Spending a Day With CQ

Let's see . . . where do I begin? A friend I hadn't seen in ages, Walter Tani, surprised me the other day when he called me at work. He said that he had come across my blog and after having read my post on Wendell's kamado turkey and having seen CQ's comment on wanting a kamado, decided to call me. He said that he had an extra kamado that he wanted to give away!! I handed the phone to CQ. So score, yah!! By the way, if anybody has a couple of Pocket Wizards that they want to give away, my e-mail address is JalnaA@aol.com.

And so this morning, I found myself at CQ's house with a full day of activities planned, starting with picking up the kamado from Walter's house.

This dragon is one of two that decorates CQ's driveway.

Here is a spice set that CQ got for Christmas. You can spin it around like a ferris wheel!
Here's Connor waiting patiently.

We arrived at Walter's house at about noon. Here he's showing CQ how to use the kamado. Thanks Walter!!! CQ is a great cook, and I'm sure she's gonna make good use of it!!

Next on the agenda was a stop at Dole Plantation. It's a favorite of CQ's. Kaori, CQ's daughter, said that she somehow knew that we would end up there.

And here's why.

This is my Dole whip. It started melting so fast, I felt like I had to hurry and eat it before it made my hands (and camera) all messy.

This is Kaori's Pineapple Macadamia Nut Cheesecake. I had a bite . . . REALLY ONO!

CQ's been talking about this ever since we started planning our outing . . .

It's a chocolate-covered pineapple. Sound weird to you? It did to me too . . . but it was really good. The chocolate was so smooth and creamy and the pineapple sweet and juicy.

Here's a chocolate-covered banana. Also good. Nice slicing job I did, hah!

For 50 cents you can by some fish food to feed the koi.

And try to make them do this.

So after this short stop (and snack), we're on our way back to the car.

What a cutie pie!!

CQ wanted to show me Shark's Cove, a little past Waimea Bay. It's where CQ's family like to come and play. It's beautiful. To the left of this area in my picture is a shallow lagoon with fish swimming around and lots of nooks and crannies to explore.

We then stopped at CQ's favorite shrimp place, Romy's.

There was a sign that said something like, "We're not fast food. We make good food." And it's true . . . they're not fast . . .

but they ARE GOOD. This is the No.1 Butter and Garlic Sauteed.

Here's the No. 3 Fried Shrimp

And the Steamed.

The hazy skies made for some interesting gradient-shaded mountains.

I wanted to check out the Kualoa Sugar Mill for a possible photo shoot. Erick and Susie met us there.

I wanted to copy Jose Roce's recent awesome engagement session, mostly using this wall.

Small-kine problem . . . "No Trespassing" sign. Here's Susie's shot of me. I'm so busted. I wonder if Jose got permission.

There was an accident on the way home so we had traffic.

But that didn't stop CQ from taking me to her favorite lemonade place.

She recommended the limeade and it was DA BOMB . . . soooo refreshing.

We ran into Dr. Wong and her son while waiting in line and her son highly recommended this funnel sticks with chocolate, so of course I had to try it.

Would you believe we still wanted to make one more stop after this . . . Marukai. Unfortunately, we got there five minutes before closing so we never got to go shop. Bummahs. But still, wouldn't you say that it was an awesome day that we had? Thanks CQ!!