Malasadas are Hawaiian donuts and boy am I searching for the recipe! We had them at the breakfast buffet at the resort and they were good, but when we stopped at the Punu'lu bakery on our way around the southern tip of the island and they were right out of the oven and dripping with fruit fillings and exotic nut creams, they were absolutely divine. We spent the rest of our trip searching for another malasada bakery with no luck (although we did find plenty of other yummy Hawaiian treats to keep us fast and sassy.)
Here I am with a bag full--shoulda bought a TOTE bag full--next to a tree that I have only seen as a houseplant back home. See my happy little raffia string bag that I decorated with Felt Flowers before I left? And that morning at a coffee plantation in Kona, I bought a shell lei for Natalie and decided to use it as my lanyard for the rest of the trip.
We had signed up for the "volcano tour" through our travel agency and we were blown away to discover just what that meant--an all-inclusive round-island tour with many different stops besides "just" the volcano. We stopped at a coffee plantation, where inexplicably we did not take any pictures (probably too busy juggling multiple sample cups of Kona coffee); we stopped at the above mentioned bakery (where we roundly and soundly spoiled our lunch), and we ate lunch at Volcano House on the edge of the crater.
It misted quite a bit that day and we were disappointed to arrive at Volcano House and it was all socked in. However, as we ate, it gradually cleared, and by the time we got out to the observation trail it was quite clear. That "steam" you see rising out of the volcano is actually sulpur-something (hey, I'm a history nerd, not a science geek), which we were told when combined with moisture makes sulphuric acid. If you breathed it in, it would sear your lungs and throat and you'd instantly suffocate. They have to watch the wind very carefully and sometimes close the park or certain trails with no notice. The rangers all have gas masks on their belts! We learned a lot about volcanoes that day--the first being that you never take them for granted.
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March 2009
March 31, 2009
Gotta love that ocean...
The Hilton Waikoloa Village has a private ocean-fed lagoon, so you can swim without fear of the waves, undertow or various other nasties in the water. My kind of ocean swimming! It was less crowded here than at the freshwater pools, as that's where the families with kids tend to congregate.
The shoreline was so beautiful it made you gasp. It was just post-card perfect everywhere you looked. The colors were just amazing, saturated and intense. The blue of the sky was outmatched only by the turquoise of the sea, the waves were shockingly snowy white, and the sand and rocks were such a dead black in contrast.
A black sand beach...who knew?
This beach was one of our favorite places in Hawaii. It was just so unreal and beautiful. It was a windy day, so the surf was very high and the waves came crashing in. You could really envision how centuries of waves crashing against the lava could form all these tiny grains of black sand. Very cool.
Sea turtles really love this warm beach and we were lucky enough to find one up out of the water. We also saw a couple of them in the water and were amazed at how they are able to hold their place in the waves and feed on the sea weed just off the shore. They were hard to see against the black sand! They have great camouflage.
Whoo-hoo was that water cold! And aren't we cute?? The best part of all was sharing the whole trip with my best friend. We are so well matched. Neither of us are "beach people"--we like to hike and explore and go DO stuff. We had the best time bumming around in the rental car in Hawaii.
March 30, 2009
We highly recommend the Hilton Waikoloa Village!
If you happen to be independently wealthy or suddenly win the lottery, you simply MUST take your next vacation at the Hilton Waikoloa Village... oh wait, we didn't win the lottery--how did WE get there? Stampin' Up makes dreams come true! Ask me today how Stampin' Up could fit in with YOUR vacation plans. I'm headed to the South Caribbean next!
Hawaii Make N Take goodies & gifts!
It wouldn't be a Stampin' Up event without STAMPING! We got our Make N Take supplies in the cutest little banana-leaf box! It was decorated with a koa wood turtle and Hawaiian print fabric and just exactly fit the supplies and stamp set. What a delightful presentation!
Inside the box was five ink pads, the new large neutral brads, a marker, Sticky Strip and the trip stamp set. In a 12x12 Paper Keeper was all the pre-cut cardstock and DSP, other embellishments, and the full color instruction sheets. Sweet!
I also made out like a bandit on the daily prize wheel at the Hospitality Desk. The first day I won a pack of Raspberry Tart DSP. On successive days I won two packs of Hooray Designer Hardware, the new flower brads, and Summer Sun corduroy buttons, which I think will make atrociously cute flower centers for some summery daisy cards!
I didn't win one of the iPods they gave away each day, but one of the gals in our group, Melony, did on the first drawing, so that was cool! They also handed out trip magnets and decals, which Mike finally allowed me to put on our (my) van. Stay tuned for a photo of my "island girl" van!
Display Boards from Incentive Trip, news about the In Colors
Demos have been asking for photos of the displays, so here you go. Some of these are swaps made by the demonstrators for display in Hawaii, and others are of projects from the Home Office or from the General Session. They're all mixed together and NO, none of them show the new In Colors. For those of you who haven't heard yet, SU has decided to keep the In Colors tightly under wraps and while we did get to see them, and they are indeed fabulous, we were not allowed to take pictures and cannot post any descriptions or names. Sorry! We'll just have to wait together.
One picture from General Session before they had us turn off our cameras. The numbers were fun to hear --416 acheivers, 95 first time, over 900 acheivers and guests present. Mary Polcin was the first person to earn next year's cruise already, so she got a card and a gift from Shelli.
The page above and the four cards below were made with the set we got in our Make N Take session. It is really, really pretty. That's a whole nother post for later!
Here's four matchbox ideas for ya--the one on the left below fits three chapsticks wrapped with DSP perfectly. It uses the new acetate with the polka dots for the lid part. The one on the right is entirely made of acetate and uses the cute new rub-ons from the spring mini. In the bottom photo, the left hand one holds a pair of tiny baby socks--what a precious little gift!--with the train stamped in White Stazon ink. The final one has a window in the lid, and the lid has been altered so that instead of sliding off the box to open, it has a flap which tucks in to close. Very cool!
More exploring and dolphins, too!
They had a walkway behind the falls that was fun to go in. The sea turtles like to hang out beneath the falls--kind of their own personal jaccuzi, I guess! Oh and I'm wearing the lei from the airport the evening before. Turns out I really like wearing flowers! But I guess people would look at me funny if I went around with one behind my ear here in Wisconsin.
Did you know dolphins are very hard to catch mid-air? I didn't get very good pictures. I love how they look like they are always smiling. These dolphins were so cute, following their trainers around like puppies, waiting for fish. We enjoyed watching the Dolphin Quest go-ers get their hands-on experience and seeing the dolphins do tricks for them. We didn't do it because of the cost, but it looked like fun!
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