Hawaii 2017 Day 2

We had somewhat of a major conversion last year when mrguy realized that there is a teensy little beach in front of the hotel next to us, and that you can walk through the parking lot of our hotel to get to it. It's perfect for swimming. For the last year we've been craving it, and every day on this vacation we got up really early, went to the beach and swam. OK I missed a day, but mrguy did not. It was awesome. The hotel shades the water and the beach, making it easier for me to escape a burn.

To put in perspective how monumental this swimming thing is, I've been to Hawaii 13 times. I have only been fully submerged 8 times total. 7 of those times were on this trip. Big news. Anyway, our little beach is quiet, tiny, and some days only inhabited by a gigantic seal who calls it home. This is a little intimidating, due to the summer's earlier bear situation, but I got over it. This animal, henceforth referred to as the sea bear, literally only moves every couple of minutes, and only her fins, very slowly.

On Day 2, after the beach, we had lunch at the museum. 

Saw the Abstract Expressionist show, which was great. The show was an effort to recontextualize the movement, showing the Asian and Pacific artists who were part of it but who are not often mentioned. I learned new things about old favorites (Satoru Abe and Tadashi Sato) and wrote down lots of new names to research.

The annual Hawaii's Wood Show was happening across the street and that was well worth seeing, as well.

The highlight of the day was dinner. A friend at work had told me about a guitarist he liked, and I checked out his website. He plays regularly at two places and one is super fancy and had Cherries Jubilee on the menu. And when I mapped it, it said it was 10 feet from our hotel.

Mrguy and I are not the type to go for a fancy dinner unless someone else suggests it, but I just went for it and made reservations. Our waiter was impeccable. He made us a terrific Caesar at the table. The cioppino was pretty ok and we picked some nice wine because the maker shared our surname. After the richness of the main course I almost weenied out on the Cherries Jubilee, but mrguy made me do it.

First our waiter mixed softened butter and brown sugar, then melted them in a sauce pan until almost caramelized. He separated tiny marinated black cherries from their juice, added the juice to the caramel and slowly reduced the buttery juices. Then he added the cherries to warm them.

Moving the cart to the other side of the table, now, he set a large ladle of Maui rum on fire. Using a fork, he lifted a whole spiral orange rind over the pan. The orange rind had been studded with cloves ahead of time. One hand has the rind, one hand has the ladle of flaming rum and he then slowly dripped the flaming rum onto the orange rind. As the rum flowed down the rind, the orange oil began to steam and burst and the cloves caught fire and popped like little fireworks. The rum carried these oils and scents back down into the cherry pan. It was spectacular! And tasty.

The kids at the next table thanked us for ordering it.

 We slept well that night.