Thursday, July 1: Another lazy day too! After dinner, we went to the Queen’s Marketplace to check out the art at the gallery that we liked with the surfboard art. We found the artist’s name and website. Dinner was the leftover prime rib from Sunday’s Buzz’s dinner, it was ok the second time, but better the first.

Wednesday, June 30: A nice and lazy day, we’re getting in the groove. Had Darrell come over for dinner, we had spaghetti and he was good company. Sandi is off to Seatlle for 3 weeks and Sandy thought it would be a good gesture!

Tuesday, June 29: More window cleaning in the morning. I think most of them are done now, a coat of Rain-X and we should be in good shape for another year. Today, the wind picked up a little and made the day perfect weather, a little overcast too.

Converted this blog to WordPress 3.0 and all seems to be working fine.

Did some afternoon research on martini making and picked up the necessary “ingredients” at the Village Market. I think drinking martinis is an acquired taste and we need more practice.

A nice and lazy day, we’re getting in the groove.

Saturday, I tihink, will be the day we explore the Visitor’s Center on Mauna Kea, should be fun!

Monday, June 28 (Day 8): Today we had our second golf lesson with Matt, our golf pro. We are working on our grip, our swing and our putting. In getting my set of clubs, our friend at the golf place in California sent ME a right handed putter with the rest of left handed set. Another call and another promise to send me the right (left) putter. We need lots of practice swinging in proper form, not necessarily hitting the ball.

We drove down to Kona to pick up a prescription for Sandy, checked out the local Target for a few essentials, did some banking and stopped by the KBC for dinner. On the way down, we stopped by the Kailua-Kona Autocare Center to see about the Subaru’s brakes and CV boots. Safeway after that and home for the evening.

Sunday, June 27 (Day 7): Today we went to Mass in Waimea with Fr. Bob. It was good to see him again. Deacon Bill was there as well, a little too wordy for me. He works too hard to come up with a sermon. We explored Waimea and went to the Hawaiian Style Cafe on the Mamalahoa Highway just before (east of) Merriman’s on the north side. It is a small place with a counter and HUGE pancakes. Good fare, interesting cheeseburger omlette for breakfast!

Went to the Farmer’s Market down by milepost 56 in the Waimea Country Club. The attendance was way down and the vendors were not too numerous, a little disappointing. We bought some bromeliads from a vendor there, they are called “Pink Quill”, beautiful but strange looking. 4 for ＄12.00!

Came home relaxed, hit some more balls on the range (closes at 4:00 p.m.) and then went to Buzz’s SandTrap restaurant down past the King’s MarketPlace. Good steak place, will try again. They have a pretty good SALAD BAR for ＄10.95. Sandy had the Prime Rib, Cowboy Style – lighly smoked on the Kaiwe wood grill and I had the New York, Peppercorn style. ＄5.00 Mai-Tai’s for 3:30 – 5:30 happy hour.

Started watching 24, the TV series, it could be addicting! on the Mac Mini via the Plex interface. I think the screen resolution of 1344 x 756 is just right to see while sitting down on the couch. Pretty cool stuff.

Saturday, June 26 (Day 6): Fix-it day, installed new towel racks, hook for our new mobile sculpture and other odds and ends around the condo. We cleaned the glass panels and floors inside and out and the easiest way is just on your hands and knees. Too much work.

Friday, June 25 (Day 5): Went to the range and “practiced” putting and hitting our 7-iron, this stuff takes some work! Friendly staff and really reasonable prices we are finding out. Practice, practice! A nice, cool overcast day to practice and we tried out Spike’s for lunch. I had the Cobb Salad and Sandy had the Roast Beef sandwich, both we delicious and we were out for about ＄30.00.

We went back to the Costco and Home Depot in Kona for a few more things before we install our new projects. I need some hooks and concrete bits for the mobile and  a level for the towel rack install. Picked up a bedroom Vizio 32″ LCD TV and the coax cable is just a few inched too short. We can save energy by re-cycling the old 20″ CRT TV and our eyes aren’t as sharp as they used to be. Should have picked up the cable at Home Depot, argh.. Costco chicken – yummy!

Came home and Sandy made here 7-layer dip for the 5:00 p.m. Friday night happy hour gathering by the pool. A nice group of folks and we picked up a few more eatery tips. “Buzz’s Sandtrap” (steak and salad bar) past the King’s Marketplace, in Waimea, the Hawaiian Style Restaurant (breakfast) and the Bakery in the KTA shopping center, the bakery on the way to Hilo on the northeast side, (I think this one is in the book).

Thursday, June 24 (Day 4): Sandy worked in the morning, I played with the Mac Mini installing the ripped movies I brought on the external drive. Installed Plex and Hulu, but didn’t bother with Boxee. It’s interface is too confusing for me and too cluttered. Great TV resolution but a little tiny to read at full 1080p, I have to play around with the resolution. After a few panic moments trying to enable sound (you have to enable it in the System Preference pane, Sound, Output and pick the Vizio TV), everything worked. The confusing thing is that the Mac tells you that the “Selected device has no output controls” leading me to believe, incorrectly, that the sound won’t work from the external display. Audio in fact works just fine, the only difference is that the computer sound icon/volume control is grayed out and no computer chirps/sounds come out on the TV. Audio is routed directly to the TV via the HDMI interface, as it is supposed to. The only sound from the computer now is the startup bong. 2 connections, TV and HDMI to the TV make connection a real snap now. Apple got this one right.

We went down to Kona to see a movie and had lunch at Don’t Mai-Tai bar. We brainstormed the idea of bringing Pat out to our place and set the plans in motion. The movie we saw was Knight and Day and I promptly fell asleep through 1/2 of it, oh well. We hit the Lowe’s, Macy’s and Safeway as well and Sandy made spaghetti for dinner. We found and purchased some nice towel racks to replace those in our bathroom and some new fixtures for the kitchen sink and our bathroom that we liked. We just have to find a handyman to install them.

We received our mobile from August Munich packed really well and safe. I am anxious to install it on the lanai.

This year I am a little slow about writing about our happenings here in Hawaii.

Wednesday, June 23 (Day 3): This was a work day for Sandy again. We also had our first golf lesson with Matt, the golf pro at the Pro Shop. We learned the grip techniques and practiced hitting a few balls. Our next lesson is on Monday, but we need to hit some balls on the range and practice puttiing before then. We need experience just with the ball and then some more fine tuning.

Lunch was at the Hawaii Calls restaurant in the Marriott down in Waikoloa. The dinner specials are still there and the roast beef sandwich was as good as last year. Our golf clubs arrived and we are anxious to give them a try.

Dinner was Ono, from the market, a fresh fish catch of the day for ＄6.99/pound. On the BBQ, it was a nice white, firm meat, excellent choice.

The Mac Mini came a day early and arrived late this afternoon!

Tuesday, June 22 (Day 2): Sandy did some early morning work. We walked to the market for the breakfast feast and came back. We did our errands down in Kona at the Home Depot, Costco, Macy’s and the Safeway store. We tried lunch at the Bite-Me cafe down in the Honokohau Harbor. They have 2.50 local fish tacos and they weren’t too bad!

We were exhausted with all the shopping and us being on the California time zone. We had to make several trips to the parking lot outside of the Fairways due to the paving activity. Dinner was just some wine and cheese and relaxation after we saw the sunset from the golf course.

Monday, June 21 (Day 1): We arrived right on time at 4:05 p.m. on Delta flight 1299 from LAX. The weather was not too bad and we made a beeline for my favorite place, the Kona Brewing Company. We had the 8.00 slice of pizza and the strawberry vinagrette dressing. It was delicious. We made it up to the Village Market for a few groceries before checking out our 2nd home.

Other than the paving coming up for tomorrow, everything is in great shape. We arrived tired but excited. It is a litle lonely without the kids, but they will be coming in August.

Spring Break and we went to the river house and to Douglas’ new place out in Prescott.

Monday, the 5th, we got our new Lennox air conditioner installed with a do-over on Tuesday. On Wednesday, “Manuel Ruiz” did some landscaping work for us. We replaced the old weed cloth with new and new gravel on top. The new gravel color is “desert brown”. Up on 95, there is a landscaping place where we picked out the color. The landscaping and “Manuel’s” cards are on the refrigerator for future reference.

For Sandy’s birthday, we tried “The Range“, a high end steak place at Harrah’s in Laughlin. It was pretty good, a little pricey but worth a nice birthday!

We also tried the Sunday-Thursday fajitas special at the Avi for 4.99. Can’t beat the price, fajitas not too bad!

In Prescott, we ate at the Olive Garden with Douglas and at the Prescott Brewery. The Prescott Brewery in downtown Prescott, is OK, fair pub food. We had pizzas and nachos to share.

On the way home, Sandy and I were craving a good mexican food meal. In Indio, right off the 10 freeway is “El Mexicali Cafe II” on 43-430 Monroe Street in Indio, 92201. The telpehone number is 760-342-2333 and the food was pretty good! Something to remember when traveling out that end of the world! Good margaritas and guacamole made table-side. It is the 2nd El Mexicali restaurant, the other is in downtown Indio.

It is about 350 miles from Prescott to Running Springs via I-10 to Quartzsite and Arizona 60-71-89 and about 450 miles if you go the I-40 to 89 route via Kingman and Ash Fork.

Friday

We spent the President’s weekend 2010 in June and Mammoth Lakes for skiiing! We left on Thursday afternoon from MPH and arrived at the Heidelberg Inn about 7:30 p.m. or so, just in time for ice cream sundaes. Dinner at La Casita in Bishop, fajitas not too bad. La Casita is on the left as you enter Bishop on South Main. We stopped at the Paiute Palace in Bishop for some R&R. It is about 4 hours to Lone Pine and about 2 more hours to June Lake.

Friday morning we headed via the Mammoth Scenic Loop cutoff (off 395 north of Mammoth) to Warming Hut 2, i.e., Canyon Lodge. We left about 8:30 and arrived just about 9:15 or so. Preferrred parking was well worth the ＄20, right next to the lodge. We rented equipment and purchased lift tickets at the lodge, ＄67 for demo rentals and ＄87 for lift tickets, OUCH!

We were on the mountain by 10:00 a.m. ready to ski. Canyon has some nice runs and we worked our way across to the Midway Lodge for lunch. Burgers were great and we ended up meeting Mr. and Mrs. Short from RIMHS, a small world! The afternoon had us wrapping up by 3:00 p.m. The weather was perfect, a little windy up top, but few lines and great snow.

After skiing, we toured the new Village Complex, a little area with the new Village gondola uploading to Canyon Lodge.

Dinner was at Giovanny’s pizza in the Von’s shopping center, it was pretty good! We were back to the Heidelberg for the 2010 Winter Olympics opening show. The Charthouse was filled with reservations already for Valentine’s Day!

Saturday

We had to check out of the Heidelberg Inn (we had 2 nights from our timeshare) and headed to June to ski on Saturday. We figured better to ski Mammoth on Friday and June on Saturday of a busy, holiday weekend.

Again, we rented gear at June. But, you have to purchase your lift ticket at the bottom, upload via Chair 1 and then rent at the rental shop up top. We were there by 8:45 a.m. and thought our line was long, we were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. We found out later, that the upload line went almost out to the street later in the day! Again, we were ready to ski about 10:00 a.m. or so. Lift tickets were ＄64 and demo rentals were ＄38, much more reasonable!

I think we need to have our own gear again, this was a pain in the a＄＄

We skied to about 11:30 or so and had lunch at the midway Stew Pot Slims at the bottom of Chair 7.

We skied the afternoon until about 2:30 or so, took the Silverado trail back to the lodge and downloaded to the car.

The Tiger Bar was our apres-ski stop for a quick beer.

We headed to Mammoth, checked out the McCoy shop in the Village for our ski photos from yesterday and picked up a couple. They came out quite nice.

Dinner was at Angel’s, on Main Street. The ribs (me) were delicious but the smoked prime rib (Sandy) was a disaster. I guess it it best to stick to what a restaurant specializes in! Dessert was at Eric Shat’s bakery and we are staying at the Best Western High Sierra Hotel. Nice and clean!

All for now. We need to try the Mammoth Brewery sometime!

Sunday

We decided to return home in the morning and pick up the ’82 Toyota truck at Grandma’s because the house is for sale and we are heading to the River next weekend. I think it is time to sell thet truck and move on … Eric Shat’s in Bishop was our  quick midmorning stop. What a bakery and so many choices. From Mammoth to Grandma’s was 5 hours on the GPS and from Lone Pine to Grandma’s was 3 hours. Mammoth to Bishop is about 35-45 minutes, downhill/uphill.

A great trip!

Monday – August 17: The last day, we are kinda sad but … life goes and and we will return, hopefully soon (Christmas?).

7:15 a.m. Just got back from the Waikoloa Village Market, last time to the bakery for breakfast snack. They truly do a great job there. I am finishing up our Welcome book, Sandy did the majority of the writing and I re-oranized it.

I am going to go on one last walk and hopefully, Sandy will go to one last water aerobics class.

7:45 pm – We are all checked in and awaiting our flight. Even though we were pretty packed up yesterday, it was still hectic until the end. The car took a little work, but I hope we got it.

Our last dinner was spaghetti and pineapple, the little white meat one we found down at the exotic fruit stand below Kona.

The sunset was beautiful, we used Adventurous Limo Service. He charged us 83 dollars plus tip, Adventurous Limo.

It is always interesting to leave Kona, there is nothing fancy here, just a waiting area in the open air.

I had an awesome time this summer, but we turn around Wednesday and take Rosie to Chico! We start to relax this weekend?

Sunday – August 16: It’s our 29th anniversary! We are going to Ruth Chris’ for dinner. Sandy called them, I didn’t bring pants and that is OK, just a collared shirt. How Sandy has tolerated me for 29 years is a miracle!!

We went to our last Mass at Annunciation in Waimea, took Rosie with us and then did our last minute shopping at the Parker Ranch Store. I will miss Father Bob.

Came home and began to get our stuff organized and packed up. We did lots of the organizing and tomorrow should be pretty easy to finish up our last minute stuff.

We started getting our Condo “Welcome” book together with all the stuff we have picked up and done over the summer. It looks pretty good.

Finally, dinner was fabulous at Ruth Chris’. I never been to one and the Filet Mignon 39.00 prix fixe meal was excellent. Highly recommended, but the wine prices are a little steep!

One more night and day left!

Saturday – August 15: Today we went exploring down south of Kona to 2-step beach. Unfortunately, there was a HUGE outrigger canoe race/s going on and the area was packed. The ranger advised us to head down to Ho’okena Beach Park to get away from the crowds. We took his advice and enjoyed the beach and the folks there.

Ho’okena is sort of a local place with a nice salt and pepper colored beach. As soon as we hit the water, we saw a baby turtle just enjoying his cruising in the bay. The water was clear and I wish I had the camera … but it was on the beach! Rosie and I went out later to see the turtle, but he/she was not in sight. We did see a miniature humu, about 1-2 inches long, but perfectly colored. He was very cute!

We stopped at Kona Joe’s coffee plantation on the way home to check out the coffee. They have trellis-grown coffee and have patented this process. I’m not sure I can tell the difference in their premium coffee, we’ll try it in the morning.

On the return trip, we did a few errands. We stopped at Sports Authority to get me some shorts for school. A while ago, I realized that stores here carry shorts year round, there is never a no-shorts season. I am set now for school in 2 weeks!

We had the Costco chicken enchiladas for dinner, they weren’t too bad!

Only 2 days left!