Whirlwind Tour with Lynne

I picked my friend Lynne up from the airport at about 7 this morning. She was on her way back from a 3 week vacation in New Zealand. After dropping off her bags at the house and checking on Mom & Dad (they were still sleeping), we went to breakfast at Sweet E's, which has moved to a new, larger location. Lynne had a build your own omelet & passion-orange-guava juice; I had the Hawaiian omelet & green tea.

We were comparing New Zealand money which is a whole lot more colorful than US money. She showed me her New Zealand bird books and we were able to find the birds shown on the money. The  whio or blue duck (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos) is on the NZ$10. The hoiho or yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) is on the NZ$5. And the kotuku or eastern great egret (Ardea alba modesta) is on the NZ$2 coin.

Top, blue duck on NZ$10; middle left, eastern great egret on NZ$2 coin; bottom, yellow-eyed penguin on NZ$5.

Lynne is an artist and uses silk as her canvas. She gifted me with a small silk painting of a fuchsia. When the new room is ready it will look great in one of the window!


Lynne was born in Honolulu & lived in Kailua until she was 7 years old; she hasn't been back to O'ahu since then, so after breakfast we did a quick tour of things near home, starting with a stop at the Diamond Head State Monument (aka Leahi). The parking lot was full so we just went around the u-turn route, on the way out we saw a blue stop sign; turns out it is a pedestrian stop sign on the walking trail along the base of the crater.

We drove around the base of Leahi, stopping at the Diamond Head Beach lookout.


Mom got up about the time we walked in the door. Lynne got to meet Mom & Dad, as well as Shiro & Xander. Lynne is a cat person & the cats picked up on that and came to get pets from her. 

After a short nap, Lynne & I went out to lunch at Sekiya Restaurant. Lynne had the hot somen & I had the zaru soba. While we were waiting for our meals, Lynne introduced me to Cousin Ted, who is from Colorado & went to New Zealand with her. Ted travels around the world, then shares his travels with his 6th grade class. After lunch we took photos of Ted checking out the koi in the pond at Sekiya's. Ted also checked out the model of the old mill.

Cousin Ted watching the koi; not sure how old these might be or how much they are worth, but they're big.

Cousin Ted checking the mill.

After lunch we stopped at Leonard's Bakery to get malasadas. But it was closed, there was yellow "Caution" tape all around the parking lot so we could not get in and there were a bunch of work trucks in the lot. On the news tonight they said there was a gas leak yesterday & they had to evacuate the customers & workers. Today they were fixing the leak, they think that Leonard's might be open again tomorrow. We ended up going to Nanding's Bakery instead for some Filipino pastries.

After dinner, Mom & Lynne looked through the book of family reunion photos for Mom's side of the family. Mom recounted stories about her siblings as well as her parents and other relatives. I think she enjoyed having someone new to talk to about the things she remembers.

Tomorrow Lynne heads to Seattle for a couple of days before going home to Washington, D.C., and work on Monday.

Happy Birthday to Bruce, Wayne, Jeff, Maria, Janeen, Jacque, & Erica!