was nicoise à la 'ilo, with egg, carrot, cucumber, and fresh ahi. I also made sushi rice and poured red leaf shiso flakes on it for a kind of furikake thingie on the side. It was delicious, too. The scraps from that dinner made two ahi chirashi for the following night and served us well. Tonight is just a repeat of that meal down to the very detail, save the eggs which we had as omelette this morning with Puna goat ricotta, that I can HIGHLY recommend.
By day, we were pretty lazy the first day. AM yoga wasn't interesting, so we just went into town for breakfast at the Ohana Grill, which is the scene of me getting drunk with the Canan clan and Laurel pronouncing me a frisky drunk. It's true, I'm afraid, so guard yer daughters. Breakfast was funny, with excellent coffee, an insane amount of staffing, the owner opening the door on me in the bathroom to "make sure someone was in there", a credit card machine that broke, and my Paniolo omelette that was actually two fried eggs on top of basically a cheese enchilada. I think they should serve them every Jan 1.
We spent the morning reading and photographing the grounds and then took a dip in the soaking tubs. Then we went to Sombat's for truly excellent Thai. Can't recommend it enough, except to say that Medium is already nicely spicy and Hot is absolutely that. The green papaya salad was really fresh and delicious. Then off to the airport for a motley crew of fellow helicopter passengers. God Be Praised the two year old passenger went on a different copter, as that could have been unpleasant, and we wound up with this nice gay couple from London ("I'm a designer and I take a helicopter to work, you know...") and Anne from Boston who inexplicably flew to Hawaii for two weeks. Six hours to LAX and five here. Wow. She could have gone to the Seychelles in about the same time. Kelly went from being a doubter to an addict, as we looped over the Pu'u O'o vent, spotted a fresh flow, found a skylight (Kelly saw it first) and then raced to the ocean entry to watch terra becoming firma. Very thrilling, and topped off by two or three rainbows, one double. Coming home was kinda anti-climactic, except we had dinner pre-made and settled in to read and, for me, listen to my Patrick O'Brien audio book.
We headed out this morning with gusto. Kelly and I drove to Mountain View on our way to Volcanoes National Park. She dropped me off with my bike and I started climbing. I told her if I wasn't there in 2 hours to be freaking out, because it was only 12 miles, after all. Oh, and by the way, it was 2600 ft. to the top. Doh! I kept at it and made it in 1:38, so all was well. There was a light rain the whole way, which was Nature's best A/C unit and whenever it did cease to rain for a minute, the heat was pretty quick to overpower. At one point, the wind shifted to come off of the Kalapana coast and the salt air smell was just heavenly. I had a quick dog moment, and some weird passing car stuff, but all in all, a great climb. We did the Kiluaea Iki trail counter-clockwise and took many pictures of that hellish and stunning place. It made for a long day, but the pizza margherita and lamb sandwich we shared at Kiawe Kitchen was enough to hold us.
Home to dinner and our other bottle of champagne, and to witness an absolute humbling downpour. I've finished my blog installment and will be in the hot tub pretty soon. Love to all and Mahalo to us; may we continue to dwell in this heavenly place.
House needs: This place needs a few things. Dry Measures to start with. That's a big oversight, I think. A rice cooker would be nice, since many of the entrants in the guest book are from Japan and Southeast Asia. The KTA is also hugely Japanese and Korean in its selection. The handsoap is quite smelly, too, but that is an individual thing.
Regrets/For Next Time: We should have sprung for the helicopter ride that goes up to the Waipio Valley if I had had an inkling that Kelly would like it so much. Tonight would have been an awesome star party, but it would also have been a lot of time in the car, so mild regret. More champagne, of course. The Barack O Blend is good marketing, but poor coffee. It's not that 1/3 each of Kenya, Hawaiian (Kona), and Sumatran can't work, I believe, but that this version doesn't. Should have tried the Puna Feta on our hummus appetizer.
