Visiting the Kupuna

Aunty Florence & Tomiko's plane on Monday left about 10 pm but they wanted to get the rental car back by about 4 pm so they wouldn't have to pay the outrageous per hour rental rates. We decided I would follow them to Kona so they could drop the car off at 4 and we would do laundry and have dinner while we waited for their flight at 10. Before they left, Aunty Judy & Tomiko went to visit Lem, Uncle Kazu, & Mrs. Ohta. We went to see Lem first. As we went past CSC Cafe I glanced over and saw Lem talking with a couple of guys. I wasn't able to flag Aunty Florence & Tomiko down so we ended up at Lem's house; we went back to CSC and spent some time with him.

Next we went to see Mrs. Ohta; due to her health she wasn't able to go to Obon on Saturday night. She looked a little more frail than she did when I saw her 5 weeks ago. And, unlike the previous visit, she was a little confused about who I was. Wilfred also dropped by to see her; he & his family lived just down the road from Grandma & Grandpa in Halawa Camp. He was back in Kohala for his 50th high school reunion; there were 63 people in his graduating class. His class invited other people who started with them but had transferred to private school before graduation. Wilfred lives in Seattle now, he & Aunty Florence discovered that they go to some of the same places!

L to R: Tomiko, Mrs. Ohta, & Aunty Florence.

Mrs. Ohta with Wilfred.

We then went to see Uncle Kazu. He was in the day room feeding one of the guinea pigs; they belong to Sadie, she brings 1 or 2 in every couple of days so the residents can interact with them. Today Uncle Kazu was feeding Piglet a variety of greens.

L to R: Aunty Florence, Uncle Kazu, & Tomiko.

Uncle Kazu feeding Piglet some fennel.

While Aunty Florence & Tomiko were getting lunch ready & packing up to go, I made a quick run to the transfer station. I took the food-related garbage to the transfer station almost every day to keep the ants at bay and so that the rats don't decide to come in to the main part of the house. (We can hear critters scurrying around in the attic. Since there are no squirrels here, the assumption is rats. I am having an exterminator check things out on the next visit.) While at the transfer station I took a photo of the sign on what to recycle since I sort of messed up when I started to toss things in the bin. Glass does NOT go in the "Mixed Recycling" bin. It goes in the glass bin, all colors together. And then there's the HI 5 recycling items. They go to a whole separate place next door. If you want to get paid for them, you need to go when the facility is open on Saturday & Sunday. If you don't care, you can just leave the HI 5 bottles & cans there and they donate the money to one of the local non-profits.

There seems to be a daily traffic jam around the Kona International Airport every afternoon. It starts about a mile before you get to the airport from the north side and extends in to the outskirts of Kona.

The row of coconut trees in the distance line the road down to the airport.

After Tomiko dropped off the car, we discovered we couldn't drop off their luggage since the Alaska counter closed between flights. So we went to the nearest laundromat, J & K Wash & Go. While the laundry was washing, Tomiko needed to find some omiyage for Justine, but couldn't find anything quickly. Then it was back to the laundromat to put the laundry in to the dryer. A nice guy there gave us a couple of his dryer sheets since the vending machine was empty. Laundry done! Now off to L & L for dinner, then back to downtown Kona on the trail of omiyage; its probably been about 40 years since I've been in downtown Kona! Tomiko was able to find something for Justine so we headed to the airport and arrived at the usual time for checking in. I was back home by 9:30, just as Aunty Florence & Tomiko were boarding their flight.

Happy Belated Birthday to Caroline!