Day 11 & 12 - Katie & Margie Arrive and More Malasadas

Yesterday Mom and I spent the morning getting ready for Katie & Margie's arrival.  We moved her into my room with the king-size bed, so K & M can share the other bedroom and bathroom, though Margie likes to sleep on the sofa.  We had the place looking pretty much as good as it looked when we arrived.  K & M's plane arrived on time and we pulled up to the curb about the same time they arrived with their luggage.  We got everything loaded and drove directly to the Kona Inn for a late lunch.  Everyone had calamari except me. I had a pulled pork sandwich, which I don't think was as good as the pulled pork I make.  Back at the condo we let K & M get settled while Mom and I went for a swim.  The water was perfect. We spent the rest of the evening out on the lanai drinking mai-tais and visiting, snacking in lieu of dinner since we had a late lunch.

This morning we left the condo around 10, heading north, stopping at Costco for gas (Costco price $3.979, Chevron Price in Waimea $4.379).  Destination: Tex Drive-in for malasadas.  The plan was to drive down the Hamakua coast a way to Laupahoehoe to have lunch at the 50's Fountain Cafe, but the weather was not promising, cloudy and windy with some showers, so decided to head back to the west coast.  50's Fountain Cafe is a fun place with all sorts of 50's memorabilia.  They have an Elvis Room, and one room is devoted to Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.  The lady's restroom is all about Betty Boop.  It's a fun place to go and the food is pretty good, but we'll have to go another time. Today, we had lunch again at Village Burgers in Waimea.  They actually grind their own hamburger.  After lunch we stopped at Isaac's Gallery which is associated with Hawaii Preparatory School.  The proceeds from the gallery supports the scholarship program at the school.  Very nice gallery with very beautiful but pricey stuff - we didn't buy anything, but enjoyed looking. 

Next stop was the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Factory.  Apparently, this was the first macadamia nut processor on  the island. As a tourist attraction we thought this was a lot better than the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut plant we visited 2 years ago.  The latter is very chintzy with their samples.  At Hamakua you can see part of the process, though they were already shutting down for the day, watch a good video, sample as much as you like, and crack open a nut; and, of course, buy all the nuts you want.  They make a lot of different flavors, including Spam, which didn't really impress me, but some of their other flavors were pretty tasty.

I put a pork shoulder in the crockpot this morning and it was smelling pretty good by the time we got back to the condo.  But, after all the macadamia nuts we sampled this afternoon, it might be awhile before we are hungry for dinner.  I fix it with liquid smoke and Hawaiian red salt.  Tastes pretty close to pork cooked in an imu (underground oven), but without the taro or ti leaves, though I did wrap the pork in taro leaves once, but couldn't see that it added much.

The reason I am not posting many pictures is because I haven't been taking many.  Since this is my third trip to the Big Island, I took a lot of pictures on previous trips and am not compelled to take many this trip.