Friday, January 11, 2025
I had an idea when I woke up. I thought we should look for malasadas. They are a Portuguese doughnut (without a hole) that are apparently quite the thing in Hawaii. I searched and found a place 21 minutes away. It seemed a bit far to go for a doughnut, but maybe not. Keith researched and found several places, but the 21 minutes was the closest. On the map it showed that we would pass the place on the left, go a few miles farther, take a left and come back around and back to the place. There seemed to be an interchange, but only on the other side. Huh. It would be a lot closer if we didn’t have that extra loop.
Further research showed that it was a food truck. And it was apparently in a deserted area next to the road. Huh. It gave Gary and I the added excitement of what-if-it-wasn’t-even-there and we were definitely now going for doughnuts.
As we approached the area of Manuela’s Malasadas, we saw cars turning left right into the dirt lot where the truck was parked. We saved half the time because there was no reason to go up and around; we just drove in. It was the same price to get 12 as it was to get 9, so it had to be 12. Three each. It was complicated to order 🙂 First you had to choose your sugar – regular, plum, powdered, none, then decide if you wanted one of the 20+ fillings. Each one is individually ordered (sugar and maybe filling) then made to order. They were good.
They had to go back to ask which was what.
Gary noticed on the building that they were advertising their other locations. One of them was Minnesota. The guy working there knew it was near the Mall of America, but nothing more. We’ll have to take a look.
We drove on and went to Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic site. We walked around and saw the remains of the temple Kamehameha built as he united the Hawaiian Islands. We saw whale poofs of air and some tails and backs. It was almost certainly a mom and a calf as there were two very close poofs each time (and one was always smaller). It was pretty fun to just look out from the shore and know they were there.
We drove on to another historic site and watched whale poofs some more, then headed to the next town.
Julie made a decision (we are NOT a decisive bunch) and picked Aloha Smashburger for dinner. We had to turn around and park farther down and walk. We walked a few feet and determined we were on the wrong side of the road. Keith and Julie were tracking it, but it was hiding. We thought it might be in someone’s house…but…no…so we went in the ice cream shop and asked. She said, “You mean that smashburger food truck that comes on Fridays? It hasn’t been here the past two Fridays. I don’t know why.” Our people were sad.
Back towards home we went to the Seafood Bar and Grill in Waimea. It was good food and cute, but quite loud.
The sun set on our way home and I grabbed a couple pictures out the window.
After a stop at home to get on our swimsuits and grab towels, we headed south to Kona. Julie and I were going swimming with the manta rays. They eat plankton and lights attract plankton. The people put out boards with lights to bring the food and the manta come to eat. They eat 24/7, so they are happy when someone gathers those plankton. We took a catamaran across the bay. It was reallly rocking the boat. The very nice workers said they had ginger candy and ginger ale if anyone felt seasick. I felt bad for people who got seasick, because you are trying to have fun and feeling nauseated is zero fun.
I got a prescription mask! What an amazing thing to be able to see clearly through a mask. They had 5 different prescriptions, so they were like readers, I guess. I was a three and it was great. We got flat pool noodles to hold under our arms as we swam 20 feet out to the boards. You grabbed onto the metal handles on the board edges, then moved to the right, filling up the spaces. They came and put your noodle under your legs so you would be floating flat and not kick the rays in the face. If you lost your noodle, you were supposed to call out “Noodle, Noodle!” so they could retrieve it before it floated to Maui.
The water was really rocking and holding on was HARD. Your whole body would swing from side to side off the fulcrum of your hands. It was definitely a shoulder, arm, hand work out. The manta were there are soon as we were. The biggest one was bigger than 10 feet wide and he came by about 3 inches from my face. NEAR. Their big open mouths were so cool to see come close, sucking in all the stuff floating in the water.
I was sick the whole time. I felt hot wearing my wetsuit and couldn’t wait to get into the water. The cool water helped a lot, but lying on the water, rocking and rolling did not help. We had 45 minutes of water time, and I was hoping time wasn’t passing as slowly as I thought it was. After a few minutes of no manta, I decided to give up and go back early. I raised my hand for help and a staff person immediately was there to help me back. I said I felt sick, and she put the noodle under my arms and started to push me back.
I threw up in the ocean!!! What? Ack!!! I threw up four times. The staff lady had fins, and it didn’t take long to get twenty feet, but I managed to throw up 4 times. I wouldn’t recommend that as an activity, but it does qualify as a new experience. I was still nauseated on the boat, but much better. There were quite a few people who had already given up, several huddled up and looking awful. After I got my wetsuit off and could be wet and in the night wind, I felt much better. Everyone was cuddled up in towels after they came in and I was on the edge of the boat, grabbing every bit of wind that I could.
It was still really cool.
Oh. I saw this giant spider. today in a public bathroom. Scary.
