Twyla and Quin
Jacki and Ron - cheers!
7/1 - We got to Honolulu on Thursday, and rented a mini-van at the airport. We drove to the Outrigger Reef Towers hotel. Our friend Twyla got there eventually, no thanks to a seriously delayed bus, and "lei-ed" us. We had lunch on a lanai at a nearby hotel right on the beach, complete with fru-fru alcoholic drinks (Ok, so Lauren the pregnant one didn't drink anything alcoholic).
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Twyla and Quin |
Jacki and Ron - cheers! |
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Later Twyla, Quin, Matthew, Ruben and Lauren went swimming in hotel pool. For dinner we had japanese Teppan style food (where they cook it in front of you, it was quite a show). Matthew was totally jet-lagged after having just gotten back from Disneyworld in Florida, and he fell asleep with his head on Lauren's (mom's) lap, and left an earprint on her leg. Then Jacki and Lauren dropped Twyla off at her apartment after dropping everyone else off at the hotel.
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7/2 - We got
up early, checked out of the hotel and caught a
flight
to Kauai . My folks rented a car for themselves and Jacki and
Ron,
we rented a car for us. It was about a 40 minute drive North to
Princeville
to the condo. Jacki, Ron, mom and dad stayed in the condo just
above
ours. Theirs was decorated in this high-tech early 80's theme.
Ours
was decorated with all this black whicker furniture in more of a
Japanese
theme or something.
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Ruben and Lauren spent part of the afternoon napping, Matthew went with mom, dad, Jacki and Ron to Hideaways beach down the hill from the condo. Later Ruben, Mom and Lauren went exploring down to where the road (route 560) ends at the Na Pali coast line (The road in Kauai doesn't go all the way around, the mountains and swamp land get in the way.) We saw the "dry cave" and one of the "wet caves" that are there.
Later Lauren and Matthew went to the pool at the condo.
After we came back we gathered upstairs to get ready for dinner. The entrance to each condo had this funny door - that was more like a door to a business than to a condo. It was glass and a bit hard to futz with the key to get it open. To the right of the glass door with the lock was a sliding glass door. Well that night there was this gecko between the sliding glass door and the screen door in their condo. Lauren said something about it, and dad reached around to open the screen door from the outside, not quite seeing where the gecko was. Well he slammed the screen door open all the way, squishing the gecko between the right side of the screen door and the left side of the opening for the screen door. So Lauren, with her pregnancy addled brain, tried to tell him that he's squished the gecko and he's got to push the door open, but all she can say is "nononononono, Push! Push!" (She was also trying to get up from the couch, but was in a bad position, and was having problems with her belly and all) Well he finally gets a clue and pushes the screen door open. The gecko scoots around (phew, it's not dead), to where it is on the righthand most side of the screen door. Well dad pushes the damn door ALL the way open, squishing the gecko the other way. The gecko was just fine in the end, but it was so sad and it was so funny at the same time.
| Well then we went to dinner
at this open air restaurant
(about 10 minutes
away by car in Hanalei) that was underneath a glass covered ceiling. As
dinner progressed, all these geckos were coming out and hanging out
on the ceiling. We joked about it (they kept getting closer and
closer
as dinner progressed). One of the locals mentioned something about
geckos
being cool, except when the shit on you. Ruben eventually left to pick
up his mom at the airport, and we left dad to pick up the check (aren't
we nice) while we went shopping at one of the near by shops. All
of a sudden, Jacki comes into the shop and tells Lauren and Matthew
that Dad is in the bathroom cleaning himself up... he's been nailed by
a gecko pooping from the ceiling! Matthew and Lauren decided that
the gecko from the screen door used his little gecko network to tell
the
gecko's at the restaurant to get some gecko kharmic revenge. It's
gotta be the only explaination. |
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7/3 - Saturday - In the morning we drove back out to the end of the road to a place called Ke'e beach. The snorkling was amazing. It's hard to imagine those colors on fish really do exist in nature. Matthew even started to get into the snorkleing and swimming (he's a bit afraid of the water... but by the end of the week he was a fish himself). In the afternoon Ruben, mom and Lauren went down to a place called Queens bath - a tide pool down the hill a little ways from the condos. It was a trecherous hike down and up, but we made it! The tide pool was ok, but we liked Ke'e better. Then we spent the afternoon at the pool.
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7/4 - Sunday. We checked out another beach to the east of the condos called Anini. People go there to learn windsurfing in the summer because the beach is protected from the surf by the off shore reef, and the winds blow fast across shore. While Lauren was sitting on the beach, this crab came up right by my crossed legs. She jumped, and called over to Matthew to see. Meanwhile this beautiful golden retreiver walks up, and straddles the crab that's half hidden in the sand. She thought the dog was going to step on the crab, but he eventually walked away a bit. So Lauren bent over and push on the crab with a stick to show Matthew. Well the dog sees this, and thinks she's just found a play toy for him. He immediately pounces, and puts the crab (minus one leg) in its' mouth, then walks about 10 feet away from us, drops it, sniffs it and proceeds to roll on top of it. We felt so guilty but it was really funny. Well then the dog decides we're his best friend and hangs with us for most of our stay there. He goes in the water with us and starts "fishing" (mostly staring at the fish). When mom and dad go off for a walk, the dog follows. He didn't come back, and we never found out who he belonged to, but boy was he a cutie. |
That day we had an INCREDIBLE brunch at the posh Princeville hotel (1/4 mile from our condo). We think we saw Jerry of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. He looked just like him and had a Ben and Jerry's t-shirt on. Lauren tried to get Matthew to go say "Hi I love your ice cream" but he wouldn't do it.
That afternoon (after a short nap) Lauren convinced the rest of the gang that she could make the trecherous trek down to Hideaways beach (down the hill from us). Actually it was easier than the hike to Queen's bath. The snorkling there was terrific too and we saw even more fish.
A summer's morning rainbow from Lauren and Ruben's deck
| 7/5 - We had a lazy morning,
and then we drove to the South
end of
the island so that Ruben and Ron could take a surfing lesson. The waves
there are stronger in the summer, and the stronger waves are on the
North
end (where we were staying) in the winter. Ruben was so happy he
actually stood up on the board twice, but by the end of the 45 minutes
(he really had the board for 1 hour) he was so abraded he quit
early. Matthew tried boogieboarding, but the surf was a little big for him, so just played in the shallower part. It was a shadeless hot sandy beach, so we didn't stay too long, and headed back north. |
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7/6 - We went to another beach on the north end called Tunnels beach. This one was shallow and calm like Ke'e - (Tunnels and Ke'e were Lauren and Ruben's favorite). The snorkling there was excellent too. Ron fed the fish with some fish food and even more came out... they swarmed. Once Ron left they swarmed Ruben causing both of us to giggle (they were going after Ruben's brightly colored shorts). It started to rain so evfentually we headed back - the rest of the day was stormy.
7/7 - Another stormy day, so Ruben, Lupe, Matthew and Lauren went to the south end of the island. We saw the falls from "Fantasy Island". Then we went to Wimea Canyon (the grand canyon of the pacific) on the west side of the island (up route 550). Yes, we had to drive all the way around, and back, because remember the road doesn't go through. We were probably, in reality only 20 minutes as the crow flys to the condo, but we had to drive 2 hours to get there. Anyway, the weather on that side of the island was much better and we had some spectacular views of the canyon. We stopped for some shave ice in Wimea, then headed home.
That night, Ruben, Mom, Dad, Matthew and Lauren went to a Luau in Hanalei. Matthew was absolutely enthralled by the wiggling hips of the dancers. He sat staring at them with his mouth slightly open, like he was thinking "That's really intriguing, and yet I don't know why...." And you wonder why I worry about him being the heterosexual poster child....
7/8 - In the morning we went to the beach just below the posh Princeville hotel (all beaches in Hawaii are public, so we could hang out there even though we weren't hotel guests). The Princeville grooms the sand on the beach. Sheesh. But the water was great - like Ke'e and Tunnels it was shallow and there were loads of fish. But it was also cloudy and rainy and hard to see. Matthew and dad went to have lunch at the lanai for the Princeville hotel, LaurenI went back with Lupe, Ruben and my mom so that they could get ready for a boat trip to the Na Pali coast (the part you can't get to by car). She dropped them off for the boat ride, and went shopping. They had a GREAT time, and Ruben snorkeled with more fish and sea turtles. They also went under a waterfall.
Then we had some not-so great "Mexican" food for dinner.
7/9 - We flew home.
