October 17, 2015

Part of Living Hilo Style for parents is involvement in sports activities . Like many other parents I know, my weekend schedule revolves around meets and games.

Today was no different.   The only difference is that since my son’s leg is broken, our schedule is much lighter than it usually is.

We left Hilo before 7 a.m. this morning to head up the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (better known as Saddle Road) to Waikoloa for a middle school cross country meet.  As we were breezing along the highway, listening to Pandora (Hall and Oates Radio), we learned that there was an accident that downed a power line that closed the road for close to five hours.  We must have passed that spot just before the accident occurred.  The closure of the road at that site meant that there was no way to get to the west side of the island via Saddle Road from Hilo and vice versa–and no way for the people who live in the area called Kaumana City to get to the town of Hilo without going through the Saddle Road.  (Yikes!  This is an issue that might need to be looked at.)  Many of the cross country team members trying to get to Waikoloa were stuck in the traffic backup and had to turn around, head back down the hill and take the Hamakua route.

Once we got to Kamakoa Park in Waikoloa, we could relax for a bit since most of the team was slow in arriving due to the detour.  The organizers of the cross country meet were very understanding and postponed the start time a few minutes to accommodate the delays.  My daughter’s team’s best runner did not make it to Waikoloa by the time they started lining up the runners.  Then–like a scene from a movie, a van pulled up to the end of the road, just beyond the start line, the door opened, and out jumped our best runner!  She ran straight to the start line (while her mom ran to check her in at the registration tent) and the starting gun went off around 10 seconds later!  That runner ended up coming in second place!  What drama for our team.

After the race, the Nixle updates indicated that the road closure was still in place so we made our way to Kamuela with the intent of driving back the beautiful Hamakua route with a stop in Waimea.  We stopped at the Parker Ranch soccer fields to cheer on the Big Island Rush U14 team of which my son is a team member.  As mentioned earlier, my son has a broken leg (that was broken at that particular field!) and has been sidelined for the last few weeks.  We are so glad to have been able to show up to support the team today.

After the game, we headed toward the town of Waimea where we stopped at the Parker Ranch Shopping Center for lunch.  The food court was very busy!  I ordered a Mexican salad ($8.95) with shredded chicken from Los Tres Mex.  It was tasty, but I wish it had a higher ratio of greens to the chicken ratio.  The photo taken prior to me digging in and spreading the chicken around makes it look like a nice ratio, but in reality, there was a very generous amount of chicken and refried beans in this dish.

We left the shopping center and headed toward Hilo with the intent to stop at Kamuela Liquor Store, another one of our favorite liquor stores on the island.  Seriously, go there for your alcohol needs as well as yummy salami, cheese, and other gourmet food items.  The staff is friendly and knowledgeable.  Plus, as we walked in the door, I saw a sign advertising wine tasting for today.  Alvin, the owner, chatted with us about the wine that was open for the tasting.  He also listened to me gush about my excitement regarding my upcoming ladies trip to Napa (future blog post).  He gave us suggestions for affordably-priced wine purchases for casual everyday drinking.  If you are in Kamuela, a stop at Kamuela liquor is hihgly recommended.

 At the end of the day, we dropped our son off at Wong Stadium for a BIIF football game between Hilo High and Waiakea High so he could support Hilo High as a member of the band.  The husband and I decided to stop at Pineapples Island Fresh Cuisine for the live music and a bite to eat before going home.  We ordered the Hamakua mushrooms, teriyaki flank steak, caprese salad with pesto, and buffalo wings.  This was way too much yummy food for the two of us, but we really enjoyed ourselves there.

Nice day.  Living Hilo Style.