Hawaii 2023: July 26 – August 1: Waimea, Kauai

Our first stop on our vacation to Hawaii was to Kauai. Our time on Kauai is usually slow-paced and laid back, but this week was very busy. We landed in Lihue, rushed to Waimea, and started cooking for a BBQ that night. Caroline and her family were visiting and our time overlapped only by about 6 hours!

On top of that, Aunty Laura and her husband Bill were visiting from St. Charles, IL. Laura’s daughter, Cory, was visiting from Aspen, CO. And her son, Danny, and his family were visiting from Riverside, IL.

If that’s not enough, good family friends Tandy and Chris and their family were visiting from Seattle, WA. And we ran into multiple childhood friends of Dallas’s who just happened to be in town for a few days.

We had a very busy week, but we were very thankful to be able to spend time with so much friends and family!

1. Family BBQ
We ended up being awake for more than 24 hours but it was worth it to see so much family. Especially thankful to meet our new nephew, Luca.


Back: Danny, Caroline, Rory, Niko, Jose, Caroline, Grace, Kathy, Dallas, Makai, Cory, Luca
Front: Bill, John, Laura, Cathy, Dee, George

Makai and Grace were happy to see each other (and started playing video games immediately!)


Niko


Last time we visited Caroline, she was pregnant. Luca was born shortly after. 5 months old.

Dallas happy to meet Luca.

Makai and his dad grilling meat.

Grace had been on Kauai since the end of May – something like 8 weeks! She demands to know who invited all of these annoying boys (John, Rory, Makai). This was also 5 seconds before that ball went over the cliff into the valley.
Aunty Laura and Luca

Makai, John and Rory eating Kathy’s homemade guri-guri.

Dallas and Danny


George, Caroline, Cory, Luca, Caroline

Giant spider!

Danny, Caroline, Rory, and John Hara stayed at The Point at Poipu on Kauai. They were traveling together with Danny’s mom Laura (Fukuda) and her husband Bill Dubois, as well as Danny’s sister, Cory Hara.

It was fun for all of the kids to be able to hang out together. Makai joined Laura, Bill, Rory and John one night at Luau while the rest of us went out to dinner. Makai stayed overnight at the resort and loved swimming with Rory and John in the resort pool. They also all stayed a couple nights in Waimea with Kathy and George.

Aunty Laura (Fukuda) is Grandpa George Crowell’s first cousin!

2. Pooltime at The Point at Poipu
Dallas golfed with his parents and Danny while the rest of us had an all day pool day! Then Makai joined Aunty Laura, Bill, Rory and John for a luau in Kapaa while Dallas and I went to dinner with Danny, Caroline and Cory at Japanese Grandma’s Cafe and drinks at Port Allen Sunset Grill & Bar.

View from Aunty Laura’s room at The Point at Poipu.

First lava flow… and maybe the only one I had!

3. Japanese Grandma’s Cafe

Cory and I both wanted to try the sparkling sake. It was a big bottle – like regular wine size!

Fried wonton taco with poke inside.

Fried rice with tuna on top.

Maki roll.

Hamachi.

Lilikoi gelato.

Dallas, Rachelle, Caroline, Cory, Danny

4. Luau at the Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach

While we were at dinner, Makai joined Aunty Laura, Bill, Rory and John at a luau! Then Makai stayed overnight at The Point.

5. Kauai Rooster Hat
 Caroline liked Makai’s hat. I dug out these old photos to show how old it is! Later on she ended up finding it at Kukui’ula and buying one each for John and Rory.

6. Leapin’ Lizards!
Made me jump when I saw it move out of the corner of my eye in the bathroom in Waimea!
7. Swimming at The Point at Poipu
Makai stayed overnight at John and Rory’s and did a lot of morning swimming.

8. Salt Pond Beach
Dallas and I met up with them at Salt Pond Beach Park where we saw endangered Hawaiian monk seals on the beach.

9. Waimea Town
Dallas went home to cook. We then hit Shrimp Station and JoJo’s Shave Ice. Makai and John named all the chickens — the biggest one was named Todd, for some reason!

10. Egret!?I saw this in the yard!

11. Bon Dance at Waimea Higashi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple
Later on we went to the bon dance festival. Dallas ran into multiple childhood friends, some of whom he hadn’t seen for decades!

Festival Food: Akule
(got an extra one to bring home for George! Aunty Jane, working the counter, talked me into banana bread and coffee cake too!)


Festival Food: Andagi (Okinawan Donuts)


Festival Foods: Flying Saucer


Festival Food: Pronto Pop (corn dog)



Dallas was surprised to see his childhood friend, Kari. She lives in LA now! Her parents still live in Waimea and her dad told us a lot about the Bon Dance.

We found out Tandy was in town, but Dallas was surprised to see his childhood friend Lad and his sister Rona at the dance too!


Makai and John – John wanted to know when the ninjas were going to jump out!

Bon Dance begins! The leader at the temple came from Japan via Honolulu. This was the first Bon Dance since before covid!

We found out the next day that the woman in white is Janice’s grand daughter, Dana!

12. Family Monopoly Game
Dallas and his mom found their family Monopoly set and figured it is close to 70 years old. The hotels and houses are made of wood.

13. Day at Home
We did laundry. I sat sat on the porch alternating between looking at a book and looking at the ocean. Makai helped grandpa with yard work and running errands. Dallas and Kathy prepped for a party later.

14. Makai, Meet Makai
Makai and I went to get lunch at Porky’s and the guy that took our order was named Makai!

Grilled Cheese with Kalua Pig

Kalua Pig Bowl

15. Friends BBQ
We had a big barbecue with friends and it was great to spend time with people we had not seen for a long time!!!

On one of our past trips, Dallas made chimichurri, which is not a common thing to eat in Hawaii. Aunty Nancy requested he make it again. Janice made homemade pronto pops (corndogs) and the kids loved them. Rory ate 4 in a row! Janice’s grand daughter, Dana, handmade ti leaf and plumeria leis. And funny story, we discovered I’d taken a photo of her the night before dancing at the Bon Dance!

At one point, we realized every one of the kids at the party were hapa haole so we took a photo of them all together.

Dallas invited Ladd and Rona, who we’d run into the night before at the Bon Dance. Kathy was so bummed out she didn’t get to see them because she skipped the dance. She was so shocked and excited to see them at her front door!

Caroline and I, both from Wisconsin, talked with Såfina for a while. She is going to Lakeland University in the fall for Physical Therapy and to play volleyball. I hope we get to see her and her family more since she will only be 2 hours away from Chicago!


Rory running after Janice’s wontons!


Janice’s grand daughter, Dana, hand made these ti leaf and plumeria leis!

Makai, John, Rory

Janice made homemade pronto pops (corn dogs). Rory ate 4 in a row!

Dallas, Ladd, Uncle Bob, Swede, Marissa, Uncle Bob’s brother Warren, Safina, Aunty Nancy

Xavier, Janice, Kathy, Dana (Janice’s grand daughter)

Chris, Kai, Kanoa, Tandy, Rory

Danny, Tandy, Kanoa, Kai, Chris, Safina, Nancy, Caroline, Warren, Marissa, Bob, Dallas, Ladd, Swede, George, George, Linda, Rona

All the hapa kids! Back: Safina, Swede, Kai. Front: Makai, Rory, John, Kanoa

All the hapa kids! Back: Safina, Swede, Kai. Front: Makai, Rory, John, Kanoa

Make a funny face!

Childhood friends reunited: Tandy, Dallas, Rona, Ladd, Marissa


Aunty Nancy, Uncle Bob, Ladd, Rona

Kanoa and Rory

16. Sleepover
John and Rory stayed over 2 nights in Waimea!

17. Mini Golfing 
Kathy took Rory, John and Makai mini golfing at Kukuiolono. Chris, Kai and Kanoa joined them!

18. Shopping at Kukui’ula
With Dallas and Danny golfing with George, and Kathy taking the boys mini golfing, Caroline and I had free time to go shopping!Lappert’s in Hanapepe closed and there was a rumor that the one in Poipu did too, but luckily that was untrue!

Funny sign.

Lunch at Living Foods

19. Red Salt
We went out to eat with Danny and Caroline at Red Salt in the Koa Kea Resort in Poipu. This was our first time to Red Salt. I didn’t love my entree and it was very expensive. Also felt like we were sitting in a hotel lobby. Our view was people getting in and out of the pool. For the price would expect a more luxe setting and exceptional food.



Driving from Poipu to Waimea

20. Waffles
Rory and John stayed overnight. Makai got up early and made everyone waffles.

21. Legos
Makai and John and Rory played Legos with Dallas’s old Legos many of the days of the week!

22. Salt Pond
We met Caroline and Danny at Salt Pond Beach Park. The two Monk Seals were not on the beach any more, but there was one in the water that just kept circling. Every time it came by everyone had to get out of the water!

23. Waimea Town
Afterwards we had lunch at Shrimp Station and Island Taco and JoJo’s again!

24. More swimming!
Makai went to swim at Caroline and Danny’s condo. The kids were tired from a long day!

23. Stevenson’s Library
Dallas and I had dinner at Stevenson’s Library with Tandy, Chris, Kari and Jeff.
Jeff and Kari, Dallas and Rachelle, Tandy and Chris

24. Grandpa’s Pidgin Lesson


Spring Break in Washington

Our niece, Lilinoe, was born at the end of 2019, so we booked a trip to see her in the spring of 2020. That trip got canceled + we’re finally using our credits to visit. Lilinoe is already 2 years old! Happy to meet her + see Liz, Jordan + Mahealani, who we haven’t seen for almost 3 years.

Leaving Chicago

Touchdown in Seattle

Breakfast our first morning at Jordan + Liz’s house.

Me + Lili

Mahea + Makai

Mahea + Lili

Makai and his cousins Mahealani + Lilinoe. And meeting their puppy, Betty!

And speaking of Betty…

Makai and I totally fell for this pup and wanted to take her home!

She is a Boston Terrier that Liz got for Jordan for his birthday, making her only a few months old!

We arrived in Seattle on a Thursday night, got our rental car and drove up to Everett, Washington, where we had a hotel room. Since it was late we went right to bed. The next morning we went to Jordan and LIz’s house for breakfast (see photos above) and then spontaneously decided to take a ferry somewhere.

Makai had never been on a ferry up here (he has been on an NYC ferry).

We drove to Edmonds and took the ferry across to Kingston where we had lunch at Westside Pizza + ice cream + played in the Port of Kingston Kiwanis Park before taking the ferry back across.

On the way home from the ferry, we stopped at the Funko Headquarters store in Everett. We’d told Makai about this before the trip and he was SOO excited.
Aside from all the figures for sale, they had a lot of fun displays of the characters they sell. Me with Batman and Robin.

Ironman!

Really cool Harry Potter display!

Disney princess castle.c

Captain America and Stan Lee.

Star Wars

Godzilla

I don’t know how each of these kids finally decided on one figure each! There were THOUSANDS to choose from! Mahea looked at every cat in the store: Mewtwo from Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Crookshanks from Harry Potter, the Cheshire Cat, etc.

Makai chose Captain America, Mahea got Chester Cheetah and Mahea got Hello Kitty.

This is Liz and Jordan’s second house in Lake Stevens. Dallas had visited them at their first place, but I never had been there. We were curious about the actual lake that Lake Stevens was named for, so Jordan took us to Lundeen Park and drove us around the whole lake.

Swimming at the Snohomish (neighboring town) aquatics center. It was SO nice for a public pool! Makai went down a big water slide about 10 times! Liz and Jordan took Mahea, Makai and Lili in. I stayed on the side.

After swimming the kids were soo hungry so we went to Blazing Onion. Liz and Lili went home and Dallas brought his parents to meet us.

Jordan and Liz had a barbecue and some of their friends and Liz’s family came over. I don’t know why I don’t have any photos except this one of Makai picking up McFurry. He was squirming around and Makai yelled “OW, MY NUTS!!!” in front of the whole BBQ. Luckily no one seemed to hear!

Liz and Jordan also have 3 goats that they rescued: Marley, Fig and Peso! Makai LOVED them. Every day he visited them in the barn and fed them different plants to see what they would eat.


Makai liked to ride around on this motorized tractor. He called it his “Joe Deer” and because he can never be wrong, referred to it as that for the whole trip.

Liz took us for a walk by their house.

That same day there was a random freak hail storm that was super localized today! Liz and Kathy were at a store not far away and there was no hail at all! Kind of fun since it wasn’t big enough to do damage.

WHO COULD IT BE??

Jordan and Dallas went to the casino for a while at night. Since Easter was around the corner, the rest of us decided to dye some eggs. Liz and Kathy dumped the leftover dye in the yard and the next day we found an egg out there too!

Dallas and I took Makai in to Seattle to show Makai some of the common tourist sites. It was fun to explore. I hadn’t been to Seattle for a very long time.

The first thing we did was get lunch at The Athenian. Chowder! Oysters! Fish + Chips! (Makai loves fish + chips now. We just had to tell him it was “fish sticks” like he has at school!) We ate very light because we knew there would be a lot of good things to eat at the market!

We walked through Pike Place Market where the vendors were selling all their wares. We saw the flying fishes being thrown and then we walked out through the gum alley and the gum wall! Dallas was SO grossed out!

We next visited the Seattle Aquarium where Makai’s favorite exhibits were the ones with the otters (both river and sea otters). He also told a volunteer “Me and my dad are from Hawaii” and talked about the tropical exhibit and the Hawaiian species there.

Dallas REFUSED to go on The Seattle Great Wheel and instead opted to sit at a bar in the market and drink a beer! Makai was scared, but in a fun way, he said.

Before we left, we stopped at Beecher’s and split a grilled cheese and some mac n cheese, which were both amazing. Jordan and Liz highly recommended Beecher’s and it did not disappoint. They also recommended Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery. We got two pastries to bring to dinner.

For dinner we visited Tandy and Chris on Mercer Island. They were moving literally in a couple days (just down the street), but were still nice enough to have us over and order pizza. Makai and Dallas met up with Tandy recently in Chicago when she was visiting for work, but the last time any of us had seen Chris or the kids was when I was pregnant and we visited them in Japan! Makai instantly made two new friends! Kanoa and Makai are close in age and have the same silly, punny sense of humor!

Jordan took us to Katsu Burger in Lake Stevens. We all really liked it. I had the Fried Chicken Katsu Curry which had curry powder, American cheese, tonkatsu sauce and curry.

After lunch, Jordan took Makai, Dallas and I to BobaKhan Toys. The store is packed with comics, toys and collectibles! They were all loving it! Makai was so overwhelmed when we asked him to pick something. He ended up getting an Avengers graphic novel, a Captain America pin and a magnet by ClockworkArt (Captain America reimagined as a cat).

Makai spent most nights sleeping in Grandma + Grandpa C’s room at Jordan and Liz’s house, while Dallas and I slept in a hotel room in Everett Hampton Inn, which was about a 10 minute drive away. Only on the first and last night did Makai stay with us. ^ Dallas’s parents went to Florida with Caroline’s family and got makai the NASA Cat in the Hat stuffie. The otter is from the Seattle Aquarium and the teddy bear from home.

It was nice in the morning to walk around Everett and do some exploring and to have some time to ourselves. We visited Narrative Coffee, but our favorite quickly became Choux Choux Bakery. It was very close to our hotel, had a daily rotating selection of bread and pastries, the coffee was good and the staff was really friendly.

This mural was near our hotel in Everett. It’s Breonna Taylor and Jatarius Tolbert, a local teen who was murdered.

On our last day of vacation, we decided to go into Seattle and hang out for a few hours, since it’s closer to the airport. Mark the Space Needle off the bucket list.

The Space Needle was fun, especially since there was no line! No photos of Makai because he was too afraid to go by the glass wall or in the rotating glass floor.

We ventured over to Belltown for lunch at Karaage Setsuna, a Japanese/Hawaiian restaurant. Makai asked to try the egg and spam maki then pounded the entire roll plus some fries and karaage chicken! Loved the restaurant and the neighborhood!

Our last activity in Seattle before heading to the airport was the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit. Dale Chihuly is from Tacoma and famous for his glass sculptures. I was so excited that we could now see his work while visiting Seattle – last time it was only in Tacoma. Everything was so gorgeous, I took sooo many photos!

Perkolator

Makai and I visited the cutest neighborhood cafe today. Perkolator. We sat a while, drew, did some computer stuff, and ate. Makai had hot chocolate. I had a latte.

Makai told me this is a dinosaur attacking Trump Tower.

We also bought some local art. Makai let me know this is Spiderman and Venom on the Chicago buildings.

Merrimac Park was a short walk away. The weather was unseasonably warm, so we went to check it out. I heard Polish speakers, Spanish speakers. I saw some moms wearing hijabs. Love the diversity in this one little park!

On the way back to our car we passed by the Austin-Irving Chicago Public Library. We stopped in and it was huge! The kids section was very large and included both Spanish books and Polish books!

Logan Square Harvest and Cider Fest

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This past weekend Makai and I went to the Logan Square Farmers Market like we do every Sunday that we can, but this weekend the market was hosting a Harvest and Cider Fest. There was pumpkin painting and scarecrow stuffing and lots of local food vendors as well as a bluegrass duo and a ton of (hard and soft) ciders.

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Makai loved painting a pumpkin. He painted and painted and painted. Kids came and left and he was still painting! I need to check on the pumpkin because it’s been out on our patio and I would bet the paint STILL isn’t dry! We also split an apple fritter from Stan’s Donuts, which Makai loved. I think he ate more than his fair share!

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At the market we got wax beans, another pumpkin, a gourd, tofu and we split a grilled cheese from Gayle’s Best Ever Grilled Cheese. The Sweetie Pie is made with Swiss cheese, raspberry jam and fresh pecans. It’s so good!

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I’m not 100% sure but we’ve got a busy October coming up, so this may be our last visit to the Logan Square Farmers Market. Here’s everything we got this season:

  • Week 01: Lilacs, asparagus, rosemary plant, grilled cheese from Gayle’s Best Ever
  • Week 02: Tomatoes, tofu
  • Week 03: Grilled cheese from Gayle’s Best Ever, rosemary bread, strawberries, tofu
  • Week 11: Rosemary sea salt caramel, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, cherry tomatoes, cheese curds, tofu, Indian bao, pierogi, Filipino empanadas
  • Week 12: Peaches, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries
  • Week 14: Tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, ghost pepperoni from Underground Meats, Jo Snow shave ice
  • Week 18: (Dallas + Makai) Raspberries, peaches
  • Week 19: Pumpkin that Makai painted, another small pumpkin, gourd, wax beans, grilled cheese, apple fritter, tofu

Same Day Cafe

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So, the Miko’s Italian Ice on Damen closes every winter, the same way the one on Sacramento does, but the difference is that in the winter the one on Damen used to become Flipside Cafe and served sandwiches and soup. I visited once and thought it was amazing. Like I still think about it.

Well, Flipside hadn’t opened the last 2 winters and now they’ve moved to Logan Square and are called Same Day Cafe. Dallas was in Indianapolis on business a few weeks ago and on a whim I took Makai in to check it out.

I was just going to get something to go, but no one else was there and it was a nice night, so I decided to stay. Actually, the whole time we were there, no one was there. I heard they’re busier in the morning and during the day, though. Everyone who worked there was really nice and our sandwiches were so good. What made them, what really made them, was the bread. It has rosemary in it and is made in house. SOOOO good. One word of warning: When the server set the plate on our table, Makai was so hungry he swiped the pickles right off the plate…. but they’re spicy pickles! He quickly spit them out and blew raspberries to try to get it all out of his mouth! hahahahaha

On a side note, some think Same Day’s sign, which is modified from the dry cleaning business that occupied the space before them, is the best cafe sign in Chicago.