October 24, 2015

This past Saturday was a whirlwind day.  I started off the day by giving time to support the Hawaii Japanese Center by modeling some fabulous Anne Namba fashions–see blog post at Anne Namba Fashion Show in Hilo.  After the fashion-focused morning, I rushed home in time to join our family in making a quick stop at our neighbor’s house for a baby’s first birthday party. The decorations were awesome and the desserts looked so yummy!  Wish we could have stayed and celebrated and gone down the huge inflatable slide, but our family had things to do and places to be.

Next up that day, we delivered our dog to our friend’s house for his fun night with his doggie pals. When our crazy dog sees us packing his overnight bag, he knows what is coming and gets so incredibly excited.  Once we pack the bag, he waits by his overnight bag and sometimes jumps into the bag to make sure we take him along.  I wonder what his doggie pals think when they hear our car coming up the driveway.  I don’t know if they look forward to his visit.

Next the family split up to attend two different cross country meets.

Husband and son went the Kamehameha-Keaau campus to cheer on the Hilo High runners at the BIIF cross country championship meet. My son would have been running at this meet if he had not broken his leg just three weeks ago.  Prior to breaking his leg, my freshman son was consistently placing in the top 10 in the BIIF meets and was really enjoying the cross country season.  It was so heartbreaking and disappointing to see his season cut short in this way.  Our family sends out our congratulations to the Waiakea High boys and HPA girls for their BIIF cross country championship wins.  Hilo High took second place in both male and female divisions and will also be going to the state tournament to be held on Maui next weekend.  Go Big Island!  Go Vikings! I look forward to seeing some great finishes by the Big Island runners.

My daughter and I headed to Bayfront for her middle school cross country meet.  The Hilo youth running club, Sunrise Athletics, took both the boys and girls team awards. If you have a child interested in running, check out Sunrise Athletics. This is an awesome club with dedicated and committed coaches who want to encourage and inspire our youth in running.  Sunrise has a fun run coming up on Saturday, November 7.  Support Sunrise and our youth by entering the run.

At the conclusion of the cross country meets, we all met at my MIL’s home centrally located near the airport and headed to Hilo Airport in one car.  We flew Hawaiian Airlines to Oahu to attend the Hall and Oates concert at the Blaisdell!!!  When I say that WE attended the concert, I do not mean just the husband and me, but I mean that the two kiddos were coming along too.  The kids were not so excited about it, but we hoped that at the conclusion of the concert they would be able to say they enjoyed it.

We arrived at Honolulu International Airport, rented our car and drove straight to the Blaisdell for the concert.  We made it to the Blaisdell at about 7:30 p.m. and got to our seats just before 8 p.m. and settled in. Of course, at that point, the kids said they were hungry. My husband took the kids to the concession stands while I got to relax in the seats. As soon as they exited the building, the concert opened with a rocking rendition of Maneater!  The family got back to the seats before the end of the second song, Out of Touch.  The part of the concert that I thought was the most special and unique to Hawaii was when Henry Kapono joined the band to play When the Morning Comes.  Once that song started, the phones came up and video cameras started recording.  See picture below for the glowing lights of the phone/cameras.

After the concert, the kids concluded that they still aren’t huge fans of Hall and Oates.  Maybe in 20 to 30 years, they will realize how lucky they were to have seen this group live in concert.

As we were slowly exiting the Blaisdell my husband recognized Frank Bayot, also known as the uncle of Bruno Mars.  (If you want to know why and how my husband knows who Frank Bayot is, you can ask him about it the next time you see him around Hilo.)  Frank was very friendly and accepted our gushing over Bruno’s successes and even agreed to take a picture with us.

After the concert, we met up with my husband’s cousin and enjoyed some post-concert pupus at Aki-no-No on King Street.  They are open until 2 a.m.and have lots of parking at night in the neighboring lot, so it is a good post-concert stop to relax and debrief about the concert.  Izakayas are one of my favorite restaurant choices. Small plates of yummy Japanese food to share is always a winner in my book. We had sushi, shrimp tempura, tonkatsu, hamachikama, daikon salad, grilled eggplant, and fried oysters. An interesting fact–the restaurant owners’ daughter, Yuna Ito, is a J-Pop star in Japan and you’ll see her posters up all over the walls of the restaurant.

That evening, we stayed at what locals consider to be one of the most convenient hotels on Oahu, the Ala Moana Hotel.  It is such a convenient location for shopping and eating and you don’t have to fight the traffic in Waikiki to get there.  After a long day, we knocked out right away and had a great night’s sleep.

The next morning, we took our time waking up and then headed to Ala Moana Shopping Center to pick up a few things and visit Barnes and Noble.  My kids really miss having a bookstore in Hilo and every stop to Ala Moana includes a long visit to Barnes and Noble. To accommodate my daughter’s ramen craving, we took a lunch break at her favorite ramen place, Goma Tei.  Pictured below are the curry rice, tantan ramen, and banbanji chicken with noodles.  Delicious.

After lunch, we headed to Sports Authority to check out the soccer shoe selection and then returned to the airport for our flight back home to Hilo.  What a packed and fun-filled weekend.

Once we got home, it was back to reality.  Unpacking, laundry, homework, and making sure we are prepared for the upcoming week.  Play hard and work hard.  Living Hilo Style.