Email ElizabethWill a Praying Mantis Bring You Good Luck?
While visiting an open house on Big Island, I noticed this praying mantis, which are supposed to bring good luck. He sat on a ledge and did not move, even though I walked by him several times. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore so I whipped out my phone to shoot a photograph. It could be an excuse to rest as well because I had just climbed three flights of stairs, while my friend carted her dog and panted her way up. This is how determined we can be to see an open house.
Since I do not sell real estate in Hawaii, only in Sacramento and neighboring cities in California, it’s kind of fun to attend open houses here. My friend and I immediately stop whenever we spot an open house sign. It’s a sickness, I know, we can’t help ourselves.
Did you know a praying mantis’ life span is only about a year? Or that they have five eyes, two big eyes with 3 little eyes in between? Sometimes, during mating, the female praying mantis will kill and eat the male. But the male says it is was totally worth it. So dope. I’ve had a few ex-husbands express similar sentiments.
After I spotted the praying mantis, we entered the open house on the third floor of a condo building. Now, I am not looking to buy a condo; you can relax, Adam. Just enjoy looking. No sooner did we walk into the living room than a woman came around the corner and introduced herself as “the seller.”
I stared at her. Jackie?? What a small world. Yes, it was Jackie from Statements who helped me to buy much of the furnishings for our house in Hawaii from my home office in Sacramento several years ago. She was a tremendous help. So fabulous that I returned to Statements Furniture to buy even more stuff for the house. She has to move out of state, due to unforeseen circumstances, which in her case means sell her condo and leave the island. That is sad for her.
Hope that praying mantis brings her luck. It brought me luck because on the way out; I discovered the elevator.
Lunch at the Aloha Vista Bar and Grill at Keauhou
At Aloha Vista Bar and Grill, you might initially come for the view, but you will come back for the food. Wish I could say the same thing about the interior of the restaurant, but that would be only my suggestion for improvement: to beef up the atmosphere. Makes you want to stuff your face and leave, not hang out and order another drink.
For a Kona Country Club restaurant on a golf course, the Aloha Vista Bar and Grill lacks ambiance. When I first poked my head inside, I thought maybe it was a cocktail lounge and had to ask if we could get lunch. It looks like a high school cafeteria. But perhaps I was disappointed because I had it in my head to expect so much more. It is nothing like the golf course restaurant at the Four Seasons in Lanai; that place is plush. So you can’t blame the interior on “well, it is Hawaii.”
You will find 3 menus, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some of the dishes are identical but cost more as the day goes on. This delectable dish in the photo above is Loco Moco. Popular meal for any time of the day in Hawaii. When I first heard of this years ago, I thought it sounded dreadful and wondered who would consume such a thing.
However, I have come to love Loco Moco, so I now have to eat my words. Along with the grilled hamburger patty on a bed of rice, topped by two over-easy fried eggs and a shitload of brown gravy. I think the gravy contains beef broth and Worcestershire sauce. I scarfed down the entire bowl.
My friend ordered the rigatoni, alfredo style, with gorgonzola cheese, mushrooms. Since she is allergic to garlic, the chef left the garlic out of the sauce. That is always a nice sign when the chef can accommodate special requests. Fabulous dish, and I’d like to return for dinner and order it.
I should mention the Aloha Vista Bar and Grill features American and Italian cuisine, with a heavy emphasis on southern Italy. It is a little confusing to find, but don’t try to use GPS. Just drive down Ali’i Drive until you see the Kona Country Club and turn makai into the driveway. A rather unassuming building greets you below the parking lot; park and go in.
Snorkeling at Mauna Lani Black Sands Beach
OK, totally on purpose that I did not bring my cellphone to snorkeling at Black Sands Beach. Just do not feel comfortable leaving my phone on the beach, but I don’t know why. For starters, nobody can get into an iPhone unless they have my face or code. Then again, thieves don’t always think or they wouldn’t be thieves. What they see is a beach bag with stuff in it, so they might grab it on the outside hope it’s valuable.
However I have never heard of nor seen anybody swiping a beach bag from a towel on the beach. Also, bringing my phone would mean it might ring, and if it rang, I’d answer it, and if I answered it, I’d be talking about Sacramento real estate on the beach instead of enjoying the view.
The view at Black Sands Beach yesterday included the gorgeous Kohala mountains, rimmed by low lying bungalows at Mauna Lani, brilliant blue skies and choppy seas with whales breaching. Every couple of minutes, numerous whale blow holes gushed vertical waterfalls, followed by the tail slaps. I envisioned the whales doing a handstand on their pectoral fins. Look Ma!
I also learned a few things about snorkeling I did not know, especially since I am basically self taught from my trip to Vanuatu 5 years ago. Like how to clear water from my mask by letting water in, pressing the mask against my forehead and blowing really hard through my nose. My new friend Anita is an excellent snorkeler. That woman can do kayaks, SCUBA, paddle boarding as well as snorkel. She suggested we try out Black Sands Beach, which I would have never found at Mauna Lani if it wasn’t for her.
You probably won’t believe this, but I actually went 5 hours without my cellphone. On purpose. Just conversation, snorkeling at Black Sands Beach and watching the whales. It was a glorious afternoon.
Really enjoyed the ride home to Kona, too. Look at those gleaming cones over the road sign, and the clouds are beautiful. They could be a type of altocumulus. I’m just beginning to study clouds. Aloha!
Sheraton Expo Hawaii Living and Design
Seemed like a good place to explore yesterday was the Sheraton Expo Hawaii Island Living and Design, sponsored by the Kona Kahala Chamber of Commerce. The Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa is located in Keauhou Bay, which is about 10 minutes down the Queen K from Kona. I have never stayed at this resort, not like almost every other resort up the northern coast. It’s a bit isolated, there is no direct beach, and Sheraton is not in my top list for hotels.
Well, smack my snobby face, this is a rather nice hotel. Instead of walking directly into the Sheraton expo by going up the driveway, my friend and I walked around the entire resort.
Altogether, there were probably 50+ vendors at this small space. Fortunately, I am finished with our Kona kitchen remodel. But my friend is planning to remodel her kitchen, and she is inspired by the blue cabinets in the Great British Baking Show.
We found cabinet makers at the show, but they seemed to be reps for a product line and did not have an office yet. Although, not everybody needs an office, I would hate to see my friend get involved with a vendor who works out of a storage unit, like I started with. But they seemed OK, and she might end up ordering cabinets from them.
They say she can pick any Sherwin Williams paint color and they will paint the cabinets. The warranty, though, on that paint job, is an unknown at this point. What bugged me a bit was the reps were so salesman-y. Apologizing for doing this or saying that, humbling themselves before us. Ick! That kind of behavior always makes me wonder why can’t they just talk to us like regular human beings? Don’t employ such obvious sales talk. You can sell without a script, and I would certainly know that as a Sacramento Realtor who believes in letting my authenticity be my guide.
This display won “Best in Show” at the Sheraton Expo. I’m not sure what you get for winning an award. Probably your name in the West Hawaii Today, alongside a photograph of the owner holding that coveted ribbon.
We stopped to talk with these guys, too. They have a Kona office but work out of Hilo, Honsador Building Products. When I asked if they could give me a price for two French doors with louvers to replace icky bypass doors on our hall closet, they said sure, it would be about $500. Usually you don’t hear that kind of direct answer at an Expo.
What a view, yes? This is Ray’s on the Bay, a restaurant and cocktail lounge in the Sheraton. I don’t know why I’ve never gone here for dinner, again, probably due to my preconceived idea of the Sheraton brand, but this place is lovely. You don’t get much closer to the ocean and, with tourism down in Kona, probably not too difficult to get a reservation.
All it takes is one lousy little exploding volcano and tourists back off. Our air is so clean, and the volcano is no longer erupting. Kona is too far away from Kilauea to worry about hot lava, but vog was a concern earlier this spring and summer. However, there are so many sales promotions now, it’s a really good time to visit Kailua-Kona!
Ah, I have saved the best photo for last. This is a photo of Keauhou Bay. Way to the right, inside the calmer waters of the bay, is where I first tried out my Lahui Kai paddle board. There is talk now of re-doing Keauhou Bay, and that would be such a shame. It has retained its wild and pristine force in nature for so long, one of the last places like it. It doesn’t seem pono to disturb the setting when there is nothing wrong with it.
Hawaii Avocado Festival in Kona
If you look closely at this photo of the action at the avocado booth at the 13th Hawaii Avocado Festival, you will see Avocado Man. He is in the back behind the juicer wearing an avocado costume. At first blush, my friend Linda thought he was having a medical problem; whereas I thought he was carrying a baby in a knapsack. But it was just an avocado costume with the seed in the center.
We are not accustomed to staring at half avocados because it is only the whole avocados you generally see. Except a whole avocado is not a terribly attractive outfit.
Linda and I had gone to Holualoa for our Saturday morning yin yoga class. It is a wonderful experience, stretching what was once beyond our abilities. The class is taught on the third floor of a historic building, and all the windows are open to let in the ocean breezes from the spectacular view. Taking the class with others over 50 is pleasant too. There are no show-offs in class, and everybody struggles.
Amazingly, I can almost touch the floor with folded arms by bending at the waist, so I am making excellent progress. After class, we stopped at a gallery to view Anita’s artwork, the random woman from New York I met yesterday. I bought a beautiful ceramic soup spoon holder, handmade with a small turtle perched on its edge.
We toured a few open houses along Guava Road off Hualalai in a gated subdivision. One was atrocious. I had viewed it online and, as a Sacramento Realtor, I cringe for that listing agent. It is horribly ugly, no curb appeal, awful updates. Much of the design looks like they were created by the seller saying, “Oh, look at how cheap this product is, let’s buy it. Better yet, let’s install it ourselves without training or reading directions.” No rhyme nor reason for the design, and there is nothing you can do make it better short of tearing it down. Price tag is almost $1 million.
The view in the photo above is of our walk along Ali’i Drive toward the Hawaii Avocado Festival at Hale Halawai, just past the Waterfront building. Many spring flowers are beginning to bloom.
Inside the building, we spotted Avocado Girl! She is wearing a costume commissioned from a shop in Hollywood that cost $500 to make. Our local newspaper, West Hawaii Today, reports she is to possess supernatural powers of some sort, but see, dogs like her.
Behind her is Dr. Tim’s Medicine Band, which played a lot of old cover songs from the 1960s. They probably played indoors — which doesn’t carry sound well for a band — because it was sprinkling a bit outside. There would have been people dancing if alcohol was served, but these family-rated events do not serve even beer or wine.
Because we were so busy touring open houses and doing yoga, Linda and I had a really late lunch at the Hawaii Avocado Festival. She chose a bento bowl without kimchee and I went with the spicy noodles over lettuce. Primarily because I will eat almost anything that is served with jalapenos and is only 10 bucks.
Of course, this is the view of the back yard of the Hale Halawai, the beautiful lava beds, beach and ocean. Even a light sprinkling rain was not enough to draw crowds away from the Hawaii Avocado Festival.
They featured sharwil avocados and a large assortment of others, including the avocado named Linda. Which is almost as big as my head. The focus seemed to be on shipping avocados to Japan. Apparently, even though USDA decided last month to lift the ban of sharwil avocado shipments to 32 states in the U.S. but only during November to March, that is not enough. Further, 25 years was a long time to wait to ship avocados to the Mainland.
According to West Hawaii Today and the executive director of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Association, almost 80% of the 9 million pounds of avocado production in Hawaii goes to waste due to restrictions on shipping by the federal government. We have no choice, Hawaii is saying enough is enough, we’ll ship to Japan then.
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