Nancy is the best, super smart and fun

We woke up today around 8am to the sound of a dog racing around upstairs.  Once the confusion faded, I padded upstairs to find Bella waiting for me; she barked just before I came into view, and gave me an excellent good-morning freak out.  Turns out Bobby had intentionally let her into the cottage, knowing she wouldn’t go downstairs (where the bedrooms are), and figured that would be a good way to wake us up.  Bobby is nothing if not a trouble-maker, so this surprised no one (although he did receive a gentle reprimand from Nancy, bless her heart).

Boyfriend and I went with him and Bella on a walk down to the beach.  His emphysema is slightly better, but he had to stop at the top of the driveway on our way out to catch his breath before we went on, and he kept our pace a bit slow.  It’s so nice to see him and Nancy.  I’m looking forward to seeing loads of them throughout the trip.

Once we got back from the walk, Nancy said, “We have to hurry if we want to get to the farmer’s market!”  We headed out and meandered around the stalls set up in the Lanikai Elementary School parking lot.  The very first stall we encountered had a couple dozen types of salt, which made Boyfriends eyes bug out of his head because I just got him a book called Salted so he’s kind of obsessed with salt right now.  We ended up getting two kinds: Boyfriend wants to use the red one for steak when we get back, and the spicy black one for seafood (I’m thinking salmon).  I got a Belgian waffle with pumpkin spice paste and whipped cream and cinnamon, so fucking good.  Boyfriend got a large breakfast burrito, along with Bobby and Nancy, and we all sat down next to the spot where the musicians had set up (bunch a’ hippies).

salts from Salty Wahine

We headed home, and Nancy recommended Waimanalo for a beachy place to relax, and a little restaurant just down the road from the beach, called Home Sweet Waimanalo, for lunch.  The beach was, of course, beautiful.  On the way we saw four wild pigs!  They were black and hairy, and looked big enough to eat, so I pulled over with every intention of grabbing one and stashing it in the car.  Boyfriend thought they were too cute to eat (he’s probably right).  They all ran into the underbrush once we pulled over, and came back out as we left (clever bastards).

The beach wasn’t too crowded, and we had fun getting smashed by waves for a while, then laid out and dried off.  We got fish tacos and a beet salad with hibiscus mint iced tea for lunch, all delicious.  I texted Bobby and Nancy to let them know we were on our way back, and they said not to hurry since Bobby had to deliver some paperwork or some such.  So we stopped by a little Hawai’ian ice cream shop with every intention of getting the Kona coffee flavor, but I had to try their azuki bean ice cream and omfg it was amazing.  It might be some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had.  Usually I get accustomed to the flavor and get a little tired of it by the end of the cone, but this one was amazing.

azuki bean ice cream, yum!

Then we stopped in a shop next door and I FINALLY found the type of li hing mui-covered stuff I’ve been looking for going on seven or so years now: turns out it was some kind of ginger (I don’t like ginger, I wonder if my taste has changed that much since I had it last).  I haven’t broken the bag open yet for fear that it might actually be awful, and not as good as I remember it (how could it be, though?).  Tomorrow I’ll break into it and we’ll see.

The four of us grabbed dinner at some golf club (totally overpriced, and the waitress was annoying and flirted with Bobby the whole damn time), but the conversation was good.  Boyfriend says he enjoyed watching Nancy and I hating the waitress while Bobby grinned and enjoyed the attention.

We chatted earlier with Nancy about the Danish TV shows she’s been watching on Netflix, and we mentioned Sherlock, the series from the BBC.  When we came back home we all settled in and watched the first episode, which they enjoyed very much.  Bella came in midway through and wanted to play, and made it halfway onto my lap before getting shut down by her folks.  I find her enthusiasm infectious.  It’s gonna be tough to train my future dog properly if all I’ll want to do is play with it and watch it be hilarious.  Bella rolled around on the ground for a while today while Boyfriend and I were on our laptops at the house, waiting to put more time on the roast in the oven.  She looked like she was having an awesome time chewing on some toy and thrashing around, then sprinting back and forth for no reason.  I wish I was a golden retriever sometimes.  This afternoon was one of those times.