Next day we went to see Maria Muldaur and Dan Hicks. All I knew of Maria was “Midnight at the Oasis” which was never a favorite of mine, but Mitch said that she’s a great musician and would be fun to see. And besides, Jorma and Barry had opened for her on Maui so that spoke for itself.

The venue was Hawaiian Brian’s, a pool hall in a parking structure on Kapiolani (no lie). We got there before the door

opened so we could get a good seat but when we saw that they’d covered the pool tables and added chairs around them and there was only this odd looking couple from Molokai ahead of us, we went out to find dinner. We ended up at a place called Angelo Pietro, a Japanese/Italian restaurant (to add more surrealism to the evening). Mitch had a spaghetti salad for dinner which he said was good because they didn’t overcook the pasta. Huh.

Anyway, the gig was fun and Maria and Dan were great. Most entertaining was the colorful crowd of finely aged baby boomers with their various versions of facial hair, and the old babes who were all dolled up for a night on the town. We were sitting at the bar and were additionally amused by the train wreck of having only one bartender, four waitresses, and fried whatevahs continually coming out of the kitchen with nowhere to go. Seems like they didn’t write down the table numbers for the food so it sat around on chairs or the bar before being served. I think Brian’s has some kinks to work out…

Sunday, I went over to Kailua to meet with Carolann, stopping first at Boston’s North End pizza for a slice. I had no idea that I was walking into a scene as the Patriots were being trounced by New York and the crowd there was not happy. Ah well…the subsequent walk on the beach was wonderful even if the water west of Kalama Beach park was as brown as chocolate and not nearly as appetizing.

Trying to recall last week—I haven’t done enough drawings but I’ll just say that we’ve been in the water pretty much daily. Most times we’re boogie boarding at Walls or just snorkeling there. It’s so fantastic to be 3 blocks from that place where there are either waves to catch or fish to see.

 

Mitch has been talking about this potato head fish. [Holding up a papaya he points to the top] “It’s got eyes right here on top and this big body and it’s got little excuses for fins on the side that looks like they’re good for nothing. Maybe the big head is its defense.” I didn’t draw this fish but here are some of the ones I did see.

 

Went out to eat with the Osorios at a great Italian place called Sabrina’s. Shared two bottles of wine and got a little carried away with the ordering. Somehow, we couldn’t decide which dessert we wanted so ended up getting four out of five. The profiteroles came in a big pile and would have been enough!  So to add to the mix the proprietors ended up giving us the fifth dessert. Needless to say, we were more than stuffed.

The days have been flying by in a whirl of waves, reef, beaches, hiking, and local food. I’m so behind in this blog that I can’t quite remember the full story.

Mitch has been seeing all kinds of fish at Waikiki. Taking advantage of his prescription mask and snorkel, yesterday he found something he’s calling the Potato Head fish.

[Holding up a papaya he points to the top] “It’s got eyes right here on top and this big body and it’s got little excuses for fins on the side that looks like they’re good for nothing. Maybe the big head is its defense.” I didn’t draw this fish but here are some of the ones I did see.

 

Waikiki has really changed in the past 10 years. The Lewers side feels like Rodeo Drive with all those high end designer stores. Kinda nutso. It’s nice being on the Diamond Head side because it’s still got a little of that honky tonk feeling: old buildings, quieter streets. And of course, there are characters. I saw this Japanese lady on Ohua the other day. Man, she had this hair that just didn’t match–it was BIG and fluffy and red. I couldn’t get her image out of my mind.

For “First Friday” concert at the Art Museum this month, they had some of the Hawaiian Grammy nominees. Cyril Pahinui was there and Amy Hanaiali’i. Also Dennis Kamakahi, who I’ve never seen play before. He wrote some of my favorite Hawaiian songs, including Kokee and Wahine ‘Ilikea. And his middle name is Kahekilimamaoi-kalanikeha which you just gotta love. His rendition of Kokee, about one of my favorite places in the World, brought me to tears.

My last day off before 2011 so I did some errands. Got my surfboard ding kit at T & C in the International Marketplace. Now I remember why I haven’t been there in over 20 years–it’s a bunch of junky jewelry shops and places that sell ugly aloha wear. It was a gorgeous day so I hung out at the surf racks for a while, watching the waves and the Japanese tourists. Met a couple who at the picnic tables with ukes who told me that there’s a kanikapila every Monday and Friday from 1-2:30. I went to get my uke to join them.

About a dozen old futs in their 80’s and 90’s playing old timey tunes, cowboy ditties, Hawaiian and hapa haole songs with a mike and amp. Several just couldn’t hit the notes but sang with heart. One guy was playing a steel guitar which somehow made everything sound good. I loved it!

This guy gave a little intro saying the his next song was about Hanalei Bay and then belted out “Some Enchanted Evening” in a rich baritone.  A lady went up and sang “All of Me.” One woman only sang Hawaiian songs and they were great.

 

 

Friday the weather was beautiful so we went to the Windward side to enjoy Kailua Beach where the sun finally showed it’s face. There, we made our pilgrimage to Agnes’ Portuguese Bakery to pick up some World famous muffins (blueberry and cranberry in case you were wondering), grabbed a slice of Boston’s pizza (they do a good crust) and headed for the beach for some serious boogie boarding. The waves were big and fun and they really rolled us! We were pretty whipped by the time we got out.

Met my old bud Brett Wigdortz and his family for dinner in Waikiki and then sort of missed the fireworks–they were hiding behind the Sheraton. It was a nice New Year’s Eve, even if we didn’t dance to the Dead.

 

 

Yesterday was another gorgeous day so we went back to Kailua, though it took us much longer to get out the door. The waves were smaller and I’ve never seen the beach so crowded. Not sure if more tourists are going there or if the Obamas were attracting people but next time maybe we’ll go to Waimanalo. In any case, we were still a bit wiped from the day and were starting to get chafed by our boards so we mostly body surfed.

I tried to paint the ocean–something that I’ve never been able to do. I’m going to have to find out what techniques there are for this. I’ll keep you posted 🙂

 

 

 

It was a slow week at work and continued to be stormy on the Island. Still didn’t stop us from going to the beach pau hana. Sans Souci beach is lovely and mellow with a sandy bottom. How luxurious to just lie in the shallow water and let the warm water lap over you. Mitch sure enjoyed it!

I was a little over-zealous on Tuesday while boogie boarding and got bad blisters on toes and my ankle so am unable to wear fins for a while.

Today, we’re off to Kailua to enjoy the sunshine (finally)! Haouli Makahiki Hou!

Friday night (that was…the 17th, I think) we went to a party at UH for the South Asian Lovers Association (or something like that). Azeema was coordinating it, so we went.

Lots of great Indian food and music. We brought a chocolate haupia cake from Leonard’s (not very east Asian but everyone ate it anyway).  There was planned poetry reading after the dinner, but the readers didn’t show so reciting and song was impromptu. Didn’t quite understand the Urdu, Pashto, and such, but it sounded nice.

We went to the Pagers for brunch the next day. Sean and Sheryl are here with their kids for a few weeks so we had a nice visit. It started POURING while we were there but was quite nice to watch from the covered lanai.

Monday was regular work. We are rolling out of bed at 6:30 and turning on our computers. It seems to be getting harder and harder to do this as we live more on Hawaii time.

The advantage of starting and ending the day early is that there’s time for fun pau hana (that means after work). The Wall (or Walls) is only 3 blocks from our place and it’s a great little boogie boarding spot. It’s great fun to go after work. Woohoo!

We’re also only about 10 minutes from Diamond Head, my surf spot. The challenge for the last few weeks has been to get this old bod strong enough to paddle out and catch waves. Some days I can get out to the spot but that leaves me too pooped to catch anything. Ugh. I finally figured out that the spot in front of cliffs is too shallow–I could see the reef as I sailed by. A little too close for comfort.

We’ve had Kona weather for the past week or so–no trade winds and overcast. Went hiking to Makiki-Moleka-Manoa Cliffs trail on Friday (my day off) and it was MUGGY! Beautiful view of the valley, though. It had been raining pretty hard so was muddy in places and there was a huge boulder in the trail that had destroyed a number of trees in its wake on the hillside.