Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

I have plenty of wine here, plus gin, tequila, and six types of rum, but somehow no bourbon. How is that even possible?

If the kid gets back and isn't thrown in the pokey, we'll be havin' Southern Pecan Pie with Bourbon-Honey whipped cream TONIGHT at Alex and Paige's.

It's less than three miles down the parkway. How likely is he to really get caught, huh?

Thankfulness

Our traditions are a shared experience. It's remarkable how similar they are from family to family, from generation to generation, region to region. And for this stability and institutional opportunity we should truly be grateful.

A Family Thanksgiving 1882

1945
1957

2006

2007

None of these pictures are of my family - or your family - but they may as well be. When the fourth Thursday in November comes, we're fortunate if we are able to gather in similar ways.

A friend sent this quote over and I wanted to find a way to share it with you.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

--Melody Beattie

I am grateful to have you in my life. Happy Thanksgiving!

Dragon's Teeth

You've been asking if I'd posted all the Maui pics...so I'll take the hint. There are tons more...plus all the Italy pictures. I'll try to get them all up eventually.

On our second day on Maui, Nana and I started exploring with our trusty guide book. One early destination were the "Dragon's Teeth."
It was harder to find than we thought. Over in Kapalua with a path along the Ritz golf course. You'd think that would be easy to find.
So we braved being beaned by errant golf balls on a beautiful but windy day.
This was early in our adventures, so Nana was a little nervous, thinking she wouldn't be able to get down to the teeth. I assured her that I could carry her down and carry her back. She seemed unconvinced, but walked all the way down with me - and back!
These pictures are off the end of the little peninsula. Gorgeous caves, big waves, and breathtaking views. Still very windy, but worth the scrabbling over volcanic rock.




Here are some of the Dragon's Teeth themselves.
I was so proud of Nana and impressed by her trust (mind you...this was BEFORE the injury). Here is how the formation of the Dragon's Teeth is explained on one tourism site:

Dragon’s Teeth is a good example of what can happen when forces of nature collide. As the lava from the West Mau‘i Volcano poured into the ocean, fierce wind and waves forced it back and it cooled into a formation that resembles great black teeth. Makalua-puna Point was created from one of the last lava flows on Maui. However, the lava is a little different from the rest of the lava on Maui - it is much lighter, denser, and fine-grained. The wind sweeping over the point caused the lava to harden in an upward fashion.

Another site has more pictures.

Nana Visits Honolua Bay

On our first day exploring the island, we headed north to see the sites. We followed the guidebook so closely that we were using the Tripometer to make sure that we didn't miss things like "the small dirt trail to the left, .3 miles past the Bell Rock."

The first stop was this overlook near Honolua Bay. Though I'd worn my bathing suit, convinced I'd be jumping in somewhere, we'd already decided we wouldn't be hiking down to any beaches. It was enough to pull over, see them, and move on to view the next breathtaking vista.
I'd be lying if I didn't say I was experiencing serious kayak and rafting envy as we observed folks down on the bay. It was still quite early, maybe not even 9 am, but there were cars parked along the road next to paths that beach hunters have forged over the years.
There was hooting and hollering in sections - and then you'd look elsewhere and there would be singles and couples just floating quietly. Serenity!
As we stood overlooking the bay and appreciating the view to the open ocean on the other side, group after group pulled into the little jug handle, climbed out, did the same thing, and went on their way. It was clear that this photo op wasn't really a "secret" after all.

We Love Simon

It's actually spelled saiman and Nana and I are officially hooked. My brothers would recognize it as a soup similar to Dad Ramen, except in place of strips of Buddig beef there are pieces of Spam, scrambled egg, and fish cake that looks a lot like radishes. It is dee-lish!

It's a fish broth, so it's a lot like shrimp-flavor Top Ramen, except it's not artificially seafood flavored like the ramen is. Plus, it's traditionally a breakfast food.

Nana and I would drive up to Kapalua to the Honolua store near the Ritz-Carlton to have it. They also made great ham and cheese omelets and had good coffee. Mmmmm....coffee.....It's the cutest little place - a weird cross between a New England/Cape building and an Adirondack lodge. Just cool.

We would sit on the porch to eat and just relax in the shade.

On our first visit, we met a terrific transplant from the mainland, Athena, on her way to work. We were in line for coffee and we noticed a $5 bill drifting down near her feet. All three of us thought it belonged to the lady ahead of us. We called her back over, gave her the money and within seconds realized that it was mine. Duh.

Athena then secretly paid for our coffee! We wanted to meet up with her later - maybe at one of the wine tastings - but it wasn't to be. Instead, we left her some wine (Somersville Chardonnay, which Brigette will tell you is like liquid, fat-free butter in a glass) when we left. I'll look her up when I'm back on the Big Island next fall.

Meeting Athena and chatting with her - and her sweet gesture to a couple of Maui visitors - made us love Honolua Store even more. (That and the limes we were able to pick up for the g&ts, natch.)

I Love Fresh Air

I have a rather annoying (to some) habit. It's a preference of mine and it's kind of a litmus test for my travel companions.

I am a window opener. It's the first thing I do when I arrive someplace on vacation. Whether it's Lake Las Vegas, Mexico, the Bahamas, or Key West, I'm on the terrace, enjoying the outdoors. I don't like to be cooped up and the trip over on the plane is almost more than I can bear.

I almost loathe A/C. In fact, I drive a convertible because I like outside air. I don't actually enjoy being tan all the time. I just can't help it. Got a lot of melanin.

So...as one would expect, upon arrival I threw open the sliding glass door. We started talking about sleeping with the door open all night, enjoying the island breezes, and listening to the ocean right outside. I was thrilled! Rapture, really.

As we prepared to leave for dinner, I decided to lock up because it would be so easy to climb over the wall to our patio and stroll into our room and steal our welcome chocolates - or our gin.
So, I was closing the door and some weird leaf fell down and hit me in the face and landed in between my tank top and my lei. I stopped and looked down to remove it and the leaf jumped up off my chest and hit me in the eye. I screamed so loud (like a girl, even!) that Nana came running out of the bathroom to see what seaweed monster was dragging me off.

By that time, I had grabbed the gecko off my chest and tried to fling it out into the grass. It had other ideas and had run up my arm and jumped back into the drapes.

You might think it was a gecko like this (because there are tons of them around the property):

But it was a gecko more like THIS!

I have to assume that it ran outside...startled by my high-pitched shriek and frenzied, mindless efforts to kill it. (I wouldn't normally do that, but fight or flight was kicking in.)

We ended up keeping the door closed while we were sleeping, much to my disappointment. I just couldn't in good conscience leave it open and risk Nana being carted away by giant, muscle-bound, ill-tempered, mutant geckos.

Each morning, we greeted the day by opening the room up and each evening, before bed, we solemnly closed - and locked (did I mention the opposable thumbs on that green monster?) - the door.

Later we ran across this sign.

Now they tell us.

Watch Out South Pacific, Here We Come!

We departed National Airport very early Thursday morning. We had a short stop in Phoenix, but when we arrived in Maui in the early afternoon, we'd been airborne more than 10 hours and had been on the road for 15.

We were a little punchy by the time we were in the rental car and headed to our resort at Ka'anapali on the West Coast.
Nana's global appeal had actually landed us an upgrade to a convertible. All she did was tell Michael, our National rental car customer service specialist, her name and suddenly it was:

Do you need help with that, Elizabeth?
Are you comfortable, Elizabeth?
How about a convertible? It's the only way to see Maui.

And so it was.

Later, we popped in to KMart for some provisions recommended by the famous secret guidebook and located these special water shoe-sock thingees, called Tabis. We almost lost it trying to get Nana's sneaker off to try them on and then hunting for a place for her to sit to put the shoe back on. (Solution? A Coleman cooler!)

These shoes - at about $30 a pair - came so highly recommended that I really was going to buy them. Can you imagine?? We ultimately decided that if a waterfall we wanted to see couldn't be reached without these hideous things, we'd just skip it.

We hit the Hawai'i Liquor Superstore (natch!) and Borders, too. Everyone really is so friendly and by the time we got back in the car for the rest of the drive to the hotel, lots of people knew the story of Nana going to Maui.

One really nice guy helped me pick out a book of Hawai'i historical fiction. It looks like a Hawaiian bodice ripper, but he assured me it was of the highest literary merit.

Check it out for yourself, it's called Shark Dialogues. I haven't even read a page of it yet, but the cover art is provocative-ish. Apparently the same art was used for a Maui phone book last year, which is hard to imagine.

Happy Birthday to Me!

So my wonderful family hosted a birthday dinner for me last night. Val attended and bonded with Gavin.














Nana was there, as she so often is for this August birthday. And, I got to choose anything I wanted for dinner. With an eye toward wearing a bathing suit next week, I opted for an ambitious array of special appetizers, delicious grilled shrimp on caesar salad, a family specialty, and crepe suzette, my favorite birthday dessert since childhood. Unlike last year, we had no fiery mishaps.

We also discussed the fun of growing up with a mom who is a gourmet. Two foodie (and drinkie) parents lends itself to interesting culinary preferences at a young age. How many 8-year-olds prefer a dessert en flambe to a birthday cake?

We reminisced over other boozy faves like cherries jubilee and cocoa amaretto mousse. We laughed about what our grade-school teachers must have thought of our creative writing assignments, peppered as they were with references to these drunken desserts, Brandy Alexanders, Golden Dreams, and Mudslides.

Stories abound of us sneaking extra servings of Cold Duck, Lancer's, or other special-occasion libations and being a little tipsy as we were sent to bed. I'm sure the 'rents are horrified by the confessions, but it's true! Besides, it's hard to keep an eye on four children during a dinner celebration and, frankly, we're none the worse for it.

Bob refused to partake, but for nostalgia's sake - and because people who say it doesn't taste good are liars - the rest of the nine of us finished three bottles of Mateus in honor of the beginning of my 39th year. That's approximately 30 flaming birthday crepes and counting, for those of you keeping track.

It's no wonder that three of the original family six-pack are now in the wine business.

And, yes, we are loving every minute of it.

A Future Hula Star Thanks You

Nana and I are preparing for our Dream Vacation to Maui. We've received the agenda, used frequent flier miles to upgrade to first class all the way (Thanks Mom!), and decided that renting a car is a very good idea.

We appreciate all the help our friends and family provided in helping to make this possible. If you hosted or attended a wine tasting with me in April or May, or you responded to my blatant plea for help at the very end, you significantly contributed to getting Nana to Hawaii for the very first time. Thank you so much! We couldn't have done it without you.

We depart in less than 72 hours and it's possible that two people have never been so excited about a ride to the airport. We promise to take lots of pictures and post them for you. Count on getting updates and though we won't live-blog the wine receptions and booze cruises, we'll likely keep you in the loop much of the time. If you have suggestions about MUST-DOs on Maui, please post them in the comments.

Lovely Nana has been reading all about the island in a tome my brother Bob's friend Chris lent us Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook. We've been instructed to be careful not to let the locals see us with it, as they don't appreciate the inside scoop it provides. I'm going to leave that subterfuge up to the Nana.

Don't worry.
I have her back.