Free Time and the Breakfast of Champions
There is tons of free time at Kalani. I just finished my morning shift and am sitting under a Macadamia nut tree, not unlike Buddha by the swimming pool, pondering what I will do today
My AM shift started at 6:00 AM today with a quick employee meeting over some Kona coffee, sweetened with what else, agave nectar and almond milk. There are three meals a day for about 170 people; summer is the slow season in Hawaii and as winter approaches, they expect the guest count to double.
The food if fresh, local when possible, healthy and is served cafeteria style. As such, they are very organized and have a system down, that works very well. Everyone works all the positions. We usually start cutting up pineapples, papayas, sapote, passion fruit, star fruit, bananas and more. I rode into town on Sunday with Sami to the farmer's market, where they buy most of the fruit not grown on property. Homemade granola, yogurts are also on the fruit bar. This morning there were two hot cereals, millet and steel cut oats, chicken and cheddar scrambled local eggs and left overs from other meals. There are all sorts of cool juices, nut butters, nut milks, jams and breads... I really look forward to all meals.
Before service, some shift leaders offer gratitude for the opportunity for us to live in paradise by gathering us together and holding hands around the food, offering Hawaiian chants, aloha, mahalo, new age prayers, oms,(actually it is a play on om, as we say"yum" and send the primal sound on into the cosmos) or whatever else the fuck you want to do add...participation is totally voluntary and is a groovy way to offer gratitude to whoever is in charge of the universe for allowing us to live this way.
There are various jobs in the kitchen and they have been training us in all stations. After an hour, at 7:00 AM, the staff sits down for our full breakfast. At 10:00 AM there is a half hour break, during which today I went out and snoozed in a hammock. Then staff and all the guests eat, while we clean up and prepare for lunch. At 11:30 AM the staff sits down for lunch and at 1:30 we call it a day. My kind of work day people.
Since we live here, we are already home. All kinds of yoga, athletic endeavors, surfing, triple rainbows, lava tubes, trance therapy, educational classes and workshops of all sorts, thermal springs, hikes, road trips, lava fields, a pool to die for; there is almost too much to choose from, and by the end of the day I slip into my tent and have the friggin sleep of kings.
So back to what to do today? How about Mauna Kae 13,768 in altitude, highest mountain in the world if you measure from the bottom of the Pacific?
Top of a cinder cone at ~9200 feet, below the summit of Mauna Kae; been what, decades since I hiked one that high. This part of Hawaii kinda looks like the moon.
Beginning to get above the clouds; that is a scientist dorm in the foreground for the astronomers that come to study from all over the world
While we are waiting for Saturn,Venus, the Milky Way and more to appear at nightfall, how about a sun salutation?
or a extended triangle asana?
My Kalani hiking buddies, Lisa, a mental health specialist from Las Vegas and John, JMU '89, an elementary school teacher.The temperature dropped into the low 30's precipitously, so we bagged the star show. Thanks for being the wheel man, John. Thanks Lisa for the shirt and acute observations.
Fun Hawaii Fact: Falling coconuts kill more people than sharks in Hawaii. Especially dangerous are falling palm fronds which can dislocate shoulders and cause nasty cuts. Thanks for stopping by.
My AM shift started at 6:00 AM today with a quick employee meeting over some Kona coffee, sweetened with what else, agave nectar and almond milk. There are three meals a day for about 170 people; summer is the slow season in Hawaii and as winter approaches, they expect the guest count to double.
Barcus, Kalani's horticulturalist extraordinaire, explains the ins and outs of growing bananas
We cannot grow enough on property, so I rode into Pahoa with Sami to the farmer's market to buy some more
and we picked up some other items
The food if fresh, local when possible, healthy and is served cafeteria style. As such, they are very organized and have a system down, that works very well. Everyone works all the positions. We usually start cutting up pineapples, papayas, sapote, passion fruit, star fruit, bananas and more. I rode into town on Sunday with Sami to the farmer's market, where they buy most of the fruit not grown on property. Homemade granola, yogurts are also on the fruit bar. This morning there were two hot cereals, millet and steel cut oats, chicken and cheddar scrambled local eggs and left overs from other meals. There are all sorts of cool juices, nut butters, nut milks, jams and breads... I really look forward to all meals.
Before service, some shift leaders offer gratitude for the opportunity for us to live in paradise by gathering us together and holding hands around the food, offering Hawaiian chants, aloha, mahalo, new age prayers, oms,(actually it is a play on om, as we say"yum" and send the primal sound on into the cosmos) or whatever else the fuck you want to do add...participation is totally voluntary and is a groovy way to offer gratitude to whoever is in charge of the universe for allowing us to live this way.
There are various jobs in the kitchen and they have been training us in all stations. After an hour, at 7:00 AM, the staff sits down for our full breakfast. At 10:00 AM there is a half hour break, during which today I went out and snoozed in a hammock. Then staff and all the guests eat, while we clean up and prepare for lunch. At 11:30 AM the staff sits down for lunch and at 1:30 we call it a day. My kind of work day people.
Since we live here, we are already home. All kinds of yoga, athletic endeavors, surfing, triple rainbows, lava tubes, trance therapy, educational classes and workshops of all sorts, thermal springs, hikes, road trips, lava fields, a pool to die for; there is almost too much to choose from, and by the end of the day I slip into my tent and have the friggin sleep of kings.
So back to what to do today? How about Mauna Kae 13,768 in altitude, highest mountain in the world if you measure from the bottom of the Pacific?
Fun Hawaii Fact: Falling coconuts kill more people than sharks in Hawaii. Especially dangerous are falling palm fronds which can dislocate shoulders and cause nasty cuts. Thanks for stopping by.
Comments