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Catalina Island Adventure

Todd — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:01:11 +0000

Nothing beats an excursion to Catalina Island except an excursion with good friends. We took a day-trip to the island with our friends the Engles and had a blast. The trip started a little rough, with Emma E feeling a little sea sick but there was no evidence of it once we arrived back on land and were ready to start the adventure.

Read more on Catalina Island Adventure…

The Beach in January

Todd — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:44:58 +0000

We had an unusually warm day in January so we took the opportunity to visit the beach!

We started with a visit to Gary’s Deli in Corona Del Mar. We’ve been coming here since just before Emma was born, though the time between visits has increased. It had been at least a year since we ate at Gary’s this trip but the owner behind the register still remembered us and had our usual order punched in without us even asking. That’s service!

After the deli we hit the beach. Emma and Henry had a glorious time, chasing sea gulls, searching for shells and playing in the sand. Marla and Cora strolled the beach. I’m sure the sound of the waves contributed to Cora’s nice nap!

We finally ended up at Sprinkles, a “gourmet” cupcake establishment. Marla had heard raves from some of her friends so expectations were high. Thankfully, they didn’t disappoint. (And at a few bucks per cupcake, they shouldn’t!) Everyone enjoyed their treat. See the evidence on Emma’s face.

A long day playing at the beach, of course, leaves one quite tired. Henry zonked out during the car ride back home and then fell asleep again while trying to get his pajamas on. He sleep just as hard as he plays.

GameSpy Beach Day 2008

Todd — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:04:38 +0000

GameSpy took a trip down to Doheny State Beach for an office outing at the end of July. What better to do on a Thursday afternoon than grill burgers and dogs, drink beer and play in the sand?

In addition to a cookout and some play at the beach there was a “Fear Factor” style eating contest. The delicious entrees: dried sardines, barbeque-flavored crickets, durian and balut. The prize for the person to finish all three courses was a hard-to-find Wii Fit.

I’m always one to try cuisines from other parts of the world, including things that might be considered disgusting by Western standards. Witness my delight at eating shrimp heads, sparrow, chicken ovaries and lutefisk.

The sardines and crickets were no problem. Crunchy a but still with some flavor.

The durian I was excited about. A few folks in the office have brought some in on occasion but I’ve always missed out. Flavor-wise, the durian wasn’t bad! The texture was nice and it was a little sweet. The sulfurous stink, described as “pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock” by some, on the other hand, reminded me of chemicals I used to work with in the lab. Not exactly what I was hoping for in terms of a food item.

The final course was the balut. I can’t say what I was expecting but, believe me, it wasn’t what I saw when I cracked the egg open. Once cracked, the liquid from the egg spilled on my hands. I got one whiff and it was over. No Wii Fit for me.

Only one brave soul finished the balut. After being awarded the Wii Fit this spouse-of-GameSpy said, “What’s a Wii Fit, anyway?”

Day 11: Kekaha Kai

Todd — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:38:53 +0000

We’re nearing the end of our stay. Tomorrow we jump on an airplane and head back home. There’s time for one last beach before we go, though…

Today we went to Kehaha Kai State Park and spent the morning playing around in Mahai’ula Bay. Though there was a somewhat-paved road most all the way to the beach, we did have to hoof it about a half-mile through some old pahoehoe lava.

The water here was not quite as clear as we’d grown accustomed to. The slight cloudiness near shore is caused by fresh water. Apparently the area is littered with fresh-water springs. Rain filters down through the lava and later bubbles back up under the sea. Since we weren’t snorkeling it didn’t bother us a bit nor did the sea turtles seem to mind as we spotted a few.

After the beach fun had ended and everyone had had their naps (one does a lot of napping in paradise, I’ve found) we had some delicious Hilo Homemade ice cream. We’d heard people raving about Tropical Dreams ice cream but hadn’t found a convenient place to sample it.

As it turns out Hilo Homemade is only a “premium” ice cream while Tropical Dreams is a “superpremium.” We were slumming it, I guess.

For as long as I can remember I’ve had blackeyed peas and greens on New Years Day. In Southern tradition the peas are for luck and the greens for money. It seems to have worked well for us in the past so I wasn’t about to let a little thing like being 3600 miles from home stand in the way of tradition.

Though I was easily able to secure everything I needed for the beans (yes, they have hamhocks in Hawaii) I wasn’t able to find any greens. Neither mustard nor collard nor turnip greens were anywhere to be found.

Given the large Japanese population in Hawaii, though, I was able to find a suitable stand-in: kombu. I’m hoping that this substitute might still bring me riches, even if it is in Yen.

Day 10: New Year’s Eve

Todd — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:59:39 +0000

We had a relatively lazy New Year’s Eve today. It seems as if we’ve been going non-stop thus far so it was a nice change of pace to lounge around all morning. No early-morning boat rides or submarines, no late night lu’aus to attend, no lava to see…

After a hearty breakfast I took my morning run along the little one lane road from Napo’opo’o Wharf to Pu’uhonua o Honaunau. (Google Map. The road is the little gray line from Napo’opo’o to Honaunau. Look for Ke’ei to see our favorite beach.) It was a little over three miles through a lava field and, though I’ve been running for a few months now it just about did me in.

We ended the day at Ke’ei Beach, again, with another fabulous sunset, again. It was low tide so we took a stroll to the end of the point and spotted a few little creatures in the tide pools left behind.

I should note that I didn’t take a single picture today. Marla did all the honors with her new camera. Like I said, today was a lazy day…

Day 9: Makalawena Beach

Todd — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 05:51:49 +0000

One of the things I’d wanted to come to Hawaii for was a chance to get away from people because, in general, I don’t like them and don’t want to be around them.

What better way to do that than to go to an isolated beach? And what better beach for that than one the guide book introduces like this:

If you have a 4WD (and your fillings are tight), you can take the nasty road from the highway between the 88 and 89 marker. It’ll take you just north of the beach before a gate forces you to walk like the rest of us dogs.

With those directions in hand this morning we headed out for Makalawena Beach, just north of Kekaha Kai State Park, in our trusty 4WD.

Note to readers: You should not blaze any trails in a Trailblazer. As it turned out, they were not kidding when they called the road nasty. It was terrible! Though we had rented a 4WD, as suggested, we bottomed out quite a few times. Good thing they don’t check under the car for damage when you turn it in…

The reward for our ride of terror was well worth the effort. The beach was relatively uncrowded and absolutely gorgeous. The water showed several amazing shades of blue, as the photos show. I swear to you that I did no color maniupulation in Photoshop; this is how it really was!

We spent most of our time at Makalawena playing in a protected cove. The waves would break about 20-40 feet off shore thanks to some rough rocks and then dribble into a shallow pool. Emma and Henry both had a blast playing in the pebbled sand.

The nearby “hill” is Puu Kuili, a 340 foot high cinder cone. The “mountain” in the distance is Hualalai, a 8200 foot volcano that errupted most reacently in 1800. The airport is, in fact, built on top of a flow from 1801. Everywhere you turn here, there’s lava!

Day 6: Hapuna Beach

Todd — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 06:18:25 +0000

I woke us up at the crack of dawn today for our whale watching tour. We awoke at 5:30 for the hour-long drive to the dock… only to arrive and learn that our tour was scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) and not today (Wednesday.) How I messed up I’m not sure – I even called and confirmed the tour time and date over the weekend!

Thus, we ended up driving north to Hapuna Beach. Hapuna is apparently regularly voted best beach in the entire nation and is usually jam-packed with tourists.

I suppose the fact that we arrived at 7:30 AM, just after the gates opened, helped us avoid the crowd.

The beach was pretty and the sand was very soft and very fine. It was excellent for frollicking in the shallow water, making sand castles and also for hiding in the cracks of childrens’ bottoms. I still think we’ll be washing sand out next month.

We headed back home around 10 AM, hoping for a relaxing brunch. Apparently, though, no one eats breakfast in Hawaii. We drove around in Kailua-Kona, a huge tourist destination, for half-an-hour and were unable to find anything open.

We ended up at Denny’s. I was thoroughly disgusted with myself for having gone there during our “escape” from the real world, but such is life.

After a few hours of napping back at Ono Mango we hit Ke’ei Beach again and ended the day on an up note.

Happy Holidays from Hawaii

Todd — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:56:42 +0000

Happy holidays from the Northcutt family. We’ll see you next year!

Day 3: Painted Church

Todd — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 01:14:27 +0000

Since we are staying in Kona it seemed only natural that we spend a day touring the many coffee farms in the area. There are signs all along the highway that say “cash for coffee” or “buying cherry.” It seems that every other home along Napo’opo’o Road, where our house is, has a yard full of coffee.

A coffee plant looks nothing like what I expected. Given that I am a coffee fiend and have spent years watching Juan hike up and down the mountains with his trusty donkey in tow you’d think I would know better.

Speaking of donkeys… there is apparently a wild herd north of here on the way to Kohala. I can’t wait to see the “Caution: Donkey Crossing!” signs.

Unfortunately not only is it a Sunday but it is also Christmas Eve so few places are open. We stopped off at Bay View Farm (and boy, do they have a view of the Bay!) for a first sip of 100% Kona coffee and a little conversation. They weren’t doing roasting tours so we’ll have to head back another time and see how the coffee is taken from raw bean to roasted goodness.

During the tour we also stopped in at St. Benedict’s Painted Church. A priest stationed here at the turn of the century (not the most recent one) painted the inside walls of the church with some pretty marvelous “frescoes.” These were done with ordinary house paints for Hawaiians who couldn’t read.

While the kids were taking their afternoon naps I discovered what I’m sure will be a favorite spot: Ke’ei Beach. More on the beach tomorrow but, as the pictures will attest, I’m sure you can see that we had a great time when we visited just before sunset today.

Speaking of the sunset, those may be my absolute favorite sunset pictures yet. I’ve taken some great ones in Sweden and other places but I do believe this one overlooking Kealakekua Bay may take the cake.

Day 2: Place of Refuge

Todd — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:53:17 +0000

Today we visited Pu’uhonua o Honaunau (“hoe-now-now”), also called “Place of Refuge.” This was a very sacred site for Hawaiians in ages past. Any and all could flee to the pu’uhonua and be safe from harm. Whether you were fleeing an army bent on your destruction or you’d broken a law and were sentenced to death. If you could make it here in time you would be spared.

In addition to learning a little Hawaiian history here we were also treated to our first turtle-spotting. The crystal-clear waters made it easy to spot the green sea turtles (honu.) Factoid: the green in their name comes from the color of their fat, not the color of their shell.

Emma and Henry were so excited by the turtles. It was a delight watching them rush around the edges of the water hoping for another glimpse.

After touring the refuge we took a “short” hike along the shoreline looking for a kid-friendly beach. None were to be found so we turned back and ended up playing in the tide pools for the afternoon. (The Waiu-o-Hina lava tube along the 1871 Trail was closed, sadly, so we weren’t able to walk through it to the ocean.) We spied many tiny fish, a few sea cucumbers and a lone anemone before heading back home.

Another great sunset tonight (no green flash, though.) I wandered out after the kids were in bed to gaze at the stars. There are so many stars visible here, I can’t even begin to describe it. The best I can do is say that so many are visible I have a hard time recognizing even common constellations like Orion and the Big Dipper. Fabulous!