😢 Aloha Hawaiʻi 6/29/25

I recently read an article on The Verge about how ChatGPT is changing how we communicate, particularly regarding our vocabulary. Words such as “prowess,” “tapestry,” “realm,” and “delve” have creeped into our conversations, YouTube videos, and even longer-form written works. I think it’s fascinating to see something that produces outputs, created by inputs we gave it, is now changing how we speak (our outputs, so to speak). I am excited to see how this progresses in the future. Maybe one day soon we will all just be speaking in beeps and boops.

Now, without further ado, let’s “delve” into this week’s What’s Up With Will…

With one more full day in Hawaiʻi, we all packed up our bags once again to drive to Hilo.

My favorite nut, hands down, is the macadamia nut. There is something about its smoothness and crunchiness that can’t be beat. I bring this up because one of my favorite things about Hawaiʻi is that every store that you walk into sells macadamia nuts. So we knew the moment we saw the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Company Visitor Center, we had to stop there.

You take a road down through the macadamia nut tree groves to get to the center, where they offer free samples, a look at the production process, and an opportunity to learn about the history of the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Company. This brand started back in 1977, and has grown to be the #1 macadamia nut brand in the world as well as the biggest food manufacturer in Hawaiʻi. We loaded up on nuts, and continued with our drive to Hilo.

For some reason, people wanted something more than nuts for breakfast, which I think is nuts (lowbrow humor for the win), so we caught a vibe at the Vibe Cafe (more lowbrow humor for the win).  To be honest, though, I wasn’t too upset since I got to have an açaí bowl and a Ube latte.

The first actually planned stop for the day was the Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens. This small 12-acre zoo, which opened back in 1978, is the only zoo in the United States that is located in a rainforest, and despite its size, it is home to 82 different species of animals, including some native Hawaiian animals too. My favorites were the white peacocks and the pair of tigers named Sriracha and Tzatziki (based on the color of their coats, which is very cute!)

Our next stop was the Wailuku River State Park, home of the Wailuku River, the longest river in Hawai’i. It flows along the divide between the lava flows of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa (two of the big volcanoes on the island) to the ocean, and even has significance with Hawaiian culture, being the location of the battle between the demigod Maui and a giant lizard-like creature known as Kuna.

We stopped at two lookout points. The first was the Rainbow Falls lookout, an 80-foot waterfall over a lava cave, which often creates morning rainbows (but none were visible for us when we arrived).

The second spot was the boiling pots lookout, a set of pot-shaped holes that, when full of water, create a boiling appearance. According to the legend, the boiling pots were also remnants of the battle between Maui and Kuna.

After a day of exploring, we finally checked into our hotel, where we ended the night poolside, doing a little swimming, sipping on Mai-Tais, and eating some surprisingly good poke for a hotel restaurant.

My brother loves to golf, and it just so happened there was a golf course across the street from the hotel, so we woke up early to play a few holes before we had to leave. It should be known that I have never played golf before, aside from the one-off Top Golf from time to time, so I was very appreciative of my brother showing me the ropes on how to play and what club to use when. Let me tell you, one of the worst feelings in the world is whiffing a golf ball while someone who actually can play golf. The only thing worse is whiffing multiple times in a row (which I did).

A fun fact about golf: the reason the clubs are called woods and irons is based on what material the clubs were originally made out of. Woods were chosen because they were light but strong for distance, and irons were used because you could have thinner, sharper clubs for precision shots.

Then we packed up and started making our way back to the airport. Our drive took us through the center of the island, so we got to see both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa side by side. 

There was something about the name Mauna Loa that was driving me crazy this entire trip. I swore I heard it before, and on this car ride, I finally had enough. So after a Google search, I found an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants entitled “The Wreck of the Mauna Loa”, and it all came rushing back to me. I knew I wasn’t crazy!

We finally arrived at the airport, said our goodbyes, and hopped on the plane back to San Francisco. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Big Island. It has so much beautiful nature and a thriving agro-tourism sector. This trip made me realize how much I appreciate going on walks through nature, and it has me thinking about going on trails and hikes more back home in California.

I can’t forget to mention the food and Mai-Tais. I am very thankful we live in the Bay Area, since there is practically a tiki bar every other block.

Back on the home front, we have been busy finalizing the moving stuff. I got the internet set up at our new place, and we had movers move all of our furniture! Our place is currently a chaotic mess, but it is our chaotic mess!

The same day as we moved, Walnut Creek was having its annual Wine Stroll through downtown. I loved that the stroll took you through the entire downtown area, even stopping at places that were off the beaten path. I think it gave us a better lay of the land for our new home, and multiple places that we need to stop at again. Walnut Creek seems to have a lot of community events which I can get behind. I love living in a city, and am a little sad to move further away. That being said, while we are further from the hustle and bustle, I love that Walnut Creek makes an effort to provide things to do.

I am going to leave you with a quote that I overheard during the wine stroll:
Random person standing outside a store: “Oh, it’s working [the wine]. My wife is buying something.”

A fun thing about Hawaiʻi is that soda cans on the island are different from the ones on the mainland. The Hawaiian cans have little ridges near the top. This video does a good job of explaining why.