Blogaversary #7

I began my blog on February 29, 2008 and have now written 2202 posts.  My first post was called Moving Madness.   It didn't even occur to me then that I began my blog on a Leap Year day.  I would not have a true blogaversary for another four years.

The only comments I got were from Dina of Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo for the first month or two of 2008 and then Michelle of Rambling Woods.

Then a couple months later there were Lin from Letters From Lin, dellgirl Leona from At the Starting Gate, Glenda of gigihawaii, Amanda from Amanda's Musings, Mare from Zoaring With Glinda, Sylvia from Sylvia From Over the Hill, Lilly of Lilly's Life, Linda from Linda Letters, Cloudia of Comfort Spiral, etc.

By the end of 2008, I was thoroughly hooked on blogging and loving all the new friends I'd made.  I'm sad to see as I look back that there were a number of bloggers I'd gotten to really care about who have moved on or no longer blog.

However, blogging is a fluid thing.  There are always more people to meet and learn from. And there are the memories of the people I've met that I will always cherish.

Thank you for all the joy, support, knowledge, kindness, friendship and love you've shared with me.  I'm looking forward to Year #8!

Flat Stanley Visits From Chicago

Earlier this month we received a letter from our granddaughter, KC in Chicago asking if we would take her Flat Stanley paper doll, give him lots of adventures, then send back photos of the adventures and if possible... a few souvenirs to her school.

Now... you know that if you send a request like that to a grandmother who rarely sees and misses her granddaughter, said grandmother (who happens to be a former teacher) is going to go a little nuts with this kind of project.

Since we had just taken Mike and Jean around the island earlier in the month and were now spending time with Jane who was also visiting us from Chicago, we really didn't have the time to travel around the island again and mail Stanley back to KC's class before the deadline.


Therefore I did take a little PhotoShop license and scanned KC's Flat Stanley and pasted him onto island photos we'd taken earlier.

I then got little Post-It notes and attached them to the back of each photo to explain what she was looking at.

In the end, I had 42 photos of Flat Stanley.  It was a little overkill, but I couldn't help myself.

Here are a few photos of the flora and fauna of Oahu.

No, I didn't use PhotoShop for all my photos.

I also made a paper doll aloha shirt for Flat Stanley to wear on many of the photos.














And of course there was the racing bib for the Great Aloha Run.

Jane had a tiny water bottle chapstick that was the perfect Flat Stanley size.

I loved it!

I added a couple of books about Hawaii, boxes of chocolate macadamia nuts for the class, a little coconut necklace for the teacher, a Hawaiian calendar, some dried Hawaiian flowers, a shell and floral lei, and LOTS of photos.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when KC gets the box and shares it with her class.  According to the letter from the school, students are supposed to make posters with the souvenirs they receive.  I will have to ask Tiffany to take a photo of KC's poster and send it back to me.

This was so much fun!

Pancakes and Waffles BLD

Once a month after Tai Chi, we join two other couples for a long, wonderful, happy lunch.  We take turns coming up with a different place to sample.

This time it was Kay and Calvin's turn.  The other couple is Cal and Myra and we, of course are Kay and Art so there are two Kays and two Calvins.  I'm not saying that's why we got together, but if we find another Myra or Art... who knows?

Kay and Calvin chose Pancakes and Waffles BLD at the Waimalu Plaza Shopping Center in Aiea. Everybody there was very friendly and helpful.  You ordered your meal at the counter and it was brought to your table.

Art ordered a Portuguese pork dish called Vinha D'alhos which was very tasty.  He said he really enjoyed it.

I ordered the chicken and waffles which the restaurant is somewhat known for, I believe.  However, it really was just chicken on top of a waffle.  The fried chicken was huge and crispy.  The waffle was fine.  I had to walk two miles uphill tonight to make up for the calories.  (Art just corrected me saying it was 1 mile up and 1 mile down.)

Kay (the other one) ordered fried rice Loco Moco.  Loco Moco is a Hawaiian favorite.  It's different variations of rice topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg and gravy.

The food was not exactly healthy, but there was a large eating area so we didn't feel like we had to leave right away.

It was really wonderful just sitting together, sharing our lives, feeling the friendship... and that is very healthy!

Sunday Afternoon: Iolani Palance, Pali Look-Out

We were lucky in a lot of ways with our guests, Jean and Mike.

1.  They arrived the day before the first Wednesday free admission at the Honolulu Museum of Art.  2.  We were able to do the Makapuu Lighthouse Trail hike the day before they closed it for renovation.
3.  We found parking everywhere we went.
4.  The forecasted rain never materialized.  They had sunny skies for their entire visit.  Pretty darn amazing!

And then Art looked online and found that the Iolani Palace was free for kamaainas (local people) one day each month.  And this was the day!

 There were Audio tours in the afternoon that cost $14.75 a person.  Guided tours are $21.75.

Since Art and I were kamaainas, we were free on that particular Sunday.

When we take people to the Iolani Palace we normally wait outside because we've seen it several times already.

You have to wear these booties over your shoes to protect the floors.

The State Dining room and the Throne Room were luxurious. We could almost imagine the King and Queen sitting there and entertaining their overseas guests.





The throne room was where King Kalakaua held formal audiences, diplomatic receptions, balls, etc.

Sadly, shamefully this was also where the trial of Queen Liliuokalani took place so that the kingdom of Hawaii could be overthrown.

So much of this occurred because of the greed of American businessmen. 

Portraits of ten Hawaiian kings and queens were hung on the walls of the Grand Hall on the 1st floor.

We walked around with these earphones and the audio tour machine.

On the right is King Kamehameha I and next to him is one of his wives.


We took the elevator to go upstairs to the second floor.

Below is an early telephone.

The Hawaiian kings and queens were world travelers and the rooms were filled with items from their explorations.

One of the kings even asked to meet with Thomas Edison and had electric lights installed before the White House or Buckingham Palace.

They also had indoor plumbing.  Each of the rooms in the royal living areas on the second floor had a bathroom with a shower/bath and toilet.

The saddest room was where they displayed the quilt that Queen Liliuokalani sewed when they imprisoned her there for eight months.

The bottom part of her windows were painted so she couldn't see out and especially to prevent the Hawaiian people from seeing their queen.

In the middle of the quilt Queen Liliuokalani had embroidered the date of her imprisonment.

Here is a portrait of Liliʻuokalani when she became Crown Princess in 1877. She is shown here with Queen Kapiʻolani at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

President Grover Cleveland had supported Queen Liliuokalani and felt she and the kingdom had been treated illegally but later presidents and congress needed the strategic location of the islands so the rest is history.

The King's suite had an eclectic collection gathered from their travels around the world.














Outside the Iolani Palace, I felt the sad bitterness of the Hawaiian people and marveled at how they still offer aloha for all the visitors who come to Hawaii today.

We left the Iolani Palace to go to Nuuanu Pali.





I found this on Wikipedia about Nuuanu Pali and what it cost to unite the Hawaiian Islands:

"The Nuʻuanu Pali was the site of the Battle of Nuʻuanu, one of the bloodiest battles in Hawaiian history, in which Kamehameha I conquered the island of Oʻahu, bringing it under his rule. In 1795 Kamehameha I sailed from his home island of Hawaii with an army of 10,000 warriors, including a handful of non-Hawaiian foreigners. After conquering the islands of Maui and Molokai, he moved on to Oʻahu. The pivotal battle for the island occurred in Nuʻuanu Valley, where the defenders of Oʻahu, led by Kalanikūpule, were driven back up into the valley where they were trapped above the cliff. More than 400 of Kalanikūpule's soldiers were driven off the edge of the cliff to their deaths 1,000 feet below."

Nuuanu Pali is now known for the brisk winds that blow up from the valley and the gorgeous views.

It was time to say good bye to Jean and Mike knowing we would be seeing them again on another day. 

Sunday Morning: Makapuu Lighthouse Trail

We had an early start on Sunday and picked Mike and Jean up at 8:30.  You have to start early to get a parking space and avoid the noon day sun.

I'm breaking up Sunday's activities into two posts because I have too many photos.

Although our plan was to do the Makapuu Point hike, we made a quick stop at the famous Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve.  We hadn't been there in 25 years and they had renovated the area beautifully.

You have to go VERY early to get decent parking.

You have to go EVEN EARLIER to do the Makapuu trail.

Our short stop at Hanauma delayed our arrival at Makapuu and we did have to park pretty far away to do the hike.










We saw ubiquitous koa trees along the way.

The seeds are used to make leis.

I was surprised and excited to see ilima plants with their tiny yellow flowers.  You need 500 of the blossoms to make one strand of lei.  As we climbed uphill, we were excited to see humpback whales spouting in the distance.

The morning glories were beautiful.

I've never learned the name of the flower on the bottom.  There were purple and white varieties on the hike.

These cacti like plants reminded me of a reptile.











There were a lot of Prickly Pear cacti along the trail.  Art says they used to eat the little pears on the Big Island.

I was rather annoyed to see that people had carved their names on the cactus.  It really is another form of graffiti and ugly as far as I'm concerned.

I was amazed to see giant pencil cactus bushes.  I thought my potted pencil cactus in Illinois was big, but this is huuuge!














I don't know what kind of tree this was but the leaves looked like pretty lace.

We passed the Makapuu lighthouse.  It was built in 1909.

I got this information from Wikipedia:

The Makapuu Point Lighthouse on the island of Oahu has the largest lens of any lighthouse in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

We finally made it to the observation deck at the top of the mountain (Art says it's more of a hill.) and had a grand view of the coastline and Rabbit Island.  The Hawaiian name is Manana Island.

Mike and Jean were really lucky because the day after our hike, the trail was closed for renovation.

Walking back to the car in the hot sun, we felt we deserved a nice luncheon and stopped at Zippy's to rest before we began our afternoon activities which I'll continue tomorrow.

Around Half the Island

We were very excited to see our friends Mike and Jean at last when we went to pick them up at the airport. Mom was thrilled that Jean and even Irish Mike enjoyed her Japanese dishes.

We met Jean and Mike when we went on the bike tour of the Netherlands in 2007.  I'd not been on a bike in 30 years and Jean is the person who kept me focused and calm throughout the trip.

Going around the island... or rather half the island is what we end up doing with most of our out of town guests.  Saturday and Sunday were the days we set aside to share our island of Oahu with our friends.

After picking them up in Waikiki we went to Kailua Beach Park.  It is one of the most popular beaches on Oahu.

We stopped to enjoy the view and then continued on to Kualoa Beach Park when we could see Chinaman's Hat.  The Hawaiian name is Mokulii Island, but islanders know it by its nickname.

We had to stop at Giovanni's Shrimp truck.  Art and I shared the regular sized plate of garlicky Shrimp Scampi.  We think that's the best flavor.  The other flavors are Lemon Butter Shrimp which I think is ordinary and the Hot and Spicy (No Refunds) shrimp.  The regular size plate is $13 for a dozen shrimp.

I would advise not to get the Hot and Spicy.  My son-in-law who has a cast iron stomach and tongue said it was too hot.

We were lucky to find lots of shaded areas to have our picnic.  The shrimp truck is on the right.



Art couldn't resist the grilled BBQ corn on the cob.  I was surprised to learn later that it cost $4 an ear, but I'd get it again because it was really, really yummy!

Art says I liked it just because it was salty.

It's making my mouth water just to look at these photos again.  You do have to like garlic to get the Shrimp Scampi.

We passed through Haleiwa, but didn't stop at the famous Matsumoto Shave Ice stand.

I told them we had a better place.

We took a few detours to take Mike to the Dillingham airfield.  He's a pilot and loves airplanes. 

We continued on to Waikele where we stopped at the Mountain Magic kiosk where we are regular customers.

Mike and Jean were rather surprised at how large the "small" size shave ice was.  They also loved the fine texture of the ice and the flavor as well.

It was a full day that culminated in a lovely dinner that Mike and Jean treated us and mom to at Gyotaku Japanese restaurant.

I know we all went to bed tired and happy on Saturday.

Sunday would be another full day.

Another Hidden Area to Clean

I don't know what it is about Hawaii.  When we lived in Illinois, I didn't worry about bugs growing in my flour or my screens rusting or plastic and rubber corroding or my shoes falling apart.

I went to get some ice water one night and turned on the light to the ice and water dispenser on our fridge.  I thought a piece of ice might be caught in the dispenser so I bent down to look in.  What a shock!

MOLD!  Ugly, horrible, yukky, black MOLD!  It coated the clear plastic and surrounding area that my ice comes into contact with before dropping into my clean cup.

It took me a while with some bleach and cleaner to make sure I got all the yuckiness removed.

I wonder what else I need to clean in the house...

Our 7th Great Aloha Run

When our daughter, Tiffany mentioned that her very good friend and racing partner, not to mention KC's wonderful surrogate "Auntie Jane" was coming to Hawaii we could not be more excited.  Jane inspired Tif to take up running and is the "auntie" who has generously given time and luxurious experiences to KC.

Jane has a very rigorous work schedule, but was taking time to attend a friend's destination wedding here on Oahu.

We insisted she stay with us for at least the first couple of days.  We hoped she'd spend the entire time with us but she needed to be at the resort for her friend's wedding.

When Jane discovered that the Great Aloha Run would be on the same day as the wedding, she decided she had to try running it. 

Coincidentally, February has been a month full of visitors.

First we had our friends Mike and Jean from California (this will be in a later post) and then KC sent us Flat Stanley from Chicago and now we also had Jane.

On the above photo you can see both Jane and Flat Stanley. (You can check out this link to learn what it's all about.)

On Monday, Presidents Day we got up at 3:30 (perhaps it helped Jane to be on Chicago time) and drove to the Aloha Stadium.  The Great Aloha Run is an 8.15 mile charity race from the Aloha Tower in Honolulu to the Aloha Stadium. The military lined up and were first to start the run.  20,000 runners and walkers would follow.

Jane joined the runners closer to the starting gate.  We would be meeting her at Aloha Stadium at the end of the race.












Along the route we saw some fun costumes.  There were some guys dressed as super heroes and this woman had a truly original costume.

She wore a face mask with the Aloha Tower and her backside had the Aloha Stadium.

These fire fighters were kind enough to pose with Flat Stanley and flashed us a Shaka greeting for KC. 









It was so much fun to hear this friendly officer who was ensuring public safety say, "Oh yes!  I've definitely heard of Flat Stanley."

We were surprised to see this boat which was apparently a living space for a homeless person on the canal. 














I actually like walking under the viaduct because it's shaded and level ground.

I was extremely happy to see the 4 mile marker!!!  Flat Stanley was happy too.

A lot of people recognized Flat Stanley and one lady even stopped us and wanted to take his photo.

Everybody was happy to have their photo taken with Flat Stanley.









School bands played along the way to cheer us on.

And yes... FINALLY... we were at the FINISH line!  I can't begin to tell you how happy I was.  Did you notice that Flat Stanley has a racing bib on?  Tif asked if I could make him one.

We quickly met up with Jane and collected our GAR Finisher t-shirts.

We then grabbed a quick lunch and went home so that Jane could shower and prepare for the wedding in which she would be participating in a couple of hours.

HOWEVER, before we drove her to Ko' Olina where the wedding was being held, we did stop at Mountain Magic for some wonderful shave ice.

We did need to replenish the fluids and calories we lost in the morning, after all.

Well... that was our excuse anyway.

As for Art and me...

We went home and took a nap!

Now the fun part.  Here are my racing times:

Last year my time was 2:35:55.
This year, it was 2:35.25!


Imagine that!  I came in 30 seconds faster than last year!

Tif and/or Tiff

We had the hardest time coming up with a name for our first born.  We finally decided on Tiffany or Adam.  We always liked the idea of Adam for a first child, but my mom was not for it.  She might be Buddhist, but she didn't want her first grandson to be named after a poor guy who got persuaded to eat an apple by the first woman and was thrown out of the garden of Eden.  We still liked Adam so if our daughter was a boy, he would have been Adam.

For a girl's name, we dithered back and forth.  However, at the time Art was really interested in Tiffany glass.  He had a Tiffany lamp kit that he had bought but never did complete.

We thought we were being original.  We didn't know anybody else who named their child Tiffany.  We liked the idea of our daughter being named for beautiful colored glass that would always brighten our lives.

And she did.  Tiffany has been the light of our lives.

However, would you believe that a doll was then on the market called Tiffany Taylor?  She had half blond and half brunette hair.  I can still hear the commercial, "Tiffany Taylor, she's what you want her to be."

Sigh...

In later years Tiffany was often called Tif.

I insisted on spelling her name with one f because as you know the meaning of tiff is to argue, squabble, bicker, fight.

Now, many years later one of her best friends who is also named Tiffany moved in next door and she spells her name Tiff.

The funny thing is that when Tiffany went to high school she found a LOT of friends who were also named Tiffany or Tyfani or Tiffani or Tifani or whatever.

And the colored glass thing?  Tif liked the idea of Tiffany jewelry even more... than glass.

You just never know.

How did you name your children or how were you named?

My New Ilima Plant

One of the ladies who Art brings (Meals on Wheels) meals to sewed him an ilima lei recently.

I saw an ilima plant at Home Depot and got the hankering to grow one.

This is what I found on Wikipedia:

Sida fallax, known as ʻilima in Hawaiian, is a species of herbaceous flowering plant in the Hibiscus family, Malvaceae, that occurs on most of the Pacific Islands. The flowers are small, 0.75–1 in (1.9–2.5 cm) in diameter, have five petals, and are a golden yellow in color. Plants may be erect or prostrate and are found in drier areas in sandy soils, often near the ocean. ʻIlima is the symbol of Laloimehani and is the flower for the island of Oʻahu.

There were a couple of different varieties of the ilima but I liked this one because of the soft, velvety heart shaped leaves.  It also had lots of buds on them.  Ilima are supposed to be wind, sun and salt tolerant.  I wonder if it will survive my brown thumb.

"You do realize," said my realist, bubble bursting husband, "It takes 500 of those flowers to make one strand of ilima lei."

I told him that by the time my granddaughter visits again I'll have enough to make her a little floral bracelet ... if I'm lucky.

Puzzling Over the Statue of Date, Masamune

My nephew, Barry and his wife, Miho went to Japan and brought back a Nanoblock puzzle for us of Date, Masamune who was a very famous, powerful leader in Sendai.  They brought this particular puzzle because my mother is from Sendai.  I got the following information from Wikipedia.

Date Masamune (September 5, 1567 – June 27, 1636) was a regional strongman of Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful daimyo in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all the more iconic for his missing eye, and Date was often called dokuganryū (独眼竜), or the "one-eyed dragon".

.... He showed sympathy for Christian missionaries and traders in Japan. In addition to allowing them to come and preach in his province, he also released the prisoner and missionary Padre Sotelo from the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Date Masamune allowed Sotelo as well as other missionaries to practice their religion and win converts in Tōhoku....

When I saw the teenie weenie, super tiny pieces, I told Art there was no way he'd be able to put this thing together.



So...of course that was a challenge he couldn't disregard.

He had to use a little magnifying glass at times because some of the words were also nano sized, but the statue slowly started to take shape.

And it's done!

Here's a photo we took in 1996 with my grandmother and aunt in Sendai in front of the statue of Date, Masamune.

It was the first trip to Japan for my children.  

I understand Barry and Miho also brought one of these puzzles for their dad and mom. 

Good luck, Dennis and Nancy!

Rain in Paradise

Good friends from California came to visit us last week.  Unfortunately, this is the rainy season and they were greeted with this.

The forecast for the whole week they would be in Hawaii was rain.

So much for the hikes we were going to be taking.

Let's see...  There's the Iolani Palace, the Honolulu Museum of Arts, Ala Moana Shopping Center, Bishop Museum for Hawaiiana, Waikiki Aquarium, ummmm.... what else?

On the other hand, we bought tickets to go to Seattle and Vancouver in spring so mom could see the tulips and cherry blossoms.  I'm hearing from Northwest friends that tulips are already threatening to pop out of the ground.  Arrrrghhhh!

Mother Nature is just not willing to cooperate this year.  Traveling is always a gamble.

POSTSCRIPT:  Sure enough!  The forecasts were wrong.  Our guests have had wonderfully perfect weather with lovely sunshine the entire time.  You can just never tell.

A Tip From Honolulu Auntie

When I did the post about washing your pillows last week  Honolulu Auntie left a wonderful tip about getting rid of those brown stains on your sheets, doilies or linens.

Here's what she wrote:

"Sunlight is great for cleaning/bleaching without stressing the item. If it is a natural fiber (cotton, linen) and has those age spots, I open the fabric on our grass and wet it in the sun. Repeat as it dries off in the sun, sometimes takes days, but the stains go away, like magic! Was taught that one by my favorite college professor, Orpha Herrick. Works really well on crocheted doilies, linens, not so well on thicker stuff like towels, but better than before. The worse thing that happens is when your dogs walk on them as they are laid out in the yard."

I just happened to have a pillow case that had those brown age spots.  It was really annoying and I was unhappy about the prospect of throwing it away.

I washed it and hung it out in the sun.

By golly!  It worked!  The stains are so light you can hardly see it.  There is still a tiny shadow so I'm going to wet it and set it out in the sun again tomorrow.  (I'm sorry I didn't take a photo before I hung it out in the sun so you could see the difference.)

I'm so excited to know this.  I happen to have a few doilies that have also turned brown.  I'm going to see if I can rescue them too.

Thank you, Honolulu Auntie!

POSTSCRIPT:

I decided to experiment with just one aged doily.  The edges had browned out.  I washed it first and hung it out in the sun.  After that I just wet it and rehung it.  After about 4 times in the sun, you can see the bleached doily on the right.  It's still got a tinge of brown to it, but I think it's good enough.

I'm now regretting all the beautiful crocheted things I threw out before moving back to Hawaii because of the brown age spots.