Day 21 – The Unexpected

Today we traveled down a road we haven’t ventured on before, we ate at the luau, where I thought I ate an eyeball and I spent the afternoon making Mike feel guilty (about the eyeball).

We hit up the farmers market in Waialua, needed apple bananas.  We only have a week left so we didn’t want to pick up much more.  We needed to head over to the Sunset Beach Foodland, so I could pick up this local coleslaw mix for tomorrow’s get together.  We had been passing this road in Waialua, that on weekends had sign that read “Fresh organic vegetables, Mohala Farms.  Today we turned down that road.

As we traveled down this road, we noticed a goat shed (I do love my goats), two brick columns and a Japanese cemetery.  Hmmm there has to be a story connected with the last two items.

We arrived at Mohala Farms, greeted by two gentle farm dogs.  We met the farmer who had the most beautiful kale and lilikoi I have ever seen.  Of course we went on a buying spree for that.  We asked him about the stone columns and the cemetery.  He provided us with a brief history.

The columns are what remains of the first Catholic Church on the North Shore. It was built in 1853, St. Michael’s Parish.  It wasn’t  a church used for long, the parish erected a new church closer to the sugar mill, making it easier for the immigrant workers to attend church.

The farmer told us there are actually two cemeteries  next to the church.  One is for the Japanese  immigrant workers from the mills.  This is the one we could see.  He told us during Bon Dance season the local Buddhists clean up the graveyard.  You could tell it was lovingly taken care of.

The other graveyard, we didn’t notice driving by.  He told us it was the Catholic burial ground and St. Michael’s Church took care of it.  I’m thinking the parish forgot about taking care of  it.  It was in sad shape.

At home, late morning, I napped and then we readied ourselves for the luau.  Ready to eat some pork that we documented cooking the past few days.

We arrived right as the blessing was taking place and quickly lined up. I noticed even the pastor had to wait in line.  The lines were on both sides of the tent.

I saved us seats while Mike gathered the grub. Can you name all the food items?  I can’t.

I am willing to try a few things, just know that if it has a seaweed or nori flavor, I can’t do it (had a Japanese quad mate in college, made me try a nori wrap plain, she ate it like candy and I thought was I going to vomit).  I dug into the clear liquid noodle thingie and loved it(chicken long rice) .  The pork was yummy.  I prefer poi from Waipa in Hanalei, Kauai, though.

And then it happened, the unexpected.  In the poke dish, Mike told me to try the round thingie.  He said I would like it, I trusted him, he doesn’t tease me about food.  I tried it and it wasn’t a pretty sight.  I felt it all coming back up, it tasted of seaweed and then he said “I think you just ate a fish eyeball.”  I’m out.  I felt so sick, I couldn’t continue eating.  Poor Mike,  he felt horrible, he put a damper on the luau for me.

We had a very quiet ride home, I held  the car door handle, suppressing an angry stomach. We came home and I just collapsed in a chair outside with a book.  Mike had to find out what we actually ate.  It wasn’t a fish eyeball, but opihi, a limpet.  I love to collect limpet shells, maybe not so much now.  It was a long afternoon of reading and waiting for sunset.

Sometimes the unexpected is a delight, like finding the ruins and other times it is a stomach turner.  At least our life is filled with more delight than stomach turners.