Wish I Were in Hawaii

Mark used to travel alot more than he does now and about the only upside to his traveling was that he earned oodles of frequent flyer points.  His parents were spending the winter months in Hawaii at that time and every other year we had enough points to fly over and stay near them.  It's been three years since our last trip.  Mark is home more.  I wouldn't trade that.  But I am dreaming of the islands and all our wonderful adventures.

Kate and John fell right into a native Hawaiian lifestyle, boogie boards always ready and trekking wherever the paths leads to find the next beach.

This is where I drank my coffee every morning, watching the sun light up the near distant tips of Lanai (see it's slope on the far right) and Maui (barely visable behind clouds on the left).  In the afternoon, someone in this little village would blow on a conch shell to gather everyone for pupus (appetizers) and drinks.  John and Mark played baseball every evening on our front lawn.  Ahhhh.

Having long heard stories of the fabled "midnight bread run", we finally decided to check it out on our last trip.  It was said that, at midnight, the bakery in town sold, from its back doors, the first batch of Hawaiian bread baked for the following morning.  But, to get some, you had to walk down this dark alley and wait by these big red doors.  You wait by the big red doors and, right at midnight, the doors are flung open and you have to place your order fast, you have to know which topping you want and have your money ready but...it is sooooo worth it when you get that little loaf of still hot bread.  This story was told to us many times, very charismatically, with a lot of arm gesturing and always a chuckle when the red doors are mentioned.  So, when we woke the kids at 11:30pm, drove into town and scuffled down the dark alley, noticing figures against the walls and in corners, we were just a little nervous, wondering if this were a true story, an urban legend, or a trap. 
Turns out it was a true story.  The toasty little loaves of sweet bread were sliced in half horizontally and slathered in cream cheese, strawberry jam, butter, cinnamon or any combination of these.  Then, we learned, it is custom to take your bread down to the pier and eat it there.   Soooooo worth it!