End of the Innocence

So, our last few days included sharing and re-visiting parts of the island with Jan and Ray.  Jan, even more than Mary, is an avid "sheller" so we visited Puako Beach on Tuesday and Wednesday.  She was very successful!  On Tuesday after the beach we took them to Harbour House, reprising our first day on the island, where we each had a schooner of beer with snacks.  Later that day, continuing the theme of food and drink, we stopped in for Happy Hour at Pueo's Osteria, a great Italian restaurant in Waikoloa Village!

On Wednesday we went down to Hapuna Beach where I was able to do some boogie boarding in some pretty big waves, at least big for me.  We had to keep moving our chairs and towels back as the waves continued to roll up higher and higher.  Then more shelling.....

Off to Lava Lava Beach Club for our last dinner there(we missed a Happy Hour by 5 minutes....we're losing our touch, time to go home),before getting some sunset shots.  We ended our last evening at the Kahulanui concert at King's Shops and then back home to try to finish off all the cheap booze we had bought.

We spent our last morning with Jan and Ray, as they were of to Maui for two weeks, and then we went down to Hapuna for boogie boarding, back to the Seafood Bar for our last happy hour and then down to A-Bay for one final Hawaiian sunset and it didn't disappoint....probably the most beautiful of the trip.....luring us back.

Red eye back to Vancouver, day room at the Pacific Gateway Hotel, where I slept and Mary shuttled off to the River Rock Casino in an attempt to win money to return to Hawaii and avoid the Terrace snow....needless to say, we're bundling up for our flight home.

Three Days Gone

Jan and Ray arrived late Saturday night so we had a very late night of visiting so we got a bit later start on Sunday.  When we were all ready we headed odd for the Mauna Lani Resort to take in the Ukulele Picnic. Check out this site:https://www.facebook.com/UkulelePicnicHawaii
We were directed through a maze to our parking spot and then got into a line up to wait for a shuttle, which turned out to be some volunteer in his own van.  So, it took about a half hour until we finally got to the event.  It was very hot, with little shade and of course we never brought our umbrella so it was a hot, sweaty time.  We watched a few performers, Mary and Jan took a hula lesson and we strolled through some of the music booths that were set up selling......ukuleles.  There were a couple of impressive ukulele performers.  One was Aldrine Guerrero:       https://www.facebook.com/aldrine/info?tab=page_info
and Kris Fuchigama :
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OS1jBjtHodk
That evening we went back to the Blue Dragon for Mary's belated birthday celebration.

On Monday we went up to Waimea to check out the Paniolo (cowboy) museum.  We ran into some cold rainy weather but I learned a lot about saddles and horse riding that I knew nothing about.  Like posting, oxbow stirrups and tapideros.  After this we visited Honokaa, the Waipio Valley lookout and then we took Jan and Ray to the Seafood Bar for Happy Hour.  We finished the day off with barbecued steaks back at the house.

Aldrine Guerrero 

Waipio Valley

Mary and Jan

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OS1jBjtHodk

Cherry Blossom Festival

Feb. 8
Off to Waimea and the Cherry Blossom Festival.  It was another beautiful day and Waimea was hopping.  The festival is based around the large Japanese population.  There were lots of activities, and live music and best of all, for Mary, craft tables everywhere!  There were so many sellers that she was even overwhelmed....a first.  We learned about Bonsai and origami....I sort of made a crane....

We did a stroll of the town and got to the Isaac Hale Museum.  It is attached to the Hawaiian Preperatory School and is a hundred year old school building.  The museum is filled with wooden artwork and other local art.  The pieces range in price from the high hundreds to the high thousands.  So one of the best parts of the visit was when Mary came up saying, "She is buying FOUR pieces!"... so when you see her picture she saying the word four....not the other 4 letter word, although she may have slipped that one in later when she was expressing her thought about this person being able to walk into a place and pick up 4 pieces of this quality and price.

Later we walked in to try to catch a sunset but we were late, so we had the beach pretty much to ourselves...just no sun.

Even later we made our way to the Kona airport to meet Jan and Ray and take them back to the place in Waikoloa Village.

Year of the Sheep

Feb. 6

Beach day....what a surprise.  We started at Puako so Mary could do some more shell searching ( after a quick stop at Snorkel Bob's...still hopeful), but the waters were stormy again and no shells were to be found.  So after a bit we headed over to Hapuna beach so I could get some boogie boarding in.  I actually got a couple of good rides for me.

After beach time we were so close to Kawaihae that Happy Hour at the Seafood Bar beckoned one more time.  This time we tried the calamari along with our usual additions....$4 margarita and $5 Mai Tais.  We were visted by a friendly gecko who got drunk from licking the cherry stem from Mary's drink.  He stayed with us the whole meal and then staggered home.

We went to A-Bay for another sunset....I keep trying to get the palm tree reflections in the fish pond but no luck.  But you never get tired of sunsets.  Mary got talking(surprise!) to a German guy and his wife who have lived in Portland for the past 5 years and they are now moving back to Burghausen, Germany.  He ended up inviting us to visit them and they would go with us to the beer rest in Rosenheim.

After the sunset we made our way to the Queen's Marketplace for Asian Fest.  This included food sampling, Taiko Drumming and a Lion Dance through the market place.  We were lucky to get an early Chinese New Year celebration.  Mary made sure to collect a number of lucky money envelopes that they were handing out.  She even fed one to a lion.

Movin' On Up

Moving day!  Goodbye Hawi, hello Waikoloa Village.....again.  So we packed up Hawi, it's amazing how much you accumulate in three weeks.

We decided to attempt the hike into the Mo'okini Heiau again but this time be sure to turn left at the beach.  We also decided to take the rental car over the rough road rather than walk it again.  The sun was shining again and the wind was still blowing.  This was also the clearest day for seeing Maui across the way.  As we walked along the trail we saw lots of whale action with a couple of pectoral fin slaps.

It took us about 20 minutes to get to the heiau and it was an impressive site.  As we walked through it we tried to picture the people and events that happened at this place of sacrifice.  There was a separate sacrificial stone where you could see the wear that was caused by the number of human sacrifices.  Mary felt she could feel a real negative energy about the place.

After we hiked back out we drove to a state park where they have restored a typical village that was established in the 1800s.  It was an interesting hike and the water in the small bay was beautiful.   We finally were able to check into our new place at 3:00.  It's a 3 bedroom house with a great lanai.  There's one spare bedroom so if you can quickly book a flight we've got room for you.  Get away from the snow.....if any flights are going out!

In the evening Mary joined a group called Waikoloa Women Who Wine.  They meet down on A-Bay once a month to eat, drink and watch the sunset...trust Mary to find a group like this! I took the opportunity to try a few more sunset shots.  Take care.  Hopefully the snow stops soon.

If you want to read more about Mo'okini go here: http://darkerview.com/darkview/index.php?/archives/167-Mookini-Heiau.html
Or here: http://www.gohawaii.com/en/big-island/regions-neighborhoods/north-kohala/mookini-heiau-state-monument/#customOrder:menutitle

They Say it's Your Birthday/Moondance

Mary's birthday....we had a slow, sleep in kind of lazy day.  The only bad thing about the Bamboo Cottage is that it is such a comfortable place that you're not really motivated to leave.  So we got a late start on our way to the Waimea Mid-Week Market to stock up on some food and stuff for a last week back in Waikoloa Village.  We got lots of fruit but we got there too late to get our favourite, homemade pasta!  After the market we did some birthday shopping at The Gallery of Great Thinks.  While Mary shopped around the Parker Center I found a comfortable seat and read some of my book, "Hawaii".  It was quite cool so after Mary's browsing we went to the Waimea Coffee Brewing Company and had a warm drink along with a piece of cherry-berry pie.

From there we drove down to Kawaihae to check out other birthday possibilities but no luck.  So we headed back for Hawi but on the way we pulled over, set up some chairs and did a little whale watching.  We sat for about a half hour and got some whale blows and splashes but no big breaches.  From there we went in search of the Mo'okini heiau.  This was the bloodiest sacrificial site in all the Hwaiian islands.  We drove down to the Upolu airport just outside of Hawi and parked the car.  We walked down the road that parallels the small runway until we got to the sign that said Heiau beach access.  So off we went along a seaside trail...and we went on....and on wondering if this was the heiau.  We saw a rainbow and some whales splashing but no heiau.  After about 45 minutes we figured we had to get going back if we hoped to get to our dinner reservation.  So back we went, trying to convince ourselves that we had seen the heiau.  We finally got back to the road and a young couple was parked there.  We asked where the heiau was and they pointed in the opposite direction the we had gone....so, no heiau, no blood but lots of sweat and some tears from the strong winds.

We were able to get back and get to the restaurant, Sushi Rock, in time.  Mary had a fish cakes entree and I tried a sushi roll covered in a thin layer of steak.  Quite different.  When we came out of the
restaurant the full moon was just coming up so we hustled back to our place, picked up my camera stuff and headed for the Pololu lookout.  When we got there we had the whole lookout to ourselves with a moonbeam playing across the ocean and the dim lights of Maui in the distance.  A great way to end Mary' birthday.

Tomorrow we leave the Bamboo Cottage and head back to a house in Waikoloa Village.

Flowers of a coral tree.

Watching the Whales Go By

Tuesday, Feb. 3

On our way down south yesterday we had to pull over to watch the show that was being put on by the whales.  There was a number of them breaching and slapping quite near to the shore.  This is supposedly the best time to watch whales in Hawaii.  Unfortunately I had not brought my better camera and had very little luck with the small camera as you will be able to tell by the lone picture I have salvaged.

We hadn't been to a beach for a few days so we went to Hapuna for some boogie boarding and then to the beach at Puako for some shell searching.  At Hapuna a family had done this great sand sculpture of a shark.  I'm sure it was the most photographed thing on the beach, except maybe for some Wahines in Bikinis.

After the beach we did a Happy Hour stop at the Seafood Bar in Kawaihae....seafood quesadilla!

Mary's birthday on the fourth so I'm sure it will entail some shopping!

My one salvageable whale shot

My battery died soon after this shot so no more pictures on the day.