Sam Choy's is returning to Kona Hawaii... Yay!!

...OK, I'd only eaten there once back in the day when it was out in the Kaloko warehouse district, but it was interesting. A friend of mine said I needed to go there for breakfast (same guy that recommended the double meat hot pastrami at Bianelli's the other month). I went there and it was really pretty good, a bit unusual by mainland standards (this was back in '99 when I was still relatively new to the island) as it was a plate lunch place. I had some kind of stew filled omlette if I recall correctly, quite tasty. The only reason I never went back was because I live way south, and I don't do breakfast or plate lunch all that often. At any rate, they closed their Kaloko restaurant several years ago.

Sam's an accomplished chef and has gained a bit of celebrity over the years, came out with some cook books, I think he's had a cooking show or two, was picked to design the food for an airline's in-flight meals, etc. Along the way he'd openend a restaurant in Honolulu that I hear good comments about. I believe all of the plate lunch places are closed and his new Sam Choy's Kona restaurant looks as though it will be more upscale.


It's moving into the old Wendy's Keauhou location. It was a Wendy's for years, but closed down several years ago. It arguably had one of the best views of any restaurant on the west side of the Big Island (others being the Coffee Shack Deli down in Captain Cook, and a couple of oceanside places). It's a prime location and there was lots of speculation/hopes over the years that some place nice would come in. Apparently this new venture has been in the works for quite some time, a couple of years maybe, but it's just started to really get up to speed in the last few months. They've expanded the old building and enclosed the patio. I thought I saw some type of sattelite dish on the roof, so they probably are putting in a bar section if I guess right (edit a half day later: Duh, if I'd actually looked through the website I'd linked earlier I'd have noticed the mention of the bar).

Kona's ripe for another nice restaurant to come in. Sam Choy the person is kind of a local institution, everyone knows who is. Hopefully it'll be another nice place to try after a great day of scuba diving in Kona Hawaii. I'm looking forward to it's opening.

Later,

Steve

Yippe-ki-yo, mini sirloin burgers... Jack in the Box has opened in Kailua-Kona... Boy did I carb out this morning...

3 mini sirloin burgers, a chicken sandwich, 2 Jack's tacos, curly fries and a soda... now that's a breakfast! Jack in the Box opened sometime the last several days on Henry street above Kuikini, ironically enough it's practically directly above an old failed Jack in the Box, now a popular plate lunch place. At any rate, I just had to go and get one good pig out in there.

The rest of this post is a bunch of blabber (like the first part was oh so important?)....

I was full. I've been real good on my diet this year so one day won't kill me, probably. My New Year's resolution this year was to be able to hike the Captain Cook Monument trail without passing out.. I started walking the top half to two thirds of it early this year, but the last time I tried it in February my knee swole up for 2-3 weeks. Next thing I know I'm weighing myself and find I'm pushing 240 lbs.. can't be too easy on the joints, especially now that I qualify for an AARP card. Back to the low carb diet to see what it does for me.

So no I'm down to 207 or thereabouts and I'm trying to keep up with my wife walking hills... getting close (she's been walking 5 days a week for a couple years) but I'm still huffing a bit. Part of my drive for the weight loss is the desire to be able to climb that Captain Cook trail, but another part is to be able to spend some time hiking (and eating of course) on my vacation this fall. It looks like the hiking's gonna work out OK, I'm definitely in better shape than the trip I managed to survive a couple years back. The eating's a whole 'nuther thing... I can't eat as much as I used to, it seems.

In the past I've generally gained about 13 pounds each time I take a vacation... so this year, since I'm down 33 lbs, I guess I'm allowed to gain 46 pounds on my vacation. It's gonna be fun! We're headed to Vegas for DEMA (the dive industry show) again next month, gonna stop in Arizona for several days first and take in the sights.

One last comment about Jack in the Box... let me tell you a story.... (hopefully my father won't mind) My father has had the good fortune of being able to travel quite a bit over his lifetime. He's lived in several parts of the country over the years, was stationed in Guam for a while, helped out in several refugee camps (Cambodia/Thailand border, Ethopia, Rwanda), lived in Romania for a while and traveled fairly extensively, and last year he mentioned that in his life he can only remember one food item he couldn't stomach... It wasn't the boiled half grown duck fetuses they ate in Guam (he apparently liked those, I guess they're considered a delicacy in some parts of SE Asia), it wasn't the food at the refugee camps, it was Jack in the Box tacos. I personally like 'em... crispy greasy mystery goo filled tacos... YUM! I'm glad to see Jack make it back to Kona. I may not get my dad in there though.

I'll try that Captain Cook trail hike again after vacation... got a couple months left in the year to meet the resolution.

Here's a shot of a juvenile Domino Damsel. They stick pretty close to coral heads when they're small. As they grow they tend to find a spot on the reef to hang out. They're interesting in that if you come up to a group of the adults, and listen as you approach, you can hear them chirp a "stay away" warning. They're aggressive for a small fish (call it 3 - 3.5 inches as an adult), but don't do much to divers other than make their presence known.

Later,

Steve

Yay! Humpy's Alehouse restaurant opened in Kailua! Kona just got another good restaurant (I hope it's good anyway)....

Whoohoo!!! I've been waiting for this restaurant for almost a year. I'd never wandered into the Hard Rock Cafe the first several years I lived here, then finally did and kind of liked it... then it went out of business and there's been a big hole in the middle of the shopping/restaurant area of Kailua for a couple of years. It was announced that Humpy's Alehouse of Anchorage Alaska was going to put in a restaurant here and it sounded quite interesting. I talked to several of my Alaskan customers and friends and they'd mentioned it was as pretty good place up there that seemed quite busy... sounded like a good addition to Kailua village to me.

Original plans, if I recall correctly, were to open around October/November of last year. Well, things go slow here, especially permitting, and they were finally checked off just recently and apparently opened in the last couple of days. Pat was headed to the airport tonight to go to a friend's wedding on the mainland and we figured we'd do a quick visit for a meal. I'm not kidding about quick, we had a 50-55 minute window and I wasn't sure we'd be able to get it in. The restaurant was pretty busy, and I've got to commend them for their service. We've been to other places when they first opened where things didn't go smoothly the few nights.

A bit about Humpy's. Humpy's is a whole lot of BEER... and more. The upstairs is much the same configuration as the old Hard Rock, the downstairs retail space has largely been replaced by a bar and seating. When I mentioned "a whole lot of BEER", I wasn't kidding... 36 beers on tap according to their list. That's a lot for a small town.... they should start a club and offer a T shirt and a spot on a plaque to anyone who can finish the list (oh, at least 2 sittings of course). They also feature sandwiches, burgers, stone oven pizzas, seafoods (from King Crab legs to salmon burgers), a Hawaiian plate menu and more. It's gonna take me a few visits to navigate the menu and get a handle on the place. I had the Paniolo burger off their 10 oz burger listings with a Big Island feel... big burger, pretty good, but when it comes right down to it their "Humpy's Burger" and other 6 oz burger listings sounded a little more interesting, I'll try them next (I was hungry today). Pat had the calimari strips, I'd say they're more like calimari fries, cut like french fries and breaded with a spicy breading. They were cooked right... tender, not rubbery, but Pat's not into the style as much as I am, guess who got to finish the last few... yum, yum. I forgot to mention the fries that came with the burger... yay, fresh cut fries, happy to see them.

Anyway, the seating was immediate (seat yourself once checking in), the service prompt, drink and food orders were taken quickly and delivered quickly. No long waits through anything, but we weren't rushed in the least. Come desert time I mentioned we were timing things for a plane and the check was delivered right away. Service was good. We were treated to a pretty good sunset too....

It's located smack dab in the middle of the Coconut Marketplace shops next to the volleyball court on Alii drive. I'm happy to see new businesses in town. There's a few other spots right nearby that have opened recently too, haven't had a chance to give them a try. I'll be back to Humpy's.

Oooh, gotta mention the new camera again. I took these shots with my Olympus Pen, no flash and not trying to be particularly motionless. Not sure if I could get the interior bar or exterior shot with my old point and shoots that well exposed without paying attention to what I was doing in the lighting we had. It's fun having a bit higher end camera to play with.

Later,

Steve

Keei Cafe. The best value nice dinner restaurant in Kona?

Looking for a good meal that won't necessarily bust your wallet? Pat and I went to our favorite nice restaurant on the island again last night for an early meal. I thought I'd give it a plug. Keei Cafe. We managed to pretty much open up the place last night, so seating was wide open and "Uncle Freddy" was just setting up to start performing (he apprently is there Thursday through Saturday at this time). Nice quiet jazz with singing, very pleasant.

When I first moved here I kept having people tell me about this great little roadside shack to eat at, it was the original location for Keei Cafe... I think it had 9 card tables with gingham fabric tablecloths at the time. Several years ago they moved into new digs... bigger, lots of tropical woods, full bar, very nice.

The Keei Cafe has a smallish menu... a fancy tostada, half a chicken, ribeye steak, rack of lamb, 2-3 fish items cooked 3 different ways, and a few other things I'm forgetting off the top of my head, as well as soups, salads and deserts. Everything we've ever had there is very tasty and cooked properly. Entree prices start in the 12-13 buck range and top out at $25.99 for the rack of lamb. My pan seared ribeye steak was $22.99 and Pat's pan seared lemon caper butter sauce Ono plate was $21.99. We also had a nice greek salad at $7.99. Everything's great, the portions are good, the photos don't do them justice as far as size goes, and we can't recall them having raised prices at all in several years. We haven't found a meal this good for this price anywhere else on the west side of the island in a long time.Pat and I are not big desert eaters, but Bob (my employee) loves their mango cobbler and every desert I've tried over the years has been great. Located in Kealakekua on the mauka side of the highway, it's a bit of a trip for some vacationers, but it's worth it in our opinion. One note: They've been cash only, no credit cards, for years. Nowadays with even fast food places taking credit cards I thought I'd better mention it.

Oh, and did I mention the maitais are delicious? Very interesting, have a bit of li heng mui powder mixed in... you'll either love it or hate it I guess.

Good meal.

Here's a cell phone panorama photo I took from Splasher's Grill this morning in Kona.

You'll need to click on the picture to see the panoramic version....

Splasher's is quickly becoming Pat and my favorite eating spot. We'd heard they have a good breakfast and tried it. Kona doesn't have a lot of good breakfast spots and this one's right up there. Today I had the carne asada and eggs special, Pat had the eggs benedict on crabcakes that's a regular menu item (she considers that particular item to be one of the best breakfasts she's ever had, I may try it next time).

It was a gorgeous day today, as you may be able to tell by the photo from my cell phone. We had no charter today so Pat and I headed down to the office/shop to continue attempting to get it together... we're getting real close. Soon I should be able to meet customers the morning before their first charters, or in the afternoon a day or more before their first charters, to size up gear and get paperwork done. I'm getting tired of working out of my pickup truck. It'll be a clean and comfortable spot for the initial meet and greets. A couple more good days of work on the shop and I'll be able to move my boat rental gear out of the garage.

Tomorrow I've got another charter, I'm hoping the beautiful weather will stick around for a while.

Just stumbled across a new little mexican food spot near downtown....

...so I thought I'd stop in. Located at the corner of Kaiwi and Kuikini, it's in the space where Orchid Thai was before it moved to larger digs. It's called "Almas Mexican Food" and shares a space with another business (might be the same owners, I didn't ask) and is the first Mexican restaurant - religious bookstore I've ever been in. So far it has a limited menu - burritos, tacos, enchiladas and tamales, with a choice of meats and such. They apparently also serve chili rellenos on Wednesdays and menudo on Sundays.

I had two pork/bean/rice burritos... 3 bucks a pop or 2 for 5 bucks, which were quite decent for the price. They're pictured here with some add on salsa they have on the side. Pretty tasty and a good amount of food for $5 for the Kona area, so I thought I'd mention them here.

later,

Steve

Texas de Brazil Las Vegas report/review.... Meat Meat Meat!!!!!

Tonight Pat, I and our families (we're meeting with both our parents and an aunt and uncle on the front end of the trip) went out to Texas de Brazil, a newly opened churrascaria just to the south of the strip, for dinner. Churrascaria might be one of my favorite kind of meals... "Gauchos" stab a bunch of meat and then carve it off onto your plate (in 1-3 ounce serving portions) and you just keep eating 'til you can't eat any more.

Tonight's meal, for me anyway, was black beans, sauteed mushrooms, spicy cold shrimp, a salad (they have a 60 item salad bar at this place), assorted sliced meats and cheeses (the previous were all in the salad bar area)... then the real stuff... In order I had... roasted pork loin, top sirloin, parmesan pork, parmesan chicken, garlic sirloin, bacon wrapped filet mignon, flank steak, another garlic sirloin, another bacon wrapped filet mignon, 2 bone lamb chop, another 2 bone lamb chop, smoked sausage, another parmesan pork, another flank steak, and finished it all off with a couple of slices of roast lamb....Yum Yum.

Ok, now that sounds like a lot of meat, and it was. Yesterday we went to the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood (my favorite buffet so far in Vegas) and I was rather disappointed in the fact that I can't eat anywhere near as much as I could in years past.... but I felt more like my old (or should I say younger) self today... I even had room for a double chocolate mousse slice afterward tonight. Luckily the place we're staying has a a pretty good workout facility, and I'm trying to use it every other day or so.

Anyway, Texas de Brazil just opened their Vegas location this last month. Service was very good, the meats were very good (a couple items were on the well cooked side but they generally strive for medium rare), as was the salad bar selection. Price for the meal is $44.95 but they'll nickel and dime (more like 3-5 buck) you like mad on beverages... they'll push their "bottled water service", if you don't want to pay for water just ask for ice water. Still, it's a better price than you'll pay for a high end meal on the strip in most places. I'd say everyone gave it a big enthusiastic thumbs up for the evening.

Here's a picture of a "gaucho" with a skewer of top sirloins.

Enjoyed the view from the Coffee Shack Deli in South Kona today... Gorgeous day!

Today was a gorgeous day. Pat and I went out for a walk and decided to go to the Coffee Shack Deli up the hill in Captain Cook for a breakfast (no charter today and Pat had the day off too). The Coffee Shack provides what is arguably the best view from a restaurant on the west side of the island. It's a mostly open air restaurant on the side of Mauna Loa overlooking the South Kona coastline right on the side of the highway. They serve breakfast, lunch and desserts. Prices tend to run right in the 10-13 buck range for most everything on the menu. I had one of the specials of the day.... 3 egg omlette with bacon, mushroom, avocado, red onion, peppercini, calmata olives, tomato, cheese and topped with pesto... yum yum!
We don't get here very often, even though it's close by for us, but it's a pretty nice place.

As an extra bonus.... this place is one of those places where not only can you have a meal with a view, you can also share a meal with a wild animal!!! I decided to see if one of the resident geckos was interested in some pineapple...

Geckos gotta eat too! from Steve on Vimeo.

Aloha,

Steve

Best hamburger in Kailua-Kona Hawaii?? I went to Splasher's Grill for lunch today...

I went downtown today. I've often wandered past a restaurant that has been voted in the local paper as having the best burger in town. I'm usually kind of dubious of those reader poll "best of" reviews, as in the past I've seen some pretty mediocre hamburgers win the award. Anyway, I went in to them to give it a try.

Splasher's Grill is located across from the Kailua sea wall, it's kind of tough to top the view from thier seats. The pic at the top is my attempt at blending 3 pictures into a panorama (this is my first attempt, didn't quite work but you get the idea). Splasher's has several hamburgers to choose from, all feature a half pound of angus beef, along with your choice of fries or salad. Well after I ordered I realized they have spicy waffle cut fries as an option (not sure if it's extra or the same price as regular fries), I'd have gone for that if I knew as they're one of my favorites and not found commonly here. I chose the day's special, a mushroom avacado and chedder burger at $8.99. . While waiting for my burger I was treated to a large pod of dolphins across the way in the bay. There were plenty of ooohhs and aaahhs as the dolphins came quite close in today. The burger was just dandy, and between it and the fries I was quite filled. Splasher's burgers run in the 9-11 buck range and well could be among the best on the west side of the island.

For more restaurant comments/reviews, click on the "restaurant review" link in the labels below.

Later,

Steve

Gorgeous day today...

This post will be kinda newsy... We had some pretty nice weather today, sunny and calm. It was a nice day out on the boat. Our water is still staying cool for the moment, we've been seeing a lot of 75-77 degree readings on the dive computers, it's early in the summer as of yet and things should warm up. The vog has settled down quite a bit and isn't nearly as bad as it's been the last couple of months.

Travel stuff... Kona's still quite slow right now. There was some info on the news the other day saying departures from Kona airport were down 28% from May of last year... don't know if that was just local residents or included tourists, which would indicate arrivals were likely way down also. Pat and I went downtown last week to try out the Fish Hopper, we'd heard mixed reviews early on but the restaurant has received better reviews lately and has a Monday/Tuesday night Prime rib and lobster tail special for $19.95 that we decided we had to check out... pretty darned good and the service was very good for here, although it took desert to really fill me (not out of the norm for me). I'd go back. They were dead as far as business goes at the time, we went to the Big Island Grill (a popular semi-upscale plante lunch place here) immediately afterwards to pick up gift certificates for Pat's work, and it was dead there too... seems to be slow all over town... I know my numbers go up about the 17th. I'm going out pretty much every day (which is good) but the numbers are quite light 'til then.

More travel stuff... United has added another daily flight out of San Francisco to KOA as of yesterday, and Delta added a direct flight out of Los Angeles last week... good for them, great for us. So many of the mainland flights go to Honolulu or Maui and to get to Kona you have to take inter-island flights - with the loss of Aloha air it's really stung here. The more direct flights the merrier. Alaska Air is adding a direct flight from Seattle in November.

The pic above is of a Stout Moray I posted a pic of a month or so back... I actually like the pose it has in this picture much better. I guess I like looking down eel throats.

Later,

Steve

Two thumbs up for Keei Cafe in Kealakekua

Pat and I went to Keei Cafe on the spur of the moment last night. We hadn't been there in a couple of years, but it's the same place it's always been in our opinion. I've heard reports of sporadic service issues, but we've never experienced them in the least here, unlike many of the places we've eaten in Kona.

We loaded up on pan seared ribeye steaks, which come with julienned veggies and your choice of mashed potatoes or rice. They have a limited menu, generally steaks, a few fish items, a half chicken, pork chops, fajitas and some salads and soups as well as deserts, but all are very good and have a good presentation. Prices and portions are quite reasonable, especially in comparison to resort restaurants we've eaten at. I think the highest priced item on the menu was about 23 bucks, and would go for much more up north at the resorts. They have a full bar and we tried their mai-tais... interesting and delicious.

The interior of the restaurant is quite nice, although the view is lacking as it's located right on Mamalahoa highway (or Hawaii Belt Road, according to thier info... we basically have 1 highway that goes by several different names), but the interior ambience and the food more than make up for the lack of view. I'd go as far as listing Keei Cafe as one of the nicer restaurants on the west side of the Island we've been to.

A brief note.... they identified 36 manta rays at the dive site the night I took the video in my post a couple of posts back. There's no telling if there were more mantas milling around that night they didn't get on video. If you stumble on this post and haven't seen the manta ray video, you owe it to yourself to look back a couple of posts and watch the video... it was an amazing night.

Later,

Steve

It's "slow season" for a bit....

I looked back at my calender a couple days back and realized I'd had charters scheduled most every day the last 60 days. I did have 4 cancellations in that stretch because of the ATA and Aloha airline closures. Now I'm into a 10 day dead period with little (I have a charter tonight) scheduled and then I have another stretch where I'm working at least 10 days straight. A couple days off now and then is fine, but it's always fun to be working. So far though, it's been a busier spring than in years past and May is looking much better than last year.

I have had a couple of inquiries for charters this week, and I guess it's maybe a mistake to say "I'd be happy to dive with you, I'm wide open so let me know when you'd like to go out". I guess some people are afraid to be the only one's on the boat, like they'll get shortchanged or something, which is the just about the opposite of reality as when we have our lightest loads are the times we can really cater to the individual divers (We're lucky that we only take 6 passengers max, as it's been my experience that the more passengers a boat has on the greater the likelihood there will be some limiting factors), we don't scrimp on the diving just because it's a light load.

Locally, the vog situation in Kona has improved for a couple days at least. We've had huge south swells that have just come down. I'll be looking forward to tonight's charter to see if the water temperature came up because of the swell.

A little Kona news... I may have mentioned that Hooter's closed, if I didn't then here it is. They closed a couple months back saying something along the lines of their target audience apparently wasn't visiting Kona in the numbers they'd expected. Not a big loss for me, I went there once with Pat and wasn't impressed by the food - lackadaisical chicken wings and a very average burger in my opinion. A bigger loss will be the Hard Rock Cafe. They've announced they'll be closing early this summer. They've got fairly decent sandwiches, burgers and salads (good salads are hard to come by here, we see a lot more rice and macaroni salad mixes here than greens). With the loss of those two, of course there've been rumors that Bubba Gumps is on the way out and Kona is soon to be a ghost town.... that rumor was quashed in the local paper by Bubba Gumps management this weekend. It will be curious to see how long the spots held by the two that have or are leaving fill back up.

The underwater photo above is of a Hairy Yellow Hermit Crab (Aniculus maximus). This one wasn't a big individual, say smaller than a golf ball, they can get roughly the size of a softball. I was happy to see it as I hadn't seen one in a while. Take a close look and you can see it's eye stalks... cool looking critters.

That's it for now, time to get a few things done before the afternoon charter.

Later,

Steve

Surf, Sand and Stars Buffet at the Four Seasons in Kona Hawaii

Surf, Sand and Stars Buffet at Four Seasons Kona Hawaii from Steve on Vimeo.

We went out for our big meal of the year this weekend. We went to the Four Seasons for their Saturday night beach buffet. It's a spendy (75/78 bucks or so a head) and very delicious meal. I'm getting old, so I restrained myself and only had 10 lobster tail halves, a couple pieces of steak, a bunch of lillikoi pork ribs, a pile of steamer clams, a few salads (I didn't know fried chicken could be a salad, but they had fried chicken salad... and here I'd been overlooking salads all this time) and a few deserts (the chocolate souffle was delicious)... I skipped the sushi table altogether. It's a delicious dinner, and even the kids at the place had fun... they break out a fairly sizeable telescope after dark.

Sometimes the video on the Canon G9 surprises me. I decided to see if it could handle the relatively low light at the buffet and it did just fine.

Aloha Theater and Aloha Angel Cafe in Kainaliu, Kona, Hawaii

I thought I'd talk a bit about a local South Kona Landmark. The Aloha Theater's been around for ages. They hold plays, host musicians, and screen the occasional movie (usually independant films, we saw "My Big fat Greek wedding" there when it was too small to hit the big theaters).

There's been a restaurant there since we've moved here, it was originally a breakfast and lunch spot and added dinner after an ownership change and slight name change to it's current Aloha Angel Cafe. Anyway, it's long been known for good food and Hawaiian time service (slow service is very common here). We decided to give it a try the other week and had a great breakfast and prompt service. They put out a nice breakfast, Pat and I both had one of the day's specials... this day it was Prime rib, eggs and potatoes... yummy... it ran in the 13 buck range if I recall correctly. I wouldn't hesitate to return, especially if the service continues to be that prompt.

Roadhouse Cafe - Kainaliu, Hawaii... a review of a new restaurant in south Kona

Just thought I'd post a quick review of a new restaurant in our area. It's called the Roadhouse Cafe and is in what was foremly the Guy's Grinds/Phillysophical Deli/Ma's Tavern (I think that's what it was years ago) location in Kainaliu.

Pretty good place so far. They're sort of just putting together a menu. When we went they had sandwiches, a chicken chipotle burrito type thing in more of a flaky pastry, louisiana hotlinks baked in the flaky pastry (sort of a gourmet pigs in a blanket) and several other items. I'm hearing good things about it. It's more upscale lunchfare, not the typical plate lunch you find at many places, yet so far there's nothing over $4.95 on the menu with reasonable moderate sized portions making it a great deal for the price. Pat had the chicken dealy-bop, and I went for both the chicken and hotlinks things... I could have done OK just getting either one of them as portions were reasonable. Delicious! I'm pretty sure the owners were involved somehow in the Aloha Cafe, as the desert pastries were pretty much the same and of the same quality. Service was very good and very fast, but we did get in right at 11am so we were basically the only ones there at the time.

Definitely worth revisiting.

....almost forgot to mention, Pat snapped this with her phone as we left.

later,

Steve

Saturday morning lizzard convention

We've got a bunch of these guys hanging around outside our kitchen these days. We hung some bananas out for the cardinals and finches to pick at and we also get about 8-10 madascar day geckos at a time showing up.

This morning we went to U-top-it down in Kailua for breakfast on the way to picking up carpet for our vacation rental we're recarpeting. U-top-it's located in behind Lava Java off Alii drive. Lava Java is quite known for their breakfasts, but U-top-it doesn't play second fiddle to anyone. It probably puts out the best breakfast I've had in Kona. I had their Loco Moco Attack... lots of fried rice, 1/2 lb hamburger patty, 2 fried eggs and grilled pepper slices, all smothered with a curry gravy (you get a choice of gravies), all on a large taro crepe (not a traditional crepe, thicker, more like a thin pancake). This meal was $8.95 and filled me, many people wouldn't be able to finish it I'd suspect. DELICIOUS. A big thumbs up from me, and I generally don't like breakfasts. Pat loved her breakfast too. The place gets raves on the local message boards at Konaweb and I'd highly recommend it for breakfast - they also have one of the best burgers in the area too. Most of the menu items run in the 4-9 buck range, so it's not a spendy meal for here.

Aloha,

Steve

Is scuba diving excercise?

This is a topic that comes up in the scuba message boards on occasion. Judging by the fact that I tend to get winded just walking back to the house from my mailbox, I somehow doubt it's a heck of a lot of excercise anyway - in my defense though, it is a bit of a hike and almost a hundred foot elevation change from my mailbox.

So today I took a walk part way down the trail to the Captain Cook Monument at Kealakekua Bay. I haven't done the entire trail in about 4-5 years. I had a friend who's done it a couple of times with me over the years, the first time he about died, so he went home and put something like 5000 miles on his bicycle and came back and totally whooped tail on the trail. He wasn't even breathing hard, while I (all 250 pounds of me at the time, I'm about 25-30 lbs lighter these days) had enough difficulties that he had to take an embarrassing commemorative video. Today I walked down to what he referred to as the "hugging tree" on his first trip - the hugging tree is apparently where you stop and hug the tree for 10 minutes because you are afraid you will collapse and not be able to get back up again. It's maybe half way down the trail. I handled the top half of the trail just fine, it's the bottom half that's a ton of work, but it got me thinking about diving and excercise. My goal is to be able to do the whole hill (1300' elevation change over 3 miles) again without huffing much.

Back to scuba being excercise or not. My guess is that for a lot of people, it can be at first. Once you get used to it though, at least in the type of diving we do here, it sort of becomes controlled floating and there's very little exertion. The only real exertion is getting into your wetsuit (man that can be surprisingly tough sometimes, especially on a hot sunny day) and getting to the water if you are shorediving. Shorediving can be some work, my ankles are definitely stonger than they used to be from climbing over rocks and such with gear on, but the actual diving, especially now that I'm primarily diving off a boat, isn't much work. I think there is some tendancy to burn calories just trying to stay warm, but the cardio end of it is minimal.

As you might be able to tell, I'm starting to realize I'm getting older... hence the walking. Pat had her birthday yesterday and we went out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse up at the new shops at the Mauna Launi... Here's the brief review...Nice restaurant, a fabulous chili lime calimari appetizer and good pear martinis were offered on their specials for the evening, and the filets were really good. I had the "cowboy cut" ribeye, it was nothing special for me, I prefer the ribeyes off the grill at home. Service was great, the meal was pricey but in line for the resort area up north. All in all, pretty good but not at the top of my list for Kona/Kohala.

Now that I've rambled on for a while, the real reason I wanted to post this is because I took a semi-reasonable shot of a Spotted Boxfish (Ostracion meleagris) male. Commonly called Blue Boxfish, the males are a gorgeous blue with spots on the back while the females and juveniles are a dark brown with spots all over. This fish is not to be confused with a Whitley's Boxfish, that I'm still hoping to see some day with camera in hand.

Aloha,

Steve

Kona Hawaii scuba diving...

So here's a picture or two of me after eating at the Saturday night buffet at the Four Seasons Hualalai, which is a few miles north of the Kona airport. They have a steak and lobster buffet every Saturday night out at their beach grill/bar.
We had a friend in town, actually one of our very first vacation rental customers who has since become a friend, who recommended it.


I'd also have to highly recommend this meal if you are looking for a high end meal at some point if you are visiting, or living, here. The atmosphere is great. They set out tables on the beach, and being the time of year that it is you can watch the whales splashing offshore. They put out a sizeable buffet, with steak, baby back ribs, fish, steamed clams, completely delicious lobster tails that they barbeque in front of you, the usual cold seafoods and salads plus a sushi bar and deserts.... yum yum!!! They also had a smore station (you know - graham crackers, chocolate, marshmallows and fire) where you could make your own smores on the beach if you want, I thought that was a novel touch. After it gets dark they apparently bring out the telescopes, we didn't see them this night, either we left before they were put out or they passed as it was overcast that night. Anyway, at 78 bucks a head for just the meal, it's not a regular thing for us, but I'm sure we'll be back when we feel like splurging again as it was excellent.

So just in case you haven't figured it out yet, that isn't actually me in the pictures... it's just sorta how I looked and felt afterwards (I had 10-12 lobster tails and a ton of ribs along with everything else). This little Hawaiian Whitespotted Toby (Canthigaster jactator) was something I found on our shore dive the other day. He was really full and I wanted to get a shot of him because he was bulging so much.

later,

Steve

Senior Billy's in South Kona

My wife and I went to our favorite mexican food spot in Kona again for dinner yesterday. Senior Billy's is a small sit down style restaurant located in what was South Kona's mexican fast food spot. It changed hands a couple years back and the new owners fixed it up some and changed the menu and made it into a decent little restaurant. The menu isn't huge by any means, but the food is good and the price point reasonable by Kona sit down mexican food standards.

I've been diving the last several days. Played with the camera again a bit today. I have just one customer on the boat so it was a light day. He didn't mind if I carried a camera (as long as I'm willing to e-mail him some pics if they turn out). I tried playing with the manual white balance today. It basically changes how the camera sees color and in theory you can color correct on the fly underwater with just a little effort. It seems to work, at least as long as you don't change depths. I didn't bother resetting the camera at each depth because I just didn't want to mess with it that much, but it seemed to work well when at the depth I set it at. Good thing to know. I don't have a whole lot cooking next week as of yet, if I have a few days off I may have to play around with the camera a bunch. Here's a 4 spot butterfly and a pair of finescale trigger fish guarding a nest of eggs.