Irene & Gary Stop In & Visit

I got on the plane early this morning, though not as early as when I was trying to avoid the road closure caused by the Ironman Championship. 

Not as early as in October, but still dark.

As we flew out I got a better look at the Pacific Paradise that ran aground on October 10th off Kaimana Beach. You could see the salvage vessel that is working on it; they were trying to get it off during this morning's high tide. I heard they failed again.

The Pacific Paradise is on the left, the salvage vessel is on the right.

You could also see the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and how it looked so small surrounded by all the big hotels. In spite of all that, I think the Royal Hawaiian is still the classiest hotel in Waikiki!

The Royal Hawaiian is the small pink building in the center.

It was about 8 when I arrived in Kona. I coordinated with Irene & Gary to meet with them in Waimea about 9:30. But I was delayed by slow vehicles on the Kawaihae Road. It gave me time to check out the owl on this jeep; not sure what the story is about that.

It's one of those great horned owls people use to try to scare other birds away.

I thought I was going to be late but it turned out Irene & Gary were right behind me as we pulled in to Waimea!  It was a very sunny day so we started our tour of the north end of the island with the Kohala Mountain Road.

Kona coastline in the background. (Selfie by Irene)

They also got a tour of the work in progress at the house. Here is one of the keys that still fits in the bedroom door; I had Chris use the original hardware when he widened the doors.

(Photo by Gary)

Irene found a macadamia nut & tried to open it. So far the nut is winning! (Gary sent me the video he took, but I haven't figured out how to get it off my phone.) She had more success with the Meyer lemons! They're taking one back to the hotel.

She broke the piece of concrete on the 2nd or 3rd try.

So she tried again. And again. The nut won.

It's always best to end successfully!

We went to lunch at Minnie's Ohana Lim Style Restaurant; we all had the fresh fish of the day which was mahimahi. Then we headed to King's View Cafe for ice cream and a stop at the King Kamehameha statue. Of course I had to take them to Pololu Valley! Since the weather was so nice the parking lot was packed so we didn't spend much time there. We also checked out the Upolu Airport, Kapa'a Beach Park, the old pier at Mahukona Harbor, Lapakahi State Historical Park, and the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company. There was a specialized nut cracker that they had set up at the nut factory so you could try your skill at cracking a macadamia nut without pulverizing the nut meat, but there were no nuts to practice on & Irene had left hers in the car. I dropped them off at their car around 4,  which was early enough for them to get back for a swim before dark. (My phone was dying so I got no photos; the car charger as also dying so it didn't help matters.) The weather was great but it was cloudy on the Maui side of the channel so we were only able to see a very small, hazy bit of it during our tour.

The waves at Kapa'a Beach Park. (Photo by Irene)

Frame for hale at Lapakahi State Park. (Photo by Gary)

When I got back to the house I found that the roofing had arrived after we left. I will have to get up early tomorrow to move the car so that Chris & his assistants can get their trucks in and also get to the roofing. If the weather holds I might be here when the roof is completed!

I had been hoping it would be clear enough when I returned to see Maui, but no luck.

No Maui, not even a tiny bit of the peak of Haleakala like we had earlier.

Since I had no time to vacuum and mop the floors when I got back, I decided to use the microfiber clothes I picked up at the Hawai'i Okinawa Center's Winter Craft Fair as booties and "mop" the floor while I walked around. They picked up a lot of stuff! I'll do the regular cleaning tomorrow.

Before.

After.

Happy Birthday to Susie,  Pam, & Christina!