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The Skull Necklace From Waikoloa
Courtyard at the Kings Shops in Waikoloa
Are you a casual person or do you dress up? I stared at the skull necklace in the jewelry case. A shopkeeper asked me that question yesterday, and upon quick reflection I’d have to say both. It depends if I am in a business environment or home binge-watching Madam Secretary in my usual attire of tattered shorts and a t-shirt. The latter was my attire yesterday as I went back to Kings Shops in Waikoloa to have lunch again at Three Fat Pigs. No need to dress up on my wor-cation on Big Island.
Three Fat Pigs at Kings Shops in Waikoloa
I went back to Three Fat Pigs so I could repay the server for the Diet Coke but he wasn’t there, and it didn’t seem appropriate to hand $4 to some other server or slap it on the bar. At least this time I carried cash and a VISA card. I ordered a bowl of roasted red bell pepper soup with a full-bodied texture; my spoon could rest on top without sinking into the bowl, and the charred flavor was deliciously dominant. I also devoured a caprese salad, the mozzarella was too chilled, the tomatoes too small and not much flavor.
Earlier in the week I had asked a server at my resort if the flatbread selection was just tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, thinking it was a caprese salad that would be served with a side of bread. She said definitely yes, just those 3 ingredients, and then she brought me a pizza!
Skull necklace with hand-carved bone skull, rubies and spinel.
Since I was already at Kings Shops, I strolled through a few more stores and found several interesting things. Well, I found lots of incredible jewelry like a white gold bracelet with 3 rows of diamonds that cost $5,600 and I would never buy in a million years but it felt good to admire it on my wrist for a few seconds. I’m more practical than that. Instead I bought the skull necklace. The skull is carved bone, attached to a few tiny rubies on a necklace made from black spinel.
Sure, I also yakked with my team members and prepared a CMA for a new client who wants to sell her home in South Land Park and matched her with an agent to look at homes, all the usual stuff that goes on in any workday. Not to mention, I accomplished all of this many miles across the ocean. Yes, I definitely deserved a pair of butterfly earrings from Australia, made from real butterflies who weren’t killed or anything cruel-like, according to the literature, they all died naturally, and I guess they found their dead bodies lying on the ground begging to be made into earrings. The earrings were exactly $150 with tax; such a deal.
Morris the cat is a regular at dinner time at the Marriott Resort in Waikoloa
Still, I hadn’t yet made it back to the resort where later at dinner the cat, Morris, who I was feeding under my table, caused me to spill an entire glass of cabernet on top of my lobster tail. No, you can’t have two lobster tails, the server had explained, because this was surf-and-turf night. Silly server. You have lots of lobsters in the kitchen, right? A bit of wine splattered my shirt, and the server came running with a towel and glass of soda. It was all good, though. I was wearing my skull necklace.
Incredible Tale of Trust at Kings Shops in Waikoloa
Hitachi tree on golf course on the water by Kings’ Shops in Waikoloa
I did not start out yesterday intending to end up at the Kings Shops in Waikoloa. The day began as an adventure, in a totally different direction. There is nothing like a good adventure, exploring new space systems. In fact, one of the reasons that selling real estate has held its appeal with me over the past 40-some years is because I love adventure, and no two days are ever alike in the real estate business.
For lack of anything else to do, I turned on my Ingress program on my iPad and noted, whoa, there were a bunch of uncaptured portals all clustered together around the back side of the resort. To reach the 12th Level in Ingress, I need one more gold medal, which could be achieved if I capture another 80 or so portals, bringing my total to 1,000 captured portals. What the hey! I followed the shortest path to the portals and found myself navigating the employee entrance.
The mountain side was bathed in clouds, fading off in the distance, like it was another country, looming above miles of turned over lava chunks. Mongooses scooted. Silence. No cars, no people, just fields of lava. Dried weeds. Hot sun. A good place to bury a body. Then suddenly, I was back in civilization, paved parking lot, lots of vehicles and up the hill barriers of vegetation. I found an opening through the flowers and emerged on a public street, right there at the Kings Shops in Waikoloa.
Be still my heart. Coach. Tiffany. Na Hoku, Michael Kors, Maui Divers and more. Shop after shop. My holiday shopping was not yet completed, not to mention I had not bought myself any present this year for Christmas, unless you count my 3 week wor-cation on Big Island. I love buying gifts for people, especially for my team and transaction coordinator, who are like precious gifts from heaven to me. They make it possible for me to get away and take trips. I rarely go shopping in Sacramento, so I don’t spend much.
Kohala Coast Fine Art sells artwork and hand-crafted jewelry at Kings Shops
Hello, Kohala Coast Fine Art. After much discussion with the clerk, selected a handful of beautiful items as gifts and threw in a couple of pieces of jewelry for myself. This is when I discovered that I did not bring much cash nor a credit card because I had not planned on shopping. A lonely $20 bill in my wristlet and no identification. I continued chatting like nothing was unusual, and the clerk rang up the total. When she asked for my VISA, I had to come clean that I did not have a credit card with me. However, I do know the number, the expiration date and the secret code because, like I mentioned earlier, I live in Sacramento. My stores are primarily online.
Blown away — she rang up my purchases and handed over the bag. This is when I couldn’t help my astonishment and questioned her: hey, I don’t want to call undue attention to this, but I don’t have any identification. I don’t have a credit card. Why are you trusting me to walk out with all of this merchandise when I could be a con artist, a professional thief? She said I don’t look like a thief. Hey, I’m exactly what a thief would look like, somebody you don’t expect to be a thief!
Multi-million waterfront homes on golf course across from Kings Shops in Waikoloa
By now it was lunch time. There were more stores at Kings Shops in Waikoloa to visit, but my stomach was growling. I did not have enough cash for lunch. I also did not want to walk back to the hotel. Instead, I entered Three Fat Pigs. Spied a BLT on sourdough for $14. Lots of house sparrows pecked about on the ground as the waiter seated me outside. A beautiful yellow bird landed in the tree and eyed me suspiciously. This is a restaurant on a private lake, with multi-million homes across the water and a rolling golf course.
“How much is a diet Coke?” I asked. The answer: $4.00. Oh! My eyes glanced down at the menu and then back up at the server. “I only asked because all I have is $20 and I want to make sure I have enough to leave a good tip,” I said. I did not think they would take a credit card charge from me without my credit card.
The server said he would not charge me for a diet Coke, and brought me a tall glass of coke with a maraschino cherry! How lucky is that! I mean, what were the odds? The server took pity on me. This made my day. I was so excited that after lunch I went to Coach and blew a wad on more gifts. I even bought my husband a Hanukkah present, which had to be ordered and when it arrives, the sales clerk will bring it to my hotel room.
All in all, I bought merchandise at four stores at Kings Shops in Waikoloa, spent thousands and nobody asked for identification nor required my credit card. Isn’t that incredible in this day and age?
I think my sister Margie is right. I do have a guardian angel who follows me around and takes care of me. People do want to do nice things for me without much effort on my part. I’m just really lucky, I guess, and very fortunate. Or, at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
