July, 2016: Hawaii to Chicago to Maryland

I've been wanting to visit everyone's blogs to see what you've been up to, but I'm terrible at multi-tasking. I have to finish our trip photobook first. And then I still have two photobooks that I'm trying to get done of our granddaughter's first 10 years and our grandson's 1st year. Sigh...

Anyway... Here's what happened next in our summer journey.

Once we got to Chicago, we rented a van and packed up all the toys and baby things that our daughter, Tiffany had been saving (in the attic) for the day our son had a child of his own.

It was a 13 hour drive from Chicago to Maryland, but luckily Tiffany could drive most of the way.

Art and I were still jet lagged. We'd had only a one day semi-rest before starting our road trip.

Scenes like this was fun to see.

I'm happy to say the Canadian geese made it safely across the road.

Although we got in quite late, Keola came to meet us at our hotel and we made a few plans for the next few days.

One fun expedition was to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The annex is called Udvar-Hazy Center.

If you like airplanes, this is the place to go to.

They even had the Discovery shuttle there! It was huge!!!

The main reason for our being there was to celebrate our grandson's first birthday.

He got to taste his first piece of cake which he seemed to enjoy, though not anymore than strained carrots or baby biscuits.

We loved watching him practice walking. He wasn't quite confident yet, but we knew he'd be walking on his own within a few days.

He was curious, full of smiles and laughter, energetic, and just the best little grandson ever.

Fingers Crossed

Hurricane Madeline has swung away from Oahu. It did bring strong winds and flooding to the Big Island, but we were lucky on Oahu this time although the howling winds had me feeling anxious on Wednesday night.

I've been getting pretty blase lately about all the hurricanes because we've had so many near misses.

However, right behind Madeline is Lester. Festivals are being cancelled on this island and precautions are being taken on the other islands. People are going to be sent home early.

I saw a lot of people stocking up on water again at Costco.

I've heard of some people buying cases of water and then returning it when the storm has passed. This really creates a big problem for the stores since it skews their inventory.

Everything looks calm right this minute, but for how long?

Hurricane Lester has intensified to a category 3 storm and is supposed to hit this weekend.

The usually calm Art is nervous. And if he's nervous, I'm starting to freak out.

POSTSCRIPT (11:30 AM September 2, 2016):
Just checked the weather report. The hurricane watch has been called off. Hurricane Lester is now veering north-northwest of us. Phew! Dogged another bullet, but it sure is humid. 

Flying to the Mainland

After five weeks in Hawaii my daughter and her family returned to Chicago. We were to follow a few days later.

Flying to Chicago is always an ordeal for me.  It's about 7-8 hours, non-stop... if you can get non-stop. One thing that really helps the time fly easier is having movies or music or some sort of entertainment available on my iPhone, iPad or MacBook Air. The only problem was running out of power. I was just thinking of getting a power bank when my son-in-law told us that we should be able find a power supply on the airplane... most of the time.

I've tried looking for it on a couple of flights and never found it. This time, we found it near our feet on the United flight.

Unfortunately, we found the same outlet on the return flight but it wasn't working.

Ah well...

Garden Isle: Part 2

KC loves rocks, minerals, semi-precious stones, anything that glitters.

I found this on Wikipedia:

Glass Beach is a beach in Hanapepe, an industrial area in Kauai, Hawaii that is made of sea glass. It is in Hanapepe Bay, near Port Allen Harbor. The beach's regular rock is basalt, but the sea glass formed after years of discarded glass.

 Needless to say, we all had fun helping KC collect a few sea glass to take home.

And of course, we couldn't leave Kauai without visiting Waimea Canyon. It really does remind you of the Grand Canyon except that it's a lot greener.

It was fun for me to see the mother and daughter hairstyles that KC and Tiffany often shared.

Yup! Lots of chickens on Kauai. I think they've got Oahu beat in wild poultry.

We stopped at Porky's lunch wagon in Waimea and had this decadent hot dog topped with kalua pork smothered in a sweet spicy sauce.

Yum!

We had to stop by Kauai Chocolate Company because one of my Zumba friends had brought back a opihi chocolate for us to try and we all loved it.

Opihi is a shellfish. The candy is not made of shellfish. It's just the shape that is supposed to resemble an opihi.

They were giving out free samples (Woo hoo!) because of a Yelp offer. They also gave us the kamaaina (local) price which was great! 

The candy is a chocolate dipped shortbread or guava shortbread cookie with a macadamia nut on top.

The next stop was the Kauai Coffee Company. This was an unplanned stop that we couldn't resist when we passed by.

We were surprised to learn that Kauai coffee is Hawaii's largest coffee grower.

Art and Ed enjoyed sampling all the different kinds of coffee that were offered. However, KC had the most fun doing the penny mold machine.

In the evening, my cousins, Lorna and Holly treated us to an amazing dinner at Kintaro Restaurant.  Looking at the crowd around us, we could see that this was where all the local people hung out. They knew where the food was especially delicious! 

Our trip to Kauai will always be a precious memory to savor in the years ahead.

Visiting the Garden Isle

The last time I was on Kauai was 1994 when we took our children Tiffany and Keola. It was a wonderful trip. When Tiffany visited us for five weeks with her family this summer we decided to return to Kauai.

I'd been wanting to go back and see my cousins and see some places I'd been to with my grandmother and brother when I was in grade school.



Kauai is very close to Oahu. The flight is just a little over half an hour. As soon as we landed we picked up our rental car and started our adventure.

My cousin, Holly had recommended the Olympic Cafe in Kapaa.

It really was a wonderful restaurant and my BLT was one of the best I'd ever had.

What surprised me about the restaurant is that I didn't see any local looking people there.

Art and Tiffany had checked out the Internet and learned that bikes could be rented to ride along the beach.

 I'd hurt my back earlier in the summer and told them they should go without me.

Art insisted on trying out a tandem bike and said I wouldn't have to pedal much.

Riding a tandem bike does take some getting used to.

It's hard to sit behind and have no control over where you're going.

You also still have to pedal although not very hard.

This was also my view a lot of the time.

After a couple of hours, we were ready to move on to our next site.

By coincidence Jalna of Photos by jalna had gone to Kauai the week before we went and loved this beach. We decided to check it out. This was once a pier. It was lovely, but for much better photos, please check out Jalna's photos. They're much better than mine.

KC, however wanted to leave and go to cousin Holly's house so she could see all her animals and fish.

Indeed, cousin Holly has a lot of animals and I'm sure KC would have loved to stay there all afternoon to play with Holly's dogs, cat, bunnies, etc.

Holly also recommended Glass Beach which she said KC might enjoy even more than the other scenic beaches.

We decided to save it for the following day.

It was a tiring, but very wonderful day!

When we asked KC several days later what her favorite experience was on Kauai, she would say, "cousin Holly's animals."

Still Doing Our Bit to Be Fit

I wrote a while ago about how our family all ended up with a Fitbit. Actually, my granddaughter has a Garmin Activity Tracker. They felt they needed something that was more waterproof for her.

While my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter were in Hawaii, my granddaughter was forever challenging us by asking how many steps we'd taken. Now.... puhleeease... I must tell you that I'm not the competitive sort. Well, sort of.

Art, on the other hand... is. And he's the one who needs to be reminded to exercise the least. There are some nights that he's discovered he hasn't hit 10,000 or is just 200 steps away from 15,000. He'll walk from bedroom to bedroom until he's felt that little rewarding jolt the wrist band gives you when you've met your mark.

I understand my son-in-law even got an exercise bike so that he can get steps in when he finds he's been at the computer too long and hasn't walked enough.

I've found it interesting to keep track of how much sleep I'm getting and the quality of rest it is. The funny thing is... when Art takes a nap, the Fitbit gives him credit for that rest period. Whenever I take a nap, even for an hour, Fitbit does not think I'm sleeping. I guess it's true that I'm not a gentle sleeper.

Did I tell you about the time that I bopped Art on his face one night when I was sleeping? And yes... of course I really was sleeping.

By the way, it's 4:30 PM right now and I've got 7,549 steps. I wonder what Art has. I think I'll go walk around the room a bit and wave my arms.

Getting Sued by IRS?

We saw on the news a while ago that there was another scam going around involving the IRS.  Soon after we got two phone messages on Art's cellphone purporting to be from the IRS.

This was the text message on the cellphone:

A voicemail was received from (352) 419-2473 on Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 11:40 AM HST.

A recording of your message has also been attached.

When we played the recording a very authoritative sounding woman's voice told us that there was a lawsuit pending against us by the IRS. We were supposed to call them back right away.

I sent a text to my son-in-law, daughter and son. We figured it was scam. My son-in-law was first to text back telling us it was a scam. My daughter then called us sounding nervous that we might have fallen for it. She told us that if we ever get an unfamiliar call, we should reverse look up the number on the White Pages website before calling them back. 

We looked up the number and found the scam had already been reported on the White Pages. This is the link to the White Pages reverse look up.

All I can say is... Be very careful!

Dengue, Zika, Hep A... What Next?

Hawaii seems to be getting hit with a lot of disease scares lately. We started out with Dengue on the Big Island which was spread through mosquitoes. Then there was Zika on Oahu which came in with traveling people. That's been kept pretty quiet though.

We took mom to Kaiser hospital for a routine blood test and was startled to see this long, long, long line. I couldn't help but be curious and asked what the line was for.

They told me that Kaiser was giving out free Hepatitis A vaccines for their members.

According to the World Health Organization "the Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is transmitted through ingestion of contaminated food and water or through direct contact with an infectious person."

In Hawaii's case, they've traced it down to contaminated scallops from the Genki Sushi restaurant which were imported from the Philippines. We've also heard that two people who were infected will be needing liver transplants.

Since we were seeing mom's doctor for a regular appointment in a couple of days, I just waited to ask him about it. He felt mom was safe without it, but it was her choice.

She chose to have the vaccination. It was great because we didn't have to wait in line.

As for Art and me, we were cautiously given the Hep A vaccination before our trip to Turkey in 2005.

I wonder what other disease we're going to have to worry about next.

Slippers, Sandals and Shoes

I sure do miss having my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter here in Hawaii. They were with us for five weeks and it was easy to get used to having them around.

 Many an evening was spent in companionable silence, shared laughter and sharing of digital devices.

My very much appreciated, super wonderful, techie son-in-law spent a lot of time fixing, upgrading, backing up, installing, ETC. both Art's and  my computers.

  

When they were here, this is what the outside of our door looked like. (Footwear are not worn indoors in Hawaii.) They weren't this neat though.

Usually, the slippers were scattered in disarray.

I'm missing all those slippers now. Some went back with them to Illinois. The others have been stored for their next visit.

Sigh...

Stripes Anyone?

When I was on the mainland last year, I found a striped blouse at a K-Mart in Pennsylvania.

Yes, yes, I know horizontal stripes are not good except on skinny people since it tends to add pounds. However, I liked the looks of this blouse so I bought it anyway since the temperatures were cooler last year.

In the following months, I've found that stripes were very popular.

How funny when a couple of months ago we were having dinner with two of my childhood classmates (and spouses) and found the three of us wearing stripes!

Are stripes popular in your area?

They were selling some nice striped blouses at Costco for $4.99 a piece and I bought three of them! I lost my mind. I promised Art I'm done with stripes now.

Besides... I've gained 5 pounds this summer. Arrrghhhh! I wish they'd sell vertical stripes. Sigh...

An Act of Aloha with Zumba Friends

Going to Zumba is one of my favorite things to do. Well... right now I'm not in great shape since I just returned from the Midwest and East coast, but I love going because of the very dear friends I have there.

Pat opined a few months ago that we're very lucky that we have each other, a home, enough to eat and our health (more or less). I say more or less because we all have some health challenges, but since we can exercise, we are grateful. She suggested we do something for those less fortunate.

We've all traveled and collected toiletries from our various stays at different hotels in the U.S. and overseas. She wondered if we could make a project of sharing what we have with people who must stay at homeless shelters. The idea quickly took hold. Everyone started collecting toiletries during their summer travels and also collected some from friends and relatives.

Naomi invited us all to her house this past week to sort and package the incredible abundance of toiletries and other articles that everyone donated. She also hosted a fabulous luncheon where I assure you, I overate!

We were missing several friends who were still traveling, but Myrtle (our usual social director-in-chief) who was recovering from surgery came for a surprise visit.

So yes, I'm still missing our family and friends on the mainland. However, being with friends in Hawaii and coming together for such a fun and happy project is definitely a feeling of aloha.

POSTSCRIPT:
Pat had contacted the IHS (Institute for Human Services) to see if they could use our collection of toiletries. She said they were absolutely thrilled! The IHS provides emergency services for the homeless. Apparently the organization said they have to keep their toiletries under lock and key because they would otherwise disappear.

If you live on Oahu, this sounds like a truly wonderful organization and have been doing valuable work to aid those who are less fortunate.

We have decided to keep up this project and will meet again when we have more to donate.

Not Quite Back Yet...

I know quite a few of you figured out that my posts had been scheduled ahead of time this summer. It has been undoubtedly one of the busiest, hottest, most exhausting, most memorable, happiest, craziest summer we've experienced in a long time. And gracious! It's not over yet!

I've not been able to spend time on my blog since early June when my daughter and family arrived soon after school ended for KC.

Aside from all our Oahu activities, we were able to visit Kauai at long last and spend time with my wonderful cousins, Lorna and Holly!

After five weeks in Hawaii, Tiffany and family returned to Chicago and four days later, we followed. The day after we landed, we rented a van and drove to Maryland to spend time with our son and his family.

We spent two days in Washington, D.C. in the hottest weather we've ever experienced there. Yikes! We then returned to Chicago to visit with friends we've been missing and returned to Hawaii after a couple more weeks.

Now we're home and trying to get caught up with everything, i.e. doctor's visits, shopping, etc. I have 4,000 photos from 3 cellphones and 2 cameras to go through, a trip photobook to create and two other photobooks for my two grandchildren.

Sigh...

I will be back... as soon as my head stops spinning.

What has your summer been like?

Charging Your Lithium Battery: Who Knew?

Someone told me a long time ago that I needed to discharge all the energy in my iPad, iPhone, laptop, etc. fully and then charging it to 100% because batteries have memories and not doing so would eventually lessen its lifespan.

Art was doing some web checking and found out that we'd been doing it wrong all this time!!! Who knew??? What the heck!

The Lifehacker website had a good explanation.

So here's what I found out:

1.  Small discharges are better than waiting until you have only 10% battery life left. Apparently using your electronic device until you have just 50% or more left and then charging it again reduces stress on your battery.

2.  Lithium batteries don't like to be charged to 100% and left sitting. If you charge it to 100%, don't leave it plugged in unless you have a charger that will stop charging after it's full. I've been told that  Apple products have an automatic turn off built in.

3.  It's a good idea to fully discharge your batteries once a month so the battery doesn't get miscalibrated.

4.  It's good to keep your devices cool. Too much heat is not good for your processor the battery.

Doggone it! I wish I knew this earlier. Ah well... now I do and so do you.

Books I've Loved Recently

There are two books I've read recently that I wasn't sure I would love but couldn't put down once I started reading them.

The first book was recommended to me by my friend, Kris. She said that if I liked The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, I would probably like A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. Both writers are Swedish.

I had every intention of reading it but it was so popular that it was on Hold at the library for a long time before I was finally able to check it out and download the book to my Kindle.

I started reading it and put it down because I thought it was just a story about a cantankerous older fellow who seemed bitter and unfriendly.

A few days later I picked it up again and that was it. I couldn't put it down. I truly didn't want the book to end. I discovered there was more to Ove than meets the eye and loved how he began to allow love to once more bloom into his life.

The next book I read was recommended by Hank Chapin. I've always known about Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai where victims of Hansen's Disease (leprosy) were sent from 1866 to 1969.

It always bothered me that Father Damien is the only person people think worked at Kalaupapa to help those afflicted with this terrible, disfiguring disease.

Not so with Molokai by Alan Brennert. He even mentions the Buddhist temple where my grandfather tended his parishioners. He also shines light on Mother Marianne Cope and Brother Joseph Dutton who my grandfather truly admired. The book is very carefully researched and you are completely drawn into the life of the beautiful Hawaiian girl who is wrenched from her family and sent there when she is 7 years old.

I loved Molokai so much, I'm now reading Honolulu by Alan Brennert.

This book is about a Korean girl who comes to Honolulu as a picture bride.

Once again, I'm glued to the book.

If you would like to read some wonderful books, I hope you'll give these a try. And if you do, please let me know what you think.

POSTSCRIPT:
I sent an email to Alan Brennert to tell him how much I enjoyed his books. What a happy surprise to receive a reply from him telling me about his motivation for writing the books and that he would let me know when his next book is published.

Art's Ganglion Cyst

There was a rather big lump that formed on top of Art's middle finger a few months ago on his left hand. Coincidentally, it was the same finger that he damaged 10 years ago while working on our home renovation project. The doctor who patched him up that time was a resident doctor who'd graduated from West Point.

What a surprise and delight for us to find Dr. Gumboc was now the chief of hand surgery at Tripler.

We were told that what Art had was something like a ganglion cyst.

I found this in Wikipedia:
"A ganglion cyst, or a synovial cyst, also known as Gideon's disease, a Bible cyst, or a Bible bump, is a non-neoplastic soft tissue lump that may occur in any joint, but most often occurs on, around, or near joints and tendons in the hands or feet. These cysts are caused by leakage of fluid from the joint into the surrounding tissue."

Apparently, once they cut the finger open, they discovered the cyst had wrapped around his knuckle into a tendon.

They had to scrape the knuckle to get it out.

Another option was to just drain the lump, but chances were it would return.

The surgery seemed to be the better option.

It's been healing pretty well.  

Ever since he had the surgery I've heard of so many people having the same sort of lump in different parts of their hand. They're all watching the progress on his finger to see if they would like to have the same procedure.

We'll see... 

POSTSCRIPT:
After a couple of months where Art used Scar Away silicon patches on his finger to minimize keloiding this is what it looks like.

 
He's very pleased with the outcome, but the doctor did say they discovered when they operated that the cyst was tied to some arthritis so in about five years, it could return.

We'll be keeping our fingers crossed.

Anguish of Feathered Parents

A while ago we were startled by agitated bird calls outside in our neighbor's yard. We saw two mejiros (Japanese white-eyes) frantically flying and perching on the fence and tree around a bush.

Curious, we looked all around the yard to see what they were so upset about.

Finally, under the desert rose bush, we saw what the problem was. It was their little chick. It must have fallen from its nest.

It was there all day and into the next morning.

On the third morning they were all gone. I like to think they were somehow able to find safety. There haven't been any feral cats around here lately so maybe... maybe...

Exercise Maintenance with Mall Walking

Our Zumba class has been on summer hiatus from mid May until August so my Zumba buddies and I have been meeting at the mall on Mondays and Wednesdays before the stores open to do some mall walking.

I like it because it's cooler and we don't have to worry about the harsh sunlight. You'd think the mall would be empty, but it's full of other seniors taking advantage of the easy walk. We walk for an hour which totals three miles.

But the best part of all is hanging out with friends and then having a little Starbucks break afterwards together. Yes, I  know we're just drinking the calories back in, but it feels good.

Another benefit is every first and third Monday, the hospital has volunteers taking our blood pressure and glucose.

And so far... we're doing pretty great!

Retiring An Old Companion

I suppose this might sound a little silly to the guys who read my blog, but I've had a bit of a melancholy time of change for myself.

I'm changing my backpack. I know. I know. It's not a huge deal. However I've used this bag at least since 2005.

I know this for sure because I found this photo of myself at Pamukkale in Turkey. Pamukkale is an amazing site with terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing hot spring waters.

Our guide had us experience the terrace feet first which was amazing!

Do you see the backpack?

It's been with me everywhere for at least the last 11 years and probably longer.

It carries everything I need with an inside opening to make it harder for pick pockets.

Here's another photo of Pamukkale from the Pixabay Free Image site.

Here's my tired old bag with reusable bags attached. (Hawaii has a plastic bag ban at stores.)

The bottom photo shows where the zipper has come apart.

This bag is light, soft and comfortable. I've tried other bags, but this one is just the right size for me. It carries my memories in it.

Sigh...

And here's my back-up bag. Yes, I bought this a couple of years ago. I'll be using it now. It's a different color. I liked the old worn gray color better, and I'll have to learn to appreciate navy blue. It's a little stiff, but I imagine it will relax after a while.

I suppose it's like having a favorite jacket or wallet or shoes or even a car. When you've spent a lot of personal time with them, they seem like an old friend.

And like other old friends, I'm not throwing it away. It's in my closet.

Do you have something you're attached to?

Making My First Spam Musubi

My granddaughter is a huge fan of  Spam Musubi. It's not very healthy, but as a grandmother... I hope I'll be forgiven for indulging her island craving. I got the recipe from Food Network.

The recipe called for:

5 cups cooked sushi rice, room temperature
5 sheets nori, cut lengthwise
1 (12 oz.) can Spam
6 Tbsp. soy sauce
4 Tbsp. mirin
4 Tbsp. sugar
Furikake, to taste

I cut the Spam into 10 thin slices. They even sell Spam cutters in Hawaii that will do this for you. I just cut it with my knife. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't think KC would notice.

I put the soy sauce, sugar and mirin in a pan and cooked it until it was bubbling and getting a little thick. Then I added the Spam.

I did get this little Spam Musubi maker at Walmart for about $5.

Everybody has a different way of making Spam Musubi.

I opted to add the furikake (bonito flavored flakes and I don't know what else is in it) into the rice before hand. Some people put it only around the Spam.

Anyway...

I put the nori down first and placed the musubi maker on top. The rice was patted down, then the Spam and then more rice. Everything is patted down and the nori is wrapped around the whole thing.

I made the mistake of not pressing it together firmly enough the first few times. It started falling apart, but I got the hang of it after a while.

I'm a slow learner.

OK... You can see I didn't get it perfect. I ran out of rice and wasn't able to make the last piece of Spam into a musubi.

It was OK...

However, KC loved it and that's what counts. (Or was she just being nice so my feelings wouldn't be hurt.)

POSTSCRIPT:  We were at the new Shirokiya Food Court recently and saw this booth that specialized in Spam musubi. Very impressive.