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I'm forwarding this, got it from a couple different people today. And I voted!
Pahoa is in the running for the Coolest Small Town in America, we are currently in 13th place. Please take a minute to cast your vote and you can vote once per day. Contest ends February 28th.
As we all know, Pahoa needs all the help in can get and your vote can help. Please support all things Pahoa, our Schools, our merchants, our restaurants and our sense of place.
Mahalo nui and please feel free to forward this to as many as you can, and remember, you can vote once a day.
VOTE HERE>>>>>
http://www.budgettravel.com/contest/vote...n-2014,16/
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I cast my 2 cents. Thanks for the link. [8D]
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Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times".
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Voted!!
Live Aloha
Live Aloha
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Mmmmmm....not sure about this. In Pahoa, there's a shopping center thingy with a tire shop and an overpriced grocery store which attracts people who like to shuffle really slowly as they block aisles and a store that sells lavalavas and stuff from Indonesia and then you can leave there and drive to a drug store that just looks like a drug store --no adorable old soda fountain in it. If you leave there you can drive past a 7/11 on the left with suspicious people hanging out in front it and then a smoke shop on the right with an even odder collection. Continuing on, you drive a little ways to a smattering of older buildings. You get out of your car and if you do a death dash across the street to the side that doesn't have the giant bad Mexican restaurant on it (the one with the tables where when you put your arms down on them you go "ick"), there is a wooden sidewalk thingy with multiple changes in elevation that allows you to go from the iffy Thai restaurant to the better one at the other end. On your way out, you can swing down to the "health food store" in front of which you will see some parents who might make you think that perhaps we should consider making human spay and neuter clinics more widely available, just as we do with dogs and cats. All of the aforementioned are deodorant-free zones.
This tour takes less than 17 minutes which still leaves you time to go check out Holualoa or Hawi or Honoka'a. But if it makes you happy, I will click on the link and vote. My heart won't be in it though. Go....daggers? Daggers?
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Hmmm... when did Pahoa become a "Town"?
- Armed citizens provide security of a free State.
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I hear you Kelena. That place is a run down heap. Not suggesting everything needs to be shiny new to be nice but that place isn't even 'lovingly maintained'.
I do love the view of mauna kea though while driving down the main street (only street?).
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My acquaintance with Pahoa goes back over 17 years, and the terms "thugs" and "dumpy" come to mind when I think of it. Kaleo's is way overrated, but gets rave reviews because it shines by comparison to the other eateries, I suppose. I agree with Kelena about the Mexican place, and the Malama Market is an example of ghetto pricing in the tropics. The nicest things in town are the new civic facilities on the outskirts, and they don't seem to have done a thing to improve the core. Too bad.
Special note to Kelena: Something strange must be going on because this grumpy Libertarian agrees with everything you said about Pahoa.
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Agreed about Luqins that place in filthy. The prices are also absurd.
On a semi-related note I don't particularly care for the fare at Lucy's (In Hilo) but I am regularly astounded by their staunch cleanliness. I don't hesitate when I say that Lucy's is easily the cleanest Mexican reatyrant i've ever patroned.
I really like the beef tenderloin with mushrooms in a red wine reduction at Kaleo's but their prices are also absurd and I don't care for their service. I feel like a second class citizen at Kaleo's and will probably not patron their establishment in the future.
When it comes down to it Ning's is by far my favorite in Pahoa. The BYOB is of course irresistible. Their service and demeanor is impeccable.
The whole Longs thru Malama area makes me wince. Much akin to driving through Hilo around the Mall / Big Box Land.
I will go out of my way (kinda) to take the postal service road or the light by the schools (kapoho-pahoa road) to get onto 130 instead of attempting to navigate the death trap - I think Kalakoa so aptly named - "criss-cross crash".
If there is ever another alternate route maybe it could completely bypass the malama/longs/kahakai death-trap and take you into and out of lower puna independent of "criss-cross crash".
