I know I haven’t been posting much about food or recipes much in the last few months. It’s not because I haven’t been cooking or eating – exactly the opposite! We’ve devoured a blueberry buckle, a coconut-pineapple crisp, pasta with roasted butternut squash and goat cheese, a hearty, creamy chicken noodle soup…the list goes on and on. Truth be told, I think I’m tired of writing like this. I no longer feel the urge to take photos of the food, to write about the food…Does anyone else ever feel this way? Does it pass? Is there anything I can do about it?

Here’s a recipe from a long time ago: Martha Stewart’s Black Bottom Coconut Bars. I wasn’t a big fan. Both layers, the brownie and the coconut, were a little too dry, a little too bland. Maybe it’s my fault, maybe not…but I like my brownies gooey and chewy, so this just didn’t work for me. Some people may like it, so if you’re thinking this sounds up your alley, then check them out here. I won’t bother posting the recipe here though.

I am definitely going to finish my Hawaii series on here. Hopefully, I feel a bit more inspired to keep documenting cooking and baking endeavors by then.

After spending 3 nights on the southern part of Kauai, on Poipu, we headed up to the northern tip of the island for our next spot, 3 nights near Hanalei. Before setting out, Soli made a smoothie with fresh papaya, mango and coconut ice cream, and we stopped by an outdoor shopping area for some infamous puka dogs and freshly squeezed lemonade that we may or may not have spiked with vodka. Puka dogs are not necessarily the most delicious hot dog I’ve eaten, but they are interesting – a hot dog stuck into a pocket of a bun, and you choose what kind of “filling” you would like…I think I had a banana relish and Soli might have gone the coconut route.

The trip to Hanalei isn’t a long one (probably takes about 1 ½ hours, but we made lots of stops along the way. We made a quick stop to play in some pretty strong waves at Lydgate Park, but they were just a little too powerful for us to stay for long.

Back on the road, we quickly stopped again to check out the stores and markets in Kapaa. Lots of touristy stuff, but this is where Soli finally got his tikki. Since everything’s made in China and shipped over, he had yet to choose one, but he finally found one that had been carved there by a local with local wood. Oh, and there was also a quick stop for some (expensive) uni snacks!

On the way to Hanalei, we stopped by a fish market right across from some taro fields, and it quickly became one of our favourite fish stops, the Dolphin Fish Market. We were even invited in the back fridge to check out the enormous catches of the day! Our favourites there was a heavenly ono salad that we ate in avocado halves and of course, the poke. We also picked up some fish to grill, and some amazing sushi rolls.

While we were in there, a flash downpour began – unfortunately for us, we had left our Jeep roof down, and the thing FILLED with water. It was pretty damp and smelly for the next few days.

And then we were at Hanalei! This was our favourite area of the island, stunning! Massive green lush mountains rise up, with waterfalls trickling down the sides. It rains quite a bit up there, and it’s often cloudy, but there are sunny moments. We explored the beach a bit while we waited for the owners of the condo we had rented to arrive.

Our home in Hanalei for the next 3 days was the best yet! A whole floor, with a big balcony overlooking the beach and gorgeous sunsets, a full kitchen and a bedroom window with a view of a waterfall pouring down the side of the mountains…We wished we could spend the rest of our time there! Our first evening there, a big rainbow arched across the sky, right as we sat on the balcony.

We settled in, and took a fast drive up the the northernest tip, Ke’e beach. This quickly became Soli’s favourite beach, nestled in between big-rooted trees, mountains, and a reef filled with coral and brightly coloured fish. Hardly any waves, but a strong current…we spent many hours lounging and swimming here! It was also the starting point for our hike the next morning…

I spent way too much time and posted way too many photos of our 6 days on Big Island in Hawaii. Even though we followed those 6 days with 14 days on Kauai, I will try to keep that recap briefer. I mean, we’ve been back for 6 months now! Besides, as beautiful Kauai was, it wasn’t as adventurous as Big Island, and definitely more relaxing, so who knows? Maybe I’ll actually have less to say!

We arrived at the Lihue airport in the early evening, after a very quick plane ride. The airport was so small – we had to get out on the runway and walk across the tarmac. As we were walking across, a light rain started, and a bright rainbow appeared, like a warm welcome for us. This was to be the first of many, many rainbows. Unfortunately, the rain increased, and it was pouring by the time we got our rental Jeep. While there were a few rainy moments while we were there, it was definitely sunny most of the time.

The first place we were staying on Kauai was a condo rental near Poipu beach. We had no idea what to expect, but we were extremely pleased. The rain stopped on the drive down, and the condo was a two-minute walk from Poipu beachpark. We loved the condo itself – clean, big, gorgeous kitchen, and best of all, a patio and a hot tub right outside. Our first night, we walked down to the beach and watched massive waves roar in, in the dark. Scary, exciting, and we couldn’t wait for the next morning. One beer at the bar, and we headed home to sleep.

The next day, we were awoken with the loud rooster calls. There are chickens and roosters everywhere on this island, and we even had a little family of birds that hung out on our patio. They wander across the streets, peck at food in the sand on the beaches, strut their stuff in parking lots. And they make noise all the time – morning, afternoon, night. But especially the morning, and they were a great alarm clock the whole two weeks.

We started with a great omelet breakfast that Soli made in our kitchen, with a fantastic avocado salad to go with it (and this whole bowl of avocado comes from just ½ of a Hawaiian avocado!)

After breakfast, we decided to check out Poipu in the light of day; turns out it was one of our favourite beaches! The snorkeling was fun, the beach was gorgeous, it had this amazing sandbar that waves would come crashing in on either side, so lying around on it was like visiting a waterpark, and it was connected to quite the resort, complete with a bar, and a saltwater pool that we snuck into more than once.

Waimea Canyon, Kauai

We made the drive to Waimea Canyon, which is supposed to resemble the Grand Canyon, just smaller (10 miles long, 1 mile wide and very, very deep). It’s actually just one canyon of many, many, many canyons in Kauai; an earthquake had made half the island drop into the water, and the consequent carving of the land by water created these vast canyons all along one coast. This coast, the Na Pali, is inaccessible by anything other than boat and helicopter (both of which we did!). Waimea Canyon is a hikeable canyon, which is why we were off to visit it. I had read about it being a somewhat…difficult…hike, but I don’t think I was prepared for how difficult it was! It was entirely worth it though.

The drive into the canyon:

The hike into the canyon! We started with a fruit salad Soli had made with fresh mango, coconut and pineapple and headed out to do the next 3 miles on foot. The initial part this hike had some pretty exhausting moments, as it was so hot out, and most of it was all uphill:

It was soon worth it though, as we ended up on a point that narrowed into an overlook that terrifyingly gave us a view of an entire valley. It felt as though one strong gust of wind would blow us right off:

The hike continued down towards a small pond and waterfall, where we relaxed for a bit and replenished our lost energy with beer, and then we hit the trail again in search of the real waterfall. When we found it, we were able to clim right to its edge, and dangle our feet into the stream that was thousands of feet above the ground. Pretty scary for anyone afraid of heights, that’s for sure! We got wet, refreshed, and admired the view:

The hike back was not as difficult, and in about 3 hours time, we were back in our Jeep and driving on to the end of Kauai’s one road to get our first glimpse of the amazing Na Pali coast (of Jurassic Park fame!). You can only go so far and see just the very edge of this coast this way – the Na Pali coast actually takes up 1/3 of the island’s entire coastline. It’s an awesome, striking thing to see, like massive mountains all wrinkled together, covered in green.

On the drive back home, we stopped for what was pretty much one of our favourite meals at Shrimp Station. They coconut shrimp were the best I’ve ever had! Light – crispy – sweet – amazing! We also had some shrimp tacos that also filled our hungry selves up nicely after the long, long, long day.

Okay! The last post about Big Island – this one will be more photo, less talk. I think Volcano National Park and Mauna Kea speaks for itself.

Before driving to the park, we took a small detour to check out one of the beaches near where we were staying, and to hunt down one of the lava hot tubs that was hidden in the forest. The waves there were massive, and were being enjoyed by lots of surfers. After a brief foray into the woods, we found the sweltering hot tub and took a swim.

Then, off to Volcano! The day started out a bit grey and dreary, but by the end, it got hot and steamy.

Volcano steaming off in the distance

Steam Vents

Exploring the lava tubes

The hike down, across and back up took hours, but it wasn’t very difficult, and being in the crater was absolutely breath-taking. It was dry, hot, and windy down there. The volcanic rock crunched like crystals. It was like being surrounded by the end of the world.

After, we drove the Chain of Craters, right to the end, where the land hits ocean. It was a gorgeous ride down, where you could see old lava flows that had destroyed the land, where the ocean glittered from up high, where you were surrounded by nothing by black rock. Just amazing!

The next day, we woke up early to make the long drive back to Kona, as we were catching our plane out to Kauai in the early afternoon. There are two ways we could’ve taken to get to Kona. The first, the way we came, around the southern tip, which probably would’ve taken about 3-4 hours. Then there was the Saddle Road, a road that runs through the centre of the island, right from Hilo to Kona. It takes about 1 ½ hours, and there’s absolutely nothing on the road, except for the majestic Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in the world at 14,000 feet (from sea level).

We weren’t sure if we would drive right up to the summit. We were concerned about time and all. However, once we got to the wait station (due to the altitude, you are obligated to stop at this station for at least 30 minutes to adjust), we knew we had to keep going to the top. Driving along thin dirt and gravel paths to the summit of a MOUNTAIN was terrifying and exhilarating.

It was freezing up there, so windy, and we could barely walk without feeling dizzy or faint – the altitude is just too much! There are lots of telescopes up there, as this is apparently the closest thing earth has to a space-like environment; Apollo did all their tests prior to going to the moon here. It did feel like another world.

Loco Moco to get ready for the trip

The Drive up Mauna Kea

After the terrifying drive back down, Soli thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of Saddle Road, and we made it to the Kona airport with time to spare, which turned out to be a very good thing, as we were not allowed to take all the food we had packed, so we had to say goodbye to our pet pineapple, among other mangos and delicious fruit. We boarded the plane to Kauai, and spent the next two weeks exploring a much different island.

On Day 4 on Big Island, we woke up in our cozy hilltop house early enough, considering we had spent a lot of the night driving miles and miles along dark roads, looking for one open store to buy some bread and eggs and such (ended up getting the best purplish taro bread, something that sustained us for a long time). We started the 45-minute drive back to Kona, stopping at a bakery for some Kona coffee and a passion fruit cheesecake breakfast. We wanted to get there early, as there was a big farmer’s market happening that day, and we wanted to get our pick of the best.

Kona is a very touristy section of the island, filled with tourist shops and resorts. Though it’s got its charms, I guess, I was happy we hadn’t ended up booking any rooms there. I much preferred the quiet beauty of Puako and Captain Cook! We wandered around a bit, checking out the different stores and picking up some gifts for people back home.

We headed off to the market, and bought a lot of fresh produce to enjoy for our dinner back in Captain Cook. This is when Soli found the ukulele he was going to buy. It was tricky finding things here that hadn’t been mass-produced in China, and then shipped here. Most of the tourist stuff was “designed in Hawaii” and “made in china or Indonesia.” Ukuleles that had been made in Hawaii with Hawaiian wood would’ve cost $500+++, so we finally got a good deal on one made with local wood, but in China, and it came with a case.

Before buying it though, we had to get to a bank machine. Now, at my bank machines back home, you get your bank card returned to you before you get your money. Because of this, I am used to taking the money and leaving. Here in Hawaii though, taking the money and leaving means your bank card is still sticking out of the machine. I walked away, heard some beeping, ran back to the machine to see it suck my bank card right up. Thankfully, the bank was open, so I ran in and explained the situation. The teller told me she couldn’t give it back, but I could contact my bank and they would send one in the mail. To my house in Canada. All of our money was stuck in my account, so I stressed the importance of having this bank card returned. Finally a manager came out and said she could return it, but needed ID. Of course, I had left my ID back in Captain Cook, 45 minutes away. And the bank was closing in 1 ½ hours. In the end, we drove back to Captain Cook and got back to the bank, which was closed, but the manager stayed there waiting for us, and I got the card. They were very nice, but talk about a waste of our time, and gas!

Ukulele in hand, we spent the late afternoon exploring, picked up some fish from the fish store, and headed back towards Captain Cook with lots of stops along the way. We drove into the coffee plantations, taking any roads that looked interesting, and came across the Painted Church, a Roman Catholic church hidden away on top of the coffee hills. It was a gorgeous evening, and the church was quaint and still stunning.

We looked around the cemetery as well, which had some interesting grave markers.

We kept driving, and kept stumbling upon beaches that were each more gorgeous than the last. This also included finding Two-Step, just a bit away from Place of Refuge, which became our favourite snorkel spot the next day. The beach is entirely made of lava, and it’s called two-step because all you have to do is step off the lava ledge, and you’re swimming with the most colourful, beautiful fish, and around massive coral reefs. Unfortunately, we never got any photos of this place, as we were too busy jumping into the water.

When we made it back to our place in Captain Cook, it was completely black out (the sun sets around 7:30pm, and after it sets, that’s it – no light at all). Soli prepared our fish steaks on the grill, and make one of my favourite things while we were there, a mango-papaya salsa with tomatoes and cilantro. A big, perfect meal for the end of the day.

On Day 5, we said goodbye to Captain Cook and started driving around the southern point of Big Island towards the Hilo side, where we were going to spend the last two nights (just outside of Pahoa). The ride wasn’t overly exciting, just a lot more old, black lava.

However, we made it a point to get to Ka Lae, which is the most southern point of all Hawaii. It’s a long drive down a dry and windy road, and it ends at these cliffs jutting out into the ocean. There were some groups of people there who were taking turns jumping off the high cliffs into the bright blue ocean below.

I wasn’t in the mood to get wet or leave the camera behind, but Soli jumped at the chance to leap into the ocean (though his nervousness was quite apparent). I think it might have been the rusty and crumbling ladders that you climb to get back up…

The only real downside to this was that to get back up the cliff, it was best to avoid the rusty ladders, and instead, you would have to get washed into a tunnel in the cliff and climb out of this strange hole. Very creepy. In the end, because of this, I was fine with not having jumped.

We kept driving along until we hit Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, which was a beach I was definitely excited to see. The sky was grey, it was cool and damp, the afternoon was coming to a close. The weather matched the dark and somewhat gloomy beach perfectly. We were amazed at just how black this sand was.

And then that’s when we saw it – our first sea turtles! We had been on a constant search for these creatures. At every beach, we hunted around for sea turtles, and even though we had only been there for 4 days by now, we were getting discouraged. We saw one turtle sitting in a lava rock crevice, enjoying the water rushing over him. The, down the beach a bit, there were two more turtles spread out and relaxing in the sand.

The day was coming to an end, so we zipped back the Volcano National Park (every single time you pass through there, you get rained on) and reached the Hilo side. It was hard to believe we were on the same island – long gone where the dry, desert like conditions, the heat, the lack of vegetations. This was like a steamy, damp rainforest, full of lushness and it was not rare to have rain falling. We paused for some gas and sampled the Spam sushi, something we would never, ever sample again.

We arrived at our rainforest home, which was adorable. The entire side of the house was plexiglass – including the shower! It was like sleeping outside with all the tree frogs, who chirped incessantly all night long. They’re must have been millions of them out there. We went searching for them one night, and did find one or two buried deep in the bark of one of the trees.

We enjoyed a great dinner that night at one of the most expensive restaurants we ate at, in the town of Pahoa. At home, we fell asleep quickly. The next day – Volcano day!

The next day on Big Island, Hawaii flew by. The place is so big, and there’s so much to see and do, we were always on the move to somewhere new. We had six night to spend on the island, so we had divided the time up to spend two nights near Puako, the next two nights in Captain Cook, and the last two nights near Hilo. So after our first two nights, we somewhat begrudgingly packed up our Jeep and headed out on the long drive to our next home, up high in the hills of Captain Cook.

Of course, we made many stops along the way. One of the first was the Mauna Lani Resort, where we hiked through some old lava fields and saw some pretty amazing lava tubes.

It was an easy walk, though hot…we were rewarded at the with a walk past a lagoon with fish splashing out every few seconds and then to the beach front, a quiet beach with some gorgeous views. We swam and enjoyed a lot of the morning in this area.

We continued driving through the fields of old lava surrounding us on both sides. No plants, no trees, just black, hot rock. Eventually we came to a small, rocky path leading off the highway, in the direction of the ocean. All along we had been taking these little detours, and finding some wonderful hidden beaches, so off we went. I can’t figure out what the name of this road was, or where we were going, but it was bumpy! We were tossed around the Jeep the entire, slow ride down. For miles and miles and miles on either side of us were dried lava fields, the rock under us crunching and popping as we drove through it. The heat was almost unbearable. We made stops to sit on the hot black rock and were pretty much in awe of this place. It pretty much looked like the end of the world.

Continuing on, we whipped through Kona quickly, knowing we would spend some time there the next day. After all that moving around all day, we stopped for our first plate lunch and loco moco experience. Both of these dishes are pretty unique and special to Hawaii. While Soli wasn’t particularly a fan, I enjoyed both meals…the loco moco is a hamburger steak on top of rice, covered with a fried egg or two, a salty brown gravy and a side of creamy macaroni salad. The plate lunch is almost the same…rice, macaroni salad, and your choice of one, two or three meats. We had some friend fish and teriyaki beef. I loved the starchiness of it all, the saltiness, the comfort-food feel, and I certainly wouldn’t have minded eating more meals like this.

The drive to the little room we had booked in Captain Cook was a long and fun one. We were going to be staying at an elevation of about 1000 feet, so as we left Kona and started driving up into the hills, it got cooler, and more like a rain forest. The road was right along the edge of the hill, making for some fantastic views. When we finally reached the place we would be staying, the day was ending. The home was almost at the top of the hill, looking down at a whole hillside of homes and gardens, right to the ocean. It was a gorgeous place, with an outdoor kitchen, surrounded by gardens, with a balcony that gave us spectacular views of the sunset and ocean and black sand beaches below.

And some of the amazing wildlife in the gardens surrounding the house:

I’m trying to keep these posts brief…but there’s just so many photos I’d love to share! Next up, our trip to Kona and the bank card mishap, a ukulele and the sea turtles!

Here is the first of many very photo-heavy posts about our summer vacation to Hawaii.

We were only supposed to spend two weeks there, one on Big Island, the biggest and youngest of the Hawaiian island, and one on Kauai, the oldest island. Well, once we got there, we decided almost right away to change our flight schedule and we spent an extra week on Kauai. After 17 hours of air travel, and after seeing how perfect and idyllic Hawaii is, it just doesn’t seem right to stay there for anything less than that.

BIG ISLAND, HAWAII
Days 1

The journey to Big Island was a long one! We flew from Montreal to Los Angeles, then from L.A. to Oahu, then from Oahu to Big Island. The flights in Hawaii were exciting enough to make me stop caring about my exhaustion – talk about some spectacular views! We finally ended up at our final destination in the early evening, and after an extensive kerfuffle at the car rental place, we were driving in the pitch black through old lava fields to Puako on the north-west of the island, where we would be spending our first two nights. We stopped along the way for our first bottles of Kona beer and got our first glimpses of coconut M&ms and what become a mild obsession, the sparkle-cards.

We woke up before the sun was up, partly due to jetlag, but mostly due to our excitement. Right across the quiet, flower-lined street we were staying at was the shoreline of Puako, so we got dressed and wandered out for our first feel of the ocean as the sun was rising.

The beach was not a sandy one, but once of volcanic rock. The waves weren’t enormous, but it certainly wasn’t anything we wanted to swim in. We walked up and down the shore, then headed back to shower and get going for the day, but not before taking photos of all the different flowers that were blooming absolutely everywhere!

After a filling and tasty breakfast prepared by our hosts (along with big mugfuls of some of the best Kona coffee ever), we took the Jeep out for our first day of exploring the island. Our goal was the check out the northern tip of the island, and some of the eastern side. We ended up stopping several dozen times along the way; it seemed like there was another beach to swim at about every mile.

Soli and looking over Hapuna Bay. This really shows how pale we were…it also really shows how excited we were at just a glimpse of the ocean.

We spent some time at Spencer Beach park. This was our first experience snorkeling in Hawaii, obviously, and Soli’s first real snorkeling experience ever. Compared to some of the other beaches we snorkeled at, this one wasn’t fantastic. But at the time, having nothing to compare it to, it was great. Got to see some fish, and what was thought to be an octopus…but it wasn’t. The water was warm, the morning hot.

As we were driving, we remembered a “hike” that had been recommended to us by someone we met on the airport shuttle bus, and headed towards http://www.hawaiiweb.com/hawaii/html/sites/lapakahi_state_historical_park.html>Lapakahi State Historical Park, which is the site of a ancient Hawaiian settlement. It was completely deserted and we wandered around for over an hour, checking out the old walls and buildings and resting under the palms next to the bright blue ocean.

We stopped for a quick lunch en route, and to pick up what became our pet pineapple, a small and extremely fragrant fruit that we ended up toting around every where, but never eating, as it just smelled too good.

Lunch included a pretty potent mai tai and a sampler plate with some kalua pork quesadillas that we wished we had about ten more of. We made some more stops along the way to our goal of the Pololu Valley lookout. There was an amazing valley that Soli ended up running through. We also stopped for some freshly picked tangerines that were in a box by the road, with only a box to put your $1 in.

Finally, we reached the Pololu Valley lookout. The view from up there was breath-taking, but seeing all that black sand waaaaay down, and the little dots of people instantly convinced us that we had to make the long and steep hike down into the valley and towards the beach. The way down wasn’t so bad, and we got there quicker than we thought. The waves were angry, and we barely ventured in up to our knees before running away and hiking into the valley a bit. The way back up was arduous (but again, compared to the hikes we went on in the weeks to come, this one was pretty easy), as we were hot, sweaty and barely breathing by the time we got back up.

We did some more driving around that day, heading into the town of Waimea via one of the scariest roads ever. It had these turns that would almost have you flying off these mountains. I wish we had photos that captured this road properly…

and picking up our first poke (raw, marinated fish or seafood), a kimchee crab (this became one of our favourite meals) one and some shoyu tuna. We devoured it back at our place in Puako, and almost instantly fell asleep.

Next, the wastelands of old lava fields, loco moco and Captain Cook!