The Lighthouse People

On Thursday, we drove over to the west side of the island to cross a few things off our Hawaii to-do list. We wanted to see the Black Pearl (from "Pirates of the Caribbean") which is docked at a harbor over there, and we wanted to see Barber's Point Lighthouse. I really liked the red, white and blue paint job on the doorway.

Unfortunately, like most things in Hawaii, it just wouldn't be complete without some graffiti marring its appearance (on the left door).

Visiting this lighthouse reminded me of one of my favorite stories I wrote at the "Navarre Press." It was about a couple who lived in the area and were known as The Lighthouse People. After visiting a few lighthouses on their honeymoon, they developed a love for the structures and made it a goal to photograph every standing lighthouse in the U.S. They accomplished that goal and, when I wrote the article, had moved on to Canada and the Caribbean. They were the nicest people and had a fascinating story. Here's their website, which includes pictures of every lighthouse they've visited: http://www.thelighthousepeople.com/

Hot Slaw Amazingness

This weekend, Jarrod introduced me to a delicious Southern condiment called hot slaw. It's definitely still coleslaw, but it's very different from all other coleslaws I've had. (Which isn't many, since I'm not usually a coleslaw fan.) This slaw contains quite a list of ingredients: bagged coleslaw mix, green bell pepper, onion, mustard, lemon juice, hot sauce, sugar, cider vinegar, celery seed, salt and pepper. Jarrod put slaw on his brats, and I mounded some atop my Boca Burger. YUM! Last night we had burgers again, and I dressed mine with melted colby cheese, tomato, lettuce, bacon and lots of slaw, and it was amazing.

The flavor of the slaw is really unique... it's unexpectedly sweet, but with a kick. I would describe the taste as multi-dimensional. If you'd care to view the recipe we worked off of (with a few modifications), go to http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/salad_mustardslaw.shtml. Jarrod said it didn't produce the exact look or taste of the slaw he's used to, but we agreed that the end result was pretty darn good.

P.S. Sorry the brat picture is vertical instead of horizontal. Try as I might, I couldn't get it to rotate, even after saving it as a whole new file. Sometimes I just don't understand computers!

"Lost" at the Byodo-in Temple

Yesterday, Jarrod and I finally got around to visiting the Byodo-in Temple over on the east side of the island. It was absolutely gorgeous! We did learn, however, the Memorial Day is not the best time to go anywhere near a cemetery in Hawaii (and, unfortunately for us, the temple is in the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park, which contains several cemeteries). Apparently, that's the day everyone goes to visit their loved ones' graves. Gorgeous tropical flowers were for sale all over the sides of the road and nearly every single grave had fresh flowers on it. Many people even set up tents or canopies to spend the day there! Guards were directing traffic and hundreds of cars clogged the cemetery road. It was fascinating to me, since that's not really a Memorial Day tradition on the Mainland.

Anyway, aside from the beauty of the temple and the moutain setting, the serene and relaxing atmosphere, and the really neat 18-foot Buddha statue, I enjoyed our trip because the Byodo-in Temple was a "Lost" filming site. It's Sun's father's house, where Sun and Jin were married.