The Little Flower That Could

My dad and I felt like going hiking on this fine morning so we packed up our bags, laced up our shoes, and headed out to La Perouse. Hey look, I'm a poet, and I didn't even know it! Haha!

We ventured across this trail that is going straight through a lava flow. This is called the King's trail because back in the day, the King would cross this trail, a highway of his own.

My dad and I didn't quite make it all the way to Kanaio, but instead we took a little detour to come to this beach area with spectacular cliff faces carved out by the crashing waves.

I came across this little beauty as I climbed up a hill to get a better view of the waves coming in.

It was all alone in the rocks, just one strong Hawaiian Poppy flower. 

This was the view of the cliffs from the top of the hill. 

Aaaaand, I also found a crab friend. Well, I guess he isn't exactly my friend, just a shell of my friend who molted on the rocks. I think he's cool none-the-less, especially with his lightbulb eyes.

Look! I found a half of a coconut.

That happens to look like a guy with a mustache. 

From here we had a well-deserved re-fueling lunch that we packed earlier and hit the trail once more to head on home.

I look forward to my next adventure. Hopefully you hear from me soon! That means I came back alive, haha.

Much love,

Crystal

Bird Butt

We drove up to Haleakala's Hosmer's Grove on this lovely day. At a little over 10,000 ft in elevation, Hosmer's Grove is one of my favorite places to visit, have lunch, and just get away from all of the hustle and bustle of life. 

My dad and I went on the little trail hike that goes through the forest. We stopped at the lookout area where you can spot birds native to Hawaii. I got a few snapshots of the birds, but today there weren't very many compared to what we have seen before.

Birdy #1 

Birdy #2

Birdy #3

Here is where the fun began! This little bird was very quick and kept hopping from berry bunch to berry bunch, the camera just couldn't keep up ("yeah, blame the camera", haha) Most of the pictures I got of this little guy were out of focus and blurry. 

This picture that I took was not so bad, but it didn't come out as clear as I would have liked. 

The butt shot however, seemed to be perfectly in focus! Well, now at least you know what the back side of this bird looks like.

After our short hike/walk, we had a nice little picnic as a family, including my mom, dad, obaachyan, and Ace, our dog. I will more than likely be coming here again before I leave for school in August. 

Much love,

Crystal

Guess Who?

This, my friends, is my wonderful obaachyan (grandma). She came to visit us for about a month from Japan.  This is a quick snapshot of one of our many morning walks along the beach and through parks. She gets up at the crack of dawn just like I do, so we can have a nice walk before it starts to get too hot outside.

Here's a very pretty purple flower that my obaachyan pointed out as we were walking in our neighborhood.

I love being able to go for little morning strolls because I have the warmth of the sun rays on my skin, it gets my body moving and stretched out for the day, and to top it all off, I get to talk story with my obaachyan the whole time and hear about some of her own pretty amazing adventures. 

Later on that day, I went to play some tennis as well. Good morning walks, lead to other good decisions, I guess. It has been a while since I have practiced playing tennis, and this was a great day to start. I am so glad I went to hit some balls around the court, it reminded me of why I liked it so much in high school. I will definitely not wait so long to pick up my racket again. 

Much love,

Crystal

To the beach!

Short post today. We went on this adventure a few days ago and only now I was able to blog about it because I have been going on so many fun adventures recently! Those stories will be up in the near future (hopefully).

Time for a hike? I think so. To the top? Maybe next time we'll make it there, haha.

Baby steps.

The view from where we were at was pretty nice though. And then we took a dip in the ocean at the...

Beeeeach!!! Yay! I absolutely love going to the beach, but when I am off at college (still in Hawaii by the way), I do not get enough beach time. So now that I am home for the summer, I am taking every opportunity I can get my hands on to go soak up the sun and get some water on these gills of mine.

Also, I spy a swan.

Much love,

Crystal

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

Can someone say banana muffins? Oh, why yes I can. This morning I decided to whip up a batch of "healthy" banana nut muffins for my mom and I. I'm actually not sure if I can call these proper muffins. My mom and I still enjoyed these light versions of muffins. I am still tweaking the recipe a bit, so I won't be posting a recipe for this yet. Until then, let the suspense build. Back to the main story....

We went fishing today!!! Hooray!! My main squeeze took me out fishing for the first time at the beginning of this year and since then, I have been...well....hooked! Haha. Today I caught this big boy, the biggest one I have caught so far! I know it is still pretty small compared to some other fish, but hey, I have to start somewhere and I think this is a pretty good start!

These are the other fishies I caught. Funny story actually about the Po'opa'a (the reddish fish). The first time I caught one of those, a smaller version of it, it threw up all over the place. I pulled it out of the water, so happy that I finally caught another fish, and then it started flopping around, still on the hook, with its mouth open. The next thing I know, the contents of its stomach are flying everywhere, including onto me. Yikes! I am happy to say that today, I am not as traumatized from that experience as I was before. 

I see lots of fishing happening in the near future and I am really excited to catch all the fish!! Unlikely, but a girl can dream.

And then there was shave ice. Ululani's shave ice. YUM!! I love the texture of Ululani's, (unlike some other shave ice that I have had before that consists of chunks of ice) the ice is shaved nice and fine and the syrup they use is delicious!

This one was passionfruit (lilikoi), and melona flavored. Oh, and what is that on the top you may ask? Mhm, that's right, mochi has made an appearance once again. Mmm, it was so good. 

So whatever you call it, shave ice, shaved ice, snow cones, etc... You should check out Ululani's if you have a chance, it is the bomb (especially with the mochi on top).

Much love,

Crystal

Far Out Man, Far Out

Yesterday I helped my Uncle start to move into his new place and afterwards he took me to lunch. We went to this small restaurant called Peace Cafe (thus the title of this post) that sells all-vegan foods. 

This is "The Italiano". I have no words...except that it was amazing!! I think that the reason it sent my tastebuds to vegan heaven was the fresh ciabatta bread that sandwiched the cooked veggies, crisp greens, and olive tapenade. The texture of it was just exactly to my liking. It was soft on the inside with a slightly crispy outside. Delizioso!!

So this was dessert. I know, it isn't mochi, but I definitely thought this was worth mentioning. This plate is actually not on their menu, so if you go there, you may not be able to get this exact dish. However, the part that was my absolute favorite, is on the menu. Let me just explain a little about the dish first. The plate is decorated with some chocolate and matcha (green tea) powder in the shape of the restaurant's logo. On the top right is a tapioca, soymilk pudding topped with candied nuts and a berry sauce. The bottom left is homemade granola. And the most important part, the ice cream!! 

I know you may be thinking, whaaat??? Vegans can't eat ice cream...can they? Well, they aren't able to eat anything with dairy/animal products, so regular ice cream is a no-no. Instead they may use soy milk or almond milk as a substitute when making it. Seen in the picture, there is one scoop of strawberry and another scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream. All I have to say is this chef is a genius! The mint chip was the best I have ever tasted.  For those of you who do not know me, that is saying something because it is my childhood favorite. Even as it melted, it tasted good (and I don't like melted ice cream).There was also some pineapple chunks on the bottom, which complemented the deliciousness above it nicely.

Okay, okay, you caught me! I spotted some mochi that they were selling on the counter and I HAD to get some, of course!! How could I pass up mochi? This is their kinako chocolate mochi. The best way to describe this mochi is that it was almost like butter mochi. The outer layer wass semi-baked, while the inside still had that mochi consistency. 

I did not care for the chocolate that much because I am not much of a chocolate lover, it kind of tasted similar to how a brownie tastes, just not as dense. BUUUT, the mochimochi* that I got from it was pretty good. 

*Mochimochi:

A descriptive word that Japanese people use to explain the squishy/chewy texture of something, usually referring to, you guessed it, the texture of mochi.

Much love

Crystal

Did Someone Say Mochi??

What better way to start off the blog than by starting with mochi?

Today I set out to find Nisshodo Candy Shop (because I am finally done with my end-of-semester exams! Woot woot!) Nissodo is definitely a hole-in-the-wall shop that I had the hardest time finding. I was walking around an industrial area with furniture storage and fishing supplies shops around me. I stopped to ask a few people if they knew where to find this little shop and after what seemed like hours, but was really only minutes, I had found it!! The shop was surprisingly smaller than I had expected, but what was inside the glass display case was the treasure I had been searching for. I decided to get two green tea mochi daifukus, one regular daifuku, one peanut butter daifuku, two chichi dango with kinako powder, and one yaki manju (If you do not know what these little gems mean, I have provided some-what of a translation for you down below). 

When I was walking back to the bus stop I found a sidewalk that was really feeling the love. I always get excited whenever I find art in random places, it just makes the adventure that much cooler.

And this is what my favorite mochi, the green tea flavored daifuku, looks like on the inside. YUM! 

I say that this adventure was a definite success!

Words explained:

Mochi- Rice that is soaked, pounded, and formed into any shape that is sticky and ooey gooey delicious.....mmmm

Daifuku- Mochi wrapped around anko/tsubuan (redbean paste) traditionally, but can be filled with anything you can think of!

Chi chi dango- Soft sweet mochi, usually made with coconut milk

Kinako powder- Soybean powder/flour (usually an acquired taste)

Manju- Small puffy buns that can be flaky or spongy in texture that are also filled with anything you can think of, my personal favorite is sweet potato (imo) manju.

Much love
Crystal