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Hawaiian Vacation, Part I

I spent two weeks in Honolulu at the end of March, beginning of April. I had a fantastic time. It was so warm, so beautiful. The night I left, we had snow here in the Pacific Northwest, and again yesterday we were treated to both hail and snow. What The Heck? Global warming or global cooling?? I took this shot of an early morning rainbow off the balcony of the condo I was staying in. It rained a few times when I was there, but it was a warm rain and it usually never lasted very long.

I really, really enjoyed the beach. It made me realize how much I have missed it all these years. Having been raised near Lake Michigan, the beach was part of my upbringing.  The beaches on Oahu were pretty nice. I think my favorite was the beach at Kailua where the waters were turquoise. Gorgeous. We also visited these  small beaches nestled in between multi million dollar homes. All  Hawaiian beaches are accesssible up to the highest tide line and there has to be beach access made available. We were out at the end of this little 20 foot wide swath of beach where we ran into a woman and her two kids. I took a couple of shots of them for their Christmas cards. In our talks, I discovered they were from Tacoma, and the woman's father lives less than a mile from me! Small world!!

I went to Hawaii's most popular nature preserve, Hanauma Bay, twice. I could have gone there every day and stayed in the water all day. I LOVED it. I had only ever snorkeled in fresh water lakes in the midwest when I was growing up. This was a completely different and new experience. I stayed in the area closest to the beach and still saw plenty of sea life. Many different species of fish and I even saw a moray eel lurking under the reef. He was pretty cool and just watched from his safe little den. This little guy is the Hawaiian State Fish, a humahuma nukunuku apua'a, which isn't nearly as impressive to say since High School Confidential included a song by the same name! Both days we went were slightly overcast so the colors were a little dull, but it was still a lot of fun. The first day I stayed in the water for hours and really regretted having to get out. The second day we  were there when the tide was coming in and the water was a little murky with sand. But still way cool!

I went to a Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center the last weekend I was there. It's a large park where visitors get to see the different dwellings, villages and lifestyles of different cultures in Polynesia. We had a tour guide who really had a schedule she wanted to keep, so there wasn't a lot of exploring we did on our own. We finally told her we were going to stop and learn how to finger weave fish out of coconut palm fronds and that she and the rest of the group could go along ahead of us. They had groups of dancers from the seven villages float along on platform boats and do their dancing. Amazing dancers...very talented, and how do they move their hips that way? The evening luau was pretty good and they served traditional foods from Hawaii.  We enjoyed ocean fish of some sort, I think ahi, teriyaki chicken, chicken long rice, kalua pork, steamed rice, poi (in the little cup) , green salad and taro rolls. I skipped the lomi salmon and poke as I'm not a huge fan of raw fish. The poi wasn't bad. I've been told that the poi is nutritious and that when eaten with the lomi salmon, it neutralizes the saltiness of the fish dish. I dunked a piece of the pork in it and it was okay. Not show-stoppingly wonderful, but edible.  One of the most interesting parts of the day was the demo by the Samoan warrior dude who explained everything you always wanted to know about how to use a coconut. He was funny and clearly enjoyed working the crowd. He showed us how to get a coconut out of it's fiberous husk, how to crack the coconut, how to scrape the coconut meat from inside the hard shell with a special tool attached to a wooden bench, how to take the shredded coconut and extract the milk from it by putting it into the fiberous husk and twisting and wringing the milk  out of the coconut. He also showed how to start a fire with the coconut husk as a teaser to his fire dancing show later on in the evening. He was very entertaining and charismatic.  We saw fire dancers at another show during my stay and he was the best. More about this later...

Fresh Fruit Anyone?

In every city we went to in Italy they had beautiful fresh fruit and vegetable stores spilling out of the store fronts and set up along the sidewalks. While the selection and quantity were not as vast as the stores here in the states, there is just something about picking your fruit out from a market like this that feels fresh and yummy. What a welcome splash of color along the city street. This little storefront was someplace in Florence.

Venice

Venice was probably my favorite Italian city, with Rome a close second. Besides the quaint medieval mountaintop towns in Tuscany, it was the most "European" city we visited and totally unique in all of the year. With it's canals and maze-like alley ways, the open piazzas and cobblestone streets, it's charm captured me. They don't allow any thing with wheels in Venice, so everybody walks. The reason for this is the narrow streets and the many bridges that must be crossed to move about the city. There would be a problem if people were riding bikes and even roller skates and skateboards are banned in the city.  I am really intrigued by how they constructed this city in water. I'm looking for books on just how Venice was built. Amazing.

One of the things that amazed me was that major thoroughfares were nothing more than narrow alleys in some cases. It's a city that seems as if it hasn't changed with the ages. I must visit again, although I would not choose to go during Carnavale again. While the costumes were amazing and out of this world, so were the crowds of people. I don't feel that I got the best of Venice for this reason. I want to visit again, with less of the pressure  the huge crowds presented. For example, the famous San Marco Piazza was PACKED with people. It was really impossible to make our way through the piazza without being pushed and squeezed, carried away by the crowds. It was really like being in the front row of a Led Zeppelin concert in the '70's.

The time of year we went was great. We had some rain, but that wasn't really anything we're not used to. It was cool enough that a coat and scarf kept us warm. We were outside the normal tourist season, so the prices were slightly less, (although still expensive), and it wasn't too hot. I had heard negative things about "stinky Venice also, but we didn't get any of that. Venice in the sweltering summer may be very different however.

Click on any picture to see a larger shot.

A Montepulciano Meal

This week we went to the Tuscany region of Italy, a few hours north of here, to a small medieval hilltop town called Montepulciano. The town is built on the top of a hill and the roads are at about a 45 degree angle. My friend Patrice has visited this area before and taken classes at an Italian language school there. She is scheduled to go back to the town in a few weeks and take more language classes AND a wine class. This area is the heart of Italian wine making country. We found a little restaurant that P liked from her previous visits, Trattoria di Voltaia.   We ate dinner there, starting with Crostini Misti, which was toasted bread slathered with a selection of toppings. They had a mushroom tapanade type that was very flavorful and another spread made from wild boar called Cinghale that was very good. I understand that wild boar is big in the area, sort of like salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The other spreads were a spicy tomato, a sweet tomato and an artichoke.   After this, we had a Panzanella salad that I really liked a lot. It's made with greens, basil, celery, tomato and stale bread that has been soaked in something wet, (it tasted like water and vinegar maybe?) and then squeezed out. After that, I had a dish called Pici al Baffo. This roughly translates to "pici in the style of the mustache". I'm really not sure where the whole mustache thing comes in, however. Pici  is pronounced "peach-ee" is the special pasta of the area and is a fat spaghetti-type pasta. It was good and was basically pici pasta with tomatoes, garlic, peppers and cream. Patrice had Ribollita, a hearty Tuscan vegetable soup which then has chunks of bread added to it. The soup is cooled, then reheated. Ribollita means "boiled twice". Very tasty meal.  Click on any picture for a close up. Ciao!

Pompeii

In the space of a mere 18 hours, an entire city was covered by yards of volcanic ash. Everybody died. The people who fled the city to the beach died. Pliny the Elder, the ruler of the area, was very intrigued by natural phenomenon and took his boat out to watch the activity from Mt. Vesuvius from the deck. He was overcome by toxic gasses as he watched the mountain erupting. Total devastation. Pompeii was a thriving city, but all was gone in less than 24 hours.

Mt. Vesuvius is still an active volcano. It last erupted in my lifetime, and they expect it to do so again. Not only was Pompeii destroyed, but the eruption also buried nearby towns. They are still excavating sites all over the area. One thing that really impressed me was the size of the buildings that are in Pompeii. You know everything that was not covered was long since gone, so the depth of the ash coverage had to be a good 20 feet or more. The entire town...gone...under 20 feel of new ground. The eruption was so strong that the coastline was changed.
We went to Pompeii on Wednesday and followed it up with a trip to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli to see the works of art they removed from Pompeii and other sites  Mt. Vesuvius buried with the eruption in 79 AD. The mosaics were AMAZING. I had no idea the works were made up of such small tiles. They were tiny, being about 1/10th of the size of a computer key each, if that. The detail they could get with these small tiles was amazing. Even the mosaics that were huge, covering an entire wall were made up of these tiny tiles.  Breathtaking. Click on the pictures to enlarge and see the detail.   

Vinegar and Honey

After a long day of running around, we had this scrumptious dish as an antipaste before dinner this evening. It is fresh ricotta cheese drizzled with honey and balsamic vinegar. Absolutely wonderful. Try it, you'll love it.

I'll post about Pompeii and our visit to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli tomorrow. I need rest first! Ciao!

Wish you were here...

Our trip to Italy is well underway. We're now in Monte di Procida, near Naples. Today we drove the Amalfi coastline and stopped in this mountaintop town called Ravello. The views were really incredible. I can't get over the color of the water. It's this gorgeous green blue, even with grey skies...amazing. We went to a villa frequented by Greta Garbo when she wanted to be alone for her "secret love" time, (according to a plaque). It is all like something out of a movie. When we were on top of the mountain, we experienced a brief little snow swirl...not enough to stick, but it was icy cold and windy. My friend said snow is unheard of on the Mediterranean, but not today!
We've also been enjoying, immensely, the incredible Italian food. Naples area is famous for it's "mozzarella di bufalo", made fresh daily from the milk of water buffalo. My daughter has been gobbling it down by the pounds, with sweet tomatoes, basil and a generous dousing of good Italian olive oil.  This cheese is so fresh that it leaves a puddle of milk when it's cut...absolutely deliciouso. The fresh tomatoes are so sweet....pure yumminess!
Last night, my friend and daughter made home made Tiramisu. Now, this is my daughter's favorite...since birth I think...so she is THRILLED to be able to make it herself. This recipe was incredibly easy...nothing like the previous recipes she has tried which have many more ingredients and take forever. This tiramisu whipped up in about 10 minutes...I have a feeling we're going to have to make it again before she leaves...and then she will probably make it again when she gets home. First thing. :-)
More about Venice, Florence and Rome later....Ciao!!

Il Carnevale di Venezia 2006

We're off tomorrow for our trip to Italy. First stop, Venice and the Carnevale. The theme for this year is The Dragon and the Lion. I can find remarkably little on it and some of the "official" sites are not up and running. But, that's okay as we'll be there  in person to experience it all.

I'm excited. My daughter is excited. I can't belive our trip is actually here and we're really going. Ciao!