Saturday Was A Newfy Kind Of Day.

We have a car for the weekend, Luki, the kitchen captain, asked me if I would do him a favor and take him to the airport Thursday after work, so he could see his son Psalm, play football on Oahu Friday night, and would I also pick the whole family up on Sunday night? I said I would be pleased, and honored to help out. Then he said "you can use my truck the whole time, no car rental fee, just gas it up when you done."

Wow, we had planned to rent a car for this particular weekend, and now this. God honors us in so many funny ways.

So Buckwheat and I asked Lester and Marie if they wanted to spend Saturday with us.

People from Newfoundland call themselves “Newfys,” I’m not sure of how they would spell it, but that is what it sounds like, the other Canadians often kid about “Newfys” speaking a whole different language than proper Canadians do.

After spending a whole day with Marie and Lester on a trip around the Island, I can tell you that their language is not a problem, their pronunciations of their words are not a problem, but their habits, and the things they think about and do, are.

Not a problem really to Buckwheat and I, but they are very unique to interact with throughout the day.

These two beautiful people from New-Found-Land, as Marie says it, are without guile, they are so pure in their innocents in their New-Found-Land-Ness, that they are foreigners in any land but their own. They both have a stunningly rich sense of humor.

Being with them for the day was pure delight.

Buckwheat and I went to bed with sweet memories of the day and arose laughing as we stated some of their idioms, or situations from yesterday.  Priceless

The places we went were so beautiful, the day was crafted by a serendipitous hodgepodge mentality between the four of us, anything  anybody wanted to see or do was agreed to almost immediately so much so, we had to turn around on the highway to “Turn around, did you see that, let’s go there,”shouts.

We had no agenda but fun. We found it at every tick of the clock.

Great sights, great beauty, great people, and a great rhythm to the day.

This is the type of day Buck and I truly love.

All except the vision I have now in my mind, which will never go away mind you, of Lester and some of his “personal bathroom habits” which were shared serendipitously over breakfast, out of nowhere.   I’m eating Portuguese sausage and almost spit it across the table at Marie as she shared these insights.

Marie laid down the law when she and Lester got married (this carried through for her boys as well), you will not be allowed to “Pee” all over the place, and then explained how she expected things to “go”.   Lester was O.K. with this arrangement, and has been complying with her wishes ever sense, but this method takes great humility and concentration.  

Since this was told to us early in the day, the rest of my bathroom visits where filled with visions of Lester.

I now laugh every time I go to the bathroom, which is O.K. I guess, unless there are other men in the men’s room.

The only thing that topped Lester and the bathroom scene, which is embedded permanently in my mind, was Lester giving us driving directions. He had an excellent sense of direction but slaughtered the Hawaiian language, much like I do with Russian or any language for that matter. But hearing Lester trying to explain the cities we needed to go to in Newfoundlandness was a riot, every time, all day. A pure, laugh out loud riot.

There were many highlights to our day and it was completed with a visit to the Pakini Grill for dinner in Waimea and meeting “Aunty Betty,” you can see her pictures and story below.

We have made plans to do this again next weekend……. too much fun.

This was a great “Newfy” kind of a day.

Sunday is beach day up the lava coast. We will play at the very grand Waikoloa Hotel, they welcome the public on their spectacular property, you can use everything but the pools. They have a very cool snorkeling lagoon. So off in the truck we go, the day will be just the two of us.

First, Church, then the Waikoloa. Then Luki and family.

This is Larry, the very local banana leaf basket and hat weaver. Larry is the sentry to the Black Sands Beach



This is the Black Sands Beach, one of the most beautiful places I've seen so far on the Island.




The Black Sand is more like black beads than sand, really soft and more square than round.

There were giant sea turtles all over the beach. Signs ask everyone to stay 18 ft. away, most people like me, stayed a respectful 8 ft. They couldn't jump or anything, so 8 ft. seemed reasonable, maybe when they were younger they could jump 18 ft., but now I think their max jump would be 6 ft.



This was the Black Sand Beaches back side, as you stood and watched the turtles on the beach, these ducks were at your back. This marsh pond was spectacular. What a setting, bridges arched over the pond leading you from the old parking lot, to an old abandoned restaurant, hidden deep in the marsh. Seeing it, we ventured passed the "DO NOT ENTER, PRIVATE PROPERTY" sign nailed to a tree, then climbed it's lava rock walls to see if we could see yesterday.




 

The pond from one of the arching, wooden bridges, as it looks back over the beach.
It's railings disappeared long ago with the restaurants customers.





This is Roxy and her kids fishing for shrimp, with man made fishing poles, it works.



Deep in the jungle leading to the old restaurant are these massive Banyan trees with their massive roots. Click the picture to see how young I look in comparison to these old roots.

A beautiful tree lined road leading to Hilo.



The funnest and funniest Newfoundland couple we know. What a hoot of a
day with Marie and Lester. Great, great people, at a great restaurant in Waimea, which is high up on Parker Ranch in the middle of the Island.



This is 81 yr. old "Auntie Betty," the hostess at Pakini Cafe. She has this dark glasses shtick. She has over 800 pairs, trying to make 1000, she's been written up in fight magazines and is proud to show them to you.



All customers must have their dark glasses on that she gives you to wear for a group photo.
Customers come and give her the sunglasses. The food was great, the service was great, and the shtick was worth the drive around the Island. This was the perfect ending to a perfectly fun day.