Steve and Debby
They are not on the golf course. And right now, they are not on the tennis courts. They enjoy cooking and dining at home. Their greatest pleasures here are soaking up the nature, culture and experiences of the Big Island. They are Debby Webster and Steve Blanchard.
Debby was first introduced to Big Island life when she was about 14 and was attending school in Arizona. One of her best friends was from Hawai’i and brought Debby home to Holualoa to meet her relatives. Debby was hooked. Though she didn’t return often, it stayed in her mind and when she and Steve married about 15 years ago, they started to explore all the islands, but always came back to the Big Island and eventually Hualalai.
Debby’s first ten years were spent on the Upper West Side of Manhattan but when she was ten her family moved to the Back Bay and Beacon Hill sections of Boston. She is convinced that one summer she and Steve spent time at the same swimming pool, but they didn’t know each other.
The summer when she was 16, Debby went to a dude ranch in Wyoming where three generations of her family had gone. There she met the 18-year old Steve who was touring the country with his best friend in a hot little red and black 1965 Austin Healy. Debby still had a crush on Steve’s friend whom she’d met the previous summer, but Steve wasted no time in telling her that he was the better man for her. A whirlwind romance ensued, but Debby left the ranch ten days later and was soon off to Switzerland for her senior year of high school. And so they went their separate ways, Debby eventually heading off to Smith College while Steve joined the Navy in 1966 and did two tours in Vietnam. They corresponded, but Debby moved on to Vail, Colorado, married and had two children. Upon returning to Boston, Steve became a General Contractor working on commercial interiors and eventually heading up maintenance on a 775 unit property. He, too, married and had a couple of kids.
As things sometimes go, Steve’s marriage ended, and his life went on, including his habit of exchanging Christmas cards with Debby. But somehow Debby was always in the back of Steve’s mind, and one day while he was vacationing in Las Vegas with a friend, he heard a woman at the pool mention Colorado and figure skating. Steve knew from the Christmas cards that Debby was living in Colorado and judging figure skating so, while it seemed unlikely, Steve asked the woman at the pool if she knew Debby. She did, and Steve handed her his phone number and asked her to pass it on to Debby. Weeks later, Debby was handed the slip of paper which had been handed along from person to person until it reached her.
As fate would have it, Debby had been divorced for a short while when she got Steve’s number, and she called him. It wasn’t long until they met and their friendship became a full blown romance.
Steve moved to Vail, where Debby’s life was busy, to say the least. She was the first female firefighter in the Vail Volunteer Fire Department. She was a judge for the US Figure Skating Association for 24 years and she co-owned and operated two bookstores (Fahrenheit 451 in Laguna Beach, California, and Verbatim Booksellers at home in Vail). She also started a chapter of a national organization called Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA, an advocacy group for abused children). Steve settled into Vail life easily and continued working as a contractor. The love story was complete, except for one thing…Hawaii.
It was four years ago that Steve and Debby returned to Hawaii, booking their stay at Manele Bay on Lanai, only to discover that there was construction ongoing at the hotel’s pool. They transferred to the Four Seasons Hualalai and loved the resort. By the end of their stay, they’d found a house that they fell in love with and bought.
They now spend about 5 months of the year at Hualalai. Debby is active in the book club and is a supporter and organizer for recycling. Both Steve and Debby hike on all sorts of paths around the island. They love to soak in the local culture (concerts, Talk Story at Mauna Lani, etc.) and spend a good deal of time finding the best and freshest food on the island. One of their secret spots is the Kekela Farms outdoor market on Mana Road in Waimea. Every Tuesday, they’re in the front of the line for the market where they buy fresh produce and freshly-baked bread. Then they go to Rincon Farms and get strawberries freshly picked from the fields. At Hualalai they both enjoy mah jongg, exercising, and playing tennis when their bodies allow them to, plus gardening at their home.
During the day Steve spends a fair amount of time working on the plans and activities in regards to the new home they’re building outside of Vail. Debby has become addicted to Ancestry.com and spends time researching her family roots.
An example of their perfect Hualalai day was this past Sunday when they had a late brunch of French toast made from Sandwich Isle Bread Company’s cranberry apricot, pecan bread, followed by driving their cart around to take pictures of Hawaiian flora and fauna for the grandchild who’s about to turn seven and requested photos of Hawaiian plants, birds, etc. for her 7th birthday. Then they had massages. So relaxing. So perfect.
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