Humane Society Holds Annual Howl’ween Dog Walk!
For the entire article go to: http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/2018/10/28/hawaii-news/puttin-the-howl-in-halloween-humane-society-holds-annual-howlween-dog-walk/
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A fun Halloween members party at Ke’olu.When you arrive at the Ke ‘Olu pool now you will find all the chaises with towels wrapped in a shell lei as well as bar and lunch menus and the new electronic buttons that will alert a server that you need assistance.For a feel of luxurious pampering, it’s the only way to go!
The new pool deck at the Beach Tree Pool is coming right along!
Ke’olu sparkled as the Hualalai Ohana gathered to wish A Hui Hou to John Saul and Mike Sack this past Monday. A brilliant sunset and night sky backdropped the party hosted by Martha and John Mouer.
Everyone enjoyed the delicious food and drink as we greeted each other and listened to the speeches of farewell to Mike and John.
But the moments were often bittersweet while we toasted the couple who will be leaving Hualalai in November.
Kaulu sang a moving Hawaiian chant–you could see that while she wished John and Mike well, she wished they were also staying here.
It’s hard to imagine Hualalai without them. We hope they will come back often to share Aloha with us. We wish them health and happiness, and say again, “A Hui Hou.”
Wednesday, October 24th there will be a Full Moon.BYOC (Bring Your Own Chair) and BYOD (Bring Your Own Drink)At 5:15pm just South of the Residents Beach HouseTo watch the Sunset.I’m hoping this little piece might offer some insight into what Hualalai has meant to me.Over the past years I have shared with many folks how lucky I’ve been throughout my life, and that’s exactly what I would like to do with you, today.I was born in 1947 as one of the baby boomers. How lucky I was to be born in the United States, a country that had just won a major war for the right reasons. I wasn’t born in a third world country, or in a dictatorship; I was born in a country that was moving in the right direction. (At least for a white boy.)Further, I was lucky enough to be born to parents who had the means to feed me well, maintain a roof over my head, and protect me from anything too awful.Lucky enough that my parents valued education and made sure I stayed in school, went to college and even graduate school.I was lucky to be born at a time when medicine was making great strides: at the age of 12 I had an appendicitis attack and medicine was advanced to the point where safe anesthesia was used and sterile conditions were routine, so I survived.I was lucky enough to be a gay man just as society was beginning to accept that people like me are as normal as anyone else.And how spectacularly lucky I was to meet and share a life with a man I adore.How lucky I am to be with my best friend, my lover, my confidant for 43 years.How lucky I was too have two careers that I thoroughly enjoyed. One was my passion alone and one with my partner.How lucky to have built a successful career and life doing what I and my partner enjoy doing and making enough money to live extremely comfortably.And how lucky I am that America finally came to allow us to marry. Both my husband and I never thought that would happen in our lifetimes.And then: By Mike Sack How lucky I was to spend 40 years visiting Hawaii and then 27 years owning property in Hawaii and 15 years owning a home at Hualalai. But, this last bit of luck I consider to be the frosting on the cake; the whipped cream on a Sundae. Cindy Muscatel It is my pleasure to introduce all the members to Cindy Muscatel, our new editor. Since I have sold my home at Hualalai I approached Cindy to see if she wanted to take over the blog. To my delight, she said, “absolutely”. Here is a brief bio of Cindy’s background: Mike Sack Our family has been coming to Hualalai for twenty years. Our children and grandchildren love it as much as we do. No one ever wants to leave! No matter how hard I try, I can’t resist taking just one more photo of the most current sunset! This is a special place of beauty and tranquility. I sure felt that this morning doing yoga at the Palm Grove. As the Francolins called to each other, I started calming down. Always and forever, I’ve written. Even as a child. By the time I was a senior at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington, I was editor of the school newspaper. In those days, we literally cut and pasted the paper. I’m excited to let the computer do that work! I love writing humor! I wanted to be Erma Bombeck when I grew up. This led me to write for The Seattle Times, Bellevue Journal American, The Desert Sun, the Desert Newsgroup, and the Palm Canyon Times. I also wrote for Desert Magazine for many years, interviewing many fascinating people. I did the work the publication wanted (I was society editor of The Desert Sun for awhile—I thought I’d lose my mind) and they’d publish my humor columns. I now write a blog, “A Corner of My Mind”, that lets me indulge in my Erma side. I’ve had many short stories and essays published in such journals as descant, Wisconsin Review, North Atlantic Review, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Riversedge, 13thMoon, Mainstreet Rag, Quercus Review, EDGE, Snakeskin, The Legendary, Highlights for Children, Turtle, Phantom Seed and others. Teaching is my other love. I taught English, Journalism and Drama in the Seattle Public Schools in the inner city. Later, after I’d raised my own children, I taught English and Social Studies to middle schoolers at The Seattle Hebrew Academy. When we moved to Palm Springs, I began teaching Creative Writing to Seniors. We published an anthology in 2008. I also taught writing and literature for UC San Bernadino. Right now, I’m teaching a memoir writing class at Hualalai (we have stories that the younger generations NEED to know!!!!!). I’m also working on a memoir of the years I taught at Meany Junior High in the late Sixties. Several chapters of the book have already been published as stand-alone pieces. “Burn Baby Burn”, is about the day the Black Panthers set the school on fire. My short story collection, Radio Days, will be published in the spring of 2019. I was born, raised and raised my own family in the greater Seattle area. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Washington and got my Masters in Education degree from Seattle University. This post brought to you by your new editor, soon to be introduced.
Yes yes yes – it is the pond along the 5th hole on the Ke’Olu golf course, before the green and treat station. 👍🏼
-Big Wave Dave Cashman 😉
If you think you know, comment.
Many members know Eric and Scott and have been to their restaurants on island. This piece was found in the San Francisco Chronicle this past Sunday:By Jeanne Cooper  Huggo’s owner Eric von Platen Luder. It was a lucky break in permitting. When it debuted nearly 50 years ago, Huggo’s became the first waterfront restaurant in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island, one of the most striking locations on the coast. Now the family-run business covers the waterfront, so to speak, with three more island-style restaurants, a popular catering concern and four vacation cottages. “We’re always changing and evolving,” says owner Eric von Platen Luder, who gives much of the credit to his husband, Scott Dodd, a fellow Southern Methodist University graduate and former assistant food and beverage director at the Hyatt Regency Maui. “I could never have expanded on my own without his expertise. I’d only worked at one place all my life, and that was Huggo’s.” A fourth-generation Hawaiian-Chinese and part-German native of the Big Island, von Platen Luder was just 11 when he began busing tables at the family restaurant. His parents, Hugo and Shirley, had opened Huggo’s as a steakhouse in 1969, just before the rules changed on how close buildings could be to the shoreline. In 1981, two years after graduating from college, von Platen Luder started purchasing the business from his parents and had been running it for a decade by the time he met Dodd at a tennis tournament.  The Lava Lava Beach Club, which faces the sunrise at the newly renovated Kaui Shores Hotel on Kaui offers a colorful, easy going, beach vibe “He just loved the (restaurant) business, and we had an instant commonality in that,” von Platen Luder recalls. “I was totally enthralled with him. We dated between Maui and Kona for a little over a year, and then we made a decision we wanted to move forward with our relationship. He gave up his career, and we started collaborating on our businesses.” Their first major project: On the Rocks, the casual, open-air restaurant next to Huggo’s that opened in 1998. “We built it to capture the downscale market,” von Platen Luder says, adding that offering nightly live entertainment was also important. “It’s something that I remember from growing up and going to the Halekulani every year,” he notes, referring to the luxurious Waikiki hotel known for its nightly hula shows. “One of the reasons we built On the Rocks is that if I wanted to sit on the beach and have a drink, or enjoy sunset and hula, I had to go to a hotel. We didn’t have a beach, so we kind of made one ourselves.” The two also formed Paradise Gourmet Catering, which focuses on corporate meetings on Hawaii Island, and in 2012 branched into lodging with Lava Lava Beach Club, a beachfront restaurant with four luxurious but laid-back rental cottages at Waikoloa Beach Resort. “The landlords didn’t like the name at all. They thought it was too fun and frivolous,” von Platen Luder says. “But we really felt we didn’t want to be the Four Seasons or compete with the CanoeHouse at the Mauna Lani. We wanted people to stick their toes in the sand or wear bikinis and board shorts to the restaurant — those were things we felt strongly about. … These cottages were so special that we didn’t want them to be stuffy, either. They needed to be bright and beachy and have a surf vibe.” Three years later, the pair brought the Lava Lava Beach Club concept to the Garden Island, opening their first sunrise-facing restaurant at the newly renovated Kauai Shores Hotel. Afterward, they turned their attention to the original Huggo’s, long since known for its seafood specials, and added hBar, a craft cocktail and small-plates lounge. More recently, they created an upscale breakfast menu with dishes such as the “eggocado,” an avocado with salsa and eggs baked in a pizza oven; during this week’s World Ironman Championship, they’re testing a quick-service breakfast at On the Rocks using their new $300,000 food truck. “Scott and myself, we don’t like sitting stagnant,” von Platen Luder says. “We probably challenge our managers and staff more than a lot of people, because we always want to keep things fresh and new.”  Wally Opdycke with wife, Nicola We received word today that Wally Opdycke passed away after a long illness. Wally and Nicola were early members at Hualalai. He was a very active golfer and was a Founding Member of the Bandits. Many of you will remember him walking his dog all over the property. Wally was our next-door neighbor for nine years in Bellevue, Washington when he was the CEO of St. Michelle Winery and when we arrived at Hualalai we received an email from Wally saying “Welcome, it’s nice to have you as a neighbor again.” He leaves his daughter, Linda and his son, Tom (and his family) as well as Nicola.
In the past when it rained during dinner at the Beach House you huddled under the large umbrellas at the table and hope all at your table will fit under it. Usually someone is getting wet. But last night we were surprised to see the staff come out with many umbrellas and hand it to members and guests alike and we all were able to continue and stay dry. Good thinking gang at the Beach House. We appreciated it.
Monday Night Mooch (Reception) will be held on October 15 at the Resident’s Beach House (Not the Canoe Club) 5pm
Well, the word is out. John and I have sold our home and I will be handing off the Hualalaimembers Blog to another member who has expressed interest in blogging. This will be done in the next few weeks. In a few days I will introduce you to your new Blog Editor. Many of you know who I am, but I’ve been told that some members have not known my identity or never met me. So, real quickly: I’m Mike Sack. I have owned a home and been a member of Hualalai Club for 15 years. Prior to that I had a home on Maui for 12 years. The past five years my husband and I have been Hawaii Residents, and five years ago we were one of the first gay couples to legally marry in Hawaii and the first gay couple to marry up at Ke ‘Olu. My career background includes being a clinical psychologist and working with my husband, John Saul, in writing 37 bestselling novels (all scary). The reason I started the blog was because I thought it was important to have a form of communication for our community that was not governed by management. I wanted it to be fun, informative and open. Hopefully I accomplished that. I also served on the Members Advisory Committee and the Social Committee. I started the “Know your Neighbor” evenings and John and I started the Happy Hundreds. The blog started in 2010 and currently has 280 subscribers and about 1300 posts. We’ve covered everything from the Tsunami, the incorporation of Kona Village, changes in management and the merger of the club into the Four Seasons. I’ve tried to interview folks who I think would be interesting or have interesting information. I set up classified ads that sold a lot of golf carts and some art. I encouraged members to send in their photos and their stories. Over the next two weeks or so, I will share with you some of my personal thoughts about Hualalai Resort. So, stay tuned for some schmaltzy stuff and a hand-off to the person to whom I am entrusting the blog.  Mike Sack |
