New Shoes!

Monday morning started out very sunny. It promised to be a good day of diving for Michael; in the meanwhile I would take Mary Ellen around to look for souvenirs for her friends & family back home.

Very different from yesterday morning's photo.

As I was getting my things together I heard a truck coming in to the driveway. It turns out it was actually the 3rd truck in the driveway; I only heard it because Brandon from Aikane Nursery parked near my bedroom window. Kai & Rick had parked their trucks on the front lawn; they were here to start the removal of the invasive African tulip trees, sheffleras, & Christmas berry.

L to R: Rick's truck, Kai's truck.

After I picked Mary Ellen up our first order of business was getting new shoes for me; that dental floss was not going to last forever. We went to Famous Footwear in one of the industrial type malls on the outskirts of old town Kailua-Kona. I couldn't find anything in the womens section, so I went to the girls section. Sometimes I am lucky & can find something there. Today I got lucky! I also got new socks.

L old shoe, R new shoe. (Photo by Mary Ellen)

I wore these out of the store & spent the day walking around in them. (Photo by Mary Ellen)

They were having a sale, buy one get one 50% off. The second pair (R) has memory foam gel inserts.

Mary Ellen needed to pick up gifts for several friends & family so we decided to wander around old town Kailua-Kona to see if there was anything that she liked. Our first "find" was a whale shark mural on the side of one of the buildings. We saw a variety of interesting shops but nothing really jumped out at her.


Then we went to the gift shop at Hulihe'e Palace; it's on the property next to the palace so we missed it yesterday. There are a lot of really cool things there; Mary Ellen found some nice Hawaiian-themed dish towels and a purse made out of cork. I found a koa wood door stop; I decided to get 1 each time I go there until I have enough for each door in the house that needs one. They look a lot better than the rubber ones I am using now!


Outside the Hulihe'e Palace gift shop is Ki'ope Pond. It was originally a saltwater bathing area for the royalty and later became a fish rearing pond. It has an inlet from the ocean but also has freshwater springs that provide water.

Salt water enters the pond through the gate at the right when the waves wash in.

Another stop was Alley Geckos for, what else, geckos! They have a lot of different gecko themed items. Mary Ellen got a gecko puzzle box and a couple of metal gecko sculptures. In all our excitement over the geckos we missed the Lahaina Noon here in Kona. :(


A few more stops and Mary Ellen had all her gift shopping done. So we headed back to the Queen's Marketplace for lunch, to be followed by a walk to see the petroglyphs near the King's Marketplace. On the way there Mary Ellen got a call from Michael; he was right behind us! He had to take care of a few things then had a massage appointment so he didn't join us for lunch. We went to the Lemongrass Express Kitchen in the Queen's Marketplace food court; I had the Thai Beef Salad and Mary Ellen had the Beef Sambal Salad.

Just imagine a tower of shredded red cabbage topped by a tower of shredded carrot about the height of the water glass; it looked more spectacular before I started eating. That's Mary Ellen's hat that she found during our shopping trip.

We drove to the entrance of the road leading to the parking area for the petroglyphs which are near the King's Marketplace. The sign said good shoes were needed for the hike out to where they were; since Mary Ellen only had sandals on we decided today was not the day for viewing the petroglyphs. Besides wrecking her sandals, and possibly her feet & other body parts, she would have burnt the tops of her feet, too!

After dropping her off I headed back; I decided to return via the mountain road since it was a nice day. A lot of other people were on the road, too, causing a traffic jam at the Kawaihae junction. Thankfully there were no other slowdowns.


As I turned in to the driveway I could see some of the work that Kai and Rick from Aikane had done while I was gone. There was a pile of branches and trunks under the kenikeni tree and a lack of big straggly stuff along the road & in front of the front door. Three of the African tulip trees along the north property line that were starting to break up the rock wall were also gone.

Look! No invasives behind the calamansi lime!

Nearly all the invasives along the frontage are gone; the schefflera in the foreground will also be removed.

Look! No christmas berry by the front door! It was also hitting the electric wires coming in to the house.

Looking along the north property line; one African tulip has been cut down to the ground, the others will be also.

The view from inside the house was even more dramatic. The African tulip trees outside the bathroom and my bedroom were gone. Here are the before and after photos. Look for more changes to come with their continuing work.

Bathroom, June 7th.

Bathroom, July 24th.

Middle bedroom, June 7th; the tree is rubbing against the eaves.

Middle bedroom, July 24th. The stump in the background will be taken down to the ground.

The hot spot was acting up again, hence this Monday post showing up on Tuesday morning. The hot spot does not appear to like working at night. And even though the phone is working at that time, I haven't called because I don't feel like trying to explain everything to someone at the end of the day when I am tired.

Happy Belated Birthday to Shirley!