Everyday things about Big Island life that make visitors go "Wha?" (Hilo: appointed, hotels)

[dragonfly2178]

BYOB... There are many small restaurants that do not have liquor licenses, so you will see comments for Bring your own beer.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by dragonfly2178

BYOB... There are many small restaurants that do not have liquor licenses, so you will see comments for Bring your own beer.

This bears repeating:

BYOB... There are many small restaurants that do not have liquor licenses, so you will see comments for Bring your own beer.

Or wine. Call ahead to confirm, as things change.

As far as purchasing alcohol, some visitors are surprised there are not as many retail outlets for beer, wine, or spirits as they are used to "at home." On the other hand, they may be surprised that a lot of groceries or supermarkets like KTA sell beer, wine and liquor. Not all states allow that.

But be prepared for sticker shock. My corner store sells popular brands for about double what I was used to seeing at discount liquor stores in Texas like Spec's.

Which is one reason I am trying to learn how to make okolehau (knock-you-on-your-butt) at home.

[OpenD]

"Errrrkkkkk!! There's a big spiderweb in my kitchen cabinet that wasn't there yesterday. What's up with that?"

Yes, there are lots of bugs on the Islands, most of all on the BI. And the closer you are to true rural life, the more kinds bugs you will see. Leetle spiders that make cobwebs in the corners, behind picture frames, under furniture, in the cracks between siding, and in windows are very common and work surprisingly fast.

I just keep a cobweb duster handy and remove them as needed. No biggie. Besides, what they eat was just goin' to fly in your face anyway.

Welcome to Hawai'i !

[hotzcatz]

To make okolehau you start with ti roots. So far I'm still at the growing ti stage so that's as far as I know.

[Mahrie]

Originally Posted by kukuicake

Put "plate lunch" into google images and you will see much deliciousness

If you recoil at these pics you eat too healthy!

Mm-hm, but all 'healthy' food is not created equal. I ate a predominantly vegan diet for 43 years and rarely consumed more than 800 calories daily, and I 'healthily' carbed myself right into diabetes type 2. Fun, eh? Doesn't look as if I'll be sampling plate lunches. That gravy does sound good though... LOL! We're moving to the BI in the New Year - God Willing.

Mahala

Mahrie.

[Mahrie]

Originally Posted by tyvin

There are also the mongoose in the Big Island; that's something that made me go "wha?". In fact the only islands that don't have them are Kauai and Lanai. The mongoose were brought over to squelch the rat problem that had been created by the introduction of sugar cane. There's some story about the wrong type or something or other,about the mongoose and now the little fellows are everywhere.

I lived on Kauai for 45 years and never saw a mongoose. I now live on Oahu and I know they are here but I've never seen one; not like you see them on the Big Island. They can be rather comical when observed doing there daily thing.

Okay guys, now we're getting serious! Since we're moving to the BI in the New Year, an island I thought I knew, I had just settled myself into the fact that I'd be buying shares in 'Roach Motels,' until your warm and affecting 'Rat problem' comment. We have a *rat* problem? (Definitely feeling violent tendencies here - and I'm a pacifist!)

Mahrie.

[Mahrie]

Originally Posted by nwcountrygal

Also to get a total blank look back at ya. Give directions with street names or landmarks that not there anymore. My favorite the other day tourist came up wanted to go to a real beach in Pahoa. So gave him directions to Kehane. Although in the end said it was a little loose there and by the way clothing optional. His face was completly Wha??? Young guy too - it was funny it wasn't like cool he was mortified and almost went purple at the idea.

LOL! A family member of mine was a policeman for over twenty years. When asked for directions, his favorite practical joke was to contort his face into the most serious and contemplative frown, and as with all the best comedians, he'd wait for the perfect moment, and then slowly shake his head and say, "You can't get there from here."

People actually bought that line time and again and drove away with a few 'Thank you, Officer'(s).

Maybe you had to be there.

ROFLOL!

Mahrie.
P.S. We own a cabin high in the Coastal Mountains of BC Canada, and I kid you not, they sell tee shirts in the store at the end of the two-hour drive (Valium is optional) along (what they have the nerve to call) Road 40, which say, 'I survived Road 40!'" It doesn't even resemble a road, it's barely an old logging trail - single lane - with a solid rock face on the left side and a one-thousand-foot drop into a thirty-mile-long glacier lake on the other side. Personally, I think that's where most atheists learn to pray.

[Mahrie]

Morning!

All right, you folks are kidding, right?

I come from a place that is host to all manner of carnivorous insects from no-see-ums (minuscule pests that are too small to see with the naked eye, but which can and do help themselves to a-half-a-pound of human flesh, which they then take into the nearest tree to eat) to giant mosquito's equipped with landing lights, to deer flies, bumble bees, wasps, and hornets from hell, and dozens of other varieties of unfriendlies, which I have no desire to acknowledge, let alone name, since courtesy of these darlings, my arms and legs are covered in scars that look like not-so-little red and white polka dots!

We have bears, big bears, thousand-pound grizzlies, eight-hundred-pound black, brown, and Cinnamon bears, and Kodiak bears, and a few other species, and I have no problem with them. Some of the nicest conversations I've had have been with bears, some no farther than fifteen feet away from me, and yes, I have the pictures to prove it. We have mountain lions, giant moose, deer, elk, wolves, coyotes, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, bald eagles, ospreys, and other raptures, and I think they're awesome - have great pictures of those too, which I'll post, if you like.

We have spiders of all kinds, even black widows, and rats, mice, and other disease-carrying vermin. We have snakes, lots of snakes, from adders to rattlers, and we even have bats. I hate bats and can be relied upon to shrilly scream when one dares to enter the house. What is it with those things that they have to dive-bomb people?

Now, I have somehow managed to live in relative peace with the resident wildlife for twenty-odd years because the critters around my 'Highway's end' mountain home and I have a mutual understanding. If they will stay off my person and out of my house, I'll let them live, otherwise.... And I'm religious about this!

But God is good and kind enough to send us seven-month-looong, pest-free, and freezing winters. (I could go fifteen rounds on why those of us approaching decrepitude have excellent reasons for wishing to escape the brutal assault of Canadaian winters, but that's another post.)

However, in all the time that I've spent in Hawai'i, whether on Oahu, the BI, or Maui, I have yet to see as much as a mosquito. Flies, yep, I've seen flies, sometimes hordes of 'em, but just your garden-variety flies that flourish everywhere - even in Yukon Territory. I did not see cockroaches and rats (I couldn't care less about the tigers), and I did not have spiders and millipedes in any of the establishments I patronized. I do not spray insecticides because they are not healthy for living things and the planet in general, but if a rat, spider, millipede, or cockroach comes near my body, I'm getting out my flamethrower! Call me crazy, but I do not care to be dined upon, especially by varmints carrying everything from tetanus to typhoid. Good grief! How do Hawaiians manage to be 'A happy people'?

Please tell me you're kidding. I'm moving there for sun, sand, sea, and peace!

Mahrie.
P.S. I'll never sleep if I think there's the slightest chance that a rat, cockroach, spider, or millipede will mistake my person for a public thoroughfare!

[aloha_silverlining]

Originally Posted by Mahrie

P.S. I'll never sleep if I think there's the slightest chance that a rat, cockroach, spider, or millipede will mistake my person for a public thoroughfare!

Oh Mahrie, you had me laughing this morning.

We moved to Oahu almost three months ago from Cali, from the foothills, brown bears, mountain lions, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and more. We're in Makaha the country of Oahu, so far I've seen mongoose, goats, wild pigs, wild dogs, and the horrible...roach, just hate those. Luckily we're on the 15th floor, so far only had to kill two of them.

Now spiders, haven't seen one in the house, but got bit by one three weeks ago at the pool. And like you fear, it got infected. Got medical care and heck it could have happened in Cali so it's not stopping me from living here in lovely Hawaii.

I love all creatures large and small but they better not mess with me, I have my slipper handy to swap the H_LL out of them...Splat!

Good luck on the prepping for your move to the BI.

Aloha, Ruby

[LaTrang]

Originally Posted by Mahrie

Mm-hm, but all 'healthy' food is not created equal. I ate a predominantly vegan diet for 43 years and rarely consumed more than 800 calories daily, and I 'healthily' carbed myself right into diabetes type 2. Fun, eh? Doesn't look as if I'll be sampling plate lunches. That gravy does sound good though... LOL! We're moving to the BI in the New Year - God Willing.

Mahala

Mahrie.

You mean "Madam Pele'" willing.