Kona and Honolulu Holiday in Paradise Part 7

In this blog entry I'll tell you about my trips to Kona and Honolulu.

On March 20th my wife and I drove to Kona. On the way there, we stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant next to a marina. I had a Philly Steak Sandwich.


After that we went to Cosco. I bought 3 Aloha shirts for only 30 dollars. Then we went to Kona. By the time we got to Kona it was dark. Before bed we relaxed on the balcony. There are no coqui in Kona so we couldn't enjoy the coqui singing. Still it was nice. The next day we went to Waikoloa beach. We spent the day swimming and laying on the beach. We also read. I really like to spend a day at the beach with a good book. We did the same thing the next day. After that we returned to Hilo.



Back in Hilo we spent most of the time relaxing. Two of the meals we had were really special. First, we had Loco Moco. It's a popular Hawai'ian breakfast dish. There are many kinds of Loco Moco. The one I had was made of rice with spam, Portuguese sausage, hamburger and a fried egg on top covered in gravy. We had Loco Moco at a famous restaurant called Cafe 100. Cafe 100 has been destroyed by a tsunami twice.



The other special meal we had was another barbeque at Mr Turchi's house. We had barbequed tuna, roasted onions and potatoes, asperagus and salad. Ono Kine grindz!!


We also ate some delicious sweets before we left Hilo. We went to Big Island Candies.

There were many Japanese at Big Island Candies buying omiage. For information about Big Island Candies in Japanese click here.

Finally we left Hilo and flew to Honolulu. We spent two days at Waikiki relaxing, reading and swimming.

The end

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Holiday in Paradise Part 6

In this blog entry I'll tell you about some interesting things that I saw at Hawai'i Volcano National Park.


These are pictures of the Kīlauea Caldera and Halemaʻumaʻu Crater
To learn more about a caldera click here.


There are some forest areas around Kilauea, and there are some very interesting trees in these forests.

Another interesting sight at the Park is The Thurston Lava Tube. There are some pictures of The Thurston Lava Tube below.



The last thing we did at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park was go to see the lava flows. A few years ago it was possible to stand very close to the flowing lava. It's still possible but very difficult because lava flows are far from a road.

Next time: Kona and Honolulu

Luau
Holiday in Paradise Part 5

In this blog entry I'll tell you about the luau I went to. A luau is a traditional Hawai'ian feast.


As we were returning to our car, we noticed that a luau was happening at the house on the edge of the lava flow. This is a special house because the lava stopped right in front of it. By a miracle the house was saved.



The luau that night was being held in order to raise money for a Hawai'ian school. The cost was thirty dollars. All the work for the luau was done by the students and teachers.
The menu at a luau is very special. One of the most famous dishes is called kalua pig. Kalua pig is a whole pig roasted slowly all day in an underground oven. The underground oven is called an imu.



The entertainment at a luau is very special too. There is music, of course, and hula. At this luau the music was played by teachers. The instruments that they played were guitar, contrabass, and Hawai'i's most famous musical instrument, the ukulele. We were very lucky at this luau because some famous hula masters were there, The Kanakaʻole family and Keali'i Reichel.

The picture above is the cover of the Keali'i Reichel CD that I bought.


Next time I'll tell you about our trip to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

Walkin' on the Moon
Holiday in Paradise Part 4

In this blog entry I'll tell you about some of the amazing landscapes I saw in Hawai'i.


On my 4th day in Hawai'i I visited the site of the Kilauea eruption that destroyed the towns of Kalapana and Kaimu. Kilauea is the youngest and most active volcano on the Big Island.

Little by little some plants are beginning to grow again.



Some people in the community bring coconuts and plant them.



The lava flow that destroyed Kalapana and Kaimu also destroyed a famous black sand beach. Fortunately a new black sand beach is forming.


The lava flow has created some spectacular seascapes.

To be continued...

Holiday in Paradise Part 3

In this blog entry I'll tell you about my third day in Hawai'i.

We woke up late again and had coffee on the veranda. He had Hawai'ian coffee. The Big Island is famous for coffee. The most famous coffee comes from Kona but ono coffee comes from Hilo too. After our morning coffee we had left-overs (残り物) for breakfast. After breakfast we did some sightseeing. One of the places we saw was Rainbow Falls . There were many Japanese tourists there.


After our sightseeing we went to a restaurant for dinner. We had pizza. After dinner we went to the Palace Theatre in Hilo to see an Austarlian Aboriginal dance troupe.



The dance troupe also performed the dances of the Torres Strait Islanders.


After the show, we went back to Mr Turchi's house and relaxed on the veranda and listened to the coqui.

To be continued...

Holiday in Paradise Part 2

Click photo for larger version

In this blog entry I'll tell you about my second day in Hawai'i.

We woke up very late, about 11 am. I usually have to wake up at four or five in the morning, so I was very happy to sleep in late. We sat on the veranda and drank coffee and listened to the birds singing. I especially enjoyed listening to the sound of the mourning doves cooing. Listening to the mourning doves cooing reminded me of home. There are many mourning doves in Toronto.

For breakfast we went to a popular restaurant called Ken's.

Click photo for larger version

I had a Canadian bacon and cheese omelette with homefries and buckwheat pancakes. They were ono kine grindz. Ono kine grindz means delicious excellent food in Hawai'ian pidgin. After breakfast we went shopping. We went to the Salvation Army Shop. I bought two Aloha shirts for only $20 dollars. I also donated some t-shirts to the Salvation Army. I'm wearing one of the Aloha shirts I bought at the Salvation Army in the photograph below.

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After shopping we went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I had enchiladas, rice and refried beans. It was ono!

Click photo for larger version

After dinner we went back to Mr Turchi's house. Mr Turchi and I relaxed on the veranda again. We chatted and listened to the coqui sing.

To be continued...

Holiday in Paradise

In this blog entry I'll show you some pictures from my holiday in Hawai'i and I'll tell you a little about the things I did. Be sure to click the links to get more information. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me or post a comment.

I left Japan on March 14th at about 10 pm and arrived in Honolulu on March 14th at about 9:30 am. I went back in time! I was able to do this because I crossed the International Date Line. The International Date Line is the red dotted line on the map below. There is a red star next to Hawai'i on the map.

Click the map to see larger version

After I passed through customs and immigration (税関とパスポートコントロール) I got on another plane and flew to the city of Hilo on the The Island of Hawai'i, which is usually called "The Big Island" because it is the biggest of the Hawaiian islands. The Big Island is in the lower right corner of the map below.

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Hilo is on the right side of the map below. There is an icon next to Hilo on the map. It looks like an airplane. The icon shows that there is an airport in Hilo.

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I was met at the airport by my friend and former colleague Rick Turchi. Mr Turchi and I taught together at Kanto International High School. I stayed with Mr Turchi and his family for most of my holiday. You can see a picture of Mr Turchi's house below.

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The first night of my holiday Mr Turchi and his family treated my wife and I to a great dinner. We had barbequed steak! It was delicious. As you can see from the photo below, we also had brown rice (玄米), yams and corn.

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After dinner, Mr Turchi and I relaxed on the veranda. The atmosphere was great.

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While we were relaxing on the veranda, we could hear the singing of coqui frogs.


You can see more pictures and hear the coqui frog's song by clicking here. You can get information about the coqui in Japanese by clicking here.

To be continued...

Goin' to Hawai'i

This is a picture of me at Waikiki on my first trip to Hawai'i.

Well everyone, I'm going to Hawai'i today. I haven't planned everything yet. I'll be staying at Mr. Turchi's place at first. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Turchi was a teacher at Kanto International High School. He lives in Hilo now on the big island. Perhaps we will take a helicopter ride over a volcano. I'm sure that I will be going to the beach. At the beach I'll sun bathe, and read. If I can I'll make some posts while I'm in Hawai'i.