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What Happens When You Talk Story in Hawaii
Do you wonder what does it mean to Talk Story in Hawaii? There are few places in the world where you meet a total stranger who instantly turns into a friend than when you Talk Story in Hawaii. It’s part of Hawaiian culture. Where else in the country can you be physically in a state in the United States yet encounter a foreign culture, except maybe Stockton?
Almost everybody you meet has perfected artistic skills you do not possess. Some can find the honu (turtle) within the stone when carving a sculpture using another rock. Others can paddle a canoe blindfolded. Or weave a cloak from feathers and flowers. Each person seems to have a story to tell, a tale to share.
You can meet a stranger in the grocery store, bonding over slabs of butter. A conversation begins and 30 minutes passes. To Talk Story in Hawaii, it doesn’t involve any set time limits. But it’s much longer than a stray comment a person in Sacramento might mutter while standing in a check-out line, how about those Kings, huh? Nothing like that.
When you Talk Story in Hawaii, it is much more personal. It can be several anecdotes tied to a lesson or just a funny ending. It’s an amazing concept because it makes you stop and consider the person in front of you as a person. A living, human being with desires, hopes, dreams, successes, failures. It makes you relate to people as whole individuals, not some delivery system or consumer purchase.
There is a purpose and a dignity to the exchanges. You leave the interaction knowing more about that person than, say, just the fact some guy is here to spray the yard with insecticide. You learn he and his wife moved to Kona two years ago, and he joined a family operation, learning a job he truly enjoys. Bought a house, owns a dog. You can tell when he asks if you want the inside of your garage sprayed or if you need a flytrap to get rid of gnats.
Smiles are genuine. Kindness is authentic. You feel the Aloha, and the magic of Aloha is it makes you want to be a better person yourself.
The price of some business transactions is to interact. Really, is that so bad? We’re not always in such a rush that we forget to connect with the people around us.
Before packing up, I stopped by my neighbor’s house to Talk Story in Hawaii with two of my favorite Minnesotans in Kona. Mentioned to my friend, Jean, that I let a vendor steamroll over me. He had promised delivery of our quartz before I left the island. However, after he cashed my check, he called to say he would prefer to ship it when I come back, and I said OK.
How could I be such a wimp? I asked Jean. I would not behave that way in Sacramento real estate. I would demand people keep promises they want to break. What Jean said was very insightful. She said I backed down because we don’t want people we must rely on to resent us. If they resent us, they might turn to sabotage. So true. Now I don’t question my actions.
I spent my last day in Hawaii this trip at one of my favorite beaches, Two-Step Beach. Snorkeling. Talking story. And, if you are interested, The Coffee Shack just south of Captain Cook is for sale at $2 million. That buys a successful business, quite a bit of land, fabulous view, and a residence.
Aloha.
The Coffee Shack in Honaunau on the Way to Two-Step Beach
Lanai view from The Coffee Shack in Honaunau reveals 26 miles of coastline.
You’ve got to stop at The Coffee Shack in Honaunau on your way to snorkeling at Two-Step Beach, said our tenants, as they were digging through their box of snorkeling fins. I wasn’t paying much attention to their suggestion as I was more concerned about what kind of idiot packs only one snorkeling fin? Well, you’re reading her blog, that’s who.
My first clue would have been there was only one fin in the clear plastic bag that I took down from my closet shelf but I was so busy packing in November that I didn’t notice the fin was missing its mate. Things could have been worse, I suppose, I could have left behind in Sacramento my snorkel and mask, which I did not.
Adam Weintraub studies the menu at The Coffee Shack.
Our tenants were absolutely correct about The Coffee Shack. This was a fabulous place to stop on our way through Captain Cook. It’s a mile south of the Captain Cook Post Office. The restaurant serves great breakfast and lunch items, including personal pizzas, plus its pastries and baked goods are to die for.
We started with an iced Kona coffee with a sugar-free vanilla flavoring, but they carry a wide assortment of flavors such as macadamia nut, caramel and almond. I ordered a cup of salty clam chowder made with celery, of all things. I am always surprised to see celery show up in odd places like the Leaning Tower of Pizza in Minneapolis puts celery on its pizza. It seems like such a Minnesota novelty to me because I grew up chopping celery into almost everything.
Lilikoi cheesecake at The Coffee Shack is out of this world.
Most of the sandwiches at The Coffee Shack are as big as your head. Enormous. Served with a side of chips. I selected a sensible Greek salad, adorned with tiny bits of pickled red pepper and capers, and had just finished shoveling the last of it into my mouth when my husband said with a sneaky grin, “How about dessert?”
Well, one look at the menu and I had to order the Lilikoi cheesecake (pronounced lee-lee-CO ‘e), which is a passion fruit and the yummiest of all sweetness. I’ll eat a frog if there isn’t a ton of brown sugar in that crumb crust, too.
Two-Step Beach in Honaunau is perfect for snorkeling.
With extremely full tummies from The Coffee Shack, we rolled onto Two-Step Beach and scored a parking spot right in front. What you see here, the dark stuff, is lava. Mostly pahoehoe. There are two primary types of lava: pahoehoe, which looks like ropes and blankets, and a’a, which hurts when you step on the jagged edges; hence, the ah-ah name.
I love snorkeling so much that I could do it every day. When I’m observing the fish, I try to memorize the distinctive colors, stripes, shapes so I can identify them later. There were many butterfly fish and coral fish, plus the largest parrot fish I’ve ever seen. That fish was almost 3-feet. Those are the female fish that can turn into males when needed.
Then, just when I think I’ve seen all the fish I could possibly see and they all start to look nearly identical, suddenly I spot a new fish I’ve never seen before, so I can’t stop snorkeling. The water was warm and welcoming, the temperatures in the low 70s. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Mele Kalikimaka from Kailua-Kona on Christmas Day!
Two-Step Beach Snorkeling at Honaunau Bay
Hella Rottwell at Kealakekua Bay
After a hard week of house hunting in Hawaii Island and finding the perfect home in Kailua Kona, Hella and I decided to take off a day to go snorkeling at Honaunau Bay. Hella Rothwell is the remarkable Hawaii broker who snagged the house away from the thieving hands of some other buyer (see how you get when you’re an agent yourself and buying?) and put us into escrow. It was time to celebrate, and Sunday is often a fairly quiet day real estate-wise for us to take off.
First we drove to Kealakekua Bay down a winding road, Napoopoo, that dropped about 1500 feet in elevation. A toothless native offered us canoes to rent to paddle over to the Captain Cook Monument, and we tried to talk him into taking us himself to no avail. I did not want to paddle all that way and neither did Hella, not even for the kama’aina (discount rate offered to native Hawaiians), which is what he then offered us.
Fortunately, we found a group of guys hanging out at the pavilion, strumming a ukulele, enjoying the aloha, who told us how to find Two-Step Beach for snorkeling at Honaunau Bay. It was a perfect day, few clouds, sapphire sky, gentle breeze. We easily found Honaunau Bay, parked on the side of the road, grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed down to the lava rocks.
As Hella put it, we found a group of snorkelers near our, ahem, age group, nestled on the rocks and joined them. The reason the beach is called two-step is because there are two flat surfaces of rock, one below the other, that provide an easy way to slip into the water. Coming back you can wait for a wave to deposit you on the bottom step. One of the snorkelers suggested if we placed our hands flat, sea urchin would not harm us.
We were off and swimming. I saw yellow butterfly fish, a rainbow runner, chubs, yellowtail coris, sturgeon, parrotfish, a bunch of tang. At one point, I became separated from Hella, snorkeling past the reefs into clear waters, through schools of fish so pretty I wanted to pet them, and that’s when I spotted the reef shark. Oh, you can talk to Hella and she’ll tell you it was a spinning dolphin, but we earlier spotted the spinning dolphins leaping and prancing, and those guys are not necessarily long and slender like a reef shark.
He was lying all by himself on the bottom, twisting his little shark body slowly left and right, and all I could think about was why-oh-why do I have blue fins and please don’t eat me. Please, please don’t eat me. Suddenly his little shark buddies showed up and there were 4 or 5 of them hosting a gab fest about which should try to tear off my ankle and run away with it. Let’s just say I swam like a bat outta hell back to the reef where I found Hella.
Kealakekua Bay and ancient Hawaiian lava wall
