Plate lunches

OK, this post is for all the foodies out there! We had some awesome meals while on Oahu. I just have to say though, that the best meals we had were all on the North Shore (all of food pics are from the North Shore). Waikiki has a lot of famous restaurants, but we much preferred to saunter up to a place in a bikini and flipflops and get a great meal with sand still between our toes!

The first meal we had was lunch at a place called the Grass Skirt Grill in Haleiwa. Wooden floor, a few picnic tables outside and lots of people getting take-out in swimsuits! We both had grilled Ahi (yellow-fin tuna) with garlic butter sauce, brown rice (you can get brown rice with everything!), and a spring salad. There was more fish than I was able to finish, but it was so good and fresh it was hard to stop chewing! We ate lunch there a couple of times!

The next great lunch we had was at Waimea Valley Gardens. I had garlic shrimp, again with brown rice and a spring salad. Absolutely scrumptous! Although I had to fight off a peacock trying to steal my lunch (don't choose a table on the periphery of the deck!), it was still an enjoyable lunch. Go ahead and laugh Monica, but I saved you from him picking out of your plate!!! I washed the whole thing down with a mango soda made in Hawaii. It tasted great and had such a fun label!!

We stopped at one of the more famous "shrimp shack" trucks on the North Shore, but was very disappointed. I guess I was spoiled by the amazing shrimp plate lunch that Bridie, Whit, Kathie and I had in Kauai when I was there last year because this one just didn't measure up.

One of the few meals we ate that didn't include seafood was at Jamesons' (the place with the dolphin sculpture from a previous post). We both had a chicken curry salad in a perfectly ripened papaya and taro root rolls (yes, those rolls are purple!). Taro is a root and the crop takes 9 months before it can be harvested. It runs deep in the culture of Hawaii - it was a major staple in the traditional diet and is what poi is made of. If you've ever had poi, you probably never had it again! Just for a little extra tropical punch, there's mango chutney in the little silver bowl.

As we found out by the food served at the luau, the traditional Hawaiian diet has changed signficantly over time. What used to be an extremely healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, roots, and lots of seafood is now one of fried foods and Spam. The luau meal actually included fried chicken with the poi and lomi-lomi salmon (cold diced salmon with diced tomato and onions).

Hope you enjoyed this food tour!

Waikiki

After a relaxing few days on the North Shore, it was time to go to "the city" for the ADA conference. The first night we went to an outside event for the conference. It's so nice to be able to wear short sleeves (and even shorts) after dark and not freeze your butt off!!

As with all work-related travel, I stayed at the Hilton. OK, we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and Spa!! What a luxurious place! We both preferred the laid-back atmosphere of the North Shore over the hustle and bustle (and traffic) of Waikiki, but the room sure made it easier to take! We had a view of Diamond Head right from the balcony of our room. The view of the ocean is from the lounge on our floor where we had breakfast every morning.

The beach was just a 5 minute walk from our hotel, so Monica was able to get in some quality tanning time while I was at the conference. Luckily, the sun didn't set until around 7:00 p.m., so there was still lots of sun for me to soak up too!

I've decided not to complain as much about the weather here in Colorado this year, but as you view this picture of Monica and I on the beach in Hawaii, the temperature here is in the low 40s! It got down to 31 degrees last night and I awoke to a fresh snowy cap on Pikes Peak! Can someone please explain to me again why we don't have a training center in Hawaii?!

Tropical fruits

One of the best things about being on a tropical island is being able to get the freshest tropical fruit anywhere!! There's a section of the North Shore sprinkled with various stands stocked with tropical fruits. Monica and I stopped at this one stand in the picture 2 or 3 times during our stay. The mangos and papaya were so fresh and tasty, my mouth is watering just thinking about it now!

We were adventurous and branchced out by buying a few exoctic fruits with our staple of mangos and papaya. I had had dragon fruit during my trip to Beijing, but it was already cut up when it was served, so I had no idea it was so pink on the outside and huge (slightly bigger than a canned vegetable)! The taste and consistency is very similar to kiwi fruit and is delicious!

The other exoctic fruit we tried was introduced to us by my friend Nanna who was also at the conference. That red and black prickly fruit is called rambutan. Once you finally pierce the tough outer coating, the inside is kind of like a very dense grape. The whole thing is a little bigger than a walnut. It had a very sweet, honey-like taste.

I can only post 5 pics at a time, so I broke up all the awesome seafood we ate from the fruits. I'll do another post with those!

USS Arizona Memorial

I felt like I had come full-circle for WWII history during 2006. During my vacation to Europe in June, I visited the beaches of Normandy in France, and now it is September and I was standing over the sunken USS Arizona. If you've never been to this memorial, it's a must-visit on any trip to Oahu. There's a movie and lots of historical photos, stories, and memorabilla in the museum.

While waiting for the ferry to take us out to the memorial, a WWII Pearl Harbor survivor who was a volunteer there was hanging out and telling stories about how life was on Oahu back then. He was a pharmacist in the Navy and still lives on Oahu. It's so sad to think that in another 5-10 years, there won't be any survivors to tell their stories there.

As you can see from the pic, there is still oil leaking out from the hull of the USS Arizona. I can't imagine how, after more than 6o years there can still be any oil left, but there it is. The memorial straddles the hull of the USS Arizona and you can still see some of the structures under the water. There's also lots of fish since it's a kind of artificial reef now.

The hull of the USS Arizona is the final resting place for most of the 1,177 who died on the ship that fateful Sunday morning. It was staggering to see all those names etched into stone on the memorial's back wall. As we drove around the island during the week, it was easy, and eerie, to picture those planes coming over the mountains and what it must've been like to see them approaching the harbor and air bases.

I like to ground myself during my travels by visiting historical sites, especially military ones. I'm always awed by the fact that it is luck of fate that puts us in certain places at certain times and time periods.

Stay tuned. . . I still have posts on Waikiki and food to do!

Tropical flowers

After an overnight flight from Hawaii and a delay in Denver, I made it back to Colorado Springs this afternoon. I was greeted by a crisp nip in the air reminding me that Colorado usually doesn't follow the calendar (which indicated that today is the last day of summer). The snow on Pikes Peak and the numbing of my cheeks as I rode my Harley home let me know that my Hawaiian tan won't last for long.

I'm pretty tired, so I decided to do a post that would speak for itself in pictures without having to do much narration. So, just for you Mom, here are some heliconias, bird of paradise, ginger, and plumeria for you to enjoy and reminisce over. No matter how much commercialism occurs on the Hawaiian islands, it seems that nature prevails in many areas!

So, until tomorrow, enjoy the flora and fauna and imagine the fragrances that go along with these pics!

Beaches and Navy hangers

Today was the last day of the conference, so Monica and I made the most of the afternoon by exploring the western and southeastern shores of Oahu. Before I launch into today, though, let me catch you up on the luau we went to last night. We went out to Paradise Cove for the luau that I had been to probably 5 or 6 times over the years I was stationed here. The show is still great, although a bit more commercialized than I remembered it. You can never go wrong with hula girls and fire dancing men though, so it was a fun evening spent on the beach.

Today we drove all the way up to the northern-most tip on the Western coast. If we had a 4-wheel drive, we could drive all the way around the island, but since we don't we couldn't drive around Kaena Point to connect to the North Shore. It's quite striking the differences between the areas of the island. There were tons of tent cities on the western coast. I certainly don't want to get into politics on this blog, but some of the election signs for this weekend's elections read "Homelessness isn't just a leeward problem." I seemed to remember people living in tents on the beach over a decade ago, but obviously it has become a much bigger issue. It's quite a contrast between the swanky hotels and resorts of Waikiki and the homeless in tents in Wai' Anae and Makaha.

On the way up the western coast, we stopped by the old NAS Barbers Point base (thanks to Rob's directions!). It was so sad to see the old Rainbow Hanger in such disrepair. It looks like it's mostly used for storage now. It was good to see most of the base housing being used as a community development district. The older housing that I lived in for a while is all torn down now, but the "newer" housing looks pretty good and kept up. We drove out to the Coast Guard base and hung out at White Plains Beach which used to be part of the Naval Air Station. There was still a military gear rental area there, but it was also open to the public. Still a beautiful beach.

Although it was only four years of my life, quite a few significant life events occured during my tour of duty on Oahu. I got married, I got divorced, did 2 six-month deployments including Desert Storm, went skydiving, learned to scuba dive, took my first college course, got my belly button pierced, and advanced to a petty officer in the Navy. Those years really shaped my personality and view of life for the years to come. It was uncomfortable to have all those old memories flooding my head at every turn we made on the island, but it was also very comfortable in that I have lots of great memories here and have come such a long way from the woman I was back then. Man am I feeling old today!

OK, enough philosophical crap. . . we headed out west where Monica saw some of the most breathtaking views of the island yet. A good bit of the road hugs the hills overlooking the ocean, so it was a great sightseeing afternoon. We ended up with a nice meal at Jameson's Beach Restaurant back on the North Shore. The dolphins are in a fountain in the front of the restaurant overlooking the beach.

Tomorrow is our last day on the island, but I've got tons more to catch everyone up on, so I'll post from Colorado.

It's a TRAVEL BLOG!!!

OK, so I guess I am feeling a bit guilty since I have the need to justify myself! I don't post specifics about work, because how boring would that be?! So, all you get to see is the pictures of my offtime. I know it looks like I don't do anything but play, but there is a little bit of work sprinkled in here. I'm not going to lie though, even the walk from my hotel to the convention center is scenic, sunny and most importantly for me. . . hot and humid!!!

Dave, I see lots of potential for pergola building out here, not to mention solar panel installation!! I'd be more than happy to be your agent/tour guide!!

Rob, I'm going to follow your directions and make my way to the old NAS Barbers Point before I leave this island. It's weird that I see some things and it makes me feel like I lived here yesterday, then other things makes it feel like a lifetime ago. For all my Navy buddies out there that were stationed out here with me, I'll take pics if I can and post them so you can see what's become of the rainbow hanger.

OK, I'm heading off to work now (really, I am!), but I'll try to post again later. Mahalo!

The North Shore

While I was in conference sessions today, Monica did some shopping in Waikiki. I say Waikiki, but it’s Honolulu too. Even when I lived here, I never knew where one ended and the other started. It’s weird being back here on the island after all these years. I was stationed at NAS Barbers Point from 1990-1994. We drove around to the west side of the island so I could show Monica where I used to work, but the base is apparently shut down and I couldn’t find it (more due to lack of a detailed map than the base having just disappeared). Obviously, the island has changed quite a bit in the last decade. A lot of the sugar cane fields on the western side are subdivisions and condos and there weren’t as many pineapple fields along the drive up to the north shore as I remembered (yep, pineapple grow on the ground and not in a tree!) But, thankfully, some things have stayed the same.

The North Shore is practically exactly as I remembered it, shaved ice stand and all although it’s so famous now that they sell t-shirts! We used to frequent Aoki’s shaved ice stand after a day of scuba diving. It’s easy to find – it’s right after the white arch bridge! It was a fun coincidence that the hostel we stayed in was right on the beach at a place called Three Tables where we used to scuba dive quite a bit back in the day!

Waimea Gardens is now an Audubon garden and has been expanded quite a bit. The waterfall at the end of the hike is still nice and cool though. That head in the water is me swimming in the pool at the bottom of Waimea Fall. We got tons of beautiful flower pictures, but I’ll do a whole post on that later just for my mom!

The North Shore will always be famous for it’s great surf beaches. I love the feel of the whole area, especially because there was some kind of law passed that prohibits the commercialization of it so it still feels like a beach/surf/scuba town. There was a sign on a fence that said “No mall at Shark’s Cove” (another old scuba dive haunt), so apparently it’s an ongoing battle. This 1940-something Woody was parked outside of a coffee shop I went in. Yep, the surfboards on the top are for real and the guy was just getting off work and was going surfing!

We were on our way for a shaved ice when we happened upon this Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle at Laniakea beach. It’s a Threatened species and is protected under the Endangered Species Act and Hawaii State law. The antenna on it’s back is a satellite transmitter so that scientists can track it’s migratory course. There was an observer there making sure that no one got too close while the turtle hung out and she said that these turtles can live to be 60-70 years old and can weigh up to 400 lbs! It was really cool to see.

So, even though we are now in Honolulu, I will continue to post about our adventures before we got to the city. We fly out on Wednesday, so hopefully I'll catch yall up before then!

Aloha!!

Sorry for the delay in posting. . . I didn't have internet access until today! My sister, Monica, and I made it to Oahu, Hawaii on Wednesday afternoon. We rented a car and headed up to the North Shore of the island until I had to come to Honolulu for a conference for work. I really wanted Monica to experience the laid-back atmosphere of the "country" North Shore before we made it to the city for the remainder of our stay.

We stayed at a backpacker hostel right outside of the famous surfer town of Hale' Iwa. It was a hostel, but not in the same sense of the word as Andy, Alexis and I experienced in Europe. Although this place had dorm style accomodations with bathrooms down the hall, we payed extra to have a private room with it's own bathroom in a building right on the beach. As you can see from this picture looking out of the sliding door of our room, we really were right on the beach! Although it's been overcast for much of our visit so far, it was still supremely relaxing to lay around on the beach and watch the surfers right in front of us!

True to Hawaii's license plates, we saw full-arch rainbows everyday. It doesn't really matter if it's overcast or not, the sunsets every evening are breathtaking as you can see from this pic of the sunset. Monica and I must've snapped at least a dozen pics each as the sun went down, but every one of them came out frame worthy. This place is a photographers dream!

I have so much more to tell about our first few days in Hawaii, but we just got back from the opening dinner for the conference I am here to attend and I'm pretty tired. This island holds such a special place in my heart that I want to make sure I can give it my full attention as I attempt to describe it and our experiences here. So thanks for bearing with me as we settle into the conference. I'll back post from our experiences on the North Shore and I have a whole post to do on food just waiting to be told. . .

Taos, NM

I hope everyone reading this blog had a great and safe Labor Day weekend. For my three-day weekend, I took a motorcycle trip down to Taos, NM. Taos is only actually about 200 miles away, but I ended up putting 675 miles on my bike in two and a half days! The Saturday morning ride down there was a little wet and very cold, but the rain stopped for a while once we got into Taos so we could do a little sightseeing. Sunday ended up being dry, though a little on the cold side. The ride home today was absolutely beautiful and we took back mountain and dessert roads the whole way back to Colorado Springs. Although I was the lone single person on this trip, Suzanne & David, Debbie & Sam, and Kelly & Jerry all made me feel like part of the gang.

Our goal was to homebase out of Taos and drive the Enchanted Circle. Taos was established around 1615 and was an outpost of “New Spain” back in the day (although already inhabited by Native Americans for over 1000 years at that point!) Over the years, many famous (and infamous) folks have congregated to this mystical town. Kit Carson, D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O’Keefe, Ansel Adams, and Dennis Hopper are just a few of the well-known individuals who called Taos home for a while.

Starting off in Taos, we rode the 85-mile mountain loop known as the Enchanted Circle. It circles the highest peak in New Mexico (Wheeler Peak), which is part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range. On this loop, between Eagle Nest and Angel Fire is the Vietnam Veterans National Memorial. This peaceful memorial stands in a high mountain valley and was created by the parents of Lt. Victor David Westphall III who was killed in Vietnam in 1968. The white-winged building was really striking and could be seen from quite a way up the road. We didn’t stay for the whole film, but there was a 90-minute film playing titled “Letters from home” that I would really like to return to see some day. I don’t know if it’s because a very special uncle of mine was in Vietnam, but I’ve always been drawn to, and fascinated by, the history of this conflict.

Next stop on the loop was a ski town called Red River. It looks like an old mining town, but fixed up to be a ski resort. We ate breakfast/lunch at a place called Old Tymers Café. It’s a biker restaurant with lots of cool motorcycle memorabilia and tasty food.

Speaking of tasty food, I had some great meals while in New Mexico. My very first meal was lunch at a restaurant in Taos that allowed me to have two of the three foods specific to northern New Mexico (blue corn tortillas and green chili). I never did have pinion nuts, but I saw lots of stands of the side of the road selling them. The mango-chutney chicken enchilada lunch was lip-smacking good and a dinner of goat-cheese and spinach stuffed chicken convinced me that there’s more to New Mexico cuisine than just tacos and chili!!

One of the highlights of the trip was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Although a lot more touristy now than it was when it appeared in the movie Easy Rider, it still provided a breathtaking view of the Rio Grand more than 500 feet below.

As always, even 3-day weekends aren’t long enough. I saw some great sights and spent time with some great folks, but now it’s back to work! For those of you who are tired of seeing only pictures of my motorcycle and biker friends, I’ll be posting pictures from Hawaii in a couple of weeks, so stand by. . .