Friday, December 18, 2009

Happy Holidays!

Hello, blog readers!
Sorry I've gotten so far behind since the trip to Hawaii. I have every intention of catching up after the holidays. A week after we got back from the Big Island, Tomkin and I traveled to Boston to see his friend Scotty (the head usher at our wedding) and meet Scotty's fiancee, Brenda (who is awesome!). We'll be heading out again for their wedding in May. We also got to see Tomkin's friend Jake (an usher at our wedding), and I got to meet Jake's wife and son (and see all the chickens they have running around their yard!). Two weeks later, I went to Chicago for the weekend. My primary reason for going was to co-host a bridal shower for my friend Lisa, who's getting married in Iowa in February. But I wanted to see my other Chicago friends, too, so instead of planning various lunches, dinners, coffees, etc., I decided to throw myself one last 40th birthday party (at In Fine Spirits) and have everyone gather together. That was so much fun! It was great to see so many friends again--and to hang out in Andersonville, my favorite Chicago neighborhood. The shower for Lisa was a lot of fun, too, and I'm looking forward to her wedding in just a couple months! Of course December has also been busy with Christmas shopping, parties (we just had Third Thursdays last night and served cosmos), oh--and I finished up another federal biodiesel grant and wrote a draft for an education grant! I confess that, rather than spending my recent downtime blogging, I've been watching reality TV--specifically "Dancing with the Stars," "The Amazing Race," and "So You Think You Can Dance," all of which are now done for the season. I'm heading to Texas on Sunday to see my mom--can't wait. Tomkin will be joining me later in the week. We fly back the day after Christmas and will be celebrating with his folks on the 27th and then getting together with my dad, Sandy, Phillip, and Alex in January. I hope that all of you are doing well and having a happy holiday season! Thank you so much for reading my blog!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hawaii Trip - Day Six (10/26/09): Fire & Water

Monday morning we realized that the coqui frogs had been much quieter during the night. Turns out that Albert and John had put tape around the trees outside the Coffee Barn and then shaken baking powder onto them, which the frogs don't like. They really try not to use chemicals on the land (a common theme we heard throughout the island). It was John's (the dad) 78th birthday, so we all wished him well at breakfast. (Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him! But I did get a photo of our delicious tropical fruit.)John-Paul told us about the Angel's Trumpet flowers we had seen throughout the grounds. He said that bees love to fly into them when they're open. Sure enough, as we approached the flowers we could hear the buzzing get louder. We walked around the grounds of Lucky Farm--it was fun to see all the different kinds of trees, including jaboticaba, coffee, and lychee. This first shot is of Tomkin standing behind the Coffee Barn, where we stayed.We also enjoyed some macadamia nuts and papaya on the lanai of the main house. Back in the Coffee Barn, we rested a bit (my ribs were still pretty sore), and then we left at 10:15 and drove up to Kona to go on a submarine ride. We checked in and then explored a couple touristy shops before lining up on the pier. We took some photos and chatted with the other tourists (there were only about 10 of us--traveling during the off-season rocks!) before we boarded the boat that took us to the submarine. The company (Atlantis) had this submarine built just for tourist use, but it's a full working sub. One by one, we all climbed through the porthole and went down the steps. Our tour guide was kind of cheesy, but he was actually quite entertaining, and we learned some stuff from him, too. For instance, when you see deep-sea footage on TV you see lots of colors because the film crew has artificially lit the environment. Actually, light doesn't go that far down, so you don't get the full spectrum of colors--most noticeably, there's no red. Eventually everything looks black-and-white with a bluish tint. Here's a shot with the flash and without:
We ended up going 100 feet below the surface, and we saw all kinds of cool fish and coral. We also saw two shipwrecks! The first was a salvage ship from WWII. The second was a sailboat that sank fairly recently. Tomkin noticed a small shark swimming around it! Those poor fish had no idea what was coming.... We also saw some debris (a tire, cinder blocks) and some area where there's no coral. Everything was fascinating, and being underwater made everything seem so serene and kind of unreal. It was really beautiful.The whole tour lasted about an hour--it was so cool! We took the boat back to land, and then Tomkin and I wandered around, checking out the touristy shops in the area. He bought me a beautiful sarong and found an awesome Hawaiian shirt (or, as the Hawaiians say, "Aloha shirt") for himself. When we got back to the car it was 104 degrees inside! The outside temp was much more pleasant than that. It was probably in the 80s every day--very comfortable. We had passed by a Target earlier, so we stopped in there. It was strangely satisfying to be back in a Target again! We definitely don't have an "Aloha Store" section in our St. Paul Target.... We got some more sunscreen, Aleve, a new hat for me, and a few other things. Back at our B&B, Tomkin made some sandwiches and we ate lunch outside the Coffee Barn in the cute little sitting area. Both of us freshened up and changed clothes, and we left about 4:00 for the Sheraton Resort for our first of two luaus. We checked in and then walked around--what a beautiful place! We found a spot by the rocky shore, where we watched the waves crashing in. Then we wandered back over to the lawn area for the luau. A woman welcomed us with leis made of nuts, and we were led to our seats. Tomkin had splurged for tickets in the "preferred" seating area--we had great seats right up by the stage. The couple sitting across from us was originally from North Dakota, and they've been married for 45 years! The men sitting at the end of our table have been together for ten years, married for three. And the four women at the other end of the table (from Louisiana and Texas) were lots of fun--especially as the evening went on and they had more mai tais! When we booked the luaus, we decided to go with one that was more "touristy" and one that was more "authentic." This first one, called "Firenesia," was the more touristy one. So it was a little cheesy, but it was also a lot of fun. A couple of the performers came out, and one of them sang a prayer. Then we headed to the buffet table. But as we were in line for the food, someone on stage invited anyone celebrating a birthday or anniversary or on their honeymoon to come up. So we did--and we ended up going onstage to learn a hula dance! Most people looked horribly embarrassed and self-conscious, but Tomkin was in his element. He loved it! We got back in line for the food, and I filled up my plate with salad, lomi lomi salmon, lau lau, teriyaki beef, squid luau, wide rice noodles with chicken, pork from a suckled pig, a taro roll, and--of course--poi. Much of the food was a little too fishy-tasting for me, but I loved the pork and beef. Not so crazy about the poi, I have to say. But the mai tais sure were good! And I also got a bunch of desserts: pineapple upside-down cake, guava chiffon cake, and coconut pudding. The stage show started at 7:00. The story was about how all the fires in the world went out, but there was one warrior who kept a fire alive, and he brought it to all the Polynesian islands. They did a dance to this terrible, dance-mix "Firenesia" song (which still keeps running through my head), and Tomkin and I both looked at each other, wondering if we'd made a horrible mistake. But after that it got a lot better. The warrior traveled to Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, etc., and for each island they would perform a dance. Some of it was really cool--especially the dances that involved fire! Sometimes they danced out into where the audience was seated.The performers really got into it, and even though some of the show seemed kind of goofy, Tomkin and I both enjoyed it. We said good-bye to all our tablemates (we mostly ended up talking with the group of women), and then we headed upstairs to see if we could spot any manta rays in the sea below. Every evening the resort shines a bright light into the water to attract algae, which in turn attracts manta rays. We did eventually see one. (The one in the photo below is just a slide--I couldn't get any good pictures of the water.) Then we headed back home to our B&B and read for a while. (Tomkin read six books while we were there!) It was another really fun day.