A parade and fireworks in Kailua-Kona

Independence Day is just around the corner and Kailua-Kona is gearing up to celebrate. If you will be in the area at the time, come on down. Aliʻi Drive through town will be closed to traffic to allow for the festivities. It all begins at 5:50 PM with a race for the children – a keiki run – heading out before the parade. The parade will begin at 6:00 PM proceeding through the center of town. Over 60 groups are expected to march. 

After dark the fireworks will begin at 8:00 PM. The organizers promise a spectacular display. Aliʻi Drive will remain closed to traffic to allow people to congregate and watch the fireworks which are set off on a barge in the bay.

We are fortunate in that our house looks down on the bay. So a group will gather after the parade for a barbeque and whisky tasting on our lanai. We look forward to that get-together each year.

A unique restaurant in Kawaihae

If you are staying at a hotel on the South Kohala coast or are up that way for dinner, a truly unique place to eat is the Blue Dragon Restaurant and Spa. The restaurant bills itself as Coastal Cuisine and Musiquarium. When they are open for dinner, which is Thursday through Sunday, they feature some of the top musicians on the island and a menu you want to work your way through.

We recently went there with some friends who hadn’t been to the Blue Dragon. We specifically went to enjoy our favorite slack key guitarist, John Keawe, who was playing and being accompanied by hula dancers (his wife Hope and two grandchildren). We have been enjoying the performances of John and Hope for the past 15 years.

As usual, we began the evening by sampling the scotch menu. We all selected the Glenmorangie Nectar d’Or, which is a delightful whisky. It has an excellent nose and a delightful fruity flavor. 

Then the really hard part of the evening began. We had to choose from the menu. The first thing that caught our eye was the Living Salad. The chef grows salad greens in small containers of vermiculite and serves them with a pair of scissors for clipping off the leaves and an excellent dressing for dipping. Accompanying the greens are baby carrots, daikon and cucmelons which are tiny melons with a cucumber taste. We had one container for the table and enjoyed clipping off the greens and dipping them in a Kiawe Honey Dressing. It is a truly unique salad that we had never seen before.

For appetizers Betty had Kohala crayfish which are raised in Kohala and were excellent. I had fried oysters which were equally good. For entrees Betty had lamb chops with a truly outstanding pomegranate-port wine-fig sauce. I had Cajun angel hair pasta with crayfish. We both savored our dishes which were again unique. I keep using that word, but the preparations are unlike anywhere else on the island.

To keep using the unique theme, we had a half mango with mango ice cream sprinkled with li hing mui. If you haven’t had that powder on anything it adds a wonderful flavor to sweet items. It was the perfect end to a delightful meal.

Our server, Nathan and his assistant Makani, were very attentive and knowledgeable about the menu and preparations. We and our friends will definitely be back to work our way through the ever changing menu.

Lake Waiʻau is recovering

In early April I posted a hope that the winter snows would help Lake Waiʻau near the top of Mauna Kea recover from years of drought. For those of you who don’t have my book, Lake Waiʻau exists at an elevation of 13,400 feet. It is a sacred place for Hawaiians and I can well understand that. It is unique, beautiful and the site of some interesting experiences that Betty and I have had. We first saw the lake in 1982 and although it was not large, it was breathtaking.

When we were putting the book together in the summer of 2013 we hiked into the lake to take a current picture of it. Much to our surprise the lake was almost non-existent. Years of sparse rain and snow on the mountain had taken its toll. The beautiful lake was then a mud puddle.

Well the snows and rain have come back to Mauna Kea. This year was a reasonable winter, the wettest we have had in many years. I am happy to report that the water level in the lake is much higher than it was last summer. It is probably at about 75% full. Another good year and the water level should be back to normal. That is welcome news to those of us to whom the lake is special.