and left Chico at home for two weeks, in the fine care of our young friend Megan. He wasn’t thrilled about it, and she couldn’t take him as many of the places she goes as I can, and he was pretty sure that if he left the door yard with her he might miss my return, so he didn’t have any long walks; still, all in all it was much better for him than a kennel, and there was no room for him at Julie’s during that period.

The only problem came one day when there were workmen coming and going from the house and we decided to leave Chico in my bedroom with the door shut so he wouldn’t get in their way or get out of the house on their watch and refuse to go back in.

Apparently, he got a little nervous:

The only damage I can find is to the laces of these brand new sneakers that were sitting on top of a box in the bedroom.

And me, I was innocently having fun in Hawai’i.

On Maui, where there are tropical fruits and flowers,

and strange plants like this sea grape,

and rainbows.

We saw a lot of them and mostly I just said “Ooohhhh,” but this one I image-captured.

I was already taking a trip to California and one of my long-time friends was on Maui, preparing his parents’ retirement home for sale so he can settle the estate, and he invited me to come for a visit since I was halfway there already once I got to the Bay Area. So I went.

We divided our time between cleaning out closets and sorting papers, and going for drives around the island. We saw some nice places and ate some crazy roadside food. Japanese influenced snacks from small markets; passion fruit jam, syrup, juice, butter, and more from roadside farm stands and the farmer’s market; we drank the water out of young coconuts and ate the soft “spoon meat” – the undeveloped flesh; we had a durian, we saw jackfruit growing,

almost right out of the trunk of the tree!

The water is an unbelievable color.

Volcanic valleys are steep and deep.

We drove around the west side of the island one day.

Facing west,

and here looking east from the same spot.

Another day, we drove around the west side of the island. We stopped at a botanical garden on the way to Hana. This is the bark of the painted gum,

at a distance,

and up close.

And there were these, and may other, tropical flowers.

We went to the I’ao Valley, site of a famous battle between different Hawai’ian peoples. While the whole site is majestic and powerful, I was enchanted by the water in one of the streams and the way it spilled perfectly over a certain rock. So I made a video because these days one can.

As I said, we ate lots of fun things, from unlikely places, but one of the best meals out (my pal Jim is a great cook) was just before I left for the airport. There’s something called TJ’s Warehouse, a Japanese market with everything from housewares to mochi to what the local entertainment rag said was the best bento on the island. The market is housed at a chemical company in an industrial park, they don’t even have their own phone number, and the food was delicious.

Miso-glazed butterfish on cabbage, a shrimp cake, some salty pickles, and rice with a sprinkle of furikake – sesame seeds and seaweed. Oh, my, yum.

Still, home is the best place and life with Chico at my side is fuller than life without him close by, even if a bit less colorful and exotic.