Our favorite places: Paleaku Peace Gardens

Speaking of secret places tucked down winding roads, Paleaku Peace Gardens is one of my favorite spots in the Painted Church/Middle Keei area.  As I’ve mentioned in other posts, it’s about a two mile run/walk from the Inn, or about a two-minute drive.  It’s open Tuesday through Saturday from 9-4 and also hosts various events and a wonderful Ashtanga-style yoga class Thursday evenings and Tuesday mornings.  Admission to the garden is $5, to yoga is $10 (please check the website for updated information). 

Paleaku is a beautiful garden and a very special, peaceful place.  You’ll pull down their driveway and park under some very old trees most likely filled with chattering mynas, then enter through a shaded walkway lined with interesting plants.  Part of the year, a crimson jade flower will be blooming above you.  You walk through a partially open/partially covered walkway and sign in, look at gifts if you like, use the restroom, grab an umbrella if it’s raining.  There will most likely be no one else around.  You’ll hear birds and the tinkle of little fountains and wind rustling leaves, but this is a place of silence, not a tourist-spot or heavily-visited botanical garden.  It is a peaceful place and its mission is to host/foster peaceful activities. 

You exit the entry walkway and head down a grassy path that ends at a brilliant white Buddhist stupa backed by a sweeping ocean view.  There’s a covered area with two Tibetan sand-paintings on the way (I saw the monks working on these a couple of years ago and it was amazing), and a green parrot named Harriet (Harry, for short) that likes to whistle at you as you pass.  The grassy lawn is bordered by some strange exotic flowers and deliciously-scented flowering trees and elegant cocoa palms.  A breeze blows up from the ocean keeping the grounds comfortably cool.  In addition to the Buddhist stupa there are other sculptures, a labyrinth, and a Galaxy Garden.  There are some very old, interesting trees here (a huge old strangler fig with massive above-ground roots, a bodhi tree), an orchard, and loads of lovingly-tended flowers.  It is easy to wile away hours here looking, strolling, listening, sitting, and being quiet.  If in a need of a quiet respite one sunny morning or one misty afternoon, you will indeed find a bit of peace here at Paleaku.

Green Luana

On the one hand it feels a little hypocritical to call ourselves green while living in such an extraordinarily luxurious house, but on the other, we do take seriously doing everything we can to minimize waste and impact.  This has always been our process, but it’s come to our attention that our guests appreciate this, so we thought we’d put it out there.  Here are some of the green practices Luana Inn has always followed:

• Composting of kitchen and yard waste 
• Growing food on the property and buying as much local food as possible, cooking from scratch rather than purchasing imported ready-made foods (like bread)
• Solar-heated water     
• Use of florescent bulbs and timed/controlled lighting systems
• Non-toxic cleaning supplies such as Simple Green and Vinegar (as much as is possible, although we of course use bleach for sanitation)
• Use of washable cloth rags for light cleaning versus paper towels
• Paper-less communication and marketing: we are totally web-focused and believe in a minimum of hard-copy advertising and guest communication
• Recycling – we sort and haul everything that is recyclable on the island
• Re-usable shopping bags: we leave cloth bags in each guest room to encourage guests not to use plastic bags because garbage is a major concern on the island.
• Clean water: we put Brita filters or PUR water filters in each guest room to encourage guests not to buy plastic water bottles.  Please note that these filters are for taste only, and that the Inn is on county water which is clean and safe.         
• No hotel soaps: every guest room is stocked with large bottles of shampoo and conditioner, and we use refillable soap containers with our favorite old-school liquid soap, Dr. Bronners, because it feels good and has clean, organic ingredients.
• No Styrofoam or paper in the kitchen: we are not fans of the typical accoutrements of the “continental” hotel breakfast, including paper napkins and Styrofoam cups of coffee.  We serve a hot, homemade breakfast at a beautiful table with linens and real dishes.
• Like most accommodations, we are happy to provide fresh towels daily, and we do a regular linen rotation for all long-stay guests.  However, between scheduled rotations we encourage guests to re-use towels to conserve water.  Please note that we aren’t strident though, and will never guilt-trip a guest (as we’ve heard some other B&B’s do.)  We have practices in place that work for us most the time, but our guests’ comfort is our biggest priority.

Clean Luana

Being a small B&B doesn’t mean we aren’t running things professionally.  We once had a friend who stayed at another island B&B which she described as “funky”, where she – in her words - was afraid to look behind doors and in corners.  There were loads of ants and a prevalent musty smell, beer bottles left out from previous guests and an air conditioner that made her wheeze.  This isn’t relaxed and funky and cool, it’s gross and unnecessary.  We take cleaning extremely seriously here (I admit I’m a bit of a germ-a-phobe) and follow these practices (among many others):

• Daily maid service     
• Guest linen rotation
• And yes, we regularly wash bed covers and shams - even pillows!
• Guest dishes through the dishwasher (not just rinsed with water or cleaned with Windex!)
• We sanitize: although we use white vinegar and simple green and other non-toxic, biodegradable cleaners as much as possible, we are not afraid to use bleach regularly for guest safety.

The truth about owning a small business

We recently spent some time chatting with a friend of ours who is a restaurant owner/chef.  We hadn’t seen each other for awhile and didn’t realize how much we needed to talk.  It’s a lonely, isolating world being a small-business owner, and it’s a major relief to sit down with someone who understands this and blow off some steam.

Here’s the down-and-dirty reality.  It may look like a dream to the outside world, but in reality, owning your own small business is very, very hard work.  For example, as Anthony Bourdain, with characteristic bluntness and humor, discusses in “The Nasty Bits”, for people who dream of opening a restaurant, the reality is – most often than not – that they will fail.  If it was as easy as swanning about the dining room in nice clothes giving out free drinks to friends and raking in loads of money, everyone would want to do it.  The young celebrity-chef wanna-be who is faced with boxes of onions to peel and dishes to wash and the reality of the heat and sweat and stress of a professional kitchen will not last.  He describes successful chefs who at times return to the “menial” jobs of prepping garlic or washing pots because they appreciate the meditative nature of such jobs, and have understood that it is these seemingly small, mundane tasks that actually make up the bulk of your days in a kitchen.  If you can’t perform these tasks mindfully, if you cannot find pleasure there, then you should not be in a kitchen.

Running an inn is no different, really.  As I was re-reading this book for the second or third time, this part about peeling garlic made me think about cleaning toilets and doing laundry.  It’s not uncommon for us to do ten loads of laundry a day and finish folding in front of the TV at nine at night, and to spend eight to twelve hours on our feet each – and I mean each – and every day.  And it’s typical to work seven days a week, with a day off every couple of months.  It may look like a dream from the outside, but being a small business owner – even in Hawaii or in a beautiful restaurant – is hard work. 

We’ve been asked with surprising regularity if this is “all” we do, and what our “real” jobs are.  To be asked this, after spending hours scrubbing and cleaning and mending and peeling and cutting and baking and washing and folding and ironing and sweeping and hauling and managing books and marketing and being on the phone and computer and running up to Costco and Home Depot and Lowes and baking and cleaning and washing some more and tossing and turning all night wondering how we’re going to pay our bills … I am speechless.  But, I try to take it as a compliment, that we make things look easy because we are professionals.

As our conversation drew to a close with our friend and we’d aired all our common complaints and stresses and fears, we returned without hesitation to the fact that we love what we do, wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Sure, it’s extraordinarily – if not obviously – hard work (you can forget weekends, evenings, holidays, any sense of security, and probably a pay check for many months or even years when you first start out).  However…we choose this work so that we could be with our kids, and raise them in a beautiful place we love.  We’ve risked much to do this, but we still believe it was totally and completely worth it.  We love it here, and we love the work.  Our friend is fabulous at his job, and his customers can feel this.  We genuinely love taking care of our guests and sharing the island with them, and we think that they can feel this, too.  We are constantly working to do better by our guests, to improve everything we do – from our website to our welcome book to our breakfast offerings to our marketing.  We have met the most fantastic people here, and it is our absolute pleasure taking care of them.  Yes, it’s hard work, but we wouldn’t be doing anything else.  Again, I think it’s like being in a kitchen.  It may be hot, you’ll definitely get burned and cut, people will send back food and abuse your waiters, your feet will ache, you’ll stress endlessly about paying the bills, but at the end of the day – or long night – when things have settled and you see how happy you’ve made your guests with your creation, with your vision, with your dream, you know you are in exactly the right place and wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

Our Favorite Places: Kua Bay

Kua Bay is our favorite sand beach.  It is our go-to beach when we have enough time to leave the neighborhood (otherwise we just pop down to Keei Beach).  To get there, you drive north from the Inn on highway 11 to the airport (about thirty minutes), pass the airport and continue on for another ten minutes or so, then look for the sign for West Hawaii Veteran’s Cemetery on your right, and turn left.  The entry road is paved and there is a sign that says Kekaha Kai State Park, Manini'owali Recreation Area.  There’s a parking area, restrooms and showers. 

This beach is fantastic for two reasons.  First, it’s just a beach, there are no resorts or houses near by, so you don’t have to deal with the crush of the resort-crowd.  Second, it’s just freaking gorgeous.  Envision white sugar-sand, soft and feathery, brilliantly clear water than glows green over white sand, and a huge blue sky spanning all around you.  It’s isolated enough that it doesn’t feel that busy, but is easily accessible meaning you can cart in your cooler and umbrella and books and beers and snacks.  It is hot and bright, so wear sunblock, and there’s a great break so it’s perfect for body-surfing and boogie-boarding.  Because it’s sandy it’s not so great for snorkeling (you WANT the rocks and reef for that so wait until you’re back here at Kealakekua Bay), but it’s perfect for swimming and playing in the waves.  For a purely self-indulgent laze in the sun on white sand, go here.

 

Our favorite places: Manini Beach

If I was a guest at our Inn, I would probably spend most of my days lazing about at Manini Beach.  Of course I’m biased and spoiled, because I live right up the street from it and have been there hundreds of times.  But it is stunningly beautiful and one of those special places that I always return to.

Manini Beach is a small beach just down the hill from the Inn.  It takes about fifteen minutes to walk down to it, and about two minutes to drive down.  I personally enjoy walking down, smelling all the lovely flowering trees and viewing all the wonderfully weird tropical plants on the way.  For visitors, taking a walk like this is an excellent way to get acquainted with the area.  If you follow our road to the water, then take a left, you’ll meander through the little shoreline neighborhood and eventually get to Manini Beach Road, which you follow along the water to the park.  Sometimes the water’s so clear you can see yellow tangs (a kind of reef fish) from the road.

Manini is a little community park with grass and cocoa palms.  There is no sand, it is a rocky shore with an easy – and obvious – entrance into the water.  The water is very cold at first, because there are freshwater springs right offshore.  But as you wade out you’ll feel the water get warmer.  One of the amazing things about Manini Beach is that the water is almost always clear and the reef is right offshore.  When I see places like Kahalu’u Beach in Keauhou, or Hanauma Bay on Oahu gushed over in tour guides as the “only” and “best” places to snorkel in Hawaii, I always feel a little sad.  These are nice places, but if these were the only places you snorkeled on a visit to the islands, you’d be missing out.

The other wonderful thing about little Manini, is that it’s small and local and often deserted.  There’s a neighborhood donkey, Lia, who wanders through looking for things to eat (she’ll eat grass mats and hats and any snacks so watch out), a friendly neighborhood Boston terrier, and some regulars who like to swim.  But that’s about it during the week (like all beaches it’s busier during the weekend).  I have been down there at all hours: at dawn when the dolphins are swimming just offshore, in the morning when the reef fish are just starting to get active as the sun creeps higher, midday when the sun is high and the water crystal-clear, mid-afternoon when the afternoon mist rolls in and the water softens, and dusk when the water cools and the sun begins to sink, at night when all you can see is the huge moon hanging languidly over the bay.  It’s always beautiful; it’s always a little different.

The other morning I took my boy out for a long, hot walk out Pu’uhonua Road and we stopped at the park to take a dip and cool off before returning home to work.  The sun was blazing and the sky was perfectly blue.  The water was calm and we waded into the entrance-area.  He sat in the wet sand and played with the rocks, and I lay in the water in front of him.  Little yellow leaves from a big old tree floated down through the air, and butterflies flitted passed.  The water was warm and soothing and the only sounds were of gentle waves, myna birds and doves, and the wind in the trees.  It was a perfect moment, like many I’ve had down there.

The same week we went down in the evening, again to cool off.  It had been a long, hot day and I craved an ocean-dip badly.  The surge was too rough at the entrance area for my taste, so we walked along the short trail at the back of the park to the little point facing away from the bay towards the open ocean.  I found a safe tide pool for my boy and I sat in it and washed my face while he threw rocks.  The sun began to set.  At this time of night things begin to get quiet.  The Kona winds die down, the birds start to settle in, and the ocean seems to still.  I looked up just as a humpback whale showed its black back in the sunlight.  I got my boy up and carried him to where he could see.  We watched multiple whales languidly swim in the sunlight as it set. 

You may need to go to Manini more than once.  Some days, it’s perfectly calm like a bath tub and you’ll see all the same beautiful coral and fish you’d see at Two Step or the Monument, without the crush of the crowds.  Other days, it’s choppy and surgy and it’s most fun to walk along the shore and watch the waves crash and roll through the jagged lava-rock formations at the point.  I always see something new, I always feel better after being there.

Our Favorite Places

I was recently updating our guest activities list and was haunted by two main thoughts.  First, I was thinking again about how important it is to not over-plan a vacation, especially here on the Big Island where the languid pace of life is one of its most seductive qualities.  Second, I realized that I needed to put together a list of our favorite activities/places, since we’re asked all the time anyway.  I’ve compiled a list here, and will attempt to address them one by one in greater detail in later posts.

First off, when planning a trip please keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with doing nothing.  We’ve had loads of guests enjoy themselves immensely simply spending time down at Manini Beach communing peacefully with the wildlife, picnicking at Pu’uhonua, taking long walks out Painted Church Road, and lounging on the lanai drinking wine and watching the sun set. 

Of all activities available, we would highly recommend spending time in the water here in our neighborhood, considered the most beautiful snorkeling water in Hawaii.  For exploration of the rest of the island, perhaps devote one full day to the Volcano, one day driving east (through Hilo up the Hamakua Coast and back down through Waimea), one day driving north (up the Kohala Coast to the big sand beaches like Kua, Hapuna, Beach 69, and Mauna Kea), and the other days resting and relaxing locally.  Drink some local coffee or enjoy a farm tour, watch the glorious sun sets from the lanai, sunbathe at Keei Beach, BBQ at least one night, and take things slowly…

Here are our favorite places:

From Captain Cook counter clockwise around the island:

Manini Beach

Captain Cook trail

Keei Beach

Pu’uhonua O Honaunau (City of Refuge)

(Specifically the picnic area and 1871 trail)

Two Step

Painted Church Road

(for walking/running)

Hookena Beach

Manuka trail

South Point

Punalu’u Black Sand Beach

Wood Valley Temple

Volcano – Kilauea Iki

Queen Liliuokanlai Park and Coconut Island

(in Hilo, when it’s sunny)

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens

(and the connecting scenic loop)

Kalopa Forest

(nature walk and Ironwood trail)

Honoka’a

Driving along the Hamakua Coast, then down through Waimea is beautiful.

 

From South Kona, north:

Kua Bay

Beach 69

Hawi town

Pololu Valley