“He’s checking names…are we on the list?” It was the moment of truth. Jess pulled through the gates of the Official Residence of the Consul General of Japan in Honolulu and gave our names. The guard checked us off the list and waved us through. We were in. Embassy party time! What exactly were we…
Party at the Embassy!
Living History at the Pacific Aviation Museum
My kids are always asking to go to museums so I was pretty excited to see an ad about the (expensive) Pacific Aviation Museum participating in a Smithsonian-sponsored national free museum day. As I’ve mentioned, I usually try to set expectations low. “What are we doing tomorrow??” “Probably chores. You can sort laundry for me!”…
Dark Side of Paradise
So there we were, Eloise and me, walking down the street on my birthday. The sun was shining. It was lunchtime. We were meeting up with some people at Paniolos. Toward us on the sidewalk comes Sonja, a well known local homeless woman I’ve seen walking around Kailua in various states of undress. Rumor has…
My Happy Place
Kailua Beach is my happy place. “Why do you always want to go to the beach?” Isaac asked. “…….?” When does anyone ever not want to go to the beach…? Especially the most beautiful beach in the whole world! Isaac pointed out the beaches in Florida are also beautiful. This is true. I will take…
Hurricane Lane
I had a bad feeling about Hurricane Lane. The previous hurricane (Hector) was way over-hyped when it was still closer to Baja than Hawaii, so that seemed pretty silly. And maybe it had something to do with the fact that Lane coincided with the one-year anniversary of horrific Hurricane Harvey that changed the daily lives…
Shangri La
A couple friends and I toured Shangri La, socialite Doris Duke’s waterfront mansion in Honolulu, while the kids were happily occupied in summer camp a couple weeks ago. Doris Duke was born in 1912 and inherited an unholy amount of money from her beloved father before her 13th birthday. She fell in love with Hawaii…
Rachel Linden’s “Becoming the Talbot Sisters”
I started doing reviews again in exchange for FREE review copies! “Becoming the Talbot Sisters” by Rachel Linden gets a full FIVE stars for sure. I stayed up past midnight two days in a row to read this book. I read it at the dentist’s office while waiting for my jaw to get numb and…