Julia's Mexico City

366/2012: Day 129 Jacaranda

The Jacaranda trees are blooming, they instantly take me back to Maui and spring at Seabury. When the trees turned purple, summer vacation was so close you could touch it.

366/2012: Day 76 Momma Goes Out

Last night I went out with Sarah to a literary evening in Santa Monica. Kurt and Harper had Friday night on their own. The book in question was "Lost Kingdom" by Julia Flynn Siler, about the history of Hawaii through 1900. (Similar to "Unfamiliar Fishes" by Sarah Vowel.) Sarah and I became mini celebrities as the we were the only people there from Hawaii. Fun evening out!

When I Was Wee

Here's a picture of me and my dad I found while looking through all my digital images. I scanned this from an old photo album when I was home on Maui a few Christmases ago. I might have posted this before, but it seems much more interesting and relevant now...

What's In A Name?

Harper - We both thought it was a sweet name, not overly girly, not so common (though Posh and Becks did name their recent baby Harper...hmmm). We are both huge fans of "To Kill A Mockingbird" which was written by Harper Lee. We are also both big fans of Harpo Marx. He's our favorite Marx Brother! It also means, quite clearly, one who plays the harp.

Murphy - Kurt found this name and we both like it. We considered it as a first name, but decided Harper was a bit better. In Irish, Murphy means "Sea warrior" and that was a nice bonus for me as I love the ocean so much, having grown up so close to it.

Kulia - I wanted to include a Hawaiian name, but nothing too long or confusing for haoles here on the mainland. Mom's friend Vicky, an expert in the Hawaiian language, found this definition: "A young, handsome person desired and sought after, a beauty." It can also mean, "oustanding, fortunate, lucky" and Harper is all those things! (Or wait, I think WE are!) Kulia is also Hawaiian for "Julia" and was the name of a favorite Auntie in our family.

Frey - This is the German word for "Free" spelled (we've been told by native German speakers) in the old way.

There you have it!

Even After 35 Years, I'm Still Discovering Maui

We moved to Maui when I was eight, just about to turn nine in December of 1975. My grandparents had lived in this house for only a few years before we did, then Jack moved in when he and Mom got married in 1982. I'm sure it's true of anyone that you might not know everything about the wider area where you grew up, small, old neighborhoods, former townsites, etc. But Maui is an island so it's a bit more contained.

Being home this week I have seen two neighborhoods I've never seen before. One I knew existed, but never knew anyone who lived or worked there so never had a reason to go. The other I didn't know still existed and had never been to. It sort of blows my Maui mind.

Tuesday we were doing errands in the industrial part of lower Wailuku, towards Waiehu, and we were talking about Happy Valley because a friend of Mom's brought her some food after Jack died. The food came from Takamiya Market in Happy Valley. (Here's a cool article about Takamiya on it's 60th anniversary.) I asked if we could drive through Happy Valley as I didn't think I'd ever been there. Or if I had, it was so long ago I don't remember it at all. (I love this video. I don't speak Japanese but the images show you how very local and awesome the place is. I'm now very hungry for some kalbi and, well, just about anything on those tables!)

So we did and it's a classic little place with old shop fronts and houses. I'm sorry I didn't take any photos as we were just driving through. Takamiya is the most famous thing there, go check it out next time you are on Maui.

The other spot I'd never been to was Puunene Village, or what's left of it. Yes I've driven by the Puunene Mill a million times on the way to Kihei/Makena/Wailea. I've flown over it a million times as well. When I was a student pilot, Puunene Mill was the easy landmark on your final approach to runway 2 at OGG. You needed to be at 800 feet by Puunene Mill. In fact, a few years ago we flew Mokulele Airlines from the Big Island to Maui in the small plane and as we got to Puunene Mill I looked at the altimeter and we were bang on 800 feet. It made me smile.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the village. Yesterday mom and I were doing more errands, dropping off old paint to the paint collection/recycle place as well as taking used books to the Dirty Bookstore. Okay don't get the wrong idea. There is a free used bookstore run by the Maui Friends of the Library. Both spots are in Puunene village. Mom was driving and I had no idea where we were going except that it was "near Zippy's" so I thought both spots must be in the newer industrial area of Kahului. But then we turned left at the mill and kept going past it. I was amazed to find us in the old village, smack dab next to the mill.

There aren't many buildings left, most are part of the old school, but on the way in is a church (Note the mill smoke stacks behind):

Then the main school building:

Classic building with the wooden louvers. I've never seen wooden window louvers anywhere but Hawaii. Lihikai Elementary had them too. According to wikipedia, the building is a registered historic site built in 1922 and is used as offices now.

The rear of the school building with other outbuildings:

A classroom building:

More outbuildings:

and the Bookstore, which is directly behind the main school building:

The nice thing is, the bookstore was really busy when we were there yesterday. It's really well stocked and organized. Great resource for Maui. (Oh and my mom's friend calls it the "Dirty Bookstore" only because it's RIGHT NEXT to the Mill and so everything gets extremely dusty, red-dirt dirty. If you live(d) here, you know exactly what I mean.)

There was one other building that looked like another church or maybe community hall or theater (?), now being used for Mill stuff:

There didn't seem to be any houses left but as we drove back past the Mill, there is this awesome building:

(I found this on Panoramio). "HC&SCo. Puunene Meat Market 1926" (HC&S stands for Hawaii Commercial and Sugar, fyi.)

I'm amazed at Mill Towns in general because places like the meat market and school are right next door to the mill itself. Not half a mile a way, but right there. The buildings behind the meat market above, that is the working mill. See map below: upper left is the mill with Meat Market, lower right is the school and village area.

And that sugar processing smell is quite distinct. Not bad really, (or I'm used to it from driving past Paia Mill for decades), kind of sour sweet. (I visited a friend in Northfield Minnesota and there is a Malt-O-Meal factory there and it smells like baking bread or at least a lovely cereal aroma, sometimes chocolaty.)

I'm still amazed at going to Puunene Village yesterday. I feel like it's a room in my house I never knew existed. Mom was surprised I'd never been there, but why would I have? in the 70's and 80's there was only the school, which had a very small student body by then, and any of the other buildings were probably just A&B (the company that owns the mill) company buildings. But I'm so happy to have seen it. I don't feel so funny about never spending time in Happy Valley. I grew up in Spreckelsville so our go-to place for local grinds was Paia or Makawao or Pukalani.

These Mill towns were really thriving places on Maui, way back when. Paia used to be jumping with many theaters and stores and shops and schools and banks. Even Spreckelsville was big at one time. Not as big as Paia or Puunene, but still a busy village. When I was in elementary school, there were still buildings along Spreckelsville road (this road becomes Stable road when you cross Hana Highway), a church and a couple houses and maybe a store or post office building. We even picked up a couple of students from there on the school bus one year. But now there is nothing but a few cement foundations.

I love that there is still so much to learn and see in my hometown.

 

 

 

 

Old Old Hawaii Memories

A friend of a friend is going to Honolulu and asked for some advice on where to go and what to do with her elderly and not very mobile mother. I suggested some classics like having Mai Tais at the Royal Hawaiian or going to The House WIthout A Key at the Halekulani (I've never been but hear amazing things). I also suggested the Arizona memorial (assuming they could get a wheelchair if necessary) and 'Iolani Palace. And lastly, a drive around the island with lunch on the North Shore.

I started thinking about Oahu from "small kid time" as we say in Hawaii. We moved to Maui just before I turned nine so Oahu holds some deep memories for me that are more like dreams sometimes. One North Shore destination I mentioned was Matsumomoto Shave Ice. I don't think I've ever been there myself, but have heard of it and seen it on various "what to do when in Hawaii" shows. The reason I mention it now is because when I found their website, the first image on the front page took my breath away:

That white bridge is a tiny kernel of a memory from weekends of camping when my parents were still married. I say "weekends" but we may have only gone once to Mokuleia with the giant green and yellow canvas tent and the camping bunk beds. Mokuleia was just past Haleiwa and we drove over that bridge. It seemed to take ALL DAY to get there in my three or four year old mind. Kurt and my mom and I drove around the island a few years ago and it seemed to hardly take any time at all. But that bridge sticks with me, reminds me of strange adventures at the beach -- fishermen catching a sea turtle and all of us rushing to see, polo ponies in corrals near the beach, dad firing up the campstove to make breakfast. The tent being wet in the rain. That bridge led to a far away place and to salty sweet hazy memories.

Another location nearer to where we lived when the parents were married was Hanauma Bay. It was right up/over the hill from our house on Kalalau Ave. We went there all the time and it is so beautiful that if I lived on Oahu, I would hope I would still go there often. I was the youngest of the siblings and neighborhood friends, so I don't know who took us there or dropped us off or came with us. All I remember is that we would walk the long (to a little kid) road down to the beach from the parking area and plant ourselves in front of the keyhole. See that round open spot in the coral in the middle of the picture? That's the "keyhole".

Here's a better shot of the Keyhole at what looks like very low tide:

When you were a bit older, you know, like seven or eight, you would walk around the left side of the bay to the Toilet Bowl.

There was a hole in the rocks and waves would come in from beneath, with action like a flushing toilet. The "bowl" was not deep. Check out this video:

There are disclaimers aplenty on this video, but basically the kids look like how we looked (though without parents around), enjoying jumping in and out, riding up and down with the flushing action. Those were the awesome carefree Free Range days!

I love going back to Oahu to see these places and stir up memories from deep storage in my memory banks. I look forward to taking Sweet Potato there and giving her some memories of her own.

 

 

Hawaiian Antiques

I was looking for something in mom's closet and found these awesome antiques! (Click all for bigger pictures.) Dig the old phone numbers and I wonder if any of the addresses still exist or if they are all big hotels now.

 

My grandmother must have made off with this next one. You can still stay at the Royal Lahaina resort, but I bet their hangers are not this cool.

Personally I love this one: Banzai! "We'll get your clothes clean or die trying" (okay I made that up and it's probably really wrong of me.)

Another nice Honolulu hanger:

Here's a bonus round quiz for you Honolulu folks: Name the store this came from!

Big Island Adventure With My Other Great Aunt

Wednesday night I flew to Kona to spend the night at my Auntie Martha's and to ask her the same questions I asked of Auntie Sally. (They are sister's-in-law so the stories I knew would be a bit different.) Auntie Martha is my grandmother's sister and the youngest of the four in her family. She's 90 but you would never guess it. And I realize I didn't take a photo of her! Mostly because we were talking so much and suddenly it was time to go and meet my stepmom for brunch on Thursday morning! I had to bolt.

Auntie Martha's stories were really good fun and I got great details. We also went down to her workroom where there are all the old photo albums from her childhood (she was born in 1920) and also her parent's (my great grandparents) albums. Amazing old photos from old Oahu and Kauai.

I love seeing Auntie Martha and I especially love being at her house above Kona. It's in the middle of their ranch land and is very quiet and dark at night. Excellent get-away and so beautiful. I take photos of it every time I go there! Let's take a tour, shall we? (As ever, click all photos for bigger if you like.)

Main house (Garage to left connected by the breezeway).

Guest house (Across the driveway from the house). It's two bedroom, one bath with a little kitchenette and a lanai on the back.

My room for the night. The other room is similar but blue. Cozy.

The bedside table had 5 gardenias in a vase. MMmmmmm that gorgeous smell just drifts you off to happy dreamland.

The main house is wrapped on three sides by huge lanais and every time I've visited, we only ever sit outside. This is where we talked on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. We did go into the kitchen to eat dinner Wednesday night. This lanai looks out to the front pasture and down onto Kona.

This is to the left of the above photo and faces the driveway.

This is the entry to the kitchen. We had lunch out here last October when Kurt and I came with my mom to A. Martha's 90th birthday.

There is an actual inside living room but I've never sat in it. I'm sure it gets used when the weather is really really bad. The green bed looking thing is either a punee or a hikie'e. Apparently a punee is moveable but a hikie'e is not.

The kitchen has a fabulous view.

The kitchen also holds a treasure - have you ever heard of a Brisker?? My grandmother had one too. It plugs in and keeps things crisp. It's where you store your crackers so they don't go stale in the humidity. No need for one in LA, but perfect for Hawai'i. I've never seen one except at my grandmother's and A. Martha's. Here is their website.

It was a great fun visit with Auntie Martha and hearing about her life in Honolulu as a teenager. She and Auntie Sally are true treasures and I'm so glad I spoke to them both and recorded our conversations!

 

Maui Adventure: Cock-a-roach Edition

Well, it took a week, but it happened. The GIANT creepy crawly in the shower! Here's the story:

There I am, happy after a lovely walk on this fine Maui morning, going to rinse off in the shower before the later morning adventure of going to the recycling center and Costco. Clothes are off and I reach into the shower (NEVER step into a shower naked in Hawai'i) and look in and there is what looks like a giant dead cockroach near the drain. Hmmmm. It's big so it will need at least two kleenexes to pick it up. Of course I have to yell out the door to my mom "Hey! There's a big dead cock-a-roach in the shower!" Mom laughs. So I go back to the shower with the kleenex and look in (still not stepping in) and huh, did that antenna move? I throw the kleenex on it and reach down and DAMN if that sucker doesn't have a second life and he's running for all he's worth!

So I shriek and yell back to my mom "IT'S NOT DEAD!!! NOW WHAT??" (such a mainland haole now). She goes to retrieve the kitchen tongs and hands them to me. "Use that." "How?" "To squish it then throw it in the toilet." I opt to keep the kleenex as part of the deal and while Mr. Two-Lives is hunkered in a corner, I throw the kleenex on him and reach down with the tongs and he RUNS!!!

FACK!

Of course I'm laughing the whole time because it is quite funny that I'm naked and chasing after a giant cockroach with kitchen tongs.

But he's not going quietly so I consider the options. Option #1 - Mom! Bring me the bug spray! (so I can at least slow him down.) But then I figured toxic fumes + enclosed space ≠ good idea for a pregnant person. So Option #2 seemed better -- squirt shampoo on it to slow it down.

Shampoo squirted and he was covered in goo. Kleenex goes on, tongs grab hold, just enough squish to know it's toast and whip that buggah into the toilet and FLUSH!!!!!

Crisis over. But you bet your bippy that I let the water run a bit before stepping in to the shower. Who knows who else might be lurking in the drain!

Now for you doubters about how big this thing was -- I stopped long enough to get my camera.

Here's a close up. Each tile is a 4" by 4" tile. You do the math.

Honolulu Adventure Into History

Part of why I'm home in Hawai'i is to do some family history research and look at some historic buildings. I went to Honolulu last Friday and spent about an hour with my Auntie Sally. She is my grandmother's sister in law and she is 97! She is also hilarious and sharp as a tack. I tape recorded our conversation with specific questions I had for her about growing up in Honolulu in the 20's, 30's and 40's. She had some great stories, but nothing toooo dishy. (dang!)

After our nice visit, mom's friend Jackie (I've known her my whole life) picked me up and we went up to Nu'uanu to have a tour of the historic home called "Lihiwai". This was built in 1927-1929 for Territorial Governor George R. Carter. It is HUGE. There are 40 rooms and it's got three levels. It has been on the historic landmark register for a while (both Hawai'i and US) and was recently bought and is now being renovated. Another friend of mom's knows the owner and the architect so we got to come over and tromp through the place. It's been under renovation for quite a while now (about a year) so the visit was more about the scope and a few fun old details.

"Lihiwai" is two words: Lihi meaning 'near to' or 'at the edge of' and Wai meaing 'water'. Nu'uanu stream is right next to the house so "Lihiwai" is "near the water". Or in LA real estate parlance "Water Adjacent." You can read a bit more about the house here.

The estate used to be all alone among ten acres, but the land was sold off over the years, as were parts of the buildings on the estate. There is the main house, the guest house and the garage. The guest house and garage were sold away seperately years ago. The new owner was able to buy back the guest house but not the garage, which is too bad.

Here is the front of the house with the curving wall that used to be the porte-cachere. It attached to the garage building in a lovely curve way back when.

Here is the garage building to the left of the main house (now it's a private residence.)

Here is a sketch by Huc Luquiens from the 1930's on how it onced looked:

To see more fabulous Luquiens sketches and artwork of Hawai'i, click here.

We walked in the house via the lanai (not the grand entry way). The giant living room opens right out onto this spot (doors on the left) so think of the amazing inside/outside parties.

In the dining room, the original details and colors are still there. The details will hopefully remain, but the colors, probably not!

I would kill to have this as a breakfast room! (I would kill to *have* a breakfast room!) That's Jackie posing with the hot wheels being stored inside!

When you come into the foyer, you are met with the grand staircase. (Sorry I didn't get Jackie in for scale, but trust me it's grand.)

There being three levels (basement, first and second) of course you would need an elevator! And of course it would have to have the theme colors...

We went down to the basement next and the very nice construction foreman gave us a HUGE flashlight as all the lights were not on down there. The place was HUGE and stored tons of stuff.

There were old giant electrical panels that looked right out of a Frankenstein movie. (Hard to get a good pic as there was a mesh fence surrounding it and it was dark.)

Some of the storage had the original bath fixtures...oh those colors!

We went back upstairs and to the second floor. Lots of space for servants to live as well as big family living spaces. There were TONS of closets -- linend and otherwise and all were lined with cedar. And that cedar was still going strong.

There was, of course, the upstairs lanai. Doors opened from bedrooms out to it. Except for some trees, there is a pretty nice view down to the ocean. (To the right of this picture.)


We also noticed a really really cool feature of the old iron windows: sliding pocket screens! Windows closed - no unsightly screen to mar the view. Windows open - the screens slide out to protect from mosquitos and what have you. The ones we tried were pretty much frozen. I hope they fix them!

Other details around the place were prett cool. Most of the rain spouts had this decoration on them:

But this was my favorite -- a light fixture out by the guest quarters. There are lighbulbs behind it. It was the only one we saw like it.

I hope when the house is done (in a couple of years) we get to go back and tour it again!

Later Jackie and I had lunch at the Outrigger Canoe Club -- it's right on the beach at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. Very old school Honolulu. I didn't take a photo because I was famished and we were yakking and yakking.

Then we popped up to Jackie's house for a minute and I got to see her spectacular view. I mean holy cow and wow! If you don't recognize Diamond Head from this angle, that's the back of it. Waikiki is to the right. (She's having work done on the deck, hence the guy...)

To the left of the above view:

Just amazing. (You can click all images to make them bigger.)

Friday was a fun day and I look forward to going back to Honolulu to look at more big old houses and get more history. I love my home state!