Email ElizabethPhotos of Manini Beach at Honaunau on Big Island
Manini Beach at Honaunau is close to Two-Step Beach but very different. For one thing, it’s nestled right next to that huge sloping hill (Kealakekua Cliffs) in a secluded cove. For another, it has soft grass and not hard pahoehoe lava on which to rest your derriere. Manini Beach is also very quiet. A lot of people come here to read and relax.
If you don’t know where it is, Manini Beach can be difficult to find. Fortunately, I had my friend, Anita, to show me the way. Just take Napoopoo from Mamalahoa and hang a left. Keep your eyes open for the sign Manini Beach Road on the right and turn right. Park across from the bamboo house.
Although we brought our snorkel gear, we sat on the grass and talked. If we had gone into the water, this is where we most likely would have entered. There were quite a few snorkelers in this channel.
Many photos of this spot show water entering the tidal pool and being sucked back out underneath. But this particular image shows a reflection in the water, and it seems so peaceful, I did not want to distort the tranquility.
This is wild cacti growing by the sea. It is extremely hardy to survive the harsh conditions and salt air. I figured it would be hard to kill. Anita found a piece of cactus with the roots still attached, so I took it back to our house in Kona and planted it.
The orange color of the Hawaiian crab against the gray lava was striking. Ordinarily I don’t take photographs of dead sea creatures, but I could not resist this particular opportunity.
According to my favorite plant app, Plant Snap, this is called the Devil’s Backbone. It grows all over Manini Beach on the rocks. What I did not immediately recognize was it also sports flowers, shown below.
At first blush, I thought these were coral bells until Anita pointed out they are growing from the Devil’s Backbone. We had similar flowers on a few cacti in Sacramento, so I should have recognized it right away, but I didn’t.
If you were to rent kayaks to paddle out to the Captain Cook Monument (marking the spot where he died), this is the cove where you would rent them. Too much paddling for me. In fact, when I was at Planet Fitness last week working out on the rowing machine, I look out on the ocean from that spot in Kona. All I can think about is if it were up to me to row a canoe to Maui, we would all drown or starve to death.
We decided to blow off snorkeling and go to lunch. It was after 2 PM by the time we finished exploring Manini Beach. The closest place I could think of to go was the Coffee Shack. Since Anita has stopped in for coffee but never lunch, that pretty much sealed out fate to go there. Anita liked the background behind me so she shot this photo.
We closed down the place since lunch is over at 3 PM, and we were still there. On the way to the car, Anita shot photos of the mural in front of the Coffee Shack, so of course I shot a photo of her. Someday I will return to Manini Beach, and this time I will probably go snorkeling. It was gray, overcast and a bit chilly, so I don’t regret not jumping in the water.
It’s a beautiful spot, and I have Anita to thank for showing me how to find it. Only one more day in Hawaii and I will return to Sacramento real estate.
Mamma Mia! at the Aloha Theatre
OMG this was a fantastic performance of Mamma Mia! at the Aloha Theatre on Sunday. Blown away. The woman who introduced the musical from the stage said it was the most highly grossing musical ever in the history of the Aloha Theatre, which is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit established in 2004. I thought I enjoyed the Addams Family Musical, but it doesn’t hold a candle to this production.
The guy who played Uncle Fester in the Addams Family, Miguel Montez, had the role of Sam Carmichael in Mamma Mia! at the Aloha Theatre. What a beautiful voice. So many great performances. From Amanda Trusty (Donna) who belted the number The Winner Takes It All to such extremes audience members high-fived each other, to the adorable Pepper character (and an audience favorite), Christian Aragon, a sophomore at Konawaena High School, the performances were incredible, outstanding.
Mamma Mia! at the Aloha Theatre was a Sunday matinee, so there was not the kind of tipsy enthusiasm that is often displayed at late evening shows. Plus, most of the audience was comprised of older men and women. Yes, a lot of men, surprisingly.
You know, I’d like to take a moment to address the fact there is a kind of cynicism I see prevalent in some types of people who make fun of Abba music. As though there is something wrong with music that makes you feel good and elicits joy. I’m not sure I understand that kind of attitude. Why would people want to avoid embracing sheer happiness? And that’s what Mamma Mia! elicits, it makes you happy.
The music won’t win awards, and the lyrics are simple, but it makes you want to groove. There is nothing wrong with expressing joy. All I have to say to those people who think Abba is silly, is embrace the silliness. Just do it. Let go. Be happy. Be goofy. Lighten up. Have fun.
What an experience to witness such talent in the Kona area. A friend in the production, Erin Deskin is in the ensemble. She is a second grade school teacher and is 23. Just bought her own condo down by Captain Cook, so my friends and I stopped by after the performance to check out her new place. So many interesting people live in the Kailua-Kona area.
Erin told us that shortly into the production of Mamma Mia! at the Aloha Theatre, a lot of performers caught a bug. To counter act throat problems, some of the actors poured Tabasco sauce down their throats or they devoured jalapeño peppers like no tomorrow. We had also stopped by Donkey Balls in Kealakekua to try habanero and chocolate-coated mac nuts, but they had sold out.
I am a firm believer that if a food doesn’t pair well with jalapeños, it might not be worth consuming.
If I had anything to offer to improve the show, I would say the sound did not fill the theatre, and it could have been louder. But it’s an older vintage building, so probably not much could be done. And, no, I am not going deaf.
P.S. The photo above is of Mamma Mia in New York, not Kealakekua.
Elizabeth Weintraub Top 1% Agent for 2018
This top 1% agent for 2018, namely yours truly, is not in this photograph as more beautiful women are. And why not? Josh Amolsch, Elizabeth Weintraub Team exclusive buyer’s agent (on the left), accepted the award on our behalf because yours truly is still hanging out in Hawaii. Oh, don’t worry, I’m finally coming home to Sacramento next week. Three and a half months of running amok on the Big Island is coming to an end.
In the middle, we have Sparkles (fits her personality to a T), who is the sister of the drop-dead gorgeous woman on the right, Victoria Gerassimenko. This summer, Victoria and Josh are getting married, and I could not be more excited for them. In fact, my own sister is a bit peeved with me, I suspect, because I had to switch around travel arrangements to make sure I would be available to attend their wedding in Lake Tahoe. Which meant my sister had to change her travel plans to come to Sacramento from Minnesota. I can hope she forgives me.
Last year was a bit tough in Sacramento real estate. We faced escalating prices, softening demand from buyers, and higher interest rates. Yet, we still placed as the top 1% agent for 2018, and I am proud of that fact. It is due to our well-oiled machine that keeps right on ticking when others drop the ball. I’ve got the best team members in the entire world, and I thank my lucky stars every single day. They are not just team members, they are my friends.
Here, from the left, is Dan Tharp, mortgage loan officer from Guild Mortgage, Shaundra Bradley, our wonderful transaction coordinator, and Josh Amolsch, exclusive buyer’s agent extraordinaire, accepting the top 1% agent for 2018 from the president of Lyon Real Estate.
Thank you, Dan, Rose, Shaundra, Josh, Vika, Sparkles, and everybody else who showed up on Friday to support the Weintraub Team at the Lyon Awards. I really enjoyed the hello video from Josh, too. Made me feel like I was there even though I’m relaxing on my lanai. Mahalo!
Three Humpback Whales Breaching in Kailua Bay
Just across the water from Kona Haven Coffee, there were 3 humpback whales breaching in Kailua Bay last week. A local Kona woman caught all of the action live on her iPhone. Well, she missed the first whale because you don’t expect that to happen when you’re paddle boarding. Kathy Daly videotaped the whales breaching while screaming with sheer delight.
Her video made me smile ear-to-ear. I’ve been watching whales all week, just about every beach features humpback whales. Even while at Makalawena Beach yesterday, there were dozens of whales on the horizon blowing water.
This is amazing footage. What is not amazing is how nasty some people have been. I purposely have not read the comments on some of the links because I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. But West Hawaii Today reported that some people said horrible things. What is wrong with people that they have so little sense of self worth, that their own inadequacies force them to display such a-hole behavior?
I’d like to wait until all the hoopla dies down over the video of whales breaching so I can ask Ms. Daly where she got the waterproof bag for her iPhone. I am dying to take my iPhone snorkeling, but I am too afraid to rely on online advertising to buy such a thing. Because if it leaked, I am hosed.
The new XR shoots tremendous underwater photos. A woman at the Patton Oswalt show at the Blue Note last month showed me a video she created featuring schools of yellow tangs, and it looked like National Geographic filmed it. If anybody knows what kind of waterproof case to get, please let me know.
Photos from Makalawena Beach on Big Island
Words cannot truly convey the experience of traversing to Makalawena Beach. Well, they probably could but I would be up until midnight, and that is way past my bedtime. Besides, after a day in the sun, you have no idea what a toll it takes on your body unless you are a roofer, and then I have 4 words for you: find a better trade. Only desperate people get up there in the hot sun to play with asphalt shingles and tar.
I will say this is my defense of saying nothing. It is well worth the trip to Makalawena Beach. First, you enter Kekaha Kai State Park and you really need a four-wheel or SUV to drive that road. Otherwise you walk. But since I have a Subaru Forester, we were in luck. We could drive.
Then you walk a half mile or so to the beach, and we saw no monk seals. To get to Makalawena Beach, which is billed as the prettiest and most beautiful beach in West Hawaii, you then must walk down another half mile of lava. Some of it is sand, but going over the lava rocks, well, I seem to have not taken any photos of that. For a good reason.
It was a glorious day, high of 79, stiff breezes and magnificent surf. Hope you enjoy the pictorial journey. There is a close up of Mauna Kea with snow and a pufferfish at the end. Believe it or not, all shot with an iPhone XR.
I need to add that last photo is a pufferfish. It had washed ashore in the tide. Anita, my friend, was busy looking for a cowry shell for me when I pointed into the distance at this fish and said WHAT IS THAT? See, when you’re searching for something, you might find something else. I knew it was a pufferfish as I had actually caught a pufferfish in Florida.
Somehow it was tossed ashore by the strong surf at Makalawena. We assumed it was dead. It was not moving. I emptied out my lunch bag, and got mayonnaise all over my white shorts, but we packed up that pufferfish and headed back to Kailua Kona. Anita planned to make a blowfish lantern from it.
Weird twist, though. Anita texted that when she got home on Ali’i, she discovered the fish was alive. WTH? So she rushed to the ocean, dropped it into the water, and it regained consciousness. Swam away. How f-ing weird is that? Like suspended animation.
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