Saturday, March 06, 2010
Octo suno
Posted at 7:22:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Black cod
Kenichi crab cake
uni!!!!!!!!
Raw & local
Veg tempura
Veg roll
Avo & shiso roll
Tamago
Pearl unfiltered sake - large! (filled 2 brim)
Outdoorsing. Getting hungry for Kenichi!
Posted at 6:32:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
[Ridiculously recovered leg photo!]
L: Why are you driving like that??
Posted at 3:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
D: To make the tanks clonk!
Ooooooh! We saw a magnificent snake eel yesterday! It was magnificent. No wonder it looked so snakey!
Posted at 2:53:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I just realized what tamarind smells like when you open the pod & sniff it green & unripe: sugar snap peas! Smells so good!
Posted at 1:58:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 11:38:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Yay, Keauhou Farmers' Market day, and no tsunami to make it get cancelled! Went at 10:00 and just got back at about 11:30. The Keauhou market is so great--lots of sellers to talk to, and lots of yummy variety! The fruit selection was noticeably down because of the drought, but we made out OK and came away with full tummies from all the delicious food stands.
What we bought:
- Tamarillo (4 for $1). I've had tamarillo before, but not orange ones, and not in Hawaii (just grocery store ones at home). One of the ones I got was a special Siamese twin guy, and it only counted as 1 even though it was actually 2 merged together. It was the only one like that. :)
- Chocolate chip, macadamia nut, ginger & orange cookie (really good, soft, and I loved the orange element!) and lilikoi bar (yum!! I am so crazy about lilikoi!). The cookie was Dean's and the lili bar was mine, but we shared.
- Three green papayas and a very ripe soursop. I've had soursop before, but it was a long time ago from the South Kona Fruit Stand, so I wanted to get one again, as my notes say I liked it! It's ready to be eaten NOW! They get less spiky when they're ripe.
- Had a giant chat with Lulo Guy's tent partner Colehour (I didn't know his name, but I found it out just now when I looked up his website) when I asked him where Bruce was! He's travelling this week to visit his daughter but will be back next week (whew!). Colehour told us all about this farmers' association event that he presented at in Washington D.C. because Bruce couldn't go, where he got all snowed in with three feet of snow and had to walk on back roads to get to the metro because the sidewalks weren't plowed. He also said the lulo crop is really poor this year because of the drought and rampaging wild pigs, so if we want some we should come early next week! Eeek! He was really talkative. :-)
Later we went back and bought some lilikoi jam from him for a contest with the lilikoi jelly from Happy Honu Farm (Dean told me to get both and do the contest). The one I brought home last year was from Happy Honu (I recognized the jar), although I think it had seeds last year. It has organic lilikoi juice, sugar, water, pectin and lemon juice and is really lilikoi colored (glowy yellowish orange), whereas the Kanalani Ohana jam has organic lilikoi and guava fruit, lehua honey, sugar, and Pomona's pectin. Such different ingredients! It's more of a honey color. He said the guava is just in there because it won't firm up otherwise (and he's been making jams for 30 years!). It's true, I remember the Happy Honu kind as pretty runny (but good!). Will report back on the contest results.
Got Lotus Guy's lilikoi juice, of course (sooooo refreshing! it's way better to drink at the market than at the cafe), a pair of avocado summer rolls (I like them better than the tofu ones they have at the cafe, but Dean claims to like the tofu ones best), and a rice leaf wrap thing for Dean (I don't like them--too sweet and mushy... good for babies!). We went back again at the end of the market for a second lilikoi juice, after we'd had all our food and everything. Brought back part of the cup for later (although I think Dean's slurping it right now and there will be none for me!)
The tunes guy was really good today--I loved him! He was playing a song that was based on nursery rhymes (Jack and Jill was one), and later covered "Fire and Rain" while we were eating our Makali`i food on our favorite bench. I put some money in his tip basket and he said "mahalo" right in the middle of his song. :-)
Poor Makali`i was really scaled back. :-( Not at the market--they had all the usual great things, and we got our traditional breakfast burrito and fish taco--but they've closed the cafe (I knew this ahead of time, researching online) and aren't even doing catering anymore! Things were so on the up last year, and now they're so on the down! Tragic. The food was as good as ever, and it was great to see Devin. (Kristen wasn't there.)
Oh yeah, we also got happy free-range eggs, from the tart lady's stand. A lot of different stands had eggs but I picked theirs because they're three different colors! (White, brown, and greenish.) We've never bought eggs at the market before.
While Dean put the stuff in the Jeep, I went back for apple-bananas (forgot them before) and the seller I bought them from talked to me forever, all about different kinds of bananas and how his friend over on the other side (he called him "the fruit guy," but Ken Love is THE fruit guy!!) has all these great varieties (Cuban reds, ice cream bananas, apple bananas, etc.) plus dragonfruit and how I should go over and buy tons of fruit from him! It was almost like he wanted me to buy from his friend instead of him, hahah! I did go over there and we got 3 Tahitian limes and 3 Meyer lemons. Me: "Are these Tahitian limes?" "Are these Meyer lemons?" I'm so cool and choosey! Regular limes and lemons are not good enough!! ;-) But he didn't actually have any dragonfruit, as I already knew. He's the guy we get it from (the yellow kind!), but either the drought was mean to it or we missed it this week. It's always kind of rare and hard to snag, though. That guy was having a huge conversation with a visitor who's into fishing, telling him about his boat and inviting him to go out for fly-fishing if he wanted to, since they were both Canadian. The yellow dragonfruit (pitaya) guy makes most of his living catching ahi, and sells it from a cooler at the market. The friend guy was raving about how great it is and how he scarfs it down as sashimi.
My uni spines are almost totally absorbed into my leg already!! It just feels the tiniest bit bruised or something, and there are barely-noticeable little red puncture marks that are the slightest bit swollen (less than a mosquito bite). Only one is still blue/purple. (That must be where a whole bunch of spines were all stuck in the same spot.) What the heck!! I guess I'm just super good at merging with echinoderms since I'm part echinoderm, after all.
Friday, March 05, 2010
It was snail o'clock by the time we got to Pine Trees after working on computer stuff until late, exchanging tanks, getting a new hose at Target, getting really hungry (me) and having a Fish Friday at Taco Del Mar, and stopping at Kona Mountain for a coffee. We figured it would be likely too rough to dive anyway, but we could just hang around Pine Trees if so (assuming Pine Trees was still accessible, which it was! yay!). We drove down the bumpy Jeep road and parked at Pine Tree Portal, where the conditions were kind of rough, but looked do-able. Then Dean decided to walk over and find Pine Tree Pool, which we had seen some locals swimming in last year and put on our Do Next Time list. It's a big pool in the lava, where water washes over the side from the open ocean. The height of the water in the pool goes up and down quite a bit, with a flushing sort of effect, and it looked like a really fun place. The water in one section was an amazing turquoisey blue. It's pretty deep, although we couldn't really tell how deep; nor could we tell if there would be interesting stuff to see underwater or if it would just be a fun place to play. It was impossible to tell if it opened up into the ocean in an underwater passageway or not. But we decided that since it was pretty late anyway (about 3:00) and the Portal was kind of rough, we'd try diving in the protected pool just to check it out. To get to it, you have to cross quite a bit of lava, so Dean nicely carried my tank over for me (on his back). It was sunny and hot and I never would have made it with my tank on, all geared up.
Posted at 10:44:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean geared up at the Jeep, and I put on my wetsuit and clambered along in front of him, carrying the extraneous pieces of gear (gloves, hat, masks, fins, my trim weights, etc.), then finished gearing up at the pool. There's an easy entry spot where you can just do a giant stride off the edge into the deep water, so we both put everything on except our fins and jumped in, then descended immediately. Dean kicked down through the churning bubbles and put his fins on at depth--crazy!! I put mine on first, in the water, then joined him. I observed on my slate that the bottom of the pool was covered with "lots of boulders with coral, and unis." Heh. How fortuitous. I also wrote down right away, "Pine Tree Pool is cool!"
I found a baby red pencil urchin hiding in the coral, and lots of brittle stars doing the same. Plenty of fish. It was totally fun exploring around, feeling like I was safely enclosed in the pool and couldn't get lost. I wrote on my slate in amazement, "It's big in here!" I totally didn't realize that we had passed through an underwater passageway into the ocean and weren't even in the pool anymore! I checked my dive watch, and it was 30 ft. deep.
I don't remember what we were checking out, but Dean and I were engrossed in something down in the coral and I was hovering, looking down at it, when I noticed (I can't remember how, either!) that I had a bunch of uni spines sticking out of my thigh! I guess I noticed because it hurt, but I don't really know. There was a black banded urchin below me that I hadn't seen, and I'd clonked it with my leg. I signed "Ow!" and pointed the spines out to Dean, mostly excited because it was so cool and I wanted him to take a picture. He mimed "No" about the picture, and I thought he was just messing with me, like, "No way am I taking a picture when you were so naughty, getting yourself all stuck full of uni spines!" I kept insisting he take the picture and he kept saying the camera wouldn't work, but it took a little while for me to realise he was serious and not just teasing me: the camera really wasn't working! Aaaagh! Terrible! Here I was with about 20 spines sticking out of my leg, like a human pin-cushion, and there would be no cool photo! Alas!!
Since there was going to be no picture, I set about pulling the spines out. There were a lot of them, some individuals and some in groups where five or six spines were suck in the same spot. They were long and black and had cool looking white rounded tips on the end where they'd connected to the urchin. They looked pretty neat sticking out of my black wetsuit. I began to pluck them out one by one, counting each spine, but when a bunch of them starting snapping off, leaving their tips inside my leg, I quit counting and just concentrated on getting them out with as little breakage as possible, which was pretty difficult since they are so brittle. I tried it with my glove off, but had no more success. (It was actually easier to grip them with it on.) I yanked out some big groups in handfuls, with lots of snap-offs, discarding the spines on the ocean floor as I removed them from my leg. My wetsuit was prickly with the stubs of spines.
I kept signing "ow!" at Dean, then added, on my slate, "Doesn't hurt that much. Does hurt though." It was very very very cool. I loved it! Wrote on my slate, "I bet it will be all blue/purple spots" and, "renewed my echinoderm blood-brother status! in spades!" Dean scribbled, ""mmmm hmmmm! too much!" (I got stuck in the finger with the stinger-spine of a banded urchin at Ho`okena back in 2003, and that's why I'm such a good echinoderm tamer. The spine dissolved and joined in with my body, so ever since then, I'm part echinoderm. :)
After I got the obvious sticking-out spines out, we continued on the dive; it hurt a little at first, then I mostly couldn't even feel it. There were tons of baby fish of all different varieties, including super-cute baby goatfish. We kept exploring around, and I was astonished to find a spiky cucumber, which I've only seen down really deep. I thought we were still in the pool and at only 30 ft. I looked at my dive watch and was shocked to see we were at 80 ft! !!?!? Hahaha. I guess this shows I was pretty bad for not watching my depth, but the change was so gradual that I totally didn't realize it, and hadn't been equalizing or anything, but my ears felt great! Really weird, since they were uncharacteristically bugging me a lot with nonstop squeezes at Four Mile and Roller Rink, and I was equalizing tons to try to fix them on those dives!
[Edit, 4/7: My brain gave out at this point, so I'm going to leave the rest fragmented instead of trying to artifically fill it in now.] 
- spiky cuke ♥ !
- snakey looking eel! cream with big brown spots; long but with nice face [bordering on scary watching him move, until I saw his nice eely face]
- are we still in the pool? [hahahahaha, we were actually only in the pool for about two minutes!!!!]
- came out at Pine Tree Portal by mistake, then had to swim back and find Pine Tree Pool and GB [goody bag]
- ending air around 500
[I took this picture in the Jeep afterwards. The brown spots are freckles; the purple ones are where I got the sea urchin spines stuck in my leg. There are still some snapped-off spines stuck in, here, but they're hard to see.]
I want to zzzzzzzz, but I must write about the SPINES! Went to Patz Pies for dinner (called ahead from Jeep!) and had a 1/2 pepperoni 1/2 black olive, which we ate outside at the tiny two-person table, gazing across the highway at Discovery Antiques and wondering if Mr. Discovery was missing "Mom's Mushrooms" and how long it had lived on his porch (on top of the cool old gas pump!) before we bought it. Dean pointed out that someone could have easily stolen it, but no one did because it's "horrible."
Posted at 10:16:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean took a series of photos of me eating one of my slices of pizza and I was laughing so hard when I copied them off the camera tonight. Aaaaah! They are so ridiculous! The pizza was really good, though. Fresh and perfect temperature. However, PAT wasn't there--instead it was Chris! Terrible, since Pat is great, and I wanted to ask him a million questions. Well, mostly I just wanted to ask him where he's from and why anchovies aren't one of the topping choices. (Dean: "Because they're salty and smelly.") I asked Chris instead and he said they DO have anchovies, even though they're not on the sign. It's an under-the-counter secret you-have-to-ask thing. They also have jalapenos and "weird olives," which weren't really that weird... they were just Calamata olives, but Chris thought they were highly unusual. He even got one out to show me how weird and purple they are. Chris was good, even though he's no Pat. I also spied on him making a pizza, since he prepares them right on the other side of the window above the tiny table. It was wow! Patz pizzas have good crusts... slightly whole wheaty, and nice and thin but also chewy. We got to choose if we wanted it crisp or golden brown and we picked golden brown. It was perfect.
Brrr, it's chilly out here, and my shoulders hurt. I never get a chance to rest at all in Hawaii! I have to stay up until after midnight trying to catch up on ALB entries (and totally failing), then try more when I get up, then try more in the evening when I'm super exhausted. I never watch TV or listen to my iPod or read a book, and I haven't even had a chance to write any postcards yet. And the only fooling on my computer that I do is reading people's status updates on Facebook, and thumbs-uping + writing a few comments. Slave slave slave! Yes, yes, it's really really really nice here. :) I'm not actually complaining, although I definitely could not keep it up indefinitely. Everything takes longer and is harder than at home because I'm using my Netbook, I don't have a proper desk that I can type easily and quickly on, and my shoulders are always murdered when I try to do computer stuff.
Tomorrow's the Keauhou Farmers' Market, and I am excited! NO tsunami this week (I hope!). I wish I could go to bed nooooooowwwwwwww.
Aaagh. Will begin another post, about dive. I'm too cold out here, even though this is the best typing spot. Will try to type in bed. I should have written about it right away. Aaagh. I AM SO SLEEPY!!!
[Edit: Here are two photos of my "outdoor office," from this morning. I miss my desk and chair SO much!]
We're about to try out Pine Tree Pool for the first time! Saw it last year and put it on our Do Next Time list. ...Nice!!! Dean's carrying my tank over across the lava for me!
Posted at 3:25:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
[Edit: I climbed up on some high lava to take this picture. That tiny thing lying on the ground on the right is my tank and BC. Really nice entry spot! Unfortunately, the underwater camera's batteries clonked out, so we don't have any dive photos.]
Fish Friday at Taco Del Mar!
Posted at 2:57:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Mmmmmountain = almost an instant vog headache cure.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Ha! We saw Pat in his truck running in to pick up brews at the mini-mart in Captain Cook as we were leaving Mi's. He recognized us and was really friendly. I asked him what Patz Pies' hours are, and they're 10-7, but he said to call if you're running late and he'll stay open for you!
Posted at 7:19:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 7:02:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Thumbs up on the Meyer lemon creme brulee! I liked it even more than the banana rum flambe. (Although the homemade caramel sauce was yummmm.) The b.r.f. tasted too sweet when consumed at the same time as the pleasantly tart-tinged brulee.
Sign over the kitchen @ Mi's: It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice...
Posted at 6:24:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I like it!
L: "I wonder what the soup of the day is? Garlic soup with onion on top? Or onion soup with garlic?"
Posted at 5:58:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
D: "Mean!!!"
Lilikoi Bellini
Lilikoi Hawaiitalian soda
lilikoi everything!!!
Foccacia with dipping sauce
beet salad
3 meatballs
South Kona green salad
minestrone soup
baked polenta
dessert???????????
I LOVE PEBBLY!!!!!!!!
Posted at 5:31:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dive Slate Notes:
I like it under here!
I bet Pebble would be a good night dive
mauve fine-spine uni that looks like ME!
sand is made up of so many tiny things... coral, shells, uni spines of all kinds, lava fragments, etc.
Pebbly is fun!
cool light collector urchin with tiny crab friend
AWESOME!!! A FROGFISH!
WOW! Right out in the open! So yellow! I could see inside his mouth! Cute!
I want a 2-tank Pebbly with picnic during surface interval!!!
Pebbly was AWESOME!!!!! I ♥ Pebbly! The waves weren't bad at all (supposedly, it can be really dangerous sometimes) and it was sooooo fun! Best part was our first-ever frogfish and the group of about five Yellowtail Coris wrasses were swarming all around me during our 3 minute safety stop at 17 feet in the pebbly section. I'm usually bored and constantly looking at my watch during safety stops, but I was totally entertained and didn't even notice when the time was up!
There's only one wrasse in this video, but Dean happened to record the best part of the whole wrasse-swarm session: when this guy opened his mouth and showed off his cute sharp teeth! (I'm miming to Dean a "Did you see that??" mouth opening impersonation with my hand.) According to my fish book, the Hawaiian name (hinalea 'aki-lolo) for this kind of wrasse means "brain-biting." I love it!!!
My tank felt light today. (Except that it was making ME really heavy and massively hurting my feet when walking Croc-less on the pebbles!)
Karma Fruit Stand! Great sign, and I like the smiley mouth on the slot in the lock box where you insert your cash. [Edit: Here's Dean, and here's me, picking out a couple of pummelos (which were labelled as grapefruit!) and holding Dean's Rangpurs (which he thought were Mandarin oranges, and got a nasty surprise when he unsuspectingly ate one! ...Karma Fruit is a tricky place.) My hair was all salty because I didn't rinse it after our night dive.]
Posted at 3:03:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 2:03:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Larry's! Best banana bread EVER. I got a cappuccino and it was pretty good. 8 oz! Dean's chai smelled SO good. We had a big chat about the people on the dive boat yesterday. :-)
Adriana's Mexi-Food!!! It's still there, even though she wasn't at the market.
Posted at 1:23:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Laura: "First you were crying because we couldn't find any puhs, and now you have too many puhs and have to eat more to get rid of them."
Posted at 10:39:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean: "No--I have the opportunity to eat more."
Dean: "I'm having a much bigger breakfast than you!"
Me, cracking up: "That's for sure!!!" He is eating four whole papayas, by himself! I am refusing to eat any papayas this year since I am blaming them on my rash in previous years. No rash yet, but we are also rinsing the wetsuits after every dive (Dean's rinsing, and I'm hanging, so I'm not touching the rinse solution, either), so it's hard to know which one is responsible.
Since the South Kona Green Market had no papayas, we had to get creative finding alternative papaya sources. So far, we've gotten them at several different stands at the Kona Farmers' Market on Ali`i Drive, the Asian foods store at the Kona International Market, Marilou's International Market in Hawi, the outdoor market at the huli chicken spot near Kohala Divers in Kawaihae, and I can't even remember where else... plus the one I got at Oshima Store, of course, which was a lifesaver for Dean on Saturday when the Keauhou Farmers' Market was cancelled.
Bananas last much better around here. They ripen fast, but when they're ripe they don't get all smushy and unappealing quickly like at home. I guess it's because they're so much fresher.
Posted at 12:46:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Dive boat feeling when I close my eyes in bed. No hot choc, no pop. [Didn't crave it because I wasn't cold afterward, thanks to my scuba beater and taking off all my wet things!] 
It was super-windy driving up, but totally calm and sunny in Kawaihae Harbor. We saw distant whales jumping, and a close up gang of dolphins, on the boat. First time we've ever actually seen dolphins! They looked like they were having FUN. The first dive was Horseshoe Reef, and it was kind of zzzzz (Dean says I always think the first dive on a two-tanker is boring) but we could hear whale song for almost the whole time. We followed the divemaster into a dark cave! Dean liked it tons. It was pretty cool... kind of scary/exciting because it was so dark.
The night dive (at "Outside Crystal Cove") was cooooold but great! Felt like I was gulping air because it was so exciting, dashing from one cool thing to another. Saw a big stripey conger eel swimming around, shining EYES (lobster & shrimp) everywhere, a HUGE lobster I could've grabbed by the antenna, a tiny baby flounder only a few inches long, tons of sea urchins spawning (so beautiful in the dark, streams of bright white dissipating into milky clouds), brittles brittles brittles (HUGE brittles!) on the prowl, and the mysterious mauve sea cucumber! Tons of whale whale whale--loud. Most thrilling part was the weird sea cuke! ♥ I tried to describe it to the dive master afterward, and she had no idea what I was talking about. If they are so rare and unknown, why do I keep seeing them??? [It's Holothuria flavomaculata; scroll down to the 3rd-to-last cuke on this page.]
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Posted at 1:40:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Solo Jeep mission to Aloha Massage Academy (to book $30 student massage for next Wednesday!), Kings Daughters' thrift store (didn't get anything), Oshima Surf (got a cool Oshima Surf t-shirt, and it's an Alternative Apparel shirt, my favorite brand that fits me perfectly), and Surfin' Hilary (got a coffee even though it's morning and I usually don't drink coffee until afternoon... I'm a little groggy today because I took a Flexeril to help my messed-up arm last night).
We were planning to eat somewhere on the way to the dive tonight, but I texted Dean and asked him if he wanted me to pick up something at Roadhouse Cafe, and he said "Sure!" He loves Roadhouse and usually has trouble getting me to go there (plus, they're only open until 4, so it's often closed). I picked out a surprise for him (one of their veggie phyllo concoctions) and got a turkey sandwich with cranberry mayonnaise for myself, then brought them back to eat while he finished up his phone meeting (wearing his headset). I really liked mine! It reminded me of the boat sandwiches Big Island Divers used to have back when we were new divers and they got the rolls from the French Bakery (now out of business). Nice and soft and delicious! And, of course, it was turkey, so it was very Boat Sandwichlian. I also got a lilikoi bar, which we shared. It was really soft and moist and gooooooood.
We just finished packing up all the gear, and are going to leave for our night dive at 2:00. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to drive up to Kohala Divers, and we're supposed to be there at 3:30. It's a two-tanker, with the first dive at twilight and the second after dark. I hope my arm isn't throbbing during the long drive, like yesterday! It feels okay right now. Hope I see lots of cool echinoderms on the dives!!!
Ha!!! Facebook is awesome! Kohala Divers just posted on their wall, "Night dive tonight. You in?" so I called on the phone, and we're going! It's really hard to find non-manta night dives, and I loooooove night dives. Don't really want to drive all the way back up to Kohala for the second day in the row, but it will be worth it.
Posted at 9:43:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
The Lotus waitress told Dean about Dara's. They went back to Thailand about 6 months ago and retired for good.
Posted at 12:44:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
My wonky arm hurt so much today. It's throbbing. Aaagh not posting anything. OW.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Dara's is indeed gone. It's just empty. There's a new place in the former Mauna Lani Kenichi spot: Monstera. (Do they serve monstera??) And Mauna SBUX is gone too... A new Kona coffee & juice bar place (looked pretty good) and Kimo Bean are coming soon.
Posted at 4:18:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Posted at 3:37:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Checked out Black Rock near mile marker 9. (The shore dive co. dude in Hawi told us about it.) Steep. Dusty. Blowa. Pretty. Almost got blown over (seriously!), and saw 2 whales jumping around.
Dean finally learned his lesson and got mac nut Tropical Dreams ice cream at the Kope place in Hawi, but it drained half my pleasure because I lost my power! He actually got a waffle cone this time, and a hot chai. 8 oz small... Store lady agreed with me that a 12 oz small is too much coffee.
Posted at 1:53:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Marilou's International Market ("specializing in Filipino & Mexican cuisine")! We went in just because of the name! I told the Mexican proprietor that my sister-in-law is Filipino and her name is Marilou but with an "i," not a "y," and he called into the back room to ask his wife how her name is spelled. She said it was with an "i". They got the name wrong on the sign but he didn't bother to get it fixed!!
Guess what they sold at Marilou's market...?? SKY FLAKES!!! So great. We didn't buy any, but we did buy papayas.
Nojo on Sug! Too surgy. Wooosh woooosh.
Posted at 1:14:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Puako was way too wavy... (pretty, though!)... Heading further north...
Posted at 12:37:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Aaaaaaaah! Waikoblowa! The palms are blowing like crazy up here. I'm scared to get out of the Jeep.
Posted at 12:21:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Tuesday Plans - day off!
Posted at 11:28:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
- Croc store for Dive Crocs + bling for Dean (he wants a dedicated pair for diving, since, unlike me, he wears Crocs all the time while we're here) (I get to pick out the bling but he has veto rights) (got sea turtles!)
- Big for tank swap [super-efficient and super-zzz since we don't know the new people and there was zero chatting]
- super-quick Target for batteries (not full visit; doesn't count) [the new Target wasn't that exciting, anyway... it's just like a big shiny new version of a home Target, with only a tiny section of special Hawaiian stuff]
- Puako (Sug as backup) [nope!]
- Kohala Divers [someone else bought the last small instance of my shirt right out from under me, so we didn't get anything! also, no one we knew was around]
- Hawi - kope, Trop. Dreams, As Hawi Turns, Shore Dive Co.
- Cafe Pesto [nope!]
Monday, March 01, 2010
Tamarind seeds are good! I like them. They're tasty and fun to snack on, like a sour candy.
Posted at 9:56:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Roller Rink was great! The entry is very easy, and we saw 3 eels, including a BIG (and I mean big) whitemouth moray! I had a great view holding the dive light from above while Dean took pictures. I could see the vent in his side, and look right down his throat as he breathed. Cool!! He looked so smooth and pretty, I wanted to stroke his big hand-sized body with my open palm.
Posted at 6:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I did pet a big snail's yellow foot with my whole hand. It wasn't slimy, but firm, and nice. I think it was a helmet snail. The large heavy shell was dull and ugly on top, but beautiful underneath. [Here's a picture, but this was after it withdrew most of its foot inside its shell. It's still pretty.]
Found a big dropoff, and descended to 116'. Whales! They sounded nice!!
120'. Two more eels, one with a shrimp friend.
1 min left...
Rubbing cushion stars feels so nice! 1 min... "Mmmmm mmmmmmmmm."
Sea cuke = velvety. We also found a new kind of sea slug, a Pustulose Phyllidia (what a horrible name for such a pretty creature!)
Note on slate: "I love feeling!"
Really nice dive. The only bad thing was, we lost our shoes! When we climbed back out onto the lava afterwards, they were gone (washed away by a wave, we guess...) Dean looked all around while I stood there wearing my tank, but when it became clear they were nowhere to be found, we had to walk back over the lava with just our dive socks on. With heavy tanks crushing you down, that is ow. I bore the whole thing quite stoically, however! And, luckily, our dive shoes are Crocs (we wear them to cushion our feet while walking from the Jeep to the spot where we enter the water, then leave them in a nearby puka), so they were very replaceable. I had my Keen water shoes in the back seat, so I told Dean to wear those (they're stretchy) while I wore my Ocean Minded shoes, and after we de-geared and packed up, we drove immediately to the Croc store in Kona and got identical new pairs (black for me, crocodile-colored for Dean). I even got my scuba flag Croc bling. :) They had Ocean Minded shoes at the Croc store (visiting their website was how I found out about Ocean Minded), but not the sheepy-inside style I have!
We went to Lava Java for dinner, since I was in the once-a-year mood for a giant burger and small vanilla milk shake (I don't even like vanilla milk shakes, but I love theirs). Dean kept trying to scamfully steal my shake, but I kept it very carefully guarded and did not fall for any of his sneaky tricks.
Surf was up a little as we passed 4 Mile, but not as bad as Friday. We're going to try Roller Rink. We heard a thing on the radio about a hearing about O'oma, aka Pine Trees! It mentioned that they successfully rallied to keep the Jeep road open last year. That's good, because I didn't know the status!
Posted at 1:27:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
What the heck, is that the tsunami siren again??
Posted at 11:45:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Oh! It's 11:45 on the first weekday of the month... that's when they test it. :-)
Posted at 11:18:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Just got back from a solo mission to Longs. ♥ When I was browsing the shelves, I observed that they still have the Imitation Abalone made from "Giant Squid"--it's one of their staple items! Seriously, they only have 3 or 4 canned fish things, and Giant Squid is one of them. I should get another can so I can actually eat it and claim I've eaten Giant Squid, without sacrificing my collection. :) Also, the first ingredient in the small print on the back is actually listed as "Giant Squid." So awesome!
I donated the Jack Mackerel can in this photo as one of my price-of-entry cans for the Brother Noland concert in Keauhou Shopping Center, but the others are still in my posession. I might eat the non-giant squid, especially since it's in its own ink (yum!), but my original Imitation Abalone "prepared from giant squid" can is too special to eat! It's part of my permanent collection and I've had it for a couple of years.
My back hurts today, but I just discovered a comfortable place to use my Netbook: outside on the teak patio table where I take all those fruit photos! The wooden chair is actually prety comfortable (back is at a good angle) and the table is at a good height for typing. My wonky arm's been a litle messed up since the airplane, but I've been mostly ignoring it. It's really nice out here... in the shade (roof overhang), with chirping birds, very slight soft breeze, perfect temperature, and, if I look to my right, I can see the ocean. I am so behind on ALB posts already, aaagh.
Mailed "Mom's Mushrooms"... The P.O. guy was highly entertained by the box and kept repeating "Mom's Mushrooms," like when he first saw it, when he stamped it, when he carried it in the back, etc. Hee heeeee. I told him that wasn't really the contents, but I didn't tell him what was (esp. since it's even weirder than what it says on the outside). I had to mail it on the Slow Boat To China (4-6 weeks) or it would have been $50 just because of the size of the box (even though it's only 10 lbs, it would have been a 20 lb rate) and that would be a bit silly for Codename Mom's Mushrooms. :-) It's survived (such as it is) for this long, so I'm sure 6 weeks would be a drop in the bucket for Mom's Mushrooms.
Posted at 10:08:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Posted at 6:02:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Kona Coffee & Tea Co. 8 oz. small! :-)
Original Thai for dinner. People have been telling us for years that we should go, and we finally did! It was good... Dean got a steamed artichoke curry! (I made him do it. He wanted to order his usual basil fried rice, but I pointed out the artichoke special that he clearly had to get.) He also got tofu and vegetable soup, and I had shrimp tom kah soup, chicken satay, and a shrimp/mint hot (not actually hot) & sour salad. The chicken satay was really good!!! Yum. Thumbs up on Original Thai!
Dean: "You were good because: you weren't cold, you weren't bored, you carried all your gear, and you were good with your air." (We both started with 3200, but I ended with 1000 left vs. 500 for Dean!) "And you didn't get TOO sandy..."
Posted at 5:36:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I actually was cold, but I stuck it out and didn't say anything...
Four Mile was flat this afternoon (big contrast with Friday!), so we jumped on it for our first dive of the trip. My hadn't-been-worn-in-a-year (thus super dry and not stretched out) wetsuit was a struggle to get into, and it was HOT in the sunny parking lot. I poured water on myself from one of our Menehune water jugs that we use to rinse stuff after a dive so I wouldn't overheat and pass out, but I was still gasping/grunting while walking to the entry point with 50 pounds of tank/weights weighing me down, in the sun, in a zillion thick black layers of neoprene (socks, core, vest, 5 mil wetsuit, gloves and hat). I was about to keel over, but then mmmmmmmm. It was such a relief to get in the water and float, light and cool. We still had to do a bit of a surface swim, and it felt so good to drop down, to be surrounded by ocean and weightless.
Posted at 4:31:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dive slate notes:
descent = :-)
it's so nice and calm down here
77°! :-)
viz good not excellent
super cute little polka dotted whitemouth moray, friendly, whole body
a million kinds of broken uni spines all in the same area... so many different types! [I loved looking at them super-close up, amazed by all the varieties]
75° now (brrr)
pretty ripples on floor
octy but he vanished
picked up black uni -- so cool, loved looking at its details up close, its different kinds of spines... it crawled on my hand [Heh. What I'm thinking in this picture: "Yeah, this is really pointy. So? I have the magic touch with echinoderms, remember?"]
[discovered a new refinement to crown-of-thorns taming technique:] wiggle to make feet let go without breaking off
beautiful tummy!
[The camera was acting wonky, so Dean couldn't take a c-o-t picture... I was glad he would experience the crown face to face without being behind the lens, though.]
After the dive, we parked near the Kona Farmers' Market on Ali`i Drive and I ran in to the Honolua Surf store to see if they had more of the marked-down skirt I got at the Kings' branch, because it's my new favorite skirt! They did, and I snagged one in red (my original is green), plus an also marked down ALB-ish looking Billabong skirt! Then I checked out the farmers' market to see if they had papayas, and reported back with a big thumbs up (Dean was staying with the car, because the parking rates in the lot were outrageous, like $7 or something...), so he joined me and bought a bunch of papayas. It's more tent-ular and enclosed than our two fav markets, and the fruit areas smelled SO good. Just, wow. It's not like our fav markets, though... more international type sellers/hawkers, so you can't easily talk to them and stuff.
After scoring skirts and fruit, we stopped at Kona International Market, and said Hi to the Goodies Guy (got into a giant chat about the tsunami, how's business?, the new Target & and when he'd have mac nuts, since he's super friendly; plus he was probably bored hanging around his shop/stand all alone). He had a copy of West Hawaii Today with the cover-page headline in giant print: WHEW! (It reminded me of the AAAAAARGH!!! on the cover of the Hartford Advocate in 2004 when Bush won the election, but I think that was even huger and bolder.) I wanted my own copy (to read, and because I needed more stuffing material for my box), so after we realized we only had a $20 bill, I scampered back and begged the G.G. for change so I could get one from the newspaper machine. (It only takes quarters.) There were all new people at Big when we went in to exchange our tanks, so didn't didn't know any of them! It's weird without Sara there anymore. :-(
Dean thought this exchange between me and the Lotus Guy was so great that he made me write it down when we were in the car afterwards...
Posted at 11:20:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
L: "I've been thinking of your summer rolls every time I order something similar in Connecticut. I always say, 'It's okay, but it's nowhere near as good as the Lotus Guy's.' All other summer rolls are so inferior."
L.G.: "Yeah, they just whet your appetite for the real thing, don't they? You know, we have a cooking class... You could learn how to make them on your own."
L: "Nah... I'm too lazy."
Posted at 11:00:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
South Kona Green Market day!
- No mexican food stand!!! Poor Dean, he was really looking forward to his "Burrrrrritas -- wet!" We knew immediately that the seller wasn't here, because we would've heard her!
- Lotus Guy's lilikoi juice = BEST EVER!! Had a giant chat with the Lotus Guy (Howie).
- 2 chicken and 2 avocado summer rolls from Lotus (I've been craving one all year)... sat on the ground on our reusable shopping bags near the band to eat them.
- baby goat on a leash (looked like a dog, but was a goat!)
- good tunes guys
- electric harp band wearing kilts waiting to play, but we didn't get to hear them
- Got quiche (2 kinds) and a Kona coffee sample in an espresso cup from the seller next to Lotus Guy. She used all real cups, dishes, and silverware!
- tried a sample piece of tamarind, and I liked it!! you crack open the pod and take out innards and suck/chew off the sticky part, then spit out the seed... it was like a sour candy. I asked if I could take a picture, then bought a bag to bring home and eat more. The seller told me that I should crack them up and soak in shallow hot water for 15 minutes to get juice to put in fizzy water or freeze as ice cubes. Ken Love, the Weird Fruit guy from Keauhou Farmers' Market, was there when I was talking to the tamarind seller, and then when we saw him over at Lotus Guy's stand (while buying more lilikoi juice) he commented about me getting the tamarind. He was there shopping, not as a seller. I asked the Lotus Guy if I could take a picture of his cool sugar cane juicer machine, and he posed for a whole bunch while working the crank! The sugar cane juice is a cool and weird green color, but I told him I didn't remember it being that color last year (he was showing off the machine for the first time at our last market on the day we left). He said the younger sugar cane is a much lighter yellowish color, and some sugar cane makes purple juice! The leaves are really mean and massively cut up your hands and arms if you don't wear lots of protection when preparing the stalks.
- bought limes, and lilikoi - the orange kind, so pretty in box
- best cookies ever!! from quiche stand - chocolate chip, mac nut, oatmeal, thick and so soft!! aaaaagh!!! so good! bought one and then had to get another because we didn't want to share.
- seemed quieter, less wild than last year
- fruit selection was low :-( from drought
- NO papayas!!!!
I just can't sleep late in Hawaii! I wake up every morning at about 7:30. Today we agreed to sleep in until 9:00 (Dean's idea) but I just had to get up at 8:30, and I checked my e-mail and fooled around with my Netbook in bed starting at about 8:00. Wow, so totally the opposite of home! :-)
Posted at 9:25:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
I forgot to mention, I've been wearing my crinoid fossil bracelet almost every day. I wore it yesterday, particularly, because I thought the crinoids would be in their element in a tsunami.
I just finished the posts from yesterday (Friday), so you can read them all now! Will finish the rest of Tsunami Day ASAP. Also will add photos. Writing lots of posts/notes on my Treo this year and sending to Blogger as drafts (haven't used my blog notebook at all so far) and it's really helping. I don't have so much to type or try to remember later. Also, my Little Guy (Netbook) is so much better to type on! ♥ OK, good night. South Kona Green Market tomorrow morning! Good thing, since the Keauhou Farmers' Market was cancelled!
Posted at 12:07:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
