Sylvia's Scenario

We took our first snorkeling cruise on the Fair Wind forty-three years ago on our honeymoon.  It was my first visit to Hawaii, even though Bruce had visited a dozen times already and he couldn't wait to bring me along.  His parents had a condo here on the Kona Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii so he always had a free place to stay when he came.  He already knew about the Fair Wind snorkeling cruise that takes you to one of the best snorkeling locations on Hawaii's Big Island since 1971.  They take you to a Marine Life Conservation District, the only underwater state park on the Big Island.  There are no roads that lead to it so the only way you can go snorkeling there is to go by boat or by hiking.  Last year, we actually took the hike to get to the bay, called Kealakekua Bay.  It is a 1.8 mile one-way hike with a 2,000 ft elevation, so it was a  bit of a work out coming back up but we could handle it.  Needless to say, there are not a lot of people on this trail since it is a

After coming to Hawaii for 43 years, we finally had our first Hawaiian malasada.  To tell you the truth, I'm glad we haven't been privy to the whole malasada situation.  They are a little dangerous.  Malasadas are Hawaiian pastries resembling donuts except no hole and they often include filling inside of custard, coconut, or fruit like pineapple, guava or other tropical fruits.  And they go down really easy!   They are a lot like the paczki they sell at  Bakery Nouveau  for Fat Tuesday at home.  Every year, I try to resist but it's hard.  They only sell them about a week before Ash Wednesday, then you have to wait another year.  Pacski are polish-style, pillowy soft, yeast doughnuts filled with jam, custard or lemon curd.  They are worth waiting a year for, believe me.  Here in Hawaii, you can buy malasadas anytime if you can find a bakery that sells them.  We've seen roadside stands that sell them but when we took a trip to the southern most point of the island, we dec

This year, we tried to make Valentine's Day special for us since it was the first year of not celebrating with the grandkids after three years. They are the ones that make everything special for us. And we are missing them so much after our trip to visit them in Spain.  But I sent them a big Valentine package of treats and they enjoyed that. That's about all we can do now is to send stuff to them, receive photos in our shared album and FaceTime whenever we get a chance. This year, Bruce and I are in Hawaii for Valentine's Day so... just that alone makes it special for us.  Before we left, we made reservations at our favorite restaurant since we come to the same place to Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii each visit and we have lots of favorites. We even came here for our honeymoon 43 years ago.  Of course, most places have changed since then but we have fun exploring new places each time we come here. One of our favorite restaurants is Jackie Reys that we discovered a fe

The last leg of our holiday trip to Europe was Lisbon, Portugal and it was our favorite.  We absolutely loved Lisbon and there is so much to love about it.  I don't even know where to start.  I guess, I'll start with the food.  We ate so much there.  The first day we ate five meals.  We just kept going into places to try more of the food.  Within hours of arriving, we immediately found a place close to our hotel called  Fabrica Da Nata  where we ended up going everyday.  Why?  So, we could start our day eating their pasteis da nata.   We were in heaven.  These are a Portuguese staple; the little custard pastries with a very thin flakey crust with just a slight bit of burnt egg-y custard melt-in-your mouth top. It is custom to sprinkle a little cinnamon and sugar on top that are available at each table while you sip your coffee and eat your pasteis da nada.  These little pastry shops were everywhere in Lisbon but we loved this place because they were very efficient with fast ser