DivingFive days of great shore and boat diving with Fathom Five, including a night dive at Koloa Landing where I had two divemasters all to myself. 56 images |
 1 Our vacation with Bill and Becky Laughlin starts with 3 nights at The Modern Honolulu. The view from our balcony over Ala Moana Blvd towards Waikiki. |
 2 The other direction from our balcony overlooking the marina |
 3 Yes, we are all spent after the 11 hour flight to Honolulu. So, is it time for a spa treatment or Vietnamese food? How convenient that they are both available through the same entrance. Billy and Max will decide! |
 4 Buddy waits patiently in the truck as we chow down on awesome Phở and Bún |
 5 Lunch at one of our favorite spots, The Pig and the Lady in Chinatown |
 6 The banh mi, burger, and pho are all to die for |
 7 For some reason, after several rounds of lunchtime drinks everyone thought this no-right-turn sign was hysterical. First of all, the double negative required superhuman brainpower to decode. And secondly, the process of elimination begged the question as to what vehicles precisely were being prohibited. |
 8 The assault on Honolulu food icons continues with dinner at Side Street Inn |
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 11 Friday morning tour of Iolani Palace |
 12 Tour entrance at the rear of the palace |
 13 Grand staircase |
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 16 The royal banquet room |
 17 Portico overlook King St., which at the time the palace was built ran along the Honolulu shoreline. Now King St. is 1/2 mile from the water. |
 18 King David Kalākaua's bed |
 19 The palace phone system |
 20 The king's office |
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 22 The music room with Queen Liliʻuokalani's most famous composition, "Aloha `Oe" |
 23 The amazing woodwork and nickel-plated hardware of the palace doors |
 24 Queen Liliuokalani's bed |
 25 Koa entrance doors to the throne room |
 26 Our docent |
 27 The throne room at Iolani Palace |
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 31 The Royal Hawaiian Band starts their free outdoor concert on Friday afternoons with the blowing of conch shells |
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 33 After the blowing of the conch shells they sing the Hawaii state song "Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī" written in 1874 by King David Kalākaua |
 34 Back to Chinatown again for lunch, this time to Grondin which bills itself as French-Latin |
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 36 Quite the eclectic menu, from empanadas, cubanos, and chicharronnes to house-made charcuterie, moules frites, and cassoulet. Lucky for us, they were out of the chicken for the mole and were substituting duck legs! |
 37 Duck mole, Belgian bierre, and boobs- the perfect lunch! |
 38 The fun part of Chinatown- Club Hubba Hubba |
 39 Celebrating Deb and Mary's 1-year anniversary at MW |
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 41 Cocktails! Smokey tequila and beet juice, and cucumber-licious gin fizz - all with shiso leaf |
 42 Billy's ahi poke with big pieces of fresh uni and topped with rice crackers |
 43 Dave's coconut Big Island kampachi ceviche |
 44 Max's steamed Opah |
 45 Three of us got the amazing short ribs topped with a big slab of foie gras |
 46 Happy Anniversary Deb and Mary!! |
 47 Before our plane flight to Kauai on Saturday, we went up to the house to visit with Buddy, Deb, and Emily |
 48 Deb and Emily |
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 50 "Da Goils", at Deb and Mary's place relaxing before catching the plane to Kauai |
 51 Flying in to Lihue, Kauai from Honolulu |
 52 We're in Kauai! |
 53 Driving up from the airport to Princeville on the North Shore |
 54 Ahhh! We are back at Hanalei Bay Resort once again with Mt. Makana (aka Bali Hai) in the distance. |
 55 Life is good- umbrella drinks and pupus at the Happy Talk |
 56 After Mother's Day brunch, we headed to visit the Lawai International Center whose spiritual center is the Buddhist-inspired Hall of Compassion |
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 58 Lynn Muramoto, the president of the Lawai International Center, introduces us to the history of the land and the organization |
 59 We enter the Hall of Compassion to meditate to the sounds of traditional Japanese flute |
 60 The 32-acre complex is a miniature replication of the 88 shrines of Shikoku, Japan which were built along a 1,000 mile long trail established more than 1,000 years ago |
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 62 Here the small shrines are arranged along a winding hillside trail that takes about a half hour to complete |
 63 Max climbs the first level of the trail |
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 65 Orchids are placed throughout the hillside |
 66 View overlooking the Hall of Compassion and Lawai valley |
 67 Becky and Max complete their short hike |
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 69 Each shrine contains a unique collection of token offerings from the public |
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 71 The trail continues up and around the hill |
 72 Some of the shrines are perched pretty precariously |
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 75 Dave on the final descent, using the provided walking stick |
 76 Exiting from the Lawai International Center is a farm with braying donkeys, which kind of breaks the otherwise peaceful ambiance |
 77 Sunday night sunset over Hanalei Bay |
 78 Nene lurking around the lanai |
 79 Monday morning heading to our massages at Auntie Angeline's Lomi Lomi |
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 81 Welcome to Auntie Angeline's |
 82 The steam room and salt scrub hut |
 83 The outdoor shower is needed to remove the salt from all the nooks and crannies |
 84 Billy and Becky- the aprés massage sarong people |
 85 His minions pledge fealty to Billy, lord of Tiki Iniki |
 86 Ritual mai tais at Tiki Iniki |
 87 Chicken in a Barrel for lunch, and yes they do cook the chicken in a barrel |
 88 Polynesian warrior sculpture in front of Havaiki tribal art gallery |
 89 Hanalei Valley taro fields |
 90 Dinner at Hukilau Lanai, one of our favorite spots on Kauai |
 91 Saturday night dinner at Roy Yamaguchi's new Eating House 1849. A sort of retro take by him to hearken back to the traditional Hawaiian foods he was brought up on. |
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 93 Words to live by, at least they've kept me alive so far! Peter Fernandez was the first restauranteur in Hawaii who opened The Eating House in Honolulu in the mid-1800's. |
 94 Billy's whole fried Tai Snapper. It was giving Billy the eye, so he ate them. |
 95 Scallops topped with crab and a fried rice musubi |
 96 Lazy Saturday afternoon at Anini Beach |
 97 Toes in the sand drinks and pupus at Lava Lava |
 98 The weather report looks "Calm" |
 99 One of the very few places on Kauai to actually sit and drink with your feet in the sand |
 100 Billy continues doing research for his new tome "Mai Tai Connoisseur", to be published as soon as his BAC returns to single digit levels |
 101 This is what happens after the first super-sized mai tai is consumed and the second smaller and more traditional mai tai is about to be subjected to rigorous testing |
 102 Quite the feast cooking in last night with Deb visiting from Oahu. For pupus we have clockwise from bottom-right- snow crab/spicy ahi/avocado roll from the Dolphin Fish Market. Also from the fish market is spicy langoustine poke and tako poke. Then Max's famous to-die-for guac and pickles from Kauai Juice Co. |
 103 Grilled ahi steaks on the left and opah (moonfish) on the right. Ono-licious! |
 104 The crowd starts assembling for what looks like might be a pretty decent sunset |
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 106 Bali Hai at sunset |
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 108 And the show is over for the evening.... |
 109 Monday visit with Deb to Limahuli National Tropical Botanical Garden. Closed to the public on Mondays, I had the place to myself while Deb conducted business with the administrator. |
 110 Panorama of Limahuli Gardens |
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 113 One of the best things to happen in a while at Hanalei Bay Resort, the pool bar opened! Local legend Mike Keale played Thursday afternoon as it rained buckets, but who cared since we were sitting in the water drinking margaritas. Iz Kamakawiwoʻole was Mike's cousin, and Mike plays two of his most famous tunes, Hawaii '78 and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. |
 114 Two days of rain after weeks of cloudless weather and the mountains are filled with waterfalls |
 115 Our new culinary discovery for this trip, the Palate Wine Bar recently opened in Kilauea |
 116 The antipasto plate with house made mustard, very ono! |
 117 The kitchen crew is definitely on their game |
 118 Local lamb chops |
 119 Stopping for our favorite shave ice |
 120 "Love Potion No. 9" and "Almond Joy" shave ice |
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 123 Only liquor store I know that has heliconia out front for the taking |
 124 Last night in paradise is dinner at Bar Acuda in Hanalei |
 125 Surf boards on the ceiling |
 126 Bill and Becky look like vacation agrees with them |
 127 First set of tapas |
 128 Humboldt Fog cheese and local honeycomb |
 129 Local lamb |
 130 Time to say goodbye to Hawaii until next year. Flying over Pearl Harbor, you can just make out the Arizona Memorial at the very edge of the picture, to the left of the three battleships |