Live At The Oregon Beer Fest, Part 4
Lines to long…after the kids get their faces painted, we’re out of here!
Rock! Death! America!
Littering our noise on the EarthArchive for July, 2007
Live At The Oregon Beer Fest, Part 2
The dancing has begun. (hopefully the video works)
Scenes from the Week
Well, not all the scenes, as nobody took a picture of me at 3:30am with my nose buried in a book…
Finally took advantage of the Portland Parks and Rec Playground on Wheels program. The kids got to take a dip in the fountain and paint and get pirate gear. O got splashed by a (younger) kid and then the kid ran and O followed and splashed him back, but was unfortunately now in the “no splash zone”. Said younger kid tattled to the Rec Staff and O had to apologize to him, because while O was in the splash zone and therefore clearly wanted to be splashed, the little kid only wanted to be the splasher, and by running away to the (very much undefined) safe zone clearly meant he didn’t want to be the splashee. I kinda thought he was kind of an annoying complainer the whole time anyway…(splash victim, not O). So today in the car we are listening to Duran Duran’s Is There Something I Should Know? and O says “when I splashed that kid and the lady made me say sorry, I should have sung ‘please please tell me now, is there something I should say?’ since she told me what to say.” I told him that would have been awesome.
I always hated that I couldn’t sing along with Simon LeBon, my voice just isn’t pitched like that. It sucks to sound crappy singing along to a favorite tune.
Anyway, O finished the library summer reading program, including the bonus path, so he got to put his name on a sticker inside a book, and got his free t-shirt.
As you can see, the other news for the week is that XM got glasses. She is very cute in them and wears them nearly all the time. We had a little trouble getting frames, as she needed the very smallest size. Fortunately, we were able to get a back up pair, just in case.
You Say Aloha, While I Say Aloha…
I almost forgot to do the last Hawaii update, what with reading an 800 page book in 26 hours and all.
Day 6 & 7
We decided to take it easy on our last full day with access to our hotel room, so we wandered over to the Hilton Hawaiian Village to have a look around. We sweated and browsed and ate at CJ’s NY Style Deli before heading back towards our hotel. The plan was to swim one last time in the ocean but XM fell asleep, so she and D went back to the room to nap and relax and cool off while O and I went swimming in the waves. O was finally quite comfortable in the surf, letting it knock him around and pull him under and generally make him quite sandy and giggly. O and I carried three shaved ice between us on the way back, and by the time we got 400 yards to the lobby we had an overflowing melted sticky mess on our hands.
Afterwards we all ventured to the rooftop pool at the hotel, where it was kind of scary and very windy and actually quite cold if you went in the not-too-warm pool and got out into the gusts. O would have made all his swim teacher’s proud as he jumped in the water and swam to the stairs to do it all over again, and XM had no problem attempting to do the same. We would have warmed up in the hot tub, but like half the things we tried to do, it was “out of order.” We ate another dinner at the Yardhouse, and D spent some time with the newlyweds before we all called it a night and got ready to head back to the mainland.
The next day donned cloudy and drizzly (and somehow still 85 degrees, now with more humidity) and we packed up and checked out and returned our gear to Snorkel Bob. We now had ten hours to kill before we had to return the rental car and catch the red eye home. O wanted me to take a picture of this building every time we drove by, and I managed to remember on the very last day.
We headed up the Pali Highway - a highway that cuts across the island from Honolulu to Kailua - to visit the Pali lookout. On any other day of our trip it would have been an amazing view of Kailua and Kaneohe Bay, but it was still rather beautiful and mysterious in the fog as the mists wrapped around the lush mountains.
I think the weather helped keep away what are apparently ferocious bees that live in the area.
We then went to the heat and the crowds of the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. It was quite big, circling the entire stadium, but there was a lot of the same thing and not much in the way of people selling found items, treasures, or antiques. We did get a coconut and drank the juice. It wasn’t terribly delicious.
Lunch was next, and since we were on our way to the Pearlridge Shopping Center to see the Robots exhibit, we decided to eat there. We found a great little place nestled between the Zippys and the Sears tire department, and loaded up on our tofu. D got a tofu and rice noodle salad, I got basically the same thing but wrapped as a summer roll, and O got a bihn mi (Vietnamese) tofu sandwich that was delicious. Tummy’s full, we viewed half of the Robots exhibit. The promise of a monorail ride with views of Pearl Harbor fizzled when we discovered the monorail to be out of service. It didn’t appear anyone was working to fix the problem. Sorry kids.
We piled back in the the car and drove about a half a block before the kids passed out, so we decided to drive up to the Punchbowl and have a look. You’d think we could just take the Punchbowl exit and hang a left, but as seems to be the case in this state, the roads make absolutely no sense. In the end we made it, and the view was quite stunning and the kids slept for almost two hours.
We decided to drive back to North Shore for dinner and try to get one of the famed shaved ices of the region. We ate at Haleiwa Eats Thai, which was quite yummy. They found an excellent use for Macs as well (computers, not the nuts).
We barely made it to Aoki’s before they closed, to get our shaved ice. O got bubble gum, D got volcano delight, and I got surf special. Yum!
Once again the sun was setting as we left the North Shore, and we returned our car, submit ourselves for prodding and probing and boarded the 10:50pm flight home. All in all, a very nice time.
Breakfast of Champions
Day 5
One of the first things we noticed in the ABC Store located at the base of our hotel was the abundance of inexpensive (compared to Oregon) liquor. Right there! In the convenience store! Like a normal state! We bought a fifth of spiced rum, a bottle of sake, and a bottle of Malibu coconut rum. It didn’t take long to discover that we had more alcohol than drinking time, and if we didn’t want to leave half empty bottles behind we needed to step it up. Enter the breakfast cocktail: one part coconut rum, two parts club soda, and two parts whatever juice we had on hand for the kids. Serve with english muffins or leftover slices of the tiny $25 Round Table pizza.
We got up early and headed to Hanauma Bay to snorkel before the parking lot filled up. We didn’t bring any cameras because we didn’t want to leave them on the beach while we were in the water, so we don’t have any photos of the trip. The water in the bay was choppier than we expected, but we were able to go out a few times and see a ton of fish, including the ever popular humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa.
We really wanted to walk around Chinatown, so we headed to Legend Vegetarian Restaurant. This is a Buddhist Chinese vegetarian restaurant, and the food was so wonderful. They brought over the dim sum cart and we had some sort of mashed vegetable surrounded by fried taro (called Woo Gok) that was absolutely delicious. We ordered Singapore e-mein noodles, sweet and sour “pork” ribs, and braised tofu with eight treasures. All the food was insanely delicious, and the kids stuffed it down like we hadn’t fed them for a week.
After a brief tour of Chinatown we hit the touristy factory store of Hilo Hatties, complete with photo by the world’s largest hawaiian shirt. We settled on some clothes for the kids and headed back to rest before we set sail aboard the Maita’i Catamaran’s sunset sail. This sail turned out to be the highlight of the trip - fun, relaxing, and all the mai tai’s you can drink. The crew was nice, it wasn’t crowded, and the views were fantastic. You board the boat by walking through the waves, and fortunately it was docked right near our hotel.
The mai tai’s started flying as soon as we left the beach, and we cruised slowly out past the waves.
A woman caught a ride out with us, only to jump off with her surfboard and catch the waves back to the beach.
Once we got out of the bay (and three mai tai’s later) they opened up the sails and we bounced and flew over the swells. XM fell asleep, and the crew man/bartender covered her up with a towel.
O was delighted to get a can of juice all to himself, but he had to hold on tight and not drink it lest he spill it all over himself. XM didn’t sleep for long, and both kids had so much fun getting whipped by the wind and sprayed by the waves. We headed out just around Diamond Head before turning back towards Waikiki.
They did have a bathroom on board the boat, which to our consternation was little more than a hole with a ladder going five feet down (even I had to duck, and I’m short!) to a toilet at the bottom. I had to take O twice, and share the cramped little claustrophobic space with him, always wondering if someone was going to decide to climb down on top of us.
The sun was starting to set as we headed back in towards the beach, and the waves helped propel us in.
A wonderful and relaxing end to a long and busy day.
Guava Jelly
Day 4
We got up the next morning and picked up some snorkel gear from Snorkel Bob, including the best impulse rental of all, the boogie board with the portal in it. With that in the back of the Trailblazer and tunes from KMKK 102.3 FM Molokai (all Hawaiian music all the time!) on the radio, we set out for our drive around Oahu.
We made our first stop at the Halona Blowhole and watched and waited with everyone else to see the water spray up through a hole in the rocks.
Our next big stop was at the Byodo-In Temple near Kailua. It was beautiful and peaceful, nestled at the base of the lush mountains. The kids both rung the giant peace bell, and we sat and admired the fish and swans.
It was time for lunch after the temple, so we backtracked to a natural food store to get some veggie fare from their deli. We then headed to He’eia State Park, where we marveled at the crazy blue water and the view of Gilligan’s Island (okay, its actually Coconut Island, but they did film parts of the t.v. show there).
It was time to make up some time, so we followed the shoreline up and around the Windward side. It was so beautiful to be driving right along the ocean with only a tiny strip of beach between us..we are used to southern california beaches, where you have to hike a half a mile across blazing hot sand to just get to the water’s edge.
We put our snorkeling gear to the test at Three Tables, a spot on the North Shore near Waimea Bay. We saw quite a few fish in the rocks below, and D ventured around one of the reefs. XM wanted nothing to do with the Boogie Board, and O tried his best to use the snorkel equipment, but wasn’t terribly comfortable with not being able to touch farther out, so he made good use of the board.
We ended up at the North Shore tow of Hale’iwa at nearly six o’clock, just in time for most of the stores to be closing. We ate at Cholos, a Mexican restaurant that had come recommended. Apparently if you enjoy overpriced margaritas and absolutely flavorless food, then this is the place for you. O cracked us up though, when he flagged down the waitress for more salsa.
From there we admired the pineapples growing in the light of the setting sun, and worked our way back to the hotel in the dark.
Ke Kali Nei Au
Day 3
Fortunately for us (for once) the kids get up at the crack of dawn, so we didn’t have any trouble getting up and getting ready for the 9am wedding ceremony. The bride and groom had given us a goodie bag filled with sunscreen, tissues, lip balm, playing cards, macadamia nuts, and chips, as well as some things to wear for the wedding. The boys got a lei made from kukui nuts, and the girls got a necklace and a flower to tuck behind the ear.
Those more directly involved with the wedding got to Wailaie Beach early to claim a spot on the sand. You can’t make reservations or secure a spot on a public beach, other than by showing up and setting up your stuff. They chose a gorgeous and slightly isolated point on the end of a small peninsula, overlooking a tiny island and the expanse of the Pacific. The wind was fierce and the wedding small so we all gathered around close during the ceremony. Since we were at a public location, the bridal party waited in hiding behind a large tree, and when everyone was ready the groom called her on his cell phone and told her it was time.
The wedding was held on 07/07/07, so aside from it being July at the beach in Hawaii, there was the added attraction of being married on the lucky sevens. We passed at least five other beach weddings on the way back to the car at approximately 10am.
The reception was at one of the tea rooms at The Willows Restaurant, a pretty place filled with gardens and waterfalls. We enjoyed mai tai’s and food and some scrumptious guava cake, and the kids were given a bag of goodies that helped keep them occupied. At the close of the reception they joined other kids to play in one of the fountains.
All in all it was quite beautiful and I’m so glad we went - the groom has been a close friend since high school and the bride is a cool person, so it meant a lot to be there.
We spent the rest of the afternoon with some friends that were catching the red eye home that night, so we all went to the Bishop Museum. O really wanted to see the whale skeleton, but of course it was in the section that was being remodeled. We did enjoy making the volcano erupt.
I’d made a list of potential places to eat so we decided to cross one off and went to the Brew Moon Brewpub for dinner. I can’t remember what we ate, which goes to show how mediocre it was. D got the water beer sampler, and the most frequent comment was “ugh, tastes like dirt”. I think we’ve been spoiled by Oregon…good thing we were able to enjoy a delicious and relatively cheap by Hawaii standards 22 oz bottle of Deschutes Hop Henge at the reception. Yum.
Aloha, Oy
We have returned, somewhat rested and a little tanned, from seven days in Hawaii. A good friend was getting married there, and we decided it would be much more fun to fly to Hawaii for the wedding than to go to Los Angeles for the reception. Tough call, eh? The wedding was on the beach near Honolulu, and we stuck to Oahu for the duration for the trip. Since we couldn’t blog while we were there we’ll catch you up now, a day or two at a time.
DAYS ONE & TWO
We arrived at Honolulu Airport in the afternoon and bungled our way through the un-navegable streets of Honolulu, spending a good two hours moving four miles from airport to hotel. We acquainted ourselves with our room and view of the 4th floor rooftop below before heading out in search of dinner. We didn’t have to go far, as we found The Yardhouse just across the street, a small chain with an impressive beer selection and decent (read: more than one thing) vegetarian selection. Food was good and the macadamia cheesecake was a delicious end to the evening. We stumbled back across the road and fell into bed.
The next day we met friends at the Wailana Coffee House for a hearty breakfast and made our first foray to the beach. It was XM’s first time at the ocean, and after a moment’s hesitation she was walking in the surf with the rest of us.
We took turns playing and frolicking in the surf until it was time to find some lunch and take a nap.We then explored the shops across the way, until we had to drag D away from the $1000 ukulele and head up to our friend’s room for a pre-wedding cocktail party. They were smart and had coloring books and crayons waiting for the kids, and we hung out until we got tired. The wedding was at 9am the next morning, so we needed to get to bed so we be up and ready to go early in the morning, not knowing how long it may take to drive the few miles to the wedding site.
