Presents, dinner at Indigo and ice cream cake!
Happy Birthday Josh!
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Category Archives: Bon Appétit
Baked Chicken, Rice and Black Beans Casserole
Thanks to Tom for the awesome casserole magazine he got me for Christmas, I was able to make this for dinner!
Shrimp Pasta
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Date Night!
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Hot & Sour Soup
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Shrimp, Açaí & Rainbows
Today Josh and I headed to the North Shore to have some shrimp and an açaí bowl. The first stop was Giovanni’s for some shrimp scampi with a side of hot sauce. It’s so incredibly good…I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get there since I’ve moved. Giovanni’s is a shrimp truck parked on the side of the Kamehameha Highway on the north shore of Oahu. There is a pavilion where you can sit, eat and enjoy the day (or get rained on on days like today). There are also a few other stands and stores around the area with BBQ corn, smoothies, shave ice, frozen yogurt, clothes, jewelry…the list goes on. Today we stuck to the famous shrimp only.
Waiting in line…apparently everyone else wanted some Giovanni’s today too.
Amazing shrimp scampi..thank you Josh for my two hot sauces!
After we stuffed ourselves with shrimp, we continued north to Haleiwa to wander around and eat an açaí bowl. I like to think of it as a slightly healthier version of ice cream. The bowl consists of a frozen blend of açaí berries, strawberries, blueberries, bananas and rice milk topped with granola, apple bananas, coconut flakes and drizzled with honey. SO GOOD! You order at a cute little stand/hut and then enjoy your treat on the small patio in the back. We also wandered around the different shops and boutiques and then headed home.
You order at this stand.
Towards the end of our time in Haleiwa, and on our drive home, we saw either three different rainbows or a few different versions of the same rainbow. I have never seen an entire rainbow end to end until today. It. Was. INCREDIBLE. I was completely in awe at how brilliant the colors were. One of them (the last picture below) I could literally see where both ends hit the ground. If you look closely at the last picture, you can see the beginnings of a double rainbow on each end. I will say, this state continues to amaze me and am incredibly thankful to be continually experiencing amazing things such as this!
First rainbow we saw as we were leaving the açaí bowl hut.
The second rainbow (or a different version of the original) as we were leaving a few of the shops.
You can see the double rainbow here pretty well. This was driving down the road on the way home.
A full rainbow end to end. You can see the double rainbow on both ends. The picture does not do the beauty of this rainbow justice.
Opakapaka fish for dinner!
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Molokai: Trip 1 – Day 4
Day 4 turned out to be quite an adventure. We had our last wonderful breakfast and said our goodbyes and thank you’s to Tom and Karyl for being such great hosts. We had rescheduled the Halawa Valley hike, but the weather did not look promising. However, we headed to the east side of the island on the one lane road again hoping we would be able to hike.
The drive there was rainy, cloudy and gloomy…however it made for some great waves crashing against the rocks along the side of the road. The road was so close to the ocean, it felt like the waves were going to crash right into our car. There were many hairpin turns along the one lane road, at times it appeared we would drive straight into the ocean. To sum up the drive in one word: ridiculous. Ridiculously beautiful, ridiculously scary and ridiculously unreal that such a road existed in the U.S….and ridiculous that we drove it twice in 72 hours.
View of the road from the car.
A bit gloomy for our drive.
Road before one of the hairpin turns.
All the signs on the road before a one lane bridge. The bridge was under a beautiful canopy of trees.
We arrived to the place where we were supposed to meet our tour guide, Kalani at 10:00 am. Unfortunately for us it was still raining pretty consistently. This meant that we would not be hiking due to the stream/river we would have to cross to get to the valley. However, Kalani offered us a tour of his amazing flower farm (part of the original tour) and we happily accepted. The flowers were incredible. I expected them to be pretty, but nothing prepared me for how unique the plants would be or how expansive his farm would be. Mom and Aunt Jan – you would have loved this place. Kalani and his family live and work on the farm. They don’t have telephone service, but take orders and communicate via satellite internet service. He goes into town a few times a week to ship his flower orders to the mainland and go to market. Side note: they have to clean the flowers really well for inspection back to the mainland. They have tubs they wash and bleach them in to get rid of any bugs, etc. The flowers keep for a couple weeks if you take care of them properly. Below is a slideshow of the amazing flowers, fruits and various plants from the farm. I have tried to name the ones I remember, but most of them I can’t recall the exact names :).
After the tour of the farm, we headed back into town and had a few hours to kill before our flight. We had lunch at Molokai Burger (one of the only places open on New Year’s Day) and then slowly headed to the airport to catch our flight. We arrived to the quaint airport of Molokai a bit early around 4:00 pm, but figured we would just hang out there until our flight at 5:35 pm, as there was nothing else to do. Security didn’t even open until 5:00 pm and once we went through, we realized there were no bathrooms (interesting). The weather continued to get worse, but we weren’t worried as flights were still taking off. At about 5:10 pm, they told us our flight was delayed until 6:00 pm…then at about 6:00 pm, they told us our flight had been canceled. Come to find out, this was record rain fall for the dryer island of Molokai (for some reason this seems to be a pattern for Josh and I, re: February in Kauai hiking the Kalalau trail). We knew our B&B was booked for the night and that there was a strong possibility if we didn’t get out, we would be sleeping on the bench in baggage claim at the Molokai Airport. I jumped in line at Island Air to see when we could rebook and Josh went to call Hotel Molokai..on the way he stopped at Mokulele Airlines to see if they had any flights going out. Turns out they had the last two seats to Maui on a 7:00 pm flight if we wanted them. Thankfully, we booked those on the spot just to be safe. We then went back to the Island Air counter to see what our options were. They said there was a possibility of an unscheduled flight coming in around 8:00 pm and we might get on it at 8:40 pm if the weather was ok…otherwise we wouldn’t get out until Thursday. Our instructions were to hang out at the airport and if the plane made it in, we would have seats. This did not sound promising. With the weather getting worse, I felt that there was a strong chance of us getting stuck in Molokai with no place to stay.
We went to hang out in baggage claim, as this would be where we would board for the Mokulele flight to Maui if it took off (obviously…it’s completely normal to board at baggage claim). Around 7:00 pm, they came over the speaker to say we were boarding and a guy opened the door and said “Josh row four and Nicole row five…run to the guy at the plane and he will take your bags”. We ran because it was pouring and quite windy. So when he said we got the last two seats on the plane, I didn’t realize the total number of seats on the plane was nine. Cozy. I, naturally, was in the last row seated between the door and cargo area in this snug prop plane. They closed the door and the pilot gave us a speech about how it would be a bit bumpy and would take us probably longer than usual to get to Maui. During this, I started to panic because my seatbelt wouldn’t work. The pilot had to come back and help me…because it was missing a piece that had been shut in the door…of course. So seatbelt on, door shut/secured and we were ready to go. Or so I thought…we sat there for what seemed like an eternity watching the sheets of rain blow sideways. This was not at all comforting so I decided to take this time to pop a dramamine..I figured it couldn’t hurt, right? Below: a picture from my seat of the plane.
Finally, we started to taxi and eventually took off..to say it was bumpy was an understatement. We circled and hung out in the air for about 45 minutes..being able to watch the pilots point to things on the radar is not comforting. After what should have been a 15 minute flight on a normal day, we landed in Maui safe and sound where we ran through the rain and wind again, picked up our bags off the cart and ran to the commuter terminal which was outside. After about five minutes, Josh asked a random bus driver how to get to the main terminal. We had more running through the rain in our future. Josh grabbed both bags (thank you Josh) and we ran for the main terminal. Once there, we finally found the Hawaiian Airlines check-in counter (we had done our research and knew there were three flights headed for Oahu that night that we would be able to catch). Again, we got the last two seats on the last flight out at 11:00 pm to Oahu. Did we want them? 100% ABSOLUTELY. So, tickets purchased, soaking wet, we headed to security to find something to eat to pass the time until we took off (and to make me feel better as the dramamine I took in desperation didn’t quite do the trick).
Three hours later after some food and Starbucks to warm us up, we were full, dry and taking off on a Boeing 717 (much preferred over the prop plane in rainy/windy conditions). We safely made it home to Oahu after midnight…just a few hours, and an additional island hop, late.
And with that, I will conclude the postings on our Molokai adventures!
Molokai: Trip 1 – Day 2
Day 2 started with our first amazing breakfast at our B&B. Along with fruit every morning, 
each day we had something different as our main dish. This morning we had banana macadamia nut pancakes with caramel syrup. I think this was probably my favorite breakfast while we were there. It was incredible!
Even though it was raining, we had a hike to Halawa Valley planned on the east side of the island. We drove about an hour and a half there (a large portion of it on a one lane road towards the end), but the tour was rained out so we rescheduled for Tuesday. However, we were able to get a pretty cool shot of the waterfalls…since it was raining they were pretty big!
Falls we were supposed to hike to.
Inlet at Halawa Bay
This leads me to the second animal that we saw on the side of the road…a random bull. Just hanging out outside the fence wandering down the street. There is a ranch in the area and he had gotten out (presumably). He was so close to our car because of the one lane road!
On our hour and a half drive back to the other side of the island, it actually started to clear up and we had a beautiful view of both Maui and Lanai. 
After a few pictures and making it back to the two lane highway, we decided to try to find the ‘lli’ili’opaie Heiau. A heiau is a Hawaiian temple. This particular heiau was a “school” for sorcerers and was a very powerful 13th century temple that was known for human sacrifice. It is one of the largest left in Hawaii measuring at about 320 x 120 feet. We had to hike pretty high up the ridge to get a picture of it from end to end. The stones used to build this heiau were passed hand to hand in a human chain for eight miles over the mountains via the Wailua Trail. Thousands of round, water-worn stones were laid by hand to build this site without the use of any mortar or modern tools. I felt like it was the temple of doom and we were Indiana Jones…seriously. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. To get to the temple took us awhile to figure out as the entrance is located on private property. After wandering down the road looking for a gate with a sign (every driveway had a gate with a sign on it) we finally stopped and asked someone who was sitting on their porch. After walking about 10 minutes we finally found the gate. We walked another 10 minutes down a driveway, through the woods and over a dry riverbed and there was the heiau! We hiked up about 15 minutes to an amazing view of not only the heiau but also Maui and Lanai. It was one of the most amazing views I have seen yet!
Gated entrance to Heiau.
The signs on the road after the gate…we knew we were headed in the right directions!
Headed down a beautiful driveway.
These vines looked like snakes growing up the tree.
Rock wall along the driveway.
The start of the trail in the woods to the Heiau.
Looking at the Heaiu from above.
Fishpond in the distance.
Ridge and valley behind the Heaiu.
After our hike back down, we decided to stop at Mana’e Goods and Grindz for some chicken katsu. We split that, a veggie burger and a strawberry smoothie — it was all delicious! We then headed to Coffees of Hawaii to see some traditional Hawaiian music and dancing. We sat out on their big patio and listened to Na Ohana Hoaloha (link is to a YouTube video of what we did) for about an hour and a half and had their specialty coffee drink “Mocha Mama” (it was amazing).
We went back to the B&B and showered, changed and headed to Paddlers’ Inn again for dinner. However, the highlight of the evening was getting Molokai Hot Bread from Kanemitsu Bakery. At 8:00 pm every night but Monday, you can go down a back alley to an open half door and order “hot bread”. They will fill it with cream cheese, strawberry jam, blueberry jam or cinnamon and butter. It was INCREDIBLE. Josh and I ordered a strawberry jam and cream cheese hot bread…how we had self control to not finish the entire thing is beyond me. I already want to go back to Molokai just for the “hot bread”. I’m glad we did this on Sunday night…if the bakery had been open on Monday night I am 100% positive we would have headed back for more.
Where you order the bread.
They give it to you in a plastic shopping bag.
Bread filled with cream cheese and strawberry jam. SO GOOD!
Molokai: Trip 1 – Day 1
For my first inter-island trip, Josh and I went to Molokai for four days. It was quite an adventure. Molokai is located 25 miles east of Oahu and is 38 by 10 miles and has a population of about 7,000 people.
Our plane to Molokai
We left on the first commuter flight out on Saturday at 6:15 am and arrived by 6:45 am…an extremely short flight! The Molokai airport is in one word…quaint. There was one car rental place located in baggage claim, which was basically a bench and concrete where they put your bags, and two gates.
Molokai Baggage Claim
Molokai Airport
After we picked up our rental car and got our bags, we went to have breakfast at a place called the cookhouse. We were the only two people in there the entire time we ate. We both had the breakfast sandwich with breakfast potatoes (see below).
After breakfast, we had about seven or so hours to kill before we could check in to our B&B. So we decided to drive east along 450, which travels along the south side of the island, to see some of Father Damien’s churches. On the way, we stopped to take a picture of Lanai, which you could see very clearly from Molokai.
Now back to the history of the churches…Father Damien was a Belgian priest who is well-known for his work with leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) patients on Kalaupapa (more on that later in my Day 3 post). Our first stop was St. Joseph’s Church which was buit in 1876. The church always remains unlocked and vistors are welcome to enter. It was still decorated for Christmas and we were able to go in, look around and sign the guest book. Outside was a statue of Damien, a cemetery, beautiful flowers and a plaque describing who Damien was.
After we went to St. Joseph’s, we continued driving down 450 to see Our Lady of Sorrows Church. It is the second of the four churches that is left on the topside of the island that Damien constructed, and was built in 1874. Mass is still held in this church every Sunday at 7:00 am.
The alter at Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
Beautiful wood benches inside the Our Lady of Sorrows Church
The church with the ocean in the background.
After we visited the churches, we headed back toward the town of Kaunakakai to see the Kapuaiwa Coconut Grove. Along the way we passed multiple ancient fishponds that were created in the 13th century for the use by the royalty. These fishponds were all over the south side of the island.
The Coconut Grove was planted in the 1860s by King Kamehameha V to provide shade for his sacred bathing pools. Each of the 1,000 royal coconut palms represented a warrior in his army and only a few hundred of the palms still stand.
For the afternoon, we wandered over to the west side to Papohaku Beach (also known as Three Mile Beach), which is one of Hawaii’s largest white sand beaches. For the most part, we were here by ourselves. It was almost entirely empty, so we were able to sit and enjoy the massive waves crashing against the rocks. It was definitely not a beach you go swimming in…the waves were incredible (see pictures below). As we were watching the waves, we also got to see whales making huge splashes in the distance! We only saw them twice, but it was still extraordinary to see.
Waves at Papohaku Beach
Looking right from our spot on the beach.
Looking left from our spot on the beach.
We spent about two hours at the beach and then decided to drive to Mauna Loa (the town we were staying in) to see what was there. There was a general store and a kite shop…it was a bit creepy how quiet it was..kind of like a ghost town. We had about an hour and half until we could check-in, so we drove back into town and had lunch outside on the patio at the Paddlers’ Inn. This seemed to be the one restaurant that was open all the time…which included past 8 pm at night and on holidays (turns out this woud be good for us). Once we had lunch, it was finally time to check-in…we were both ready for showers, clean clothes and naps. We got to the Molokai Komohana around 4:00 pm and were greeted by Tom. He and his wife Karyl are originally from Michigan and retired in Molokai. They have been running this B&B for about six years now. They were both incredibly wonderful!
View from the porch of our B&B
After much needed regrouping, we went back into town for dinner at the Molokai Pizza Cafe. We were both exhausted and ready to head to bed after dinner as we had an early start the next day. On the way home we passed a random horse just wandering down the sidewalk on the road to our B&B. We found out later that this horse just roams around (halter and lead rope intact) the neighborhood. He belongs to a nearby neighbor, but I don’t think the horse ventures home much. Turns out this would be the first of many random animals wandering down the side of the road.
And with that, I will conclude our first day on Molokai!
365 Days Of Hawaii 