Tag: Waimea

Waimea Cherry Blossom Festival

This weekend was Cherry Blossom Festival in Waimea!

There are a huge number of events, exhibits and vendors at multiple venues scattered across town. You really need to pick and choose what you want to see. In years past we had checked out the events at Parker Ranch Square or visited the historic Puʻu Opelu home at Parker Ranch. This year I started at church row, parking at Keck and walking over. The large lawn in front of the churches is really the center of the whole event, here are the cherry trees for which the festival is held.

Cherry Blossoms
Cherry blossoms on a tree in Waimea
Actually the cherry trees were at their best last week. We have been enjoying them, they are right next door to Keck. There were still a few trees in blossom for the festival. Everyone stopping to take a few photos of the blossoms. Even better, the notoriously fickle Waimea weather produced an absolutely glorious day for this year’s festival.

The first event I look for on the schedule is Taiko drumming! This island boasts several excellent Taiko groups and performances are always a treat. This year I caught Hui Okinawa Kobudo Taiko’s early performance at church row. A chance to enjoy the performance, take some great photos, and just feel the pounding of the drums pass through you. One set was a great Shishi Mai (lion-dog) performance, the dancers interacting with the crowd.

Hui Okinawa Kobudo Taiko
Hui Okinawa Kobudo Taiko performs at the 2015 Waimea Cherry Blossom Festival
Food is available in abundance. Traditional Japanese fare at the Hongwanji Mission, cooking demonstrations from local resturant and resort chefs, and local island favorites everywhere. No problem getting lunch. Well, there was one problem… making a choice!

I particularly enjoyed a bonsai exhibit, there were some gorgeous examples of the art. I also visited the Hongwanji Mission, a Buddhist temple of the Jōdo Shinshū school. The building is almost next door to Keck, but I had never given it much thought.

The only downside of the festival is the traffic. Half the island comes to Waimea for the day, the result is no parking, near gridlock on the main street, and crowds everywhere. As with most of these Waimea events, get there early!

Best Restaurants in Waimea?

The annual 100 best places to eat in the US list for 2015 was published by Yelp this week. A number of Hawaiʻi restaurants make the list, but only one on the Big Island. You will find Da Poke Shack in spot 51, holder of last year’s top spot on the list. Not being a raw fish fan and not getting into Kona very often I can not offer an opinion on that selection. I did wonder what restaurants are best rated for Waimea. Is the list very good?

Hawaiian Style Cafe
The remains of the meal litters a table at Hawaiian Style Cafe.
Yelp’s reviews are reader generated, and as such are subject to a great deal of personal bias. But with a lot of reviews from a large reader base you would hope that the result averages out to something reasonably accurate. Thus I did a quick search on Kamuela, as Waimea is known to the post office to avoid confusion with the other towns of the same name elsewhere in the state.

The top ten does not look that bad…

  1. Hawaiian Style Cafe
  2. Merriman’s
  3. Village Burger
  4. Red Water Cafe
  5. The Fish and the Hog Market Cafe
  6. Big Island Brewhaus
  7. Yong’s Kalbi
  8. Pau
  9. James Angelo’s Underground Pizza
  10. Aka Sushi Bar

The restaurants any local resident would expect to see are there. I would quibble with the placement of some of these establishments on the list, but there are no surprises here. If you really want to read further I will add my own opinions and comments in the remainder of this post…

Continue reading “Best Restaurants in Waimea?”

Anna Ranch

Often overlooked by tourists driving around the island, Anna Ranch is very much worth the stop. A little piece of island history preserved as it was.

Anna Ranch
The main house at Anna Ranch
At the ranch the paniolo and ranching history of the Waimea area is preserved. The complex of buildings are the heart of a classic Hawaiian ranch. This was the headquarters of a large cattle operation for over a century.

If you catch one of the two daily tours you get to see the interior of the house and hear stories about the history of the ranch. The tour is really the best way to properly visit Anna ranch.

You will hear about the indomitable Anna Lindsey Perry-Fiske who ran the ranch through much of the twentieth century. A horsewoman and cattle expert she successfully kept the family ranch profitable, creating the ranch you see today. It was her dream to see the ranch preserved as a heritage center. Now run by a non-profit organization the ranch is listed in the Hawaii State Register of Historic Places, and on the National Register of Historic Places.

After the tour you can roam the gardens and the short “Discovery Trail” that leads behind the buildings. Along the trail there are interpretive signs that provide another view into the history of the area. This includes a bit on a historic battle that occurred on the hills behind Waimea.

Lanai
An enclosed lanai at Anna Ranch
Unfortunately the smithy was not open for our visit. I have always enjoyed watching a blacksmith at work. Nothing like a forge and hot steel, one of the oldest technologies, to catch the fascination of an engineer like myself. I will have to stop in again some time.

The daily tours are conducted at 10am and again at 1pm. The cost is $10/person and reservations are highly recommended. You might find a spot on a tour at last minute, but do not count on it. Otherwise visiting the ranch is free, unless you stop in the little gift shop.

After so many years of driving past, I am glad we stopped in to see this gem of Waimea history.

Well Hidden

As I headed to the mid-week farmers market I spotted this absurdity behind the Parker Ranch center. Never mind there are no large trees nearby, never mind there are no fir trees in sight, firs are rare on the island. No… They decided to disguise this cell tower as a tree. It would have looked better as a simple tower.

You are not fooling anyone…

Not Fooling Anyone
A cell tower “disguised” as a fir tree in Waimea

Shootout at the Corral

The corral is one of the relics of ranching that litter the Waimea countryside. Just a short detour off my daily commute, I have long noted the photo potential of the place. A foggy day offered an interesting opportunity to shoot the corral, enough that I missed my usual turn to take advantage of the even, subdued light offered by a grey afternoon.

Arriving I noted that recent rains had transformed the brown grass into a verdant green. Vines had appeared to cover the old fence posts in foliage. This was a good day to go shooting.

Photography is an art that has to be constantly practiced. You need to shoot, shoot some more, and critique the results with a stern eye. I have better gear than I have ever had, it helps. Still, the magic is up to the photographer, not the camera. A practiced eye, composition and creativity, any camera can shoot a great photo in the right hands.

I did get some good shots. But did I get any great shots? I am always my own worst critic.