Hawaii Hightlights
Last week Jason had to attend a C++ conference in Hawaii, so Alice and I tagged along. Here are some highlights of the week:
Where we stayed: Royal Kona Resort. It's getting a little shabby, but the location (just off the end of the main drag, easy walking distance to everything, but no street noise to deal with) can't be beat and it's fun to be able to see your hotel from across the bay or thousands of feet up the mountain. The surf was so close it sounded like we were sleeping on the beach and the rhythm lulled us to sleep quickly every night. My one real complaint is that they don't have room service.
Places we visited:
Volcanoes National Park. Kilauea is still erupting. We didn't see surface lava flows this time--they're not currently accessible--but impressive smoke coming out of the Halema`uma`u crater in the main caldera. Most of Crater Rim Drive was closed, but we were able to see the Thurston Lava Tube and a couple of the side craters. We drove all the way (well, what's left of "all the way") down Chain of Craters to the ocean, through miles and miles of lava in various states and ages. We saw the sea arch at the bottom and hiked out to see the petroglyphs. Alice managed to scrape her knee pretty thoroughly on the hike, but made it back to the car on her own two feet and was far more intrepid than one might expect.
The Place of Refuge at Honaunau. This sanctuary and religious complex are interesting and beautiful and made a nice hour's stop.
The Painted Church. A quick stop along the southwestern coast. It's a lovely little church with one of the best views on the island.
The Southernmost Point of the United States. With nothing between you and Antarctica, it really does feel like the end of the world.
Ho'okena Beach Park. A lovely beach with nice waves and good facilities, far enough from the main tourist routes to feel like a find.
Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm. We got to see seahorses from babies to age 14, feed them, and even hold one--or, rather, be held by one while we pretended to be a reef--while we heard about the fascinating innovations they've made in domesticating and breeding seahorses in captivity. This is part of a growing aquaculture industry based around the fat pipe of the Natural Energy Laboratory pulling cold water off the ocean floor.
The Gallery of Great Things. One of the most aptly named stores of my experience. They sell an amazing variety of interesting and beautiful things, in all price ranges, and are easily worth a trip up to Waimea.
Waipi'o Valley. Jason and I were here in 1999 and wanted to share it with Alice. We took a tour in a 4WD van with three other people and had a wonderful time. We forded the rivers and streams, saw the fruit trees--mango, guava, papaya--flowering and the hibiscus blooming and tasted wild fiddlehead ferns. A wild horse came up and stuck his head in the van and made me wish I had an apple on me. Even on a cloudy day, this is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
'Akaka Falls, a lovely waterfall in a state park with a nice loop trail that takes you through a forest of tropical plants. 'Akaka is home to the amazing o'opu alamo'o, a goby that uses its suction disc and pectoral fins to climb up the 400+ feet to the top of the waterfall in order to breed.
Liliuokalani Gardens. We made a short stop in Hilo to stroll through this lovely bayside park, the largest Edo style gardens outside of Japan, along Banyan Drive.
Other cool things we did:
Atlantis Submarine. Jason and I did the one in Waikiki on our last trip and I think this one is even better, because of the natural reefs in Kailua Bay. The most interesting thing I learned is that parrotfish actually nibble off little bits of the reef (unlike most of the reef fish, which graze on the algae growing on the coral) and 60-70% of the white sand in Hawaii has passed through the gut of a parrotfish. The other fun story involved the plastic skeleton tied to the mast of one of the derelict boats at the bottom of the bay. The one we saw is the second one--the first one came loose in a storm and a few weeks later a surfer down the coast saw it in a wave. He completely freaked out, called the police, who got the fire department and the Coast Guard involved, only to feel pretty sheepish when it turned out to be plastic.
DolphinQuest. I swam with dolphins on my last visit to the Big Island, so this time it was Alice's turn. Ask her to show you the commands she learned and to tell you about dolphin bellies.
Spirit of Kona Sunset Cruise. This was a little more exciting than we expected, as the seas were extremely rough. I'm a pretty good sailor, but the waves were fierce. Between the open bar and the rocking of the waves, I was just about asleep in my seat. I stopped after the appetizers, but those were great--all you can eat seared ahi!--and the hula show was fun. The conference had arranged a babysitter for the attending kids, back at the hotel, and it was nice to have a night off.
Alice and I got pedicures at Eden Nails--Alice's first. Mine were in bad shape and she had admired the toes of another girl on the Dolphin Quest, so it seemed like a good way to spend an otherwise unscheduled morning. Mine are plain--although pink and sparkly--but Alice got aloha toes!
Drove Saddle Road. This road used to be notoriously bad and in 1999 our rental car agreement said in large print that travelling on it would void our contract. But it has been rebuilt and repaved and is just fine now. It was pretty misty during our traverse, but the clouds lifted enough for us to get an up-close look at Mauna Kea and a beautiful red sunset.
People we saw: (for Elana) I got to have lunch with one of my fellow wives and we took our kids out to the seahorse farm together. On the cruise we caught up with Benjamin. I got to chat with Marina & Richard in passing and to meet their boys--Frances and Andreu. There wasn't an active Wives Working Group this time around, perhaps because most of the old hands have kids to wrangle now.
Places we ate:
Huggo's. A lovely welcome to Hawaii, right next door to our hotel. Good poke--we ate a lot of poke on this trip--nothing was bad and Island Johnny had a great time performing for "Baby Girl". Our table, out on the patio right over the rocks and waves of Kailua Bay was the best seat we had all week.
Up Country Bakery & Cafe. A sign advertising fresh-baked banana bread lured us in and we had a lovely breakfast of crepes and bagels with fresh-squeezed OJ. And the banana bread was mighty tasty, too. A good place to stop if you're heading south from Kona.
Probably the most authentic meal we had was at a cafe (possibly Cafe Ono) in Volcano Village, just outside Volcanoes National Park. Jason and Alice split a plate of chicken stir fry with macaroni salad, while I had the laulau plate--pork and butterfish wrapped in taro leaf and steamed.
Bongo Ben's. The next place past Huggo's, they did a fine fruit plate with a side of bacon and were close, so Alice and I went there a few times. Nothing spectacular, but the view is great.
Big Jake's BBQ. Another road-side stop south of Kona, they made a good place to stop for lunch near Ho'okena. Their pulled pork was tasty, though I wish I'd known to tell them to hold the sauce, and their potato salad was especially good. Very informal, but you get to watch their chickens strut around while you wait for your order to be called.
Sushi Shiono. A fine sushi place in the Coconut Grove Marketplace. Their chicken karaage appetizer was generous and kept Alice very happy. She tried my niku no tataki and seemed to enjoy it--in general she has become once again willing to try many things, even if her own choices are still pretty narrow, and that makes me very happy.
The Fish Hopper. Down at the other end of Ali'i Drive, near the pier, it made a fine place to stop for breakfast before our submarine tour of the bay. The mango smoothie was great, the view was lovely, and they had a very nice fruit plate. On our second visit the waitress messed up my order and I was pretty disappointed, but the fruit plate was still a hit with Alice, who seems to have gotten over her sensitivity to pineapple.
LuLu's. Very similar to Bongo Ben's, just upstairs. Jason thought their fish tacos were ok. Their mac & cheese is Kraft Dinner and their drinks are pretty weak. No reason to go here if you have time to walk any further, but if you don't, they're fine.
Lemongrass Bistro. More a Thai-leaning Asian fusion place than anything else--their curries are broth-based, rather than being made with coconut milk. In an attempt to find something that Alice would enjoy--she ended up eating vast quantities of rice and small bites of other things--we got a ton of food and everything was tasty.
Waimea Coffee Company. We stopped at one commercial complex and both of their restaurants were mobbed. So we went down the road, past The Gallery of Great Things, to another restaurant, which turned out not to serve lunch. But a kind woman in that parking lot told me to try the Coffee Company, in the same complex with our destination. I would never have tried it, assuming it to be only a coffee shop, and it was a reasonable solution. They didn't have anything that sounded to Alice like lunch, but I decided we could do something with a chicken breast panini and, sure enough, pulled apart into bread and chunks of nice, moist chicken with melted cheese and garlic aioli, she ate most of it. My own roast beef panini was quite tasty, too, and together they left us too full for ice cream.
Kona Inn Restaurant. We tried this thanks to a recommendation that it was good for kids, because of the large grassy area between the open-air dining room and the ocean-front wall, but by the time we got there it was dark and no one was out playing. Nevertheless we had a good, but expensive meal that included my favorite entree of the week: ono stuffed with shrimp and cream cheese and covered in lobster sauce, with rice pilaf and sauteed spinach. Ono is the Japanese name for this delicious, full-flavored white fish--the Hawaiian name is wahoo.
Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill. This was recommended to us by friends--the hostess is the sister of their son's preschool teacher--and turned out to be a real find. Off the tourist strip, it feels more local. With a table of seven we had quite a long wait, but you get to watch the action in the kitchen from the patio waiting area and check out the owner's very odd rebuilt station-wagon/stargazer vehicle. The meal was very good--we mostly had fish of various sorts, but they're famous for their ribs and have a nice children's ("keiki") menu. The staff were great and very indulgent of our children making a fort by tying napkins to the underpinnings of the table. Call ahead to get your name on the seating list.
Don the Beachcomber. Our hotel's restaurant, with claims to have invented the Mai Tai. They serve many variations thereof, along with a wide variety of other cocktails, and I quite enjoyed my "Topless" one. We ate here on Friday night, using a coupon from the front desk to buy one buffet meal, get another free--plus kids under 12 are always free. So one $29 fee fed all three of us and it was worth at least that. The buffet is local-themed and included poke, poi, lomi salmon, locally grown veggies, coconut bread, chicken luau, chicken teriyaki, pork kahlua and beef teriyaki, with pineapple upside down cake or coconut cake for dessert, as well as all the jello and fresh pineapple Alice could eat.
Tex Drive-In. A fine place for lunch after a visit to Waipi'o Velley, they are most famous for their "malasadas"--a Portuguese sweetbread-based fried dough, which they will fill with a variety of flavors. They're best hot and I think my apple-filled one was a win. Besides those, there are wraps, sandwiches, burgers, etc. and those were all fine.
Sima-Ichi Sushi. Our last dinner, next door to Lemongrass Bistro. The sushi was good and wicked cheap--cheaper than we get back home and about half the price of Shiono.
Island Lava Java. On our final morning we finally made it down the block to where we should have been having breakfast all along. Their local beef burger was yummy and Alice enjoyed another fruit plate and bacon, but I think the best thing was Jason's wahoo tacos. Plus they fresh squeeze all their juice--get the pineapple juice, it's astonishing.
Overall, it was a good trip. Not as relaxing as my last visit to Hawaii, long before we became parents, but a joy to share so many exciting adventures with Alice. She started out on the wrong foot, kind of whiny, but once I gave her an attitude-adjusting talk, she really turned herself around. In fact she had such a good time that she's now planning to move to Hawaii when she grows up, which I think is a fine plan as long as she has a guest room. Her flight back to Seattle with Jason was smooth, while I had one of the worst transits of my life. But I think anyone who gets to spend a week in Hawaii has no standing for whining, so I'll stop there. It'll be a while before I'm ready to fly that far to get there, but by the time Jason's meeting cycles back to Kona, I'm sure I'll be eager again. Besides, there's lots of stuff you have to be at least ten to do, so there are still plenty of adventures left for me and Alice.
This entry was originally posted at http://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/592436.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.
Where we stayed: Royal Kona Resort. It's getting a little shabby, but the location (just off the end of the main drag, easy walking distance to everything, but no street noise to deal with) can't be beat and it's fun to be able to see your hotel from across the bay or thousands of feet up the mountain. The surf was so close it sounded like we were sleeping on the beach and the rhythm lulled us to sleep quickly every night. My one real complaint is that they don't have room service.
Places we visited:
Volcanoes National Park. Kilauea is still erupting. We didn't see surface lava flows this time--they're not currently accessible--but impressive smoke coming out of the Halema`uma`u crater in the main caldera. Most of Crater Rim Drive was closed, but we were able to see the Thurston Lava Tube and a couple of the side craters. We drove all the way (well, what's left of "all the way") down Chain of Craters to the ocean, through miles and miles of lava in various states and ages. We saw the sea arch at the bottom and hiked out to see the petroglyphs. Alice managed to scrape her knee pretty thoroughly on the hike, but made it back to the car on her own two feet and was far more intrepid than one might expect.
The Place of Refuge at Honaunau. This sanctuary and religious complex are interesting and beautiful and made a nice hour's stop.
The Painted Church. A quick stop along the southwestern coast. It's a lovely little church with one of the best views on the island.
The Southernmost Point of the United States. With nothing between you and Antarctica, it really does feel like the end of the world.
Ho'okena Beach Park. A lovely beach with nice waves and good facilities, far enough from the main tourist routes to feel like a find.
Ocean Rider Seahorse Farm. We got to see seahorses from babies to age 14, feed them, and even hold one--or, rather, be held by one while we pretended to be a reef--while we heard about the fascinating innovations they've made in domesticating and breeding seahorses in captivity. This is part of a growing aquaculture industry based around the fat pipe of the Natural Energy Laboratory pulling cold water off the ocean floor.
The Gallery of Great Things. One of the most aptly named stores of my experience. They sell an amazing variety of interesting and beautiful things, in all price ranges, and are easily worth a trip up to Waimea.
Waipi'o Valley. Jason and I were here in 1999 and wanted to share it with Alice. We took a tour in a 4WD van with three other people and had a wonderful time. We forded the rivers and streams, saw the fruit trees--mango, guava, papaya--flowering and the hibiscus blooming and tasted wild fiddlehead ferns. A wild horse came up and stuck his head in the van and made me wish I had an apple on me. Even on a cloudy day, this is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
'Akaka Falls, a lovely waterfall in a state park with a nice loop trail that takes you through a forest of tropical plants. 'Akaka is home to the amazing o'opu alamo'o, a goby that uses its suction disc and pectoral fins to climb up the 400+ feet to the top of the waterfall in order to breed.
Liliuokalani Gardens. We made a short stop in Hilo to stroll through this lovely bayside park, the largest Edo style gardens outside of Japan, along Banyan Drive.
Other cool things we did:
Atlantis Submarine. Jason and I did the one in Waikiki on our last trip and I think this one is even better, because of the natural reefs in Kailua Bay. The most interesting thing I learned is that parrotfish actually nibble off little bits of the reef (unlike most of the reef fish, which graze on the algae growing on the coral) and 60-70% of the white sand in Hawaii has passed through the gut of a parrotfish. The other fun story involved the plastic skeleton tied to the mast of one of the derelict boats at the bottom of the bay. The one we saw is the second one--the first one came loose in a storm and a few weeks later a surfer down the coast saw it in a wave. He completely freaked out, called the police, who got the fire department and the Coast Guard involved, only to feel pretty sheepish when it turned out to be plastic.
DolphinQuest. I swam with dolphins on my last visit to the Big Island, so this time it was Alice's turn. Ask her to show you the commands she learned and to tell you about dolphin bellies.
Spirit of Kona Sunset Cruise. This was a little more exciting than we expected, as the seas were extremely rough. I'm a pretty good sailor, but the waves were fierce. Between the open bar and the rocking of the waves, I was just about asleep in my seat. I stopped after the appetizers, but those were great--all you can eat seared ahi!--and the hula show was fun. The conference had arranged a babysitter for the attending kids, back at the hotel, and it was nice to have a night off.
Alice and I got pedicures at Eden Nails--Alice's first. Mine were in bad shape and she had admired the toes of another girl on the Dolphin Quest, so it seemed like a good way to spend an otherwise unscheduled morning. Mine are plain--although pink and sparkly--but Alice got aloha toes!
Drove Saddle Road. This road used to be notoriously bad and in 1999 our rental car agreement said in large print that travelling on it would void our contract. But it has been rebuilt and repaved and is just fine now. It was pretty misty during our traverse, but the clouds lifted enough for us to get an up-close look at Mauna Kea and a beautiful red sunset.
People we saw: (for Elana) I got to have lunch with one of my fellow wives and we took our kids out to the seahorse farm together. On the cruise we caught up with Benjamin. I got to chat with Marina & Richard in passing and to meet their boys--Frances and Andreu. There wasn't an active Wives Working Group this time around, perhaps because most of the old hands have kids to wrangle now.
Places we ate:
Huggo's. A lovely welcome to Hawaii, right next door to our hotel. Good poke--we ate a lot of poke on this trip--nothing was bad and Island Johnny had a great time performing for "Baby Girl". Our table, out on the patio right over the rocks and waves of Kailua Bay was the best seat we had all week.
Up Country Bakery & Cafe. A sign advertising fresh-baked banana bread lured us in and we had a lovely breakfast of crepes and bagels with fresh-squeezed OJ. And the banana bread was mighty tasty, too. A good place to stop if you're heading south from Kona.
Probably the most authentic meal we had was at a cafe (possibly Cafe Ono) in Volcano Village, just outside Volcanoes National Park. Jason and Alice split a plate of chicken stir fry with macaroni salad, while I had the laulau plate--pork and butterfish wrapped in taro leaf and steamed.
Bongo Ben's. The next place past Huggo's, they did a fine fruit plate with a side of bacon and were close, so Alice and I went there a few times. Nothing spectacular, but the view is great.
Big Jake's BBQ. Another road-side stop south of Kona, they made a good place to stop for lunch near Ho'okena. Their pulled pork was tasty, though I wish I'd known to tell them to hold the sauce, and their potato salad was especially good. Very informal, but you get to watch their chickens strut around while you wait for your order to be called.
Sushi Shiono. A fine sushi place in the Coconut Grove Marketplace. Their chicken karaage appetizer was generous and kept Alice very happy. She tried my niku no tataki and seemed to enjoy it--in general she has become once again willing to try many things, even if her own choices are still pretty narrow, and that makes me very happy.
The Fish Hopper. Down at the other end of Ali'i Drive, near the pier, it made a fine place to stop for breakfast before our submarine tour of the bay. The mango smoothie was great, the view was lovely, and they had a very nice fruit plate. On our second visit the waitress messed up my order and I was pretty disappointed, but the fruit plate was still a hit with Alice, who seems to have gotten over her sensitivity to pineapple.
LuLu's. Very similar to Bongo Ben's, just upstairs. Jason thought their fish tacos were ok. Their mac & cheese is Kraft Dinner and their drinks are pretty weak. No reason to go here if you have time to walk any further, but if you don't, they're fine.
Lemongrass Bistro. More a Thai-leaning Asian fusion place than anything else--their curries are broth-based, rather than being made with coconut milk. In an attempt to find something that Alice would enjoy--she ended up eating vast quantities of rice and small bites of other things--we got a ton of food and everything was tasty.
Waimea Coffee Company. We stopped at one commercial complex and both of their restaurants were mobbed. So we went down the road, past The Gallery of Great Things, to another restaurant, which turned out not to serve lunch. But a kind woman in that parking lot told me to try the Coffee Company, in the same complex with our destination. I would never have tried it, assuming it to be only a coffee shop, and it was a reasonable solution. They didn't have anything that sounded to Alice like lunch, but I decided we could do something with a chicken breast panini and, sure enough, pulled apart into bread and chunks of nice, moist chicken with melted cheese and garlic aioli, she ate most of it. My own roast beef panini was quite tasty, too, and together they left us too full for ice cream.
Kona Inn Restaurant. We tried this thanks to a recommendation that it was good for kids, because of the large grassy area between the open-air dining room and the ocean-front wall, but by the time we got there it was dark and no one was out playing. Nevertheless we had a good, but expensive meal that included my favorite entree of the week: ono stuffed with shrimp and cream cheese and covered in lobster sauce, with rice pilaf and sauteed spinach. Ono is the Japanese name for this delicious, full-flavored white fish--the Hawaiian name is wahoo.
Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill. This was recommended to us by friends--the hostess is the sister of their son's preschool teacher--and turned out to be a real find. Off the tourist strip, it feels more local. With a table of seven we had quite a long wait, but you get to watch the action in the kitchen from the patio waiting area and check out the owner's very odd rebuilt station-wagon/stargazer vehicle. The meal was very good--we mostly had fish of various sorts, but they're famous for their ribs and have a nice children's ("keiki") menu. The staff were great and very indulgent of our children making a fort by tying napkins to the underpinnings of the table. Call ahead to get your name on the seating list.
Don the Beachcomber. Our hotel's restaurant, with claims to have invented the Mai Tai. They serve many variations thereof, along with a wide variety of other cocktails, and I quite enjoyed my "Topless" one. We ate here on Friday night, using a coupon from the front desk to buy one buffet meal, get another free--plus kids under 12 are always free. So one $29 fee fed all three of us and it was worth at least that. The buffet is local-themed and included poke, poi, lomi salmon, locally grown veggies, coconut bread, chicken luau, chicken teriyaki, pork kahlua and beef teriyaki, with pineapple upside down cake or coconut cake for dessert, as well as all the jello and fresh pineapple Alice could eat.
Tex Drive-In. A fine place for lunch after a visit to Waipi'o Velley, they are most famous for their "malasadas"--a Portuguese sweetbread-based fried dough, which they will fill with a variety of flavors. They're best hot and I think my apple-filled one was a win. Besides those, there are wraps, sandwiches, burgers, etc. and those were all fine.
Sima-Ichi Sushi. Our last dinner, next door to Lemongrass Bistro. The sushi was good and wicked cheap--cheaper than we get back home and about half the price of Shiono.
Island Lava Java. On our final morning we finally made it down the block to where we should have been having breakfast all along. Their local beef burger was yummy and Alice enjoyed another fruit plate and bacon, but I think the best thing was Jason's wahoo tacos. Plus they fresh squeeze all their juice--get the pineapple juice, it's astonishing.
Overall, it was a good trip. Not as relaxing as my last visit to Hawaii, long before we became parents, but a joy to share so many exciting adventures with Alice. She started out on the wrong foot, kind of whiny, but once I gave her an attitude-adjusting talk, she really turned herself around. In fact she had such a good time that she's now planning to move to Hawaii when she grows up, which I think is a fine plan as long as she has a guest room. Her flight back to Seattle with Jason was smooth, while I had one of the worst transits of my life. But I think anyone who gets to spend a week in Hawaii has no standing for whining, so I'll stop there. It'll be a while before I'm ready to fly that far to get there, but by the time Jason's meeting cycles back to Kona, I'm sure I'll be eager again. Besides, there's lots of stuff you have to be at least ten to do, so there are still plenty of adventures left for me and Alice.
This entry was originally posted at http://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/592436.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.