Aloha Donny

On my first visit back to Hawaii back on '04 we stayed in a beautiful house across the street from my folks', a place called Mahinani. The Mahis are friends of my parents, members of their congregation and they had vacation homes and a tree farm. It was a beautiful visit, a beautiful house. One night Joanna (my friend who came along) made a fantastic chicken curry dinner and we had Don join us, since his wife was working on Oahu. He was a very nice guy, we enjoyed visiting with him.  At one point I remember he was riding his big mower around and I discovered the cattle egret following in the freshly mowed grass, cleaning up the bugs.

About 2 1/2 years ago Don was diagnosed with cancer and began a long battle, which he recently lost. He was loved by very many people here in the islands and on the mainland. He was 64 years old, the youngest of 4 siblings, all of them having survived him. He has 2 daughters, a son and a loving wife. 

Knowing that his memorial would draw a massive crowd the family opted to have a "private" event on Saturday 8/23. They rented a big white tent (same style as the wedding 2 blogs back), invited our whole congregation as well as probably 100 other special, close friends and family. So even though this was meant to be a small memorial it was still rather large. 

One of his closest friends locally gave his memorial talk. A soft-spoken man who seems to have a shortage of self-confidence and was probably fighting back the tears through much of the talk. But he did a fantastic job, his talk was very clear and touching. The family members then took turns telling stories of Don as a child and young adult. 

Per normal Hawaiian tradition there was once again live Hawaiian music, a Hawaiian feast of finger foods (pupus) and late in the evening the hulas began. Unfortunately I didn't stay long enough to see the hulas. Next time I'm sticking around!

Something that was different from the way it's done back home on the mainland - they had his ashes there. They were in a beautiful hand made wooden box draped with leis. Very classy.

Don was quite the fellow and is missed by throngs. We're all looking forward to reuniting with him in the future paradise and he'll be more like the vibrant man I met back in '04.

"Free" Day

Without the parents at home, anyway...

So, what did I do?






I washed all the noni juice containers

Did a load of dishes










Did a load of laundry (that includes hanging it!)

Painted half the kitchen ceiling and caulked a crack in the plywood

Painted some of the strips that will go on the kitchen ceiling

Filled 10 noni juice bottles

And now - - - - 


It's time for a BEER!



Oh yeah - I wrote this blog!

Ku'uipo...

...is Hawaiian for sweetheart. That would be these two, Bryan and Rebecca.

I got to attend my first Hawaiian wedding, or rather, the reception, last Saturday. It was quite refreshing.

It was, as far as I know, 100% witnesses and was in a beautiful setting, one of the many botanical gardens here on Kauai, Na Aina Kai. Everyone was nicely dressed and polite. The kids were well behaved. Although they did serve beer and wine there was no bad behavior or drunkenness. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. I'm sure the young couple were extremely pleased with the way things had turned out.

I enjoyed the total Hawaiianness of the whole thing, the decorations were gorgeous and the food was perfect. They had pupus ready almost immediately. So we all nibbled until the very native meal was ready. We had all the dishes I recall from my youth. All that I loved and those I didn't! At least I already knew what to enjoy and what to avoid!

I'm going to let the pictures tell most of this story.


The decorations were made with ferns, orchids, heleconia and gingers.

A father and two of his offspring were our live entertainment.





Pupus included fried wonton, kalamari, edamame, sushi and salted local fish.



Dinner was massive. What I had (my favs) included poi and lomi salmon, kalua pork, plain old salad, rice and that thing wrapped in a ti leaf, lau lau. Unwrap it and you'll find that blob. It's pork and/or fish salted, then wrapped in spinach leaves, then cooked in the ti leaves. Yum!

Everyone looked so nice and look at how good these potential juvenile delinquents are behaving! The party carried on til after dark (which is only about 7:30) but us old folks called it a night early. Good party!