Ringing in the New Year

We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve.  The only really exciting thing that we did was go see the Viselli House on Whittier which has an over-the-top light display.  I had never heard of this house, but apparently it has been an item in Claremont for more than a few years.  It would appear that there were issues with the neighbors, according to this city council report from 2007. I do not know the outcome of the neighbors' complaints, but the lights still exist this year.  The lights are synchronized to music, and there is a short youtube video depicting the scope of the lights.

Other items from the weekend included finishing my 52nd book of the year (averaging one a week).  This one was particularly short - Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville.  It is the first book I have read on my hand-me-down iPod touch.  We will be discussing it in book club later this month.

Tonight we celebrated the new year and Lynn and Bill's house with many friends by munching on finger food and playing games.

Bring on 2012!

Island Reading

One of the great things about vacation is that my internet time goes down dramatically, and I spend more time reading.  For this trip I took along a 400-pager with great reviews.  Hailed as "Harry Potter for grown-ups" I thought it would be perfect beach reading.

It would have been, if the writing was even as *good* as Rowling's.  (Note - I'm being sarcastic.) Flat characters which are also completely unlikable, a complete rip-off of Narnia, and dull prose should have compelled me to stop, but I wanted to find out if the book redeemed itself in the end.  It didn't.

Many of my reader friends shy away from fantasy and science fiction, and if this is what they are reading to give them that impression, I understand why.  I should have read this review in the NY Times before I picked it up.

On the other hand, I enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking after arriving home.  I believe I have now read all of his books.  This one focuses on how our snap decisions are often flawed, and how people have, in certain situations, learned to pare down unnecessary information to help them make more accurate decisions in the blink of an eye.

Food on the Big Island

It wouldn't be my blog if I didn't have a food post.  In no particular order, here are some of the highlights of our culinary experiences.

These are Kona coffee beans at the Bayview Coffee mill.  These are being turned by hand every hour.  We had a lovely tour here by the owner and bought some beans home to enjoy and share with our lucky daughters.

 Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo.  A tradition.  If you like a 50's diner with Hawai'ian flare, you have come to the right place.

 This is Mahi Loco at Ken's.  Loco Moco is a bowl of rice, topped with meat of your choice and then gravy, then topped with two eggs.  I had to try it once.  Now I have.

 These are the side dishes at the Manago Hotel in Captain Cook.  You choose your meat and these sides come family style. H even ate the limas!

 This was the meat we chose - Ono.  It's a delicious white fish.

 I had to take a photo of the inside of the Manago Hotel dining room.  I loved the yellow formica table which looks just like the one we had when I was growing up.

 The Papaya Special - breakfast at the Coffee Shack.

 My favorite meal was Christmas Eve at Cafe Pesto.  We started with the crab cakes salad.  The dressing was fabulous, as well as the cakes.  The recipe for the dressing is on their website. (There is also a Cafe Pesto in Hilo.)

 Next came the Pizza Margherita.  We took half of it with us for Christmas lunch.

 We couldn't resist the creme brûlée.  Double yum.

 I could not resist taking a photo of these guys at the Hawai'ian Style Cafe in Weimea.  It looks like they came down from Alaska.

This is the "Light Breakfast".  

 This is the breakfast sandwich.

Beaches

Beaches - Oh! The Variety on the Big Island!

The first beach we saw (and I am not counting shoreline where the waves crash against the rocks), is Punalu'u at the south end of the island.  It is known for black sand and always having green sea turtles basking on the shore.  We were not disappointed.

I used a telephoto lens for this guy so I could stay at least 15 feet away.

If black sand wasn't enough, we took a side trip to the Green Sand Beach near South Point (the southernmost point of the U.S.).  This is quite an adventure.  First you drive 12 miles off the main road on a bumpy path to the parking lot.  Then you proceed to walk into a very strong headwind for 2.25 miles.  Some people say it takes 2-3 hours to get there, but I took few photos and hoofed it, and we made it in 50 minutes.  Upon arrival, you are greeted with this great view down to the beach, and then you work yourself carefully down the steep slope to marvel at the beauty of it all.  We wanted to stay longer, but the cove is not protected from the wind, and sitting to enjoy it was not the most pleasant prospect.  However, it was worth the adventure.

The path along the coast to the Green Sand Beach

This is Ho'okena Beach where we camped for two nights.  The skies are full of stars, and the camping was amazingly quiet, but for the sound of surf.

North of Kona was our chosen snorkeling spot at Kekaha Kai State Park.  The lava in the ocean gives tropical fish a great home, so we saw many kinds of beautiful species.

 However, the road out to this park is rough going over the lava field - 20 minutes of bouncing each way.

 We camped for two nights at Spencer Beach - Christmas Eve and Christmas night. This is a great place for families with a white sand beach and few rocks.  The facilities here are great.

 Here is the Mauna Kea Resort Beach of which I blogged yesterday.  The resort allows 40 cars at a time to public access on this beautiful beach, so we made sure to be there by 9:15 a.m.  We were car #35.  I don't have any idea if this beach was busier than usual or not because it was Christmas.

 Just south of Mauna Kea Resort is the public beach Hapuna.  While just as beautiful as Mauna Kea, it was overrun with people.

Christmas in a Very Warm Climate

Mauna Kea Beach on the Big Island of Hawai'i.  Yup, that's where H and I spent Christmas morning!  A few months ago we knew we'd have our family Christmas at Thanksgiving, so we made plans to spend a week in Hawai'i over break.

This is the view we had while chatting with our families in Iowa, Texas, Colorado and California on Christmas morning.

Ten years ago, right after 9/11, we took our daughters to Maui over New Year's. After that trip, H decided that he wanted to go to the Big Island some day, rent a camper van, and roam around the island. Before going to Hawai'i the first time, we thought that Honolulu was on the island of Hawai'i.  However, Hawai'i is actually the name of the largest and most southern (and geologically newest) island in the chain. Hawai'i has two distinct sides (wet and dry) and a great variety of topography.  The island consists of 5 volcanoes - one is extinct, three are somewhat dormant, and Kilauea which is active.  The Hawai'i Belt Road circles the perimeter in about 250 miles.

We landed in Hilo (the wet, east side) in order to pick up our VW Vanagon from Happy Campers Hawai'i. For the next seven days we drove most of the perimeter, stopping at various campgrounds, seeing volcanoes, exotic beaches, wildlife, cultural history, and trying out as many different kinds of food as we could find.

Now, back home, the task is to go through over 600 photos.  Some I'll post, some I'll put in this blog, some I'll try to remember just where we were when I snapped the shutter.  After all, there are many, many beaches in Hawai'i.

Christmas in Warm(er) Climates

As long as I have been traveling down memory lane, visiting the ghosts of Christmas past, here is a shot from Christmas 1976.  My family was on sabbatical from Kansas where we were used to cold, and often white, Christmases, but this year we were living in Berkeley.  My Idaho cousins came out to visit for the holidays, and we went to the beach.  Now, you can see that we were wearing coats, but it was still amazing to me that it was possible to be at the beach at Christmas.

Order of Gift Opening

1990

1970s

When my girls were small, we started a tradition of opening gifts in the order of the shortest person to the tallest.  Of course, the girls went first, then me, then H.  I knew that by biding my time, it would all work out to my advantage since it was clear to me early on that my children would tower over me.  They do.

Now it doesn't really matter to me who opens a gift when since it's the joy of giving and being with family that mean far more to me that what is under the tree (although I do still like gifts....).

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Eve / Christmas Morning

When we got married, perhaps the biggest debate we had in the first 6 months was when we should open our Christmas presents.  I grew up with the German tradition of opening most gifts on Christmas Eve and then saving Santa's gifts for the morning.  I loved the feeling opening gifts in the dark evening.  It was a quiet and comforting time of day.

My husband firmly believed that this practice was sacrilegious. End of story.

Ends up, we (sort of) compromised, and opened one gift on Christmas Eve, saving the rest for the morning.  Of course, now it doesn't really matter to me the time when we gather together as family and share gifts.

During my childhood we took few pictures at Christmas, but this photo tells me a few things.  1) We did not lack for number of presents. 2) We apparently did not have a tree (nor a fireplace in our apartment). 3) We had really, really ugly curtains.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

Marx Dollhouse

Sorry about the glare...

Last week when I was wandering down Yale, I looked in the window at Stamp Your Heart Out and saw this dollhouse.  It is very similar to the one I owned as a child.  It was probably a Christmas gift, and when I ran across them on eBay a number of years ago, I was flooded by nostalgia.  Seeing one all set up in the window revived that nostalgia.

These dollhouses were made with thin metal (tin?), and I believe that they arrived flat (like Ikea furniture). The owner (or rather, the owner's parents) assembled theirs by putting tabs into slots.  I'm sure that they were in the Sears catalog, and while I have no idea how much they originally cost, I am sure that it wasn't the $70-$500 (for mint condition) that eBay sellers can now get.  Sold separately, one can also buy all kinds of plastic furniture and people and pets to fit in the five rooms.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

This is the version of The Night Before Christmas that I grew up with.  I have no idea where the actual book that I had resides today.  About 7-8 years ago I decided that I wanted to collect some of the books that I had or loved as a child, and I set out on quite an internet journey.  If you do not know the illustrator of this particular poem, it is much more difficult to find, and fortunately I stumbled on a photo of this book on some website by accident.  

Once I knew the illustrator, I found copies of this book on eBay for about $100-$150 and even higher.  I was not about to pay that amount, but I was diligent and found this particular copy for a Buy It Now price of $33, and I hit the buy button as fast as I could.  Now I have a Ghost of Christmas Past - a friendly ghost.