Momma Linda: Thursday, December 21 In Hawaii

2017. In Hawaii. Today was the day designated to visit the Wagners over in Hilo on the other side of the island. With all the rain the Big Island has had over the past two to three days, we had heard that Mountain Pass roads had been closed due to the bad weather. The forcast called for a.m. showers and sunshine in the afternoon, so we decided to head south for the drive to Hilo and circle about the island in that manner. And it worked. We did have lovely weather.

I love the reflection of the clouds on the water. We drove south from where we were and this was not very far down the road. The clear skies were so welcome after much rain.

But, if you count the beginning of the day as being midnight, ours started out rather alarminly, as my phone rang about then, and it was Gayela inside the house and she just said, "I need your help. I need your help." I pictured Mike's mom fallen down or something, but it was Gayela. SHE had fallen in the night while trying to get up off her bed on the couch. she tore up her left hand and it had been bleeding quite a bit. She couldn't find bandages or anything, she wondered if it needed stitches. But it wasn't deep. It was a round wound near the base of her thumb, but on the back of her hand. She'd rinsed it well under running water, and it was just a flap of skin. I don't know how she did it, and neither did she. Maybe a nail from her other hand? Well, I got her some neosporin ointment and we bandaged her up and she went back to bed, all be it, rather shook up. I think I just went right back to sleep. In spite of Mike's snoring. It was quite cool tonight due to the rain.

I made breakfast this moring of oatmeal for some of us. That was interesting. Kay had said that she has "instant hot water" in her laundry area. Hmmm. I looked. I didn't see anyting that looked like it might be "instant hot water. " I saw a hose come out of the ceiling and a tap at the utility sink. There were two hot water tank-looking things. I know she has solar hot water. I couldn't figure out what she meant, so I just heated the water in a pot on the stove. Which I scrubbed out, along with the lid that sort of went with it. I also cut up papaya. I had purchased them at the farmer's market, I think sometimes that fruit sellers buy second rate stuff. My papayas were rather bruised and it was hard to find just perfect ones. There are some that will definitely be made into smoothies tomorrow. I had picked and brought home several star fruites, too, and I seem to be the only one eating those. Oh well. Mike had juiced a bunch of tangelos, so we had juice, too. Those who didn't have oat meal had the last two [stale] sticky buns. Fruit, oatmeal, juice. It wasn an okay breakfast.

We determined that we'd head over to the other side of the island around 9:30 and maybe stop at Volcano national park. I honestly couldn't find where I'd written any notes about when or where to meet with Wagners, so I figured it was 1 pm. Or noon. But they called US around 11:30 am while we were approaching Volcano park, so we drove on by and met them at at shopping center and then they led us in their car and we followed to a nice Japanese restaurant in Hilo. That stinky Greg-- I HEARD him telling the waitress as we were being seated that he was paying for all. I objected and stated that we'd invited them and wanted to treat them to lunch and I never saw the check! He was so sneaky that the waitress already had his card. He snuck it to her somehow. Ugh. AND, I'd forgotten about Gail Wagner and her humongeous heart of gold and she'd brought GIFTS for us ALL! Beautifully sewn tote bags of Hawaiian print fabric. Gorgeous. And Hawaiian Calendars, too . My measly little set of cards seemed woefully inadequate (no offence, Gail O, maker of said cards). Then the took us to their daugher's ice cream/shave ice shop in the same shopping center and Mike bought us all dessert. Yummy ice cream. THEN the took us to Hilo Chocolate Factory and we just walked around and looked. Too pricey for our tastes. I should have saved some of the photos I took in there. Fancy-Schmancy. Very prettily decorated for Christmas. THEN they kind of escorted us out of town. Mike had just said, as we were getting into our car, "How do we get out of here?" and they said, "Follow me," so we did. And instead of just pointing the way at the proper intersection , the went about 5 miles out of their way. All this when they were supposed to be picking up their grand kids from school. "It's okay. We called the school." Wow. Anyway, it was a great afternoon with them. Berenice enjoyed the time spent with them. She'd just seen them in October, I think. They drove through when I was on my way out of town for something. Maybe it was September and I was on my way to Turkey. I didn't see them that trip, but Mike did. They (theWagners) have done a lot of traveling. So has Kay and her husband! The Wagners to the Mainland, the Wilson's to Asia on tours.

Eating out with the Wagners. Japanese food. Berenice ate sea weed.

At "Brain Feeze" ice cream and shave ice store. We hand some dessert here. Yummy ice cream.

The candy factory had interwsting things to see. This lookes like a space machine.

It was a rather high end place. Those are crystals hanging from the ceiling. We did not buy any of our chocolates from this place.

Just some more if the pretty decos.

Driving home from Hilo, we went North and West, making it a total loop around the Big Island. We took a scenic drive along the coast. We stopped in Honoka'a at Tex Drive in for Malasadas. One does not go to the Big Island without getting some of those. Portugese donuts. Fried goodness. They sure cost a lot more than they used to. We were still full from lunch, but managed to eat a half a one. Except Mike. He had a WHOLE one, plus a big dr. pepper to keep awake while driving (didn't work). Drove home via mountain road, passing through fog and showers, sunshine and sunset. In Kailua-Kona, we stopped at a Long's Drug and Mike went in and bought some of their "on sale" chocolate-covered mac nut candies that he wanted to bring home. We have an extra suitcase just for that. ha. And the stuff I plan to purchase from Kay. It was a Very Long Day. Tiring day. I thought we'd about "done in" poor Berenice. She could barely make it into the house, she was so worn out from sitting in a car all day and walking around shopping centers (She and Gayela even stayed in the car while Mike and I walked through the Chocolate Factory in Hilo).

Check out those gorgeous clouds in the distance.

These are tbe very pretty bags that Gail Wagner made for the three of us.

Kay was so surprised that we were home so soon. She was bustling about in her yard and in her kitchen when we arrived. I guess it was close to 6 pm. She said she had company coming for dinner and they would be eating in the downstairs dining area. (!) That is where we are staying and we have stuff kind of strewn all about there (just a little, actually. Mike and I have stuff strewn all about the inside of our shed. ) She (Kay) had made Chili and some rice and "I think there will be enough for you folks, too, and when they come I'll just have them come in down here and sit down while I finish getting the things ready" Well, it IS her house, but we were so tired and had planned to have a simple light dinner of things that would help use up all the groceries we'd bought. I'd planned on egg salad sandwiches, fruit, chips. She was merely feeding the missionaries this evening, so we were happy to oblige. I wondered about plates and utensils, as I could't stand the thought of trying to find enough dishes to feed everyone and having to scour them all first, but she had plenty of paper goods down there on a nearby table that I had not inspected. She uses them all the time for her Family Home Evening group she hosts once a month. I hurried and boiled the eggs , and I cut up a pineapple. She brought down some chili, rice, and some salad. She had some juice, some corn on the cob which was cold, and Berenice absolutely abhors cold food when it's supposed to be hot, so I just went and warmed hers in the microwave really quickly. I thought it looked like field corn, so I didn't have any. I had some salad, a sandwich and some pineapple. I did dry a few bites of her chili and rice. We shared our donuts with the missionaries. I noticed that Kay did not eat hers. She is not much into sweets like we are. ha. Everything needs to be healthy. She sent missionaries home with chili and rice and cookies.

After dinner was cleaned up and taken away (she almost tried to give away our donuts to the missionaries, but Berenice had me put them away post haste), and Kay had gone upstairs, we just broke out the playing cards and enjoyed some "Kings in the Corner" card cames. All four of us. I even took a picture, but it's on my camera and it'll be a while before the blog will get photos downloaded. I need wifi for my phone to do the pictures from it, even. It's very weird. I can spend hours doing an email thing, but I don't want to. I just cannot access them until they are downloaded or something ...they are just "Lost" as far as I'm concerned..

Before she left this evening, Kay asked me to drive all our trash and all her trash and recycling to the dump that is a quarter mile down the road. She just took it all away the other day, I thought. So I guess I'll be going to the dump tomorrow? We also are expecting a phone call from the Carls in the morning at 8 am. She (Joann Carls) called and left me a message while were somewhere driving or eating or something today. They will be able to meet us tomorrow. There's one more activity taken care of!

And my Saturday plans are arrangeed. I'm pretty excited about that. :-) going to Kayak across the bay and back, snorkle at Captain Cook Monument. Should be fun!.