Honolulu Chinatown

According to the Chinese Zodiac calendar, which rotates between 12 different animals in each full cycle, 2007 is the Year of the Pig. Especially interesting is that many believe 2007 is also the year of the golden pig, an event that comes around every 60 years.

Birth rates in China, where couples are allowed only one child, are through the roof this year because, supposedly, those born under this auspicious sign will be intelligent, healthy and live (plump) prosperous lives. Either way, the pigs around Chinatown are frickin' adorable.

Things I'm Still Getting Used To

Lest ye think it's all rainbows, leis and waterfalls here, I've compiled a list of things that underscore that even paradise has its quirks:

Humidity. Yes, I've admitted here before that I am a complete and total wuss when it comes to weather extremes. And my hometown certainly spoiled me in this regard -- rarely too cold, and rarely too hot. And little to no humidity.

But, oy, the humidity in Hawaii in late summer is a killer. Oh sure, it reminds me of the many wonderful memories I have of visiting my extended family on the East Coast during the summers. Of splashing in Montague, Massachusetts streams in August. Of July on the lake in Whiting, New Jersey. Of chasing after the ice cream truck in Brentwood, Long Island.

But the buzz of those sweet memories wears off quickly, especially when I crash face first into the reality that we don't have any air conditioning to escape to in our house. Yet.

The post-Costco experience. The things I love about my Costco are plentiful: the abundant Asian/Pacific Islander food staples that many of the folks who live here eat regularly; the friendly and professional pharmacy staff (truly hard to find); the amazingly fresh fish, sushi and sashimi; and the fact that it never seems to be crowded in the store or the parking lot -- even on a Saturday.

What I'm still struggling to get used to, though, is that they don't bag or box up any of your purchases for you at the check-out counter. This means that if you buy 25 different items (and that's a conservative estimate for me most visits), you leave with 25 different containers to transfer to your car and then transfer again to your kitchen. This can be tricky when there are small, slippery items and you're traveling with small, slippery children.

The price of milk. It's $5.00 a gallon here, even at Costco. It can be more at the regular grocery store, and you don't even want to know what 7-11 is charging. Liquid gold.

No curbside recycling. Despite the fact that we're living on a small island with extremely limited resources and space, Honolulu is only this month beginning to offer residents (in two test neighborhoods) a pilot curbside recycling program. What this means is that our bottles and cans and papers stack up (and the fucking sugar ants always find the pile) until one of us can make a run to the nearby recycling center and hurl the whole ant-infested mess into the bins.

Fucking sugar ants. Sure, they're about a third of the size of the standard-issue picnic ants I'm used to from the mainland. Hell, I even called them cute for the first couple weeks here. Now? Now they are no longer cute. I curse them, loudly, as I battle their persistent streams through the kitchen and bathroom daily. They dance and frolic on the totally ineffective ant bait stations I set out for them. I loathe them.

Mullets. And rat tails. On kids. 'Nough said.

Fall Break. As the kids these days always say: WTF? Yes, you've heard of Spring Break, that much-needed week off in springtime when the weather's just starting to warm up again and the kids are thrilled to have a quick week off. Here in Hawaii, though, in addition to Spring Break, Winter Break, and Summer vacation, they have what's called "Fall Break" -- a full week plus one day off from school during the first week of October.

Really, folks, we don't need this. We were just beginning to hit our stride on the whole school routine thing. And this? This is really just a bummer. Couldn't we extend summer by another week (school started on August 1st!) and just skip this strange middle part, hmmmm?

We are so many hours behind the rest of you. By the time I have a free moment to pick up the phone and make a phone call to a friend or someone in my family, it's almost always too late in the day to do so. Since Hawaii doesn't participate in daylight savings, this will get slightly better in late October, when the difference between HI and say, NJ or NC will only be five hours and the difference between HI and CA will only be two hours.

But for now I've got to force myself to get on the phone in the mornings, typically my worst time of day, to chat with friends and family. But after I do I'm glad I did, as it soon becomes a highlight of my day.

EDITED TO ADD:

This cartoon strip, sent to me from Hotel Waikiki (thanks!), says it all.

Grehec Is Home

Above:

Finn's journal entry for Thursday, September 20th, 2007.

(Translation:)

Gretch is Home.

Tonight Auntie Gretch is coming over for three days.

It's true: We had our first non-Grandma-Emely visitor last week when Auntie Gretchen visited us here in our new Hawaii home!

We had lots of fun together. We went to the beach, watched Finn play soccer, and even visited John downtown, skipping over to Chinatown for some yummy lunch.


Her visit happened to fall on the autumnal equinox, so Auntie Gretch showed all of us the famous egg trick, wherein an egg stands on its end (with the assistance of little salt) as the Earth is in perfect balance.

Gretchen and I even had a chance to fill the better part of an entire day exploring Honolulu while John took the kids to the beach. Our outing started with a gorgeous hike up to Manoa Falls, assisted by some bamboo walking sticks, sunscreen and mosquito repellent.









After working up quite a hunger on the trail, we retreated to the famous Wai'oli Tea Room & Bakery, built in 1922 and set in a lush and secluded parcel of property in Manoa Valley owned by the Salvation Army.



It's also rumored to be the place Robert Louis Stevenson stayed while he lived in Hawaii. (You know, while eating scones and sipping Darjeeling.) We had a long, leisurely lunch unfettered by tiny, loud voices. Delightful.


All in all, it was a great visit -- although over much too quickly. We are reminded regularly here in Hawaii, living in the most remote major inhabited city on the planet, just how important the strong bonds of friends and family are -- no matter the distance.



And time and time again, we feel so blessed to be able to follow our dream of living in the beauty of Hawaii while at the same time keeping such a wonderful support system around the globe.

Aloha Antee Grech, indeed.

The View From Here

From the seats of our dining room table, we can see the majestic green ridge of the Koolau Mountains out our windows. Every day the view is different, depending on the light, the clouds, and the mists that typically surround them.

(This view sure beats looking at our neighbors' beat-up, weekend surf vehicles, which was what our old dining room window view used to offer.)

From our bedroom at night, we can gaze out the window and watch the moon rise above the ridge line above our valley.

During the daytime, provided you crane your neck around a tad, the same window provides a glimpse of a mango tree, a lychee tree, an avocado tree, a strawberry guava tree, and a tangerine tree (pictured below, in front of the cactus).

These generous shade providers (all but one have yet to bear ripe fruit so far) surround a large grassy area where the kids are able, for the first time, to run through the sprinklers and kick a soccer ball around in their own back yard, instead of having to retreat to the neighborhood park.

And on clear days -- and most of them are -- from our backyard we can see a slice of sky where planes pass over the eastern tip of Oahu as they make their way back to the mainland.

I imagine the people on board, slightly sunburned and well rested, pants and skirts perhaps a little snugger than when they arrived from all the good food, but relaxed and better off all around from the time they've spent here in Hawaii. And not once yet have I wished I was on one of those planes instead of where I am now.

On Tourist Dress-Up Day

EDITED TO ADD: Janice, you totally called it. He wore dark blue socks with his strappy sandals for the authentic clueless tourist look. Here's another shot, for full effect:

Her First French Braid

This Was The First Photo I Took In Hawaii

Things I Already Love About Living Here

• Trash (rubbish, it's called here) is picked up TWICE a week, not once.
  
• People drive slower here than they do in California. In a good way.
  
• Finn picks up freshly fallen plumerias on his walk to school every morning.
  
• I can hear doves, ducks or gekkos at almost any time of day or night.
  
• I can buy sashimi, poke and fresh sushi -- in bulk -- at Costco.
  
• There are certain views, roads and vantage points that remind me of my favorite parts of Baja.
  
• The local food options (gourmet dining aside) are plentiful, affordable and diverse.
  
• The ocean water temperature is so warm you can stay in the water for hours before chattery teeth and blue lips set in.
  
• I used to think the famous Hawaiian trade winds could be a bit annoying -- erratically blowing things over, encouraging dust in the house, even waking up our always lightsleeping little Shea in the middle of the night. Then we had a couple of still, sweltering August days without them and I quickly had a change of heart. Now I LOVE the trade winds, dust and all.
  
• The slower pace here reminds me of my former home town, as it was during the '70s.
  
• Can't bear another burger? You can order Saimin at the airport, at Ala Moana Beach -- and at McDonalds.
  
• The only time I've put on a sweater here was when the air conditioning in a restaurant was turned up too high for my personal climate zone.
  
• Hanauma Bay.
  
• People really do live aloha here.

Living La Vida Aloha

Well, hello there!

We took a long break, then a long last look, then a long plane ride, and now we're here.

Living in Hawaii.

Pinch me; I still sometimes can't believe it's true.

Many of you have kindly inquired about what life's been like now that we're somewhat settled into our new routine and location, so I've assembled a mini primer for you with lots and lots of photos!

OUR NEW ISLAND LIFE IN REVIEW: DOMESTICITY EDITION

Every Friday we try to make a trip into "town" to visit John on his lunch hour.

Sometimes we pack a picnic, as we did when we watched the Royal Hawaiian Band perform on the grounds of the Iolani Palace.

Sometimes we visit prominent Hawaiian cultural sites, like the statue of King Kamehameha in front of the Aliiolani Hale, the home of the Hawaii State Supreme Court.

And sometimes we simply venture into Chinatown for amazing noodle dishes and fresh produce.

Bourgeois as it may seem, Saturdays are generally reserved for chores and household cleaning and repairs, (and more recently, soccer games, but more on this in a future post), but every Sunday we try to explore a new beach. I think there are enough on this island to keep us busy in this pursuit for years.

But on a day-to-day basis, it's really just business as usual around these parts.

Since it's been quite hot and humid, the kids seem to subsist on the standard summer diet staple across the nation: Popsicles. The only twist is that most of theirs are homemade, and should really be called POGsicles.

There is also much Play-Doh action in the backyard.

The biggest news, I suppose, is that little Finn -- my firstborn who it seems only just recently came home from the hospital bundled in a baby blue onesie -- started KINDERGARTEN.

Shea's also leaving babyhood behind at an alarming rate by doing extremely well in her potty-training adventures. I think (*fingers crossed*) that we're just days away from finally throwing away all the diapers and Pull-Ups. (Or at least tucking them away in the back end of the closet.)

Other regular activities include:

Costume dress-up...

Tandem skateboarding...

And bandying about in only bathing suits...


or even less.

Yeah, we pretty much love it here.

Coming Up For Air

I had forgotten about moving.

About how it requires you to process EVERY SINGLE THING you own and weigh it on the scales of importance or relevance in your life.

About how, now that we’re a family of four (as opposed to the last time we moved, when we were just Newlyweds: Plenty of Free Time Not as Much Stuff Party of Two, your table's ready), four people accumulate more than four times their worth of necessary stuff.

About how liberating and freeing getting rid of the clutter in your life can be, granting you a fresh start and a clean slate.

After about five days of weeding, packing and cleaning, running on an average of five hours of sleep each night, too much coffee and visions of sandy Hawaiian beaches, I started to feel the surreal hum of our impending life change.

And it was exhilarating.

* * * * *

John will be leaving for Hawaii this week and the kids and I will follow next month, eager to begin our new adventures in the islands.

We’ve all been looking pretty shaggy lately, what with all the moving boxes and dust flying around, so we took the chance this past weekend to get ourselves much-needed haircuts.

Here’s a shot of the results of Shea’s first sit-in-the-seat-like-a good-girl haircut. She was a champion.