The morning started off with us picking up our instructor and we made a quick pit stop at Starbucks. (I know, I was only one of those people or ha'ole's just once while I was here.We happened to be in the same shopping complex as Starbucks and I was in desperate need of some coffee so we just stopped in super quick.I do feel shame because I didn't come to Hawaii to have Starbucks but I think the Hawaiian gods will forgive me!) From there we were on our way to the taro patch.My instructor took us hiking through the rainforest essentially where we had to cross a creek on a 2 by 4 to get over to the taro patch.Here the people who live there grow the taro root and a myriad of other incredible fruits, vegetables and plants and flowers.We know this as sustainable living and they basically live in the rainforest and survive off of the food that they grow.One of the brother's has a PHD from Harvard and came up with the whole concept of this vast "garden" so to speak.It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.Not only did they have a huge taro patch that they sell to make into poi, they grow pineapple, broccoli, ginger, avocado tree's, bananas, papaya as well as so many other plants and flowers.
After we spent about an hour at the taro patch we went to Denny's to get some breakfast.Yes, they even have Denny's in Hawaii!LOL!After that we took a drive to a scenic lookout on the Pali highway at the Pali lookout.It was by far the windiest place I've ever been to in my life.I thought for sure I was going to fall over but thankfully enough that 120 pounds kept me in place.After that fun scenic lookout we took our instructor home and we stopped by a Roxy store by the house we are renting so I could pick up a few souvenirs for myself! (Yep, I pampered myself!Whoop whoop!) Then we stopped at Foodland to pick up a few other things for the dinner that I was planning on cooking.
I started cooking dinner about 4:30 and what came out of this dinner was as follows: fresh fruit salad with pineapple papaya and mango stuffed inside two pineapple shells, tossed salad with a papaya pickled ginger dressing, teriyaki chicken with caramelized pineapple, ono and mahi mahi in a white wine lime butter sauce topped with a papaya mango salsa, ginger sesame soy marinated thinly sliced beef, stir-fried vegetables with edamame, garlic and herb butter potatoes, and sweet Hawaiian rolls.All of this was successfully pulled off in a tiny kitchen, in someone else's house on a whole other island and everything turned out absolutely fantastic all except for one tiny problem, which was because the kitchen was so small and there was no exhaust system at all so we set the smoke alarm off!LOL!But Mrs.O'Sullivan came to the rescue and waved a kitchen towel in front of it and it stopped.Nothing like my adopted grandmother to come to the rescue.
So we sat outside on our lanai or patio and just enjoyed good company: me, my Mom, my Dad, my instructor/adopted grandfater, my adopted grandmother and Hilary.Dinner was fantastic and I had such a good time cooking for everyone and really sharing in this experience with everyone.Cooking is all about bringing people together and that's exactly what happened.They all really the experience and couldn't stop thanking me, so that was a huge success for me and made me feel incredible.After all of that, so much crammed into one day, it was time to call it a night.
Friday July 16, 2010
So this morning for the first time since we've been here we all slept in until about 8:30.Today was a beach day so we had some fresh fruit, muffins and juice on the lanai and went down to the beach.My Mom and I hung out for awhile down there just tanning, reading and enjoying the scenery while my Dad picked our instructor up and brought him back to the house.After staying down at the beach for awhile, we came back and had lunch and my instructor showed us some martially related Danzan Ryu Jujutsu material for a little bit and then we all showered and took a little nap.(The sun is just so draining!)
Pretty low key easy going day today and now I'm just watching the new Ochocinco show!Haha!A guilty pleasure of mine!Until tomorrow fans!!!!
I wanna hear about the training too... the food is killing me....
ReplyDelete