On the Weekend

Our schedules are so off here.  With the time change and Matthew working nights I typically am waking up as he is getting ready for bed.  He sleeps til noon at least and I can't stand to be in Hawaii and let a whole morning go to waste!  So here are some of the adventures that result from our altered time schedules.

Mac 24/7

Eating late-night isn't an uncommon request from Matthew when he gets in from work.  We found this 24 hr restaurant online and their website said it was featured on some food network show so we decided to check it out.  Matthew just wanted breakfast food - some pancakes.  We should have read the website - and menu - more carefully.   This place is renown for their "Pancake Challenge", I think you eat for free if you can finish.  Every order of pancakes is this tremendous pile - 3 cakes 14" in diameter!  It was just an embarrassing amount of food. He didn't even eat a quarter of it.  They gave us the leftovers in a cakebox.  Yeah.  Future rotators: consider yourself warned.

Saturday Farmers' Market at Kapiolani Community College

This farmers market was incredible.  What a variety!  Tropical fruits, herbs and spices, greens and vegetables, flowers, coffee, seafood... the list is long and full of surprises.  I got there at 8am and look and the dense crowd ready to greet me!  Obviously this is a popular spot.  It was a bit overwhelming.  Check out my loot:  Bird of Paradise (flowers), pineapple, lettuce, basil, cilantro, papaya, advocado, rambutan, apple bananas, and Hawaiian sweet potatoes.

 

That red furry fruit is a Rambutan - I was introduced to it in Thailand.  They are quite delicious!  They taste similar to green grapes.  Also shown are the Hawaiian sweet potato - they are purple inside!  They are not as stringy as the typical orange sweet potatoes we are used to in the south.  I think they are a bit sweeter too.

Honolulu Academy of the Arts

I intended to tour the museum, but it was closed in preparation for some Christmas function later that evening.  Next weekend.  But they did direct me to their holiday market - the World Art Bazaar.  Unfortunately this had my name all over it.  There were beautiful handmade crafts from all over the Polynesian Islands and Southeast Asia.  They also had a holiday sale of crafts produced at the academy, similar to our holiday sale at USC.  Really nice objects and crafts that reminded me alot of my time in Thailand.

First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu at Ko'olau

I am so thankful to be in Hawaii on this fabulous month-long vacation.  This lush environment inspires such wonder - it is entirely appropriate to worship and give thanks.  My friends Jacob and Courtney Landry (who lived in O'ahu for 2 years as TFA volunteers) suggested I visit this church on the windward side of the island and I'm so glad they did.  I showed up for 9:30 service, just in time for their Christmas pageant with the church's youth.  What a show!  A chorus of angels in board shorts, barefoot.  The show was laced with surfer metaphors and even had hula dancers!  A bit more contemporary than I'm use to but it was really great energy.  It's nice to have a place to celebrate Advent and Christmas - I hope that I can bring Matthew at some point.

An interesting bit of history about the church:  Its original location in Honolulu offered limited parking and while the church was looking for solutions they came across this golf course for sale.  So they bought the course and hold worship in the ballroom, which overlooks the beautiful Ko'olau range.  Not a bad place to worship.  The course still operates and is a source of revenue for the church.  Cool, huh?