Every July, the La’ie Community Association hosts a month’s worth of activites that include sports tournaments, a beach day, kupuna luncheon, parade, and Food Fest. I realize that July is almost done, as are most of the activities, but Saturday is the big finale day:
Fun Run, 7 am, BYUH Administration parking lot. La’ie Days Parade, 11 am. The route usually starts at BYUH, goes up Kulanui towards Laie School, up Hale La’a, and back up Naniloa Loop to BYU. La’ie Days Activities, 1 pm, BYUH Fields. La’ie Days Food Fest, 1-9 pm. BYUH Little Circle.
I don’t know about the 7am Fun Run (I’m a night owl!), but the parade is always fun, and La’ie Food Fests are not to be missed. Even if you’re not from La’ie, come on by. But be forewarned: come relatively early, as the food goes fast!
This weekend, my family is on our yearly camping trip at Kekela Beach Park in Hau’ula. YAHOO! I have many lovely memories of camping out here, including the time that I was bit on the hand by a 6-inch centipede as I flung it across the tent at 3 a.m. (after waking up to it crawling up my neck and onto my face!).
First off, I need to show you the set up. We are camping with my uncle and his family, so we set up 2 EZ Corner tarps–one for eating and sleeping, and one for socializing.
Here is the ‘kitchen’ in the back corner:
And the pantry:
Take a few steps back and you can see the entire back tent, which covers our individual tents and the kitchen area:
Under the adjoining tent, we have the ‘living room,’ where we hang out, play mah jong by lamplight, and hang all of our wet beach towels and clothing: My dad says hi while cruising on an air mattress. We even have carpet…hmm, is this really camping, or just a really fancy, extended beach BBQ?
We set up camp on Friday and will break down early tomorrow. Because it is a State park, Kekela is closed to campers on Thursdays. It’s been great–lots of food, fun, and most especially, family:
My sisters and cousins eating dinner last night
My brother Evan playing ‘Portugese Horseshoes’ with some neighboring campers. My mom has decided that she wants a set for Christmas–basically, you toss thin metal disks into a hole cut out of the top of a box. Everyone got really into this game.
Two other exciting events took place while we camped out: my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, and my little sister Auri turned 11. Congrats!
So do you like our ‘cushy’ camping style, or do you prefer to rough it?
I recently received an e-mail from Principal Lisa DeLong about 3 Kahuku alumni currently working on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. this summer. Two familiar faces were smiling at me when I clicked the link in the e-mail:
Kahuku alumni Besama Alghussein, ‘04, and Wilson Unga, ‘02. Photo from Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s Web site.
WOW! To say that I’m proud of these two is an understatement. Wilson is my classmate, and Besama (who went by Adriana in high school) was definitely one of the up-and-coming underclassmen while I was there. I remember both to be extremely sharp–well spoken, dynamic, and intelligent.
The two are serving in Rep. Niel Abercrombie’s office as summer interns, joining a third Kahuku alumnus, Anthony Ching (’03), who is a full-time legislative aide for Abercrombie. COOL!
They are all college graduates–Anthony went to Washington, Besama went to Mt. Holyoke, and Wilson to Georgetown–now doing big things at our nation’s capitol.
The three helped to give a tour of Capitol Hill to the Hawaii History Day delegation in mid-June, which included several current Kahuku students and teachers. According to Kahuku history teacher and chaperone Lorey Ishihara (one of my personal favorites back in high school), all three had great things to say about their experience at Kahuku.
This story reminds me of those commercials that run on OC16 featuring ‘”School Spirit and Personal Pride.” I still get teased sometimes here in the newsroom for my Kahuku pride–but like we say out on the North Shore: Red Raider for Life!
Congratulations to Wilson, Anthony, and Besama. Way to represent our corner of the world.
Ok, so I took off for Seattle this past weekend, and as a result, didn’t get to check out any of the Ko’olauloa eats that I promised last week. Bad planning on my part…oops! Anyway, to make it up to you, I wanted to tell you about my food adventures up in Edmonds, a sleepy port town about half an hour north of the city.
View of the Puget Sound from Edmonds. So pretty!
There is a ferry and docks there, and so we took out a boat and dropped ‘crab pots,’ hoping for some grinds. We were unlucky the first day, ending up with the largest, ugliest, most disgusting starfish I have ever seen:
It was so huge, all the crabs (undersized, unfortunately!) were cowering in the corners of the cage. Apparently, starfish like this one will eat any poor crustacean that gets too close…
Luck came the second day, when we pulled a couple of big, male–it’s illegal to catch undersized or female–Dungeness crabs. We boiled them for dinner that night and YUM! I was so excited to eat them, I forgot to take pictures of the final product–not to mention I had too much melted butter all over my fingers to handle a camera!
Here’s a picture of a Dungeness (right) and Red Rock Crab. We caught one of the rock crabs, but had to throw it back as it was too small. You can read more about the crabs at the Washington State dept of Fish & Wildlife site.
The Pacific Northwest version of catching crabs was a far cry from the experiences I had growing up and going ‘crabbing’ in Ko’olauloa. We’d go out at night during low tide with a bucket, a flashlight, and at least 20 energetic, screaming children. We’d all line up, and then the adult in charge would turn on the flashlight, illuminating dozens of crabs on the shore. GO TIME! Sand flew as kids sprinted and dove left and right, capturing crabs and putting them in the bucket.
Funny thing is, I don’t remember ever actually EATING the crabs we caught. I’m going to have to ask my dad what he did with that bucket–for us, the fun part was in the catching!
Fishing from a boat–with a real motor!–was also a new experience for me. Growing up, we either participated in the Hukilau (we’ll have to save that for another post!), or I went diving with my dad.
Equipment:
-mask and snorkel
-fins
-three-prong spear
-empty detergent bottle (for a float!)
-wire hanger (for stringing up the fish)
-a mesh bag (to hold squid/tako or lobster)
I love free diving, even though I’m a terrible shot with a three-prong. One day I’ll have to try a spear gun and see if that helps! My dad taught me to identify a tako hideout and pointed out the different types of fish that are good for eating: uhu, weke, kumu, aholehole, nenue…ahhh I’m getting HUNGRY right now!
Anyone have any good spearfishing stories? All I know is that I’m too scared to try night diving–too claustrophobic, not to mention you can’t see the sharks and who-knows-what-else creeping up silently behind you in the pitch blackness….
I have decided that this blog needs more food in it. We have some great places to eat out here in Ko’olauloa, and they deserve props for making sure we are all well-fed. It helps that I’m hungry right now.
The plan is to check out a different place and feature it in this space each week. Any suggestions? Historically, the moku of Ko’olauloa spans from Ka’a'awa to Waimea. That’s huge!! It will take me years to get through all the great food places in those boundaries.
New places I’m thinking about checking out: the reopened Crouching Lion Inn (maybe I can find a *date* to finance that one? hehe), the Thai lunchwagon in Hau’ula, and one of the Kahuku shrimp trucks (since I’ve never tried any–sad, yeah?).
This weekend? I’m thinking comfort food: Papa Ole’s? Hukilau Cafe? I could go for a nice, filling Saturday brunch…
