Aloha Friends,

I have some exciting news! Artist Robert Wyland is repainting his infamous whale wall in Kapaa this weekend! The wall originally completed in 1991 is huge...150 feet long and 24 feet tall. It had to be big, as life size humpback whales were the subject mater.  In all, Wyland has painted100 life size public murals to increase appreciation, understanding and conservation of marine life. What a cool guy he is!

The wall located in the Safeway shopping center in Kapaa is seen by hundreds of people daily as they drive along Kuhio highway. But, the painting was showing it's age and had deteriorated so badly over the years that Wyland said he could actually stick his finger through the T1-11 plywood siding! That siding has all been replaced and recently the wall was covered in a fresh coat of light blue paint...a big blank canvas. Wyland (who is working for free) plans to transform the wall into a beautiful new mural by noon on Monday! I can't wait to see what he paints!  I'm so happy for Kauai! Thank you Wyland!

Happy New Year everyone!

May you and your ohana have a wonderful, blessed 2017.
We have high hopes and big dreams for this year!

Aloha!

Sending aloha to you and yours!
Mele Kalikimaka!

It's December 1st and one of my plumeria has refused to accept winter and is still flowering! Everybody else has stopped blooming and some have started dropping their leaves. Which is more typical behavior for December...not this flower!

This plant is in a protected spot on my front porch and gets a lot of the low winter sun.  I"m sure these are the last of it's buds for the season. It held onto summer as long as it could!

I can relate to this plumeria :)

Thanks for reading my diary, I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving!
Aloha!

Aloha and happy Halloween friends!

We carved a pineapple this year as well as a few pumpkins. Lots of spooky fun going on here!

You'll enjoy carving a pineapple. They seem to have such a personality with their crazy hair! This year I tried to make the pineapple appear joyful with a big toothy grin. If you want to take a peak at instructions, see my October 2013 post.

Best wishes to you all for a safe and happy Halloween!
Aloha :)

Aloha All,

I'm super happy to share with you that one of our Hawaiian papaya has blossoms...in San Diego! Hopefully these blossoms will produce fruit. I LOVE papayas!

This tree was grown from a seed that I saved from a sunrise papaya. I purchased the fruit at a Kauai farmers market. The tree is almost 2 years old and is just over 5 feet high. I've been growing papayas for about five years and this is the first one to flower. I currently have 3 other trees...with any luck they'll flower too :)

Papayas are easy to grow from seed. They take at least two weeks to germinate so don't be discouraged if you don't see a sprout right away. Once it sprouts the plant grows very fast. They like full sun to partial shade. I water mine every other day and fertilize twice a month.

Our weather tends to stay warm through November. We'll see if it has time to fruit. Does anyone know how long they take to fruit after flowering? 

I'll keep you all posted as to how it does here in San Diego. Wish me luck!

Aloha!

Aloha Friends!

We got a lot of aloha for kalua pork at my house. I make it often. It's delicious, easy to make and you only need three ingredients! I've included a barbeque roasting method as well as oven roasting instructions. Here's what you do...

Take a 2 pound or so pork shoulder roast (also called a pork butt roast) and cut deep slits into it. Sprinkle with Hawaiian sea salt. Rub the salt into the pork. Flip the roast over and do the same to the other side. Place the roast in a heavy duty aluminum baking pan (if you're oven roasting you can use a glass or metal baking pan). Drizzle liquid smoke over the roast, using 1 teaspoon per pound of pork. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil, make sure it's sealed up real good. My husband likes to barbeque, he places the roast to the side of medium coals. A 2 pound pork shoulder will take about two hours on the BBQ. If you want to oven roast, bake the pork at 350F for 3 hours. Once the pork is done, let it cool for a few minutes before lifting off the foil. Remove and save some of the liquid. The roast should easily shred with a fork. Taste the pork and decide if it needs some liquid added back in or additional liquid smoke.

Make a Hawaiian plate lunch with 2 scoops rice, mac salad and kalua pork. It's also awesome in tacos and sandwiches. And, if you have left over kalua pork it freezes very well. I hope that you enjoy this recipe!

Thanks for reading my diary!

Aloha Friends!

Here's a few photos from the second half of our vacation...

As you can see we really took it easy on this trip to Kauai. On the last 5 days we went to Lydgate beach again, it's a family favorite. The guys can fish (outside of the ponds), snorkeling and swimming is safe and it's lifeguarded! We did a little shopping at the brand new ABC store at the Coconut Marketplace, it's a short walk from the condo. There's also a Farmer's Market there where we picked up more fruit and veggies. The rest of the time was spent on the beach directly in front of the condo...just relaxing. On our last morning we went to breakfast at the Tip Top in Lihue and had a delicious local style meal. We ordered Oxtail Soup, Loco Moco, and 3 Grand Slams with Macadamia Nut Pancakes. You can't go wrong here friends...everything was great, staff was friendly and the portions were ample!

With full bellies we headed to the airport with my son's live betta fish in tow! The TSA guys were super cool and joking about the fish. We had a pleasant flight home to San Diego on Alaska Air. The fish arrived safe and sound :)

Thanks again for reading my diary!

Aloha All,

Feeling great with jet lag pau, it's a good day to share some photos with you from our recent trip to Kauai...

These photos are from our first 4 days on the island. We spent an afternoon relaxing on the beach in front of the condo, went to the Farmer's Market at Kauai Community College, had fun at the Kamalani Bridge Playground and enjoyed a day snorkeling and swimming at Lydgate Beach Park.

I'll share more photos with you in a few days...
Aloha Friends!

Aloha Friends!

Ted, myself and all the kiddos are enjoying a family visit to Kauai. The little ones especially love it here. Happiness is spending time on the beach with family! And having a beautiful beach just 200 yards away is awesome!

Having the ocean so close does put us at higher risk for hurricane and tropical storm damage. Thankfully, tropical storm Darby mellowed out by the time it reached us on Kauai. Big waves, cloudy skies and some rain. Not too exciting, which is a good thing! The overcast weather gave us an excuse to do some work around the condo. New blinds installed and touch up paint so far this trip. Little things make a big difference in keeping the condo looking fresh.

We're off to spend another day at the beach. The weather can change rapidly here on Kauai as evidenced with the above photo :)

I'll post again soon friends!