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| Hawaii '09 |
First night: Waikiki, right on the beach. Crowded but fun. Boys promptly ate a pound of sand each. For them it was like being plopped in the middle of one of those old Dairy Queen landscape commercials. Sand castles = sundaes. Which led to howls and heavy, gritty diapers during the night and next morning. Per Dave and Kara's instructions, we went to Leonard's Bakery for some delicious malasadas and got way too many :)
Next few nights: Ihilani resort on southwest corner of island - nice hotel with mellow lagoon. Freezing swimming pool (?!). But the ocean was warmer than in NorCal! Julie and I stole an hour to snorkel and kayak. Fun to see work colleagues. The boys were a hit.
Next few nights: nice little cottage just off Sunset Beach on the North Shore. Talk about a different Hawaii vibe - much more like Hana except for the tatooed career surfer dudes aged 13-63 hanging around everywhere. Excellent shave ice at Matsumoto's. Enormous waves (not really surfable, unfortunately - choppy) but still cool to see the legendary spots and chat with surfers as they sat longingly waiting for good weather. Enjoyed a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center - a decades-long wish fulfilled for Pete. We all liked the haka-style war dances. And flames. Lots of flames.
Highlights were walks on Kailua Bay and up Waimea Valley with giggling boys; watching the boys climb to back of seats to watch big show at PCC; acai bowls from Kava Roots; bathtime with boys in big tub; and BBQs at the cottage. Fun to see where Julie's bro Marc went to school (BYU-Hawaii) and the Laie Temple.
Toward the end of our trip we went to a safe little harbor at Turtle Bay. It started to rain and Julie and John took refuge under a hut near a wedding party being soaked up above the beach. Luke and I stayed under one of those permanent parasols on the beach. I was filming the funny scene when Julie shouted my name with emergency-urgency - then CRASH - a 2 foot wave hit me in the back (I was on my knees with back to the water) - in that split second the water swept up Luke who was playing in the sand a yard away. Instinctively I caught the sputtering kid by the shirt. All of our beach/kid stuff was swept 25+ feet past the sidewalk and onto the resort lawn.
Man, that was scary. The hotel staff and wedding party were stunned - one freak swell, one big wave that heaved way over its normal bounds. We were soaked, sand-filled, and shaken as we recovered our stuff strewn all about. The Flip video camera that had nearly an hour of vacation footage and had been rolling when the wave hit was kaput (couldn't recover the data later, either). So we were disappointed but certainly grateful that that was the extent of our loss.
We came home exhausted and sick - caught a nasty cold bug (John has bronchialitis right now - scary and miserable) but we'll get through it. The boys were incredibly game throughout. We felt very fortunate to go and partake of some Aloha.
