Hawaii – the first few days

Another relatively quick update for them curious about what we are doing. So, yesterday’s post was a general announcement of our current location and associated intentions. It did show the beginning and end of Friday, the first full day we were here, and mentioned us running errands. 

Let me go into a few more details . . .

Since we lacked basic staples, on Friday morning we headed into town (more of a tourist center) to grab a bite to eat.

We first saw that tree some 25 years ago, February of 1991. It’s a bit more impressive now. Near there, we went to eat at a restaurant that used to be a Chinese food place (now, it has Hawaiian and American fare). It used to be fairly cheap, but now it’s as expensive as the San Diego restaurants we visited.

While there, we found out our waitress was planning on visiting Colorado in August. Specifically, Denver and vicinity, so we chatted about places to go and things to see. That led to us finding out that the couple sitting at the next table was here on vacation and lived in Colorado Springs, so we chatted with them about our move. It’s as they say . . . a small world.

We also ate breakfast . . . Breakfast — including tip — was around $28. 

It was a very good breakfast, but still . . . $28.

This is what people speak about when they say Hawaii is expensive. Eating out is expensive. Housing is also expensive.

However, after breakfast, we headed out to Safeway to buy supplies. Some things were a bit more, some things were a bit less, but on the whole, prices were comparable to the Safeway in Monument.

After that, we went to the Post Office to pick up the Priority Mail packages that had beat us here (the other packages will arrive next week). They beat us here, but someone had also given them a pretty good beating.

It was a bit of a surprise to see that most of them looked as if someone had taken a baseball bat to them. Nothing was broken . . . except for one of the Le Creuset cast-iron round Dutch Ovens we shipped. It was split from the rim to the center of the bottom. I had plenty of padding around it but I obviously had not counted on someone flinging the box against a concrete wall . . . over and over and over until large rips appeared on the sides and bottom and top of the box. I’m having a tough time imagining what it takes to split one of those pots.

I’m also trying to imagine what kind of handling the mail goes through. Again, I’m having a tough time of it.

I am now very concerned about the rest of the boxes which, although heavily taped, were shipped ground. We’ll see how they fared. Since some of them contain dishes, I’m not hopeful about their fate despite them being double boxed with an insulating layer between the outer and inner boxes. Live and learn.

After Safeway and the Post Office, we got back to the condo, taking refuge from the heat and humidity (although the weather app showed that Monument was hotter than Kona, albeit with less humidity). And so endeth the first day.

Saturday, we went and got a small storage space for said boxes. Our short-term housing is too small to comfortably house all the boxes we shipped . . . if they make it here at all. I’m worried some might get pulverized along the way.  And, after that, we went and got a safety-deposit box at the bank. We traveled with some of our important papers and we’re buying a bit of peace of mind that they will be secure while we look for more permanent housing.

Then, we went to Costco. Gas at Costco was about what it is in Colorado, or $2.36/gal. The surprise was shopping for food, paper goods, and other supplies. The prices were not just comparable to the Costco in Colorado Springs . . . for many things, they were lower.

Even though we had done research before leaving Colorado, we were surprised at the good deals we found . . . and had to pass up since we don’t have much room at the condo we are renting.

In a good mood, we opted to visit one of our favorite places . . .

We ordered a double cheeseburger and six Malasadas. I should have taken a photo of the burger. It was huge, and at $7.29 it was more than enough to feed both Melisa and I. Also, better than the Smashburgers we like so much.

The Malasadas were as good as we remembered . . . and I did remember to snap a photo before they were all gone. 

There is no sense of scale, so let me tell you that they are roughly square, about 4″ x 4″ and about 3″ thick. That sounds like a lot, but believe me, they go quick. Especially when, as these were, they are still hot. Tex is a two-hour drive (each way) from where we are staying . . . but we might consider moving closer to it.

For dinner, one of Costco rotisserie chickens and one of Costco’s salads made for a good meal . . . with leftovers for a few more meals. Yes, the rotisserie chicken is the same price here as it is in Colorado, as is the salad and sandwich combo.

So endeth the second day.

This morning, Sunday, we went for a four miles walk. We will be heading out a tad earlier tomorrow. By the time we got back, we were pretty hot . . . so we changed and went into the pool to cool off.

During our walk, we had stopped at a farmer’s market and bought some strawberry papayas and some limes. Why?

Well, because I made Brunch . . .

That is our favorite Hawaiian Sweetbread. It’s great for making French Toast.

. . . which we ate out on the balcony . . .

Honest, we can’t eat like this every day or I will gain back all the weight I lost during these past four weeks (about 11 pounds). Still, Malasadas every three months and French Toast every few weeks . . . we both think that is a reasonable plan.

After relaxing a bit, we went to Wal-Mart . . . were we again found cheap prices for things we normally buy.

By then, it was once again hot, but tolerable in the shade of the balcony. We relaxed the rest of the day, and now here I am writing about it.

Tomorrow I’ll post a few photos of the flowers from the grounds of the complex were we are staying. Mind you, I am snapping photos with my Nikon, but all of the photos in this post are — and all of the flower photos in the next post will be — from the Samsung Note II. I don’t have the big PC rig to process the Nikon’s large files, so phone photos it is. Based on what I saw of the boxes I received so far, I wonder if I will have to buy a new PC.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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