Lunch with Uncle Kazu

On every trip to the Big Island I try to take Uncle Kazu out to lunch or at the very least bring a box lunch & ice cream to him. Today was lunch day! Yesterday when we stopped by I happened to meet Uncle Kazu's physical therapist, Gil; he said he would use our trip to do some work with Uncle Kazu. Gil met us at the car and taught us how to most easily help him get in and out of the car. It worked wonderfully; there was a lot less straining on Uncle Kazu's part. But I do need to rent a larger car when there will be someone else with me so we can get the wheelchair in more easily.

We had lunch at Minnie's, its our go to place because it has relatively easy access to the outdoor lanai seating area and they all know him there. Uncle Kazu and I had the Ahi Plate; Kai had the Korean Chicken Plate.

Lunch at Minnie's.

After lunch we went for a drive. We stopped at Upolu Point at the airport and also looked at the windmills. Then we went to Kapaa Beach Park and Mahukona Harbor. On the way back we stopped at Kings View Cafe for ice cream.

Kai checking out the ocean at Mahukona Harbor.

Ice vream choices. (Photo by Kai)

This morning we started out with vacuuming the kitchen cabinets. Actually, I took advantage of Kai's height and had him vacuuming the cabinets while I vacuumed the floors. He finished most of them before we had to leave to go to lunch with Uncle Kazu. There will be more clean up tomorrow before we begin to unpack kitchen boxes and put things away.

Cleaning the cabinets on the south wall.

Cleaning the cabinets on the north wall.

Happy Birthday to Allison!

Good Bye, Sandy!

I started the draft for the 28th but had difficulties with downloading the photos. The next day was spent traveling; by the time we got to the house it was about 10:30 pm & I was too tired to post. So here are 3 days worth of events.

Sandy's celebration of life on the 28th was a wonderful tribute to someone who touched a lot of lives & made a difference for a lot of people, whether they knew it or not. It was at Bobby's Hawaiian Style Restaurant; they opened special for Sandy's celebration. There were a lot of people and I got to see many old friends from KSER.

As I was going through the ono Hawaiian food line, Diane (one of the co-owners of Bobby's) asked me if I had been to Goodie Goodie Corner, their shop next door which sells Hawaiian kine sweets & crack seed. I hadn't, but I took a photo of their storefront & sent it to Susan who has been searching the area unsuccessfully for crack seed.


On the day of Sandy's celebration I actually started with breakfast at Kona Kitchen with Jody, Joy, & Ron. Jody drove up from Portland and stayed with Joy & Ron so that we could have breakfast together. Jody brought me a gift that I will add to the emergency preparedness kit!

Jody and the personal water filter.

Jody had the fried rice with scrambled egg, Joy had eggs & hash browns, Ron had pancakes, and I had kim chee fried rice with sunnyside up eggs.

Jody with fried rice & eggs.

Joy with eggs & hash browns.

Ron with pancakes.

Kim chee fried rice with sunnyside up eggs.

On the way out we saw the clock at Kona Kitchen. A little bit of trivia for you, Kona Kitchen is owned by the actor who played Chozen, the bad guy in Karate Kid, Part II.


Jody is the friend who sent me photos of the green sea turtles on the black sand beach at Kalapana. She asked if she had sent the one with the 12 turtles, she hadn't. She couldn't figure out how to send it from her phone, so I sent it from her phone to my phone.

From her trip in October 2017.

When I left Sandy's celebration, I went to see Darla. Our goal was to visit Bobbye if she had enough energy. She did! So we stopped in and talked with her; right now she prefers to listen to people rather than talk. She seemed to have a little more strength. On the next trip I will be getting in touch with Peggy & Ron early to set up lunch with Bobbye; taking her out of the house seems to be good for her.

L to R: me, Bobbye, & Darla. (Photo by Ron)

On the way back Darla called her husband Jim to see if he wanted to go out to dinner with us. He said he would cook dinner for us! And he did! It was a stir fry with vegetables and sausage. Because they both have food allergies it is sometimes easier to cook at home than try to find something at a restaurant that will work for them.

Chef Jim! (He's not really a chef, he just knows how to cook, too.)

Yummy dinner prepared by Chef Jim.

I forgot to mention the other gifts I received from friends during my visit. Gabriele gave me a dark chocolate orange from Trader Joe's and Eleta & Brienne gave me a WiiFit Plus. I am looking forward to using the WiiFit Plus, I have been packing in the calories but unable to keep up with burning calories the way I was before my trip. The down side to the Fitbit is it has made me more conscious of the balance between calories going in versus calories going out; this is also the up side to the Fitbit!



We were leaving the next day, the 29th. But before we did I had a couple more friends to see. On my way to The Sisters Restaurant to meet with Gloria, I dropped Kai off at Z Sport to pick up the Subaru. Because of that I thought I was going to be late to meet up with her but she wasn't there. After 10 minutes I checked my phone since it wasn't like Gloria to be late & found that I was an hour early! So I went to visit Anne & Mary Kay. I had a moose apron for Anne who loves anything moose! She was getting ready to see a client nearby; she decided to wear the apron to all her home visits that day! Mary Kay was getting ready to leave for class; she's working on an accounting degree.

Ready for work!

Gloria & I arrived at Sisters at about the same time. As we walked in I noticed the woman sitting near the door waiting for her to go order, it was Karen! Such a nice surprise! Gloria retired last Friday so our breakfast was later than the previous breakfasts I had been meeting people for. We had a great time catching up on how she had been doing and what her future plans are. Since her husband Buddy won't retire for a few more years, she might come to visit me without him. She had a breakfast sandwich and I had the special Rainbow Burrito, it has a bunch of colorful vegetables along with cheese in it.

Gloria with her breakfast sandwich.

Rainbow Burrito; I should have taken a couple bites out of it so you could see the rainbow.

Yesterday, at Sandy's celebration, I sat across from Paula. She showed me some of the photos she had taken recently; she also said some were in a show at The Sisters! I got to see them for myself as Gloria & I were walking to our table. Here's a couple of them.

The large photo of the Milky Way was in the local paper.

This one looks like it could be a watercolor rather than a photo.

It met with Sally later in the morning, my last visit of this trip. It was fun catching up with what she and her family are doing. I can't believe her girls are 12 and 8 already! Overall, I saw almost 60 friends and family on this trip; although sometimes I felt like I needed more sleep it was worth being a little tired to catch up with all of them.

On the way to the airport it was raining. Hard. This is the most rain I had on this trip. In spite of the rain we made it to the airport on time.

(Photo by Kai)

On this part of the trip we flew on Delta. One of the perks of flying with Delta is they have free movies, so I watched movies for the entire flight. (Due to all the meals I met friends over I didn't need any free food!) I started my movie marathon with Battle of the Sexes, the movie about Billie Jean King's historic tennis match against Bobby Riggs. Then I watched American Made, about Barry Seal who was recruited by the CIA and later became a drug smuggler for the Medellin Cartel & DEA informant. I ended with The Mountain Between Us, about 2 strangers who become stranded in a wilderness area above the treeline after their plane crashes when the pilot has a stroke. The first 2 are based on real events, the last is fiction.

Bobby Riggs congratulating Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes. (Photo from video screen)

Barry Seal flying in American Made. (Photo from video screen)

Ben & Alex at the start of their ill-fated plan trip in The Mountain Between Us. (Photo from video screen)

On the drive from the airport, I was going the speed limit of 40 mph that was posted in the construction zone when several cars went speeding by me. A few miles down the road we saw one of them had run off the side of the road and was surrounded by aid vehicles and police. A firetruck was just leaving as we approached so we had to stop. None of the photos came out.

This morning was nice & sunny, we walked around the yard to check things out. The little start from Mom's orchid is still alive! The mountain apple tree is full of blossoms and the Meyer lemon & calamansi lime trees are full of fruit! And most of the ilima papa is growing well.

The back yard.

Mountain apple tree with lots of flowers!

Keiki from Mom's last surviving orchid.

Lem says the Meyer lemon tree has fruit all year; I believe him!

Calamansi lime tree.

Ilima papa along the roadside.

We went to CSC Cafe for breakfast, and to see Lem. He wasn't there when we got there but the waitress said he would be soon. She also immediately knew that Kai was "not local". I thought it might be because he was wearing long black pants and a jacket. Kai thought it was his pasty white skin. It turns out she just didn't recognize him as being from the area. (She recognized me because I come so often.)

After breakfast we went to the cemetery to clean-up and also leave flowers. The little poinsettia I got back in December was still alive, I think I need to get a little saucer for it to help trap some water on really rainy days.

Poinsettia in back, Meyer lemon & calamansi in front.

We saw Uncle Kazu later in the morning. We walked around the parking lot with him a couple of times then I had to leave to finish several phone calls. Kai stayed with him and said they walked around a bunch more times. He thinks it was about 8 times; 3 or 4 is his usual. In the end we decided to take him out to lunch tomorrow; the nurses say he has been asking for chicken hekka so I will try to find some for him.


The purpose of this trip is to clean things up & start unpacking kitchen boxes. Here's what the kitchen looks like tonight.

Cabinets on the south wall of the kitchen.

Soon to be unpacked boxes.

Happy Birthday to Jennie & Kevin! Happy Belated Birthday to Dave, Jerry, Suzie, John, Maggie, Pail, & Kathy!

Dining with Daisy!

I had dinner with Aunty Daisy, Scott, & Wakana this evening. We had a really great time! Scott & Wakana have been playing the slide show I created for Mom's memorial and talking about the people in the photos. We did that again tonight. I also gave Scott some other digital copies of old family photos that I had on a thumb drive that I have with me.

Aunty Daisy & Scott and 1978 photo of relatives meeting at their house.

I started out the morning with breakfast with Linda at Kate's Greek & American Deli. We were talking so much I neglected to take a photo of both Linda as well as the food! Last year Linda had been dealing with not having enough potential jurors show up to fill a jury; that's getting better. She continues to improve the process.

I had enough time, so I stopped in at the "ALLIED Events: The Inclusion Agenda" workshop for a short visit. The event was sponsored by the Snohomish County Branch of the NAACP & C3 so I was pretty sure I would see a lot of friends there and I did! One of my favorites is Doe; she creates amazing table coverings with Native-inspired designs. She has been providing the table coverings for the North Puget Sound Conference on Race. Here she is with some of her designs; she has over 200 now.

Doe and Birdie holding Milo.

I left the event before it ended since I was going to Eleta's mini-Kwanzaa; I picked Janice up on the way down. It was a very large turnout.


On the way back I was listening to KSER & realized Leslie was on the air. I went over to the station and hung out with her for the last half hour of her show Blues Odyssey.

Happy Birthday to Robin!

The Rusty Pelican

This morning I met Cathy at the Rusty Pelican Cafe for breakfast. There were too many choices! I finally settled on the Greek Omelette with a Hot Apple Cider; Cathy had the Pacific Omelette with a Blueberry Muffin. I think it is a breakfast place that Curtis would like. Cathy is a watercolor artist as well as an environmentalist & photographer; she filled me in on what's been happening on those fronts since I saw her last year.

Hot Apple Cider with whipped cream.

Homemade Blueberry Muffin.

Pacific Omelette with fresh fruit. (Photo by Cathy)

Greek Omelette with fresh fruit and biscuit.

For lunch I met with a bunch of retirees at Beijing Garden; they also just happen to be members of the Communities of Color Coalition (aka C3), the organizers of the North Puget Sound Conference on Race.

L to R: Bo, Barbara, Ben, Alison, & Bruce; the omiyage is on the lazy susan.

After lunch Bo, Ben & I went to KSER to see if we could catch David, who was working on a special show about the Womens March for the Color Commentary radio show that C3 airs on KSER on Wednesdays. But we just missed him. I spent some time talking to Ed, the Public Affairs Manager about a variety of things.

I also dropped in at the SnoCope Credit Union again. Last night I got an e-mail that said that a payment that I had made through the bill payer service "was returned for an invalid account number." I couldn't figure out what might have happened since the item that was paid was something that has been paid this way every month for several years and nothing has changed! Ashlyn helped get the payment made; but there was nothing that she could see as to why all of a sudden it wouldn't be working. She said if it happens again give them a call.

We went to dinner at the Bala's home. They used to own Boondockers Restaurant; they closed it last September so they could retire and do more traveling. Kai worked on their computers both at the restaurant and at their home. Mrs. Bala made samosas, dhal, curried cauliflower, curried chicken, rice, yogurt, roti, papadam, & naan. For dessert she made carrot halvah, served with ice cream. Besides politics, we also talked about them coming to visit me sometime next year. On another note, it's a small world, the Balas know the owners of Beijing Garden!

L to R: Kai, Mr. Bala, & Mrs. Bala. Food clockwise from upper left (nearest to Kai): roti, curried cauliflower, curried chicken, rice, and dhal. Center cucumbers and Japanese radish.

Carrot halvah with ice cream.

Happy Birthday to Robin!