hey another recap. haven't had one of these for awhile. this weekend was all about cars. and sun. the previous weeks have been rainy and gloomy and it seemed like summer would never come. but lo and behold, saturday morning was beautiful. i think it was because jon *finally* came back this weekend. he always brings sunshine into my life. this time, he just happened to bring it to hilo too. ha ha! :)

friday:
after three weeks of being away, jon was finally able to come back this weekend. he's been busy on in kona, taking on side jobs. jon also finally got his exhaust system installed. the thing is *loud*. i mean really loud. dustin used to be one of the loudest car in hilo. jon's car is now just as loud *with* the silencer on. i only heard the exhaust unsilenced when he was pulling into my driveway. i'm a little wary to hear it again without the silencer.

jon and i went to kuhio grille for dinner before we went out with everybody. we found out that kuhio grille now serves sushi. jon ordered the fried ahi poke. it was really good. very moist. i ordered the unagi (freshwater eel) and cucumber maki roll and ebi (shrimp) nigiri. both were very good too. unfortunately, i forgot to take photos. but now i know that i can go there when i get my sushi cravings and ocean sushi is closed.

saturday:
i woke up late on saturday morning, well, actually it was saturday noon. i woke up at 12:00. jon and i went to eat at hilo noodle rice soup. it's become one of our favorite places. jon ordered the mushroom kai choi this time. i ordered the com bo hanh huong nuong, beef-wrapped onions served over rice. it also came with a salad.

jon's mushroom kai choi.

my com bo hanh huong nuong.

after lunch, jon and i went to a car show that a few of the dealerships in town were holding behind the plaza. there was mazda-subaru, honda, toyota-suzuki, ford, gm, and nissan. there weren't any really impressive cars, like maybe the mazda rx8. but i took photos of my favorites.

more photos of the car show.

after the show, jon and i drove down to the drag strip to meet iris and digga for this weekend's drags. most of the same cars from the memorial day drags were there. this weekend, there was also a nice black carmen gia.

the carmen gia.

unfortunately, it began to lightly rain, so we left and went to fun factory. i haven't been to fun factory in ages. jon and i went several months back when we heard that they *finally* had the initial d arcade game. before that, i can't even remember when. digga played initial d. jon and i played point blank. and iris watched. she later played a game of air hockey with dustin. and then we all challenged each other in skee ball. iris won, scoring 300. i have to give a special "thank you" to kevin for all the tokens he gave us.

we met up with the bahoof guys later on. grabbed some mickey d's for dinner then headed out to kea'au to a party. unfortunately, it was a graduation party. high school graduation. it really isn't any fun being at a party for a person that you don't know and being surrounded by high schoolers and recent high school graduates. jon and i left the party and met up with iris guys and cruised with them for the rest of the night.

sunday:
jon and i woke up to another beautiful day. unfortunately, iris and digga didn't make it out to hapuna beach this morning, as they had planned to, calling me right before jon and i were about to leave for church to invite us to go to la'akea instead. jon and i attend hilo missionary's afterglow, a late-morning service for teens. it was good to finally go to church after so long. i try to keep him in my life by reading my devotions in the morning and saying my prayers at night, but going to church definitely helps me to be closer to god.

after church, jon and i went to kalbi express for lunch, settling on the kalbi express mix, which included kalbi, barbecue chicken and meat jun.

kalbi express
waiakea center food court
315 makaala street
hilo, hawaii 96720
808.935.7997

after lunch, we went back home to pass the time away until iris and digga headed down to the drags. we repotted xiu dieh (thanks linda and winnie for helping with her name) and hung out by the pool. we even let sumi-at out to play.

at 4:00pm we headed down to the drag strip to meet up with iris and digga, looking forward to the 500hp hatchback that digga said was there. at the drag strip, we also ran into jon c. and jaime.

all in all, it was a great day and a great weekend. great weather. great food. great company ... jon is always great company. oh. and so iris and digga. :b

owari.