Our First Hawaiian Thanksgiving

Our first Hawaiian Thanksgiving was awesome. It was super relaxed, made several new friends, and the food was wonderful. The favorite item of the evening was the turkey cooked in a imu (pronounced emu, like the bird). Anyone who has been to a Hawaiian Luau has seen an imu pit. At a tourist luau however, they cook a whole pig. I remember the luau I went to with my grandma and grandpa as a kid and not being too excited about it. Much different when the main dinner item still has the head attached though...

Since we only saw the end of the process, I had to do a bit of research into exactly how an imu is constructed and for that matter, spelled. Here's what I found:

First you start with a huge bonfire in the pit. The pit also contains lava rocks. Next, most of the unburned wood is removed from the pit, leaving only the glowing red hot lava rocks. The lava rocks are then spread out evenly over the bottom of the pit. On top of the rocks you layer chopped up banana stump. Banana stump is mostly water and provided the steam to cook the food. The next layer is banana leaf, then ti leaf. Now comes the food. On top of the food is another layer of ti leaf, then more banana leaf. The next layer is wet burlap sacks, which is then covered by a thick plastic tarp. Finally, dirt is put over the plastic tarp around the edges to seal it in.

The cooked leaves and stump provides a very distinctive smoky flavor to the meat and the slow, steamy way in which the bird is cooked made the most tender turkey I have every had. Amazing.

So back the the day. After a relaxing and exciting morning (see previous entry about the earthquake), the three of us piled in the car to head up to the North Shore. We took the scenic route along the windward side. Really nice drive. The waves were pretty big on the shore so we decided to pull of so Tanner could watch the surfers. Very cool. Continuing on we navigated up the hill to Billy and Dawn's house. They are friends of Dave and Liz's and very graciously allowed us to crash their thanksgiving.

It was not the large family affair we've grown used to in Michigan but rather a small potluck gathering of friends that was very relaxed. First let me say that Billy and Dawn have a killer place. It's on an acre of land in a neighborhood where every lot is about that size. Very "country" by Hawaiian standards. The main house is an A-frame that they are currently renovating and expanding. Judging by the work so far, I'm very interested in the final product. There is also a guest house as well as a tree house any kid would die for complete with it's own deck and a pulley system. Very cool.

We arrived early afternoon and just hung out and relaxed with Liz & Dave, Billy & Dawn, and their two daughters Amber and Sierra both of whom Tanner was infatuated with by day's end. The stream of tears that lasted half the trip home was evidence enough. Slowly more of their friends filtered in and by early evening, we gathered around the imu pit to unveil the turkey. It wasn't long after that that we all grabbed plates and dug in. Following the feast we hurried down to the beach to catch the tail end of the sunset while the munchkins climbed on the rocks. Another hour or so later and we were on our way home. Good food, great new friends, and very thankful to be living in such a beautiful and WARM place!

The pictures...

Removing the tarp

Removing the burlap

"Mom, isn't there going to be dirt in the food?"

The banana leaves

There's a turkey in here somewhere...

"Mom, it smells really bad!"

Our buffet\dining table out on the Lanai (porch)

Tanner's SECOND full plate

Tanner with the girls on the rocks at sunset

Earthquake!!!

It was very small but unmistakable. 5.0 on the Richter scale. Tanner and I were watching TV while Yooper went up to the store to grab some last minute Thanksgiving supplies when the house shook. It was very short. Maybe five or six seconds total. Felt like when a huge rush of wind knocks into your house at the beginning of a monster thunderstorm. The whole house takes a bit of a blow and you hear all the creaking and trembling of the walls and joints. Then nothing. Still. I was sitting next to Tanner on the couch and grabbed his arm. I think that startled him more than the shaking of the house. After it was over he had this puzzled look on his face. "That was an earthquake," I told him. He got a huge smile. "That was it? That was an earthquake?" "Yep." Thankfully the first one was a small one. Really erased much of the fear he had about it. Really cool though.

Yooper didn't get the chance to feel it as he was in the car when it happened. Needless to say, he's really mad at missing another one.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Just wanted to post a few pics from the weekend. There seems to be a killer cold making the rounds on the island and I'm the latest victim so not so chatty :( Yooper had it last week and I think Tanner got it to judging from the slightly drippy nose and irritability but nothing slows down that kid. Never skipped a beat.

He really loves preschool though. His new buddy is Jackson. Haven't met him yet because he's not yet there when Tanner arrives and gone when I pick him up. Hopefully, I'll cross paths with the kid one of these days.

I think my favorite part of preschool are the "incident reports". I think there's at least one a day for Tanner. I laughed after the first one thinking how poor Angel would have been sore with writer's cramp had she had to write out everyone of his bumps and bruises with this detail. Then we started getting more and now I'm laughing at the poor school staff having to keep up with my clutsy, accident prone child.

An example
What happened: Tanner fell while running on the playground causing a scrap on his left knee.
What was done by staff: We washed the knee and put on a band aid. He then returned to the playground.

I wonder if they'll keep it up. Anyway, the pictures...

Buried alive on the North Shore Saturday night

Sunday at Kailua Beach

Coconut Island

So many of you know that my new job is with the University of Hawaii on Coconut Island. The island is just 29 acres and is located in Kaneohe Bay on the windward side of Oahu. For those of you who haven't heard, Coconut Island is the very island pictured in the opening credits of Gilligan's island. To funny.

The island actually has a very interesting history full of Hawaiian royalty, Movie stars, infant burial grounds, rich Japanese investors, ancient sacrifices, and land ownership controversy throughout the years which eventually lead to state control and finally, a permanent home for the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology. The entire story, incidentally, is being written into a book by Phil, the man we are renting our little house on the hill from.

Apparently, there used to be a bowling alley, a shooting range, and several small cottages all surrounding a man-made salt water lagoon with slides and diving boards. Today, the bowling alley, shooting range, and many other of the left overs from the times of the movie star vacations are gone and all that remains on the north side of the island is a stagnant pond and several buildings in disrepair. Now that the island is fully owned by the university however, many of the older buildings are finally being restored.

The majority of the island is dedicated to laboratorys, classrooms, and all things marine science. Everywhere you look are large tubs of creatures in sea water with pumps and pipes and tubes and wires. Some of them are the size of 10 or 20 gallon aquariums, some as large as round above ground pools. All are experiments in progress. Sedimentation, calcification, bleaching, etc. Those are just the ones I know about.

There are several buildings at the top of the hill in the middle of the island. These house classrooms, administrative offices, and a very new building containing several molecular and genetic labs as well as the island library.

My office however, is the "point lab". This is the second to last building at the end of the point on the southeast side of the island. It's about a 10 minute walk from the dock. The majority of the contents of the lab have been there for who knows how long. Remnants of past experiments, books, papers, beakers, pipettes, and loads of stuff that I have no idea about. For the most part, it's all kinds of neat stuff to have around however I'm guessing that as time goes on, the shear clutter of it all might make me a little crazy if I can't claim a corner of my own for me to tidy. It's the OCD in me I guess :)

So, for the obnoxious pictures...

The Point Lab

Our Lunch Room
My Desk

My View :)

All the STUFF!

I finally downloaded some more pics from the camera from the past week or so.

Tanner and I woke up to this rainbow last Thursday morning. These pictures are taken from the deck out back of our rental house. You can kinda see Coconut island between the two rainbows in the first picture.



Here's a few pictures from early morning Yesterday morning. It was very still and quiet and the way the light hit the clouds was breathtaking. I have to say that the view from this house is definitely the best part of the place. I will certainly miss waking up looking at the ocean every morning.

Offer accepted!!!

So I know I owe SEVERAL of you emails and follow-ups but I thought that one last entry into this blog explaining our last week followed by finally sending out the address to this thing might buy me a little time and fill everyone in at the same time :)

The REALLY good news - the offer we extended on a killer house in Kailua last night was accepted this evening!!! Here are the pictures from the MLS...


It's three bedrooms, one and a half baths, 1600 square feet. There's currently no guest accommodations which we promised to all of you but there is an awesome spot for a little guest house right behind the carport in the back yard. We plan to have it built in time for next fall\winter. It won't be big or fancy but will provide Hawaiian vacations to all our friends and family for a long time AND you won't have to stay under my roof, you can have you own :)

Our Realtor's husband is a contractor and we were lucky enough to have him tag along to a bunch of the showings. It was really helpful to get his input and expertise on many of the aspects of Hawaiian construction we are still learning about. He also was able to advise us on which places had the best potential for our guest addition. Think he wants a bid? If his wife's work ethic is any indication of his, he may just have the job...

Long story short though, this purchase along with all the other millions of things you have to do when you move to a new town, not to mention 4000 miles away, has kept me extremely busy. Bank accounts, new cars, mortgage pre-approvals, TB tests, and driving Yooper to and from work across the mountain and in rush hour traffic to name a few. On top of that you have laundry, cooking, and shopping, none of which are particularly easy when you have an outside laundry, none of the cooking toys I need (I had to buy a pasta pot because the largest pot in our rental is only three cups!), and have no idea which stores to go to or where anything is in those stores once I find the right one. Add in a very tolerant yet completely-sick-of-all-this four year old and you have a busy week at best.

The good news is that he starts preschool tomorrow. He's VERY excited. In fact he may finally be asleep but I don't think so and it's 10:30 as I write this. The bad news is that my employment paperwork is STILL not complete so I can't officially start until Friday this week. Paul, my new boss, has asked me to come in anyway as neither him nor Ku'ulei will be in next week so he'd like me to get acclimated and meet people and bank whatever hours I work as comp time. Great thing really since I have a feeling the next few weeks of getting into this house will require lots of attention.

It's been a busy few weeks to say the least but I promise to catch up with all of you individually at some point...

Creatures Creatures Everywhere...

Okay, so it should go without saying that Hawaii is full of all sorts of fun creatures but this place is blowing away all expectations. Let's start with Tricky. Tricky is a wild rooster that spend the afternoon in our yard a couple of days ago. He'd been clucking around the side and back of the house for about an hour when Tanner decided to name him Tricky. I'll be sure to get a picture if he makes it back.

Next we can discuss Lucy. Lucy was a new addition to the brood as of last night. Yooper was working on the computer at the bar when I heard a very panicked and slightly terrified "Oh my god!" I looked over to see the largest spider EVER on the wall in the kitchen. Being the bug slayer wife that I am, I tried to get him\her but it quickly scampered up and over the rail to the storage loft above the bathroom off of the kitchen. Long story short, after another failed capture attempt, even I was shaking a bit and Lucy (aka Lucifer) was long gone. The pic below should give you a good indication of what we're dealing with on this one...


For those of you familiar with the plasticized spider in the cube Tanner has from my dad, this thing eats it for breakfast. The size description on the website I grabbed this pic from said it best, roughly the size of a tuna can. Yep. That's the one. GIGANTIC! We've decided to make peace with Lucy as she eats roaches and other large yucky bugs and chances are we won't see her again soon. Also, our bed is on the exact opposite side of the house so that helps too :) No lost sleep yet but I must admit, I do glance to that corner of the kitchen often.

And now back to the fun creatures, I saw some great things on my stop by Coconut Island today. There were tons of fish and sea cucumbers to see from the walkways and docks as well as a super fast little crab that crossed my path close to my new office. I imagine thats just the tip of the iceberg at that place though so stay tuned on that.

Anyway, still getting used to the new creatures here as with the rest of the place. I'll feel better when it's my creatures in my own house but one thing at a time...

Pictures!!!

Here's a few pictures from our trip to the beach on Saturday. This beach is Kailua beach and is on the windward side of the island. Great beach. Perfect sugar sand, lots of shade, not too crowded. If all goes well, we will be living within blocks of this beach. Fingers crossed!!!






The welcoming committee
These two guys are just part of the dozens of scaly little creatures we are sharing our house with here. The more the better as they eat the bugs. The geckos tend to hang out inside the house and the anoles are mostly outside. The best is the super cute little chirping noises the geckos make in the rafters. It still wakes me up though as it kinda sounds like someone tapping at a metal door or window frame.

Gecko Anole

We Made it!

It official. We made it to Hawaii.

After a summer of planning, a week of interviewing, five last weeks of work, a LONG week of packing and 10 days with family in Michigan, we are finally here!!!!!

We got in Wednesday night pretty late. 10pm local which was 3am Detroit time. Tanner was a trouper for the plane ride but zonked out almost immediately when we got in the car. Our drive over to the windward side was a wet one. It had been raining quite a bit. We found our rental all the same and were greeted by Kathy and her father Phil in the drive. They showed us around and warned us about the rain. At this point, we're still kind of confused at why everyone seems so freaked out at the rain but whatever, it was time for bed.

It rained pretty hard all night and by morning, we were starting to understand what the big deal was. The morning news revealed that roads were washed out, landslides all around, including a large one at the mouth of the tunnel on the Pali (the highway Yooper will take to Honolulu for work) that closed the road completely. As we drove around that morning on our way to the first of two preschool interviews it was apparent that the shear amount of rain was incredible. There was tons of water flowing across the roads and every drainage ditch we past was a raging river. Pretty impressive really. The waterfalls coming off the mountains later in the day once the clouds cleared a bit were awesome.

My favorite part of the entire ordeal was how weirded out the locals were. If it came up the we just got here, they were all apologies and how these darn winter storms are so disruptive and awful. Yoop and I loved it. This is a "winter storm" we can get used to :)

Later in the day, we met Dave (Liz's boyfriend) and Brandon (our Realtor) to go through a few places. It was interesting. We saw many different varieties of Hawaiian real estate. Nothing that we'd make an offer on just yet but learned a lot. We're going open housing again this afternoon. Looking forward to that.

In other news, we made yesterday a beach day. Great idea. We went over to Kailua beach. Absolutely gorgeous. The waves were super small and Tanner had a great time playing in the ocean. I'd love to put in a few pics here cause I took a bunch but our USB cable seems to have been packed in the container with the rest of our house. The good news is that they DO have Best Buy here so I should be able to buy a replacement next week.

The other thing I wish I could post is some pics of is the insane amount of lizards we have at our place. The geckos and anoles are EVERYWHERE! We love them!!! Liz was over last night and confirmed the barking we have been hearing in the rafters is the geckos. There's one big one above the kitchen. The more the better as the ants and other creepy crawlys are everywhere. We also have tons of flowers out back as well as some great birds.

The last thing you all have to see pics of is our view. To die for. We can see Coconut island, the mountains (still not sure the proper name of the specific range we look at), the ocean, the marine base, a marina, Chinaman's Hat, etc. It just goes on and on really.

Well, I have to go feed my boys, Tanner is getting cranking :)

Pics coming soon, than I can finally sent the address out and share this thing....