Hawaiian Life

We weren’t constantly on the go, we were able to spend some time enjoying my parents’ garden-like yard and neighborhood, in between random rain showers that pop up throughout the day. We visited their local farmer’s market which was fun to see. Even more fun was having my parents show us the various vendors who they frequent. “This is where we buy our papayas…” What? Papayas? My parents now eat these exotic fruits. When I was growing up, green apples were a little radical to them.

The girls love playing in the yard and with the small pool that was set up for them, they spent hours splashing in the water.

We also learned some valuable farming skills…pineapple farming. All you need to do is save the spiky top, dig a shallow hole and pop it in. Of course, in Hawaii, it still takes about nine months to get a pineapple. We’re trying to grow one now at home. It’s in a container in our bedroom – probably not at all like Hawaii, condition-wise. Grandma and Grandpa have several growing in their “pineapple garden” in the backyard.

We visited downtown Hilo a few times for lunch and a little shopping. One one of our trips, Loran found a Hawaiian shirt at a second hand store, and we found a traditional hand-made Hawaiian dress for Ella. She practically lived in it once we got it.

How we were greeted one day when Loran and I returned from an outing!

This rambutan is one of the crazy fruits we tried. It looks violent, I’m not sure who looked at this spiky, red fruit and despite all of the warning signs it embodied, said… “I’m going to eat that!” The white fruit on the inside is slimy and according to my mom the nurse – feels like an eyeball…but once you get past the frightening outside, slimy inside, and taste the fruit…it tastes a lot like a grape.

This photo is not mine, it is from http://www.rambutan.com/ – a whole site dedicated to this amazing fruit.