Hawaii Part 2: Waikoloa

Our next destination was Waikoloa, on the west coast of Hawaii, about 30 minutes north of Kona.

The accommodations were much more to everyone's liking - we were in a gated condo community called Hali'i Kai, and our rental was a top floor corner unit next to a golf course, with this view from the lanai.  I could walk along the water over to my conference at the Hilton, the kitchen was very new, there was a TV in every room, and very best of all, the clubhouse had an AWESOME pool.

The water was saline and perfect temperature, the pool squiggled this was way and that, there were plenty of chairs (including giant leaf-shaped ones IN THE WATER), a waterfall, turtles spouting jets from their mouths, and a sand-bottomed hot tub.  Those buildings in the background house the bar & restaurant, and the ocean-view gym.  Oh, and they have Taco Tuesdays.

In fact, I may have miscalculated by booking here, because no one ever wanted to leave.

I did manage to pry them out from time to time.  We had dinner by the beach one night, at Lava Lava Beach Club on Aneaho'omula Bay.  It was a total zoo, but we could let the kids run all around the area - which they did, returning with little shells, reports of watching someone free a turtle from fishing line (or something), and finally taking over this hammock at a near-by guest cottage.

Our biggest adventure was a morning cruise to Kealakekua Bay.  There was light rain, and we had to get to the marina for a 7 am departure, but just as My Kona Adventures promised, we pretty much had the bay to ourselves.  There were a couple of kayaks, and a few intrepid hikers tackling the mile down-mile back up trail along the cliff - but otherwise it was just us and the fish.  It really was the best snorkeling I've ever done in the Pacific.

It also was the last stop for Captain James Cook on his 3rd Pacific Voyage.  All the 3rd graders were assigned an explorer to research and give a class presentation about, and as it happens, Brennan was assigned Captain Cook.  (Which I took as a sign that the universe wanted us to go to Hawaii.  I guess we're lucky he wasn't assigned Ernest Shackleton.)  Behind him is the James Cook Monument, marking the site where interactions with the native Hawaiians went completely awry.

Anyway, Nick - the owner and operator of My Kona Adventures - was pretty great.  He had all the gear we needed, and when the kids tired out, he pulled them aboard and told me & Daddy to keep going.  When I got back to the boat, Lucie was wearing his t-shirt to stay warm, and both had their mouths stuffed full of fresh pineapple and Ritz crackers.  He showed us some cool spots on the coast,
had a lot of interesting and funny stories, and even helped Brennan give fishing a try.

It was a pretty big day - and it wasn't even noon!  Since the kids were stuffed with fruit, crackers, nilla wafers, and weren't going to eat anyway, the adults made an executive decision to have lunch at Da Poke Shack.  Which, hands down, was one of the best meals we had the whole trip.  And their outdoor seating is just perfect for wiped out 6 year olds.

The other main excuse for a trip to Hawaii was a continuing education conference for Mommy, held at the expansive and slightly ridiculous Hilton Waikoloa.  The rest of the family came to meet me for lunch one day, so they could watch the dolphin "encounters", splash in the lagoon, and photo bomb the statuary around the resort.

I also forced an evening hike along the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail, where we navigated lava rocks, spotted ancient settlement remains, and trespassed on a golf course.

The condo had a closet full of beach gear - and I decided it was crazy to go all the way to Hawaii without at least one beach day - so we had a morning at Mauna Kea beach.  I did a little more snorkeling, and there was swimming and snacks, but it wasn't great for boogie boarding, and it was broiling by 11 am.

I'm a little disappointed I couldn't get the team on board for a drive up to Mauna Kea's summit, and that Lucie didn't think she was ready to do a night snorkel to see the giant mantas, even though she really wants to go out on Nick's boat again.  But Daddy did helpfully point out it gives me an excuse to plan a return visit.

Mahalo, Hawaii!  Hope to see you again soon - but now it's time go to get to Oahu.

Hawaii Part 1: Volcano

Aloha!

Our trip started with a too-long layover in the Honolulu airport, because I'd convinced myself that an hour wasn't enough time to get to the inter-island terminal, thanks to reading TripAdvisor postings from what I now suspect are a group of human-tortoise hybrids.  

After an unsatisfying airport lunch, a review of the terminal shops, some lunatic running, and chatting with a retired teacher who had flown over from Hilo for the morning to see her orthopedist, we made the short hop to Hawaii Island.  We stopped at Target in Hilo, where we lost Lucie for about 10 minutes, and purchased enough wine that the check-out girl asked if we were having a party.  As we drove up to Volcano Village, the threat of rain turned to promise to total commitment.  Which should not have been surprising, as we were heading 3700 feet up from sea level to a rainforest.

Once in Volcano, we found our rental house was a bit eclectic (my words, the rest of the family lovingly dubbed it the "s'hale", which is a combination of the Hawaiian word for house - hale - and a profane word for an outhouse).  After exploring the 3.5 rooms and determining the TV was too old to hook up to the Apple TV, we headed out for a nice diner at the 'Ohela Cafe and discovered this was the face Lucie makes when you use a shrimp head as a finger puppet.

After a night of rain patter and frogs - or birds?  probably frogs - I woke with the sparkle-bright sunrise, admired the yellow ginger and other lush plants, and went on a fruitless search at 6 am for an open breakfast place.  When the property manager advised stocking up in Hilo, I guess she meant more than the variety fun pack of cereal, wine, and Cheese-its.  After something resembling breakfast and failed attempt at using an automatic drip coffee-maker, we drove down to Kalapana and used the less-conventional east entrance to Volcanoes National Park:

When you get to the end of the public road, you park your car, peruse the 6 or so bike rental tents, hitch a van ride for the first 1.5 miles of gravel park-and-residential access road (if you're smart) -

and then pedal the rest of the way through the lava field

until you can see where Kilauea's lava flows into the ocean.

Can you get closer?  Of course, if you are willing to a) pony up $225 a head for a "lava boat" tour, b) pony up even more for a helicopter, or c) defy NPS safety regulations, bust through that very challenging barrier you see behind us, and chance you won't walk into barely crusted-over lava, a collapsing sea cliff, or a cloud of sulfur dioxide and glass particles, aka VOG.  VOG sounds pretty alarming when you read the park service warnings, and then you get to the leeward side of the island and it's blamed for such evils as being forgetful or feeling tired.

Regardless of the real vs perceived threat level, we still had 4 miles of gravel road surrounded by sparkly black rock to ride back through under full tropical sun.

So we felt pretty brave anyway, particularly after we found an Off-the-Grid resettlement home that runs a little end-of-the-driveway honor bar (well, cooler) full of water and soda.

We also went into the park from the official entrance, where we watched a short film about Hawaii and volcanoes, walked through a big lava tube with a busload of Chinese tourists, did a short rain forest hike -

- and visited the Kilauea caldera overlook at sunset, after dinner at the Volcano House hotel, which probably is nicer than the s'hale.  

The Volcano House also opens (sort of) for breakfast earlier than anywhere else nearby.  This did not result in actual breakfast, since it was really more of a Hampton-Inn-by-the-highway-buffet for hotel guests.  But I did manage to get a couple of lattes from the lobby coffee counter, AND see a Nene on the way.

Despite all the complaints about the rental house, the kids enjoyed the hot tub on the deck, and probably enjoyed the yard even more.  The jungle-ish vegetation lent itself particularly well to some elaborate game involving Dexter, the monkey from The Night at the Museum movie, and possibly spies.  I also managed to coax them into the backyard volcano tube, once they were absolutely convinced the red glow at night was just a yard light.

But I know not to push my luck in the Outdoors & Nature department, so it was time to head to our next destination.  We decided to take the more scenic north coast route, so that Brennan and Lucie could ignore waterfalls and ocean cliffs in favor of reading Percy Jackson & the Olympians and bickering with each other.  They did like stopping at this farmers' market to taste local honey and put leftovers in the pig bucket.

Summer break!

The big day finally arrived - THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

Last year, I was admitted to our school's secret society of Parents With Odd (Or No) Work Schedules Who Can Goof Off Weekday Afternoons, so I knew who to ask about last day of school festivities. When the last bell rang, I stuffed in as many kids as the Subaru will legally hold and headed to Ocean Beach -

- where we joined a large number of other families in commandeering the lawn at the Park Chalet. Weirdly, the restaurant was booked for a wedding that evening (Friday of Memorial Day Weekend?), and they warned us the downstairs food and bar service would close in an hour - but...we could go upstairs to the Beach Chalet and place orders.  While they may have meant to be discouraging, I think you could argue it was a tactical error on the manager's part, as this was the scene well after the downstairs service was closed:

Most of the first week of summer break was spent in Truckee.  Our last visit was Easter, and we were anxious to see what shape everything was in now that the snow was gone.

But turns out we will have to wait a bit longer:

Grandpa Uwe and Grambo came to visit.  After a long day of grill assembly and deck and door maintenance, we hooked Grandpa up with a G&T and the Viking King Chair.

We made sure Grambo finally got to see Lake Tahoe (other than from an airplane window) and have a nice lunch in Carnelian Bay.

And of course, there was pool time:

I hooked up the somewhat unreliable looking strap-mount bike rack, so the kids could go for rides.  Unfortunately, the house is about 2/3 of the way up a fairly big hill, so most "let's go for a bike ride" options finish with a long and sometimes steep climb.  I did manage to convince them to get the climb out of the way at the outset, and rode up to the top of Ski Slope Way to look at Donner Lake:

Back in the city, we spent quality time with friends -

Re-upped at the SF Zoo, since we wanted to see the tarantulas -

Did a little city (playground) biking, to prep for graduation from the current Big Brother Hand-me-Down to her own big girl bike (hopefully coming soon)-

And we battled a stubborn baby tooth.  Lucie had injured her front tooth as a toddler, and when it started to get wiggly we were excited for both the Tooth Fairy payout and a new, healthy big tooth to take it's place.  Weeks passed, and it just continued to wiggle, even after the new tooth started to poke through behind it.  One night after teeth-brushing, Daddy thought it might be time to check in with the dentist.  Dr. Rothman said that old tooth had to go, and Lucie was very brave for both the novocaine injection and tooth extraction.  We would have to do some "exercises" to get the new tooth into a better spot (aka, lean on it several times a day with a tongue depressor), but we'd intervened in time to avoid complicated work.  Whew.  So here's her new smile: