Keoki and Alethea

Aloha Everyone,

Keoki and Alethea are definitely the most musically talented friends of ours.

Alethea is an accomplished concert pianist. She is the musical director at Mid-Pacific Institute.

Keoki is a drummer extraordinaire. They often work together in various musical productions including at the Diamond Head Theatre.

On Sunday mornings, you will find this very busy civic minded couple at the Unity Church of Hawaii where Alethea serves as the musical director. When Keoki is not behind his drums, he is in charge of human resources of a local company.

Tucker and Bevvy means "food and beverage" in Australian slang. The small restaurant occupies the former Sam Choy's Restaurant location on Kapahulu.

Our selections were healthy and tasty. The four of us agreed that the banana bread with chocolate bar and corn bread were amazingly delicious and definitely take-home dishes.

Aloha -- Cathi

Taking Care of Business, Mariposa, and Eggs N Things

Aloha Everyone,

Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is located in downtown, Honolulu. Jeff and I stopped by this morning to officially change our business address.

One of the most photographed site is the Kamehameha statue in front of the Judicial Building.

After we scratched off four more "things to do" off our list, we met J.J. for a celebratory lunch at Mariposa in Neiman Marcus in Ala Moana Center.

As a starter. we enjoyed popovers with strawberry butter.

For the main course, J.J. had scallops on pasta with squid ink, Jeff had seafood curry, and I had a grilled salmon.

After we spent several more productive hours tackling our business files, J.J. and I walked to Eggs N Things located in a small strip mall at the west side of Ala Moana Center.

My choice of fresh fruits cup was excellent.

J.J. enjoyed his Paniolo Loco Moco.

I usually ask for hot water and lemon with my meals. Interesting to note that this is the first restaurant we were charged for hot water -- 99 cents.

Aloha -- Cathi

Koko Head Cafe with Sharon

Aloha Everyone,

Sharon and I are breakfast buddies. We love to find small breakfast places. I read a review in a magazine about Koko Head Cafe off 12th Avenue in Kaimuki.

At mid-morning hour, the place was packed with a line forming outside the place.

Sharon and I both ended up choosing the same dish, Breakfast Brochette.

It was excellent, but to make my blog entry more interesting, I leaned over to the diners at the next table and asked if I could photograph their dishes. Giselle and Barton are from Saskatchewan, Canada and they were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.

This was their last day in Oahu and before their departure, they wanted to come back for the 2nd time to Koko Head Cafe. Their choices of French Toast and Chiqui and Egg looked delicious. Menu is very creative and enticing that I hope to be able to go back with J.J. before we depart Honolulu.

 http://kokoheadcafe.com/

Aloha -- Cathi

George and Lena

Aloha Everyone,

George and Lena share tremendous enthusiasm, energy and zest for life. 

Whenever the four of us get together, our conversation includes history, geo-politics, economy, business and of course travel. George is a retired professor from the University of California Fresno. They moved to Hawaii about a year ago. He is currently Professor in Residence, School of Business & Communication at Chaminade University. George also travels to lecture at universities around the world.

Lena is a Speech Pathologist. She is also retired snd looking for opportunities to offer her knowledge and expertise to local schools.  

Aloha -- Cathi

Kakaako Wall Art

Aloha Everyone,

Kakaako wall art is one of the nation's largest collection of "street art". According to a news release, there are about 40 murals in the Kakaako neighborhood painted by local and international artists. Until a few years ago, this area was a light industrial district and it was not inviting for people to walk around at night.  

Here are some of the murals Jeff and I saw within a several city blocks of our walk.

To view a map showing locations of these art murals go to: http://www.honolulupulse.com/2014/02/pow-wow-hawaii-map/

Aloha -- Cathi

Storage Locker, Lunch at JJ's Bistro and Joett

Aloha Everyone,

One of the advantages of living in the Ala Moana neighborhood is that many places are accessible by foot. This morning J.J. and I walked by Hawaii Convention Center to access our storage locker located on Kapiolani Blvd.

Nearly 10 months ago, we packed our home, gave away most of our possessions and stored personal treasures such as photo albums, letters our sons have written to us from the time they were barely able to form letters, art work and personal correspondences which were too previous to discard. So in the 5 x 5 storage locker, we have 3 pieces of antique furniture, some paintings and cardboard boxes.

Ala Wai Canal separates Waikiki from the rest of Honolulu. The area is dotted with condominiums, condo hotels and regular hotels.

The two of us walked to John and Pat's condo for a visit. The four of us then went to J.J.'s French Pastry and Bistro in Kaimuki for a light lunch. This is one of our favorite lunch places. My vegetable quiche was excellent and J.J enjoyed his single- size pizza.  http://www.jjfrenchbistro.com/

 

The chef, J.J. is noted for his fabulous, mouth-watering French pastries. However, the four of us refrained ourselves from indulging in tempting sweets.

Joett and we go back nearly 40 years. Our first meeting was at Camping Spartacus in Pompeii, Italy. She is our comrade in travel as whenever we get together we are eager to exchange our recent travel itineraries and stories. Joett is self-reliant, independent, caring and adventurous. She always has a sparkle in her eyes and curiosity for learning something new and going to untraveled places.

Joett is leaving on Friday to participate in a wintry exploration of Yellowstone National Park with Road Scholars. (Yes, Road Scholars, not Rhodes Scholars. I will write about Road Scholars in another blog.)

Aloha -- Cathi