Tuesday – December 26, 2017
After all the ripping, tearing, and shredding of Christmas Day today we leave for Hawaii this morning today. We are up at 6am while the kids sleep. Niamh had a 103 temp last night while at the in laws for dinner. A massive spread for 16 people with 4 different kinds meat (turkey, ham, sausage, and bacon), 5 if you include the sausage rolls. Christmas lasted all day which gifts in the morning 6am they got up and snuck down to peek 8n their stockings and Santa sacks. The kids favorites gifts where air hockey table without air, marble track that sticks to walls, and pool golf; a 6 hole golf/pool game combination. Good thing Willow went to dog camp early so she missed eating the nerf darts, gold balls, air hockey pucks… all I’m sure delicious dog chewing items!
Fiona freaks out and has a blonde moment as she try’s to check us in on Alaska Air, when it turns out the reservations are under Hawaiian Air, Doh! It turns out only Frank has TSA approved on his boarding pass, which we all correct and print out tickets again. PopPop is worried about the time it will take to get to the plane, so Fiona frantically texts/calls Alan our Uber driver for the morning! Frank is also worried we all will not fit in he minivan, ah the worrier.
Alan shows up at 7:15 and we all pile in, and all fits including luggage. We get to the airport and through security in 30 minutes. Wow. The grandparents are impressed. We then stand 40 minutes in the Starbucks line. LOL. We board the plane and it is uneventful. I sit with Lawson in 28A, and B. He does not understand why Netflix will not work on the plane, and have to explain that there is no internet. He instead watches a few movies and tell him we will land around 2pm from our 9am departure. He does not understand why the plane has not landed exactly at 2pm, and has a hard time sitting on his butt the entire trip, but overall gets a B for listening and behavior for the plane ride. I read half a Merlin novel that was Niamh’s and it is pretty good. After we get off the plane the first class party gets their bag, it is not a 20 minute bag guaranty policy, so we peasants stand around waiting for our bags with 2 high school basketball teams. Lawson is the bag puller.
It is raining buckets, like more than cats and dogs, more like a Moses end of days biblical story kid of rain. Bags fall of carts into puddles, we are soaked when she get into the 14 passenger van. He go pick up the NW Marshall’s at terminal H who flew Delta. Then we waterski to the hotel, and get in at 3pm. The rain stops and we depart and get aloha’d. The rooms are not ready. Hum. Let’s go eat! I have 2 Lava Flows, and a pork quesadilla. The bills is half alcohol at the end, as we sit outside huddled under umbrellas trying to avoid melting in the rain. Rooms are ready by 4:15, but we have dinner reservations at Monkeypad at 6. Hum a two hour break between meals? Guess it will be a light dinner.
I plug in all our crap into the peasant room, 1070 next to the elevators, versus the amazing view 3 room at then very end of the hallway 1089. It has two front doors which explains how massive it is, the second door has room for a few air mattresses if needed. I think you could hear little angels singing in the background as you looked out at the view kind of room. Too bad the weather sucked. LOL. The red headed Lawson shows up as he button pushes random numbers on the phone, and it turns out he punches the emergency button. He gets a talking too, but i think he is sliding from a B to D as the night wears on. Ah to 6 and indignant. It is 5:15 so we all meet up in the big room and leave at 5:45. Remember the end of days rain, it is back and we are drenched as we walk the 10 minutes across the street. We make plans to stop by the ABC store while we wait for our table of twelve. Six kids at ne end, and six adults at the other. I think we have our seating arrangement figured out.
I has an appetizer on tuna and 4 beers, and then nibble on other people’s food, while other people have the ‘best mai tai in town’, or a single malt. We walk back in less rain, and the girls stop by ABC to pick up morning breakfast. The kids take a shower and fail promptly to sleep along with their parents.
Wednesday – December 27, 2017
Up at 5am the beasts called children! This is vacation! Grump, grump, grump. We wait in anticipation until we get the bat signal we can scamper down the hall. It comes at 7am and the kids in their swimsuits bolt down the hall where we have eggs, coffee, waffles, and bagels. Fiona scope out 6 chairs around 8am, and the horde followed at 8:30. I went down the lazy river that was not so lazy and now am all caught up for the travel blog! I’m going to sit in the sun and have more lava flows and finish this kid book about a magic wizard named Merlin….
So that epic rain that greeted us on our arrival? It came back. According to the Fiona it rained like over 4 inches the day we arrived and broke all sorts of records with inches per hour. Well it came back and with a fury. We could see the rain coming in from the ocean in waves but from the sky, and here 8 thought the only waves would be from the ocean. Who knew so many waves on one trip. Of course I had ordered food for the whole family at 11:30ish for everyone with more drinks. When he brought over the mai tai and my lava flow the rain started, but Fiona missed it as she was sick. Went back to the room at 10ish and took her temp which was 102. Oh geez. Best vacation ever, eh. Rain and sickness. Yeah! Do you hear the low notes of sarcasm then you are hearing correctly. I ask, Shawn the waiter, if we can bring the food direct to the room? He says. “I can get this to go for you sir.” I look around at all the other vacationers fleeing the rain like ants who have been disturbed from an ant hill, and say to him, “uh, yeah , I think that would be a great idea” but am thinking, Duh, and have more of my lava flow and I watch him wetting scamper away like a wet cat.
The kids, Amah, and Micah go to the big room and the boys have a soggy big basin partner meeting interrupted by the arrived of our food in brown paper bags. It is rain so furiously that the 5 minutes walk from or deck chairs to the elevators results in bags tearing themselves apart since the seem to want to biodegrade when wet. There is a new marketing slogan for the hipsters for you. Ha. Anyway we are much to clever and PopPop is much to concerned that we carry the bags of sustenance from the bottom to the hungry hoard high in the merry tower with angelic views.
We robotically munch and watch the rain pour in for the next hour while we eat. I had pork tacos. I remember them being better last year but that must have been the beer googles. Pictures are at the magic hour which is around 4:30 so we go back to our room change check on the Fiona. She says she will rally by 4:30 for the pictures. Ah the good strong Canadian wife of mine way to be a team player. Frank forbids the sick one to hang out in he big room, but Fiona doesn’t want to hang out anywho so all is ok. I read my book, have some vodka on the rocks, and sit on the porch while the weather improves until it is time to go and wash up and change.
Fiona is already ready when we 3 walk back to change. Then the Marshall train goes to the beach for some great pictures. All the kids have to change their clothes since they all splashed around in the ocean. Well really only two, Emmett and Peter, since they fell in. The other kids just lemming backed with Mark to the hotel, so the grandparents and Fiona had some cocktails at Noe while we all returned with dry kids. I peeled off to get our two changed and actually managed to find the place fairly well based on Fiona’s text.
I had a a thin called Della Cruz which was more vodka but with other cool stuff in it like honey and vermouth, and rigatoni oxtail that was awesome, with beer, and then has desert with another Della Cruz to cap off the evening. I read more of my book and could keep my eyes open past ten.
Thursday – December 28, 2017
Up at what time? Sure 6:45 will work. Hey it is not raining! Oh, we have to wake up since today is breakfast with the Disney characters. Well ok if I have to have a buffet of bacon, custom omelette, and pineapple juice I guess I’ll go, twist my arm. Damn lady forgot my juice which is not hard to imagine with our hoard. Mini mouse and Pluto graced our table and we were out by 8:30 to the surprise of my father. Mark saved some chairs while the SJ Marshall’s changed and went back down. I finished my book, Lawson lost his goggles for a second time, and Niamh got a sun burn all before lunch which we has at the hook at 1pm after the girls came back from their spa hour. I went to the beach around 10 and tossed the kids around as well as a football in the ocean, found a body board and tried to help Lawson catch a wave but there really are no ‘waves’ on the beach since it is more of a lagoon. I probably sound have stopped the Niamh to lube her back up, but can’t see red until it is too late.
Fiona’s masseuse just tickled her and massaged her arm pit, and was not as good as last time. I has a cheese quesadilla with pork on the side which was way too much food to go with my huge breakfast. Or maybe it was the two lava flows with and extra shot of rum on top that made me so full? I floated around the lazy river without hands or paddling 2 times while the kids lapped me. I got board after my 2nd time around and the kids floated up to me which is how I got lapped. It is called the lazy river, and yes you can circle it by doing nothing except the occasion head bob or leg move to avoid waterfalls or other various water features. If you get a two person raft you can lay across the entire thing with you head resting on the top handle which is required as you will bash you head if not angled the right way. I was fortunate enough to not bash my head or knees the entire two cycles as other people ran into me or splashed in my general direction. Back to the room by 3 to shower and clean up.
The kids where dropped off at aunties beach house at 4:15 while the adults went to Ama Ama for dinner. Mr double double was in a grand mood since we had cocktails in the big room starting at 4:45, and walked down to dinner at 6 to get the end of a beautiful sunset reflecting off the clouds. I managed to have two new beers with my dinner that was split with Fiona, a wedge and New York strip. We did many toasts and talked about next years new year break plans? I suppose the planners must plan some more 😉 the girls polished off two bottles of wine among them, and we picked the kids up at 8ish to crawl into bed. Why the hell is a kindle book, 8.99, more expensive then a paperback, 7.99? Grump grump can stay awake past 10 again.
Friday – December 29, 2017
Hey it is 5:30 in the morning so might as well get caught up on the past two days of fun, frivolity, and festitude. Not sure what is happening since the planner is asleep. She woke me up of course and I figured what the heck I’ll finish this and go back to my too expensive kindle book about wizards. I should be hearing the morning chat at 7am any moment.
Lawson didn’t eat breakfast, but Niamh managed to eat half a bagel. I grab a box of fruit loops, and all my other vacation items (phone, iPad, sun glasses, swim suit, sun shirt, hat, battery, cable, GoPro) and make my down to the fake lounge chairs. Fake in th fact that it is a chair with foot rest smushed together to make it look like a lounge chair. The girls stay up with Amah for an art project, but shortly arrive after me and Niamh sees Lawson eating fruit loops so I go buy 5 boxes more that come with a milk. 3 of the five boxes immediately disappear with 2 going to Niamh and 1 to Kate.
For lunch I snack on kids meals and drink a longboard but then make my way to the shack and order a pork topped pizza, and a coconut porter. A waiter name Vic stops by and I get more fruity drinks. It is a passion fruit lava flow, I get two of those. I play on the beach for an hour, and also go down the slide with out a raft. I manage to film the 4 boys and the two dads going down the slide. Pretty good. The girls borrow the go pro for a bit of time in the rainbow reef and the mermaid pool. Everyone else either plays on the beach, floats down the lazy river, or does the slide. I read my over priced kindle book and do not find a victim to go down the tube slide. We find Lawson’s TYR googles in lost and found, the only pair, that the lost and found brought to the room? We see the Fiona from the 10th floor waving. I get the girls and Lawson and make our way back to the room at 4,
Off the Roy’s for reservation at 6, I have a few cocktails: pineapple martini, mai tai, and a mule. All very tasty which goes well with the salad I split with Fiona and the surf and turf sushi rolls, tempura shrimp with fillet on top. Pretty tasty. We find Lawson being sick in the bathroom, or trying to be sick according to PopPop who fetched him. He ate all his food too, but guess he was too tired or full and thought he was sick? I don’t know. Fiona took him back to the room and I came with everyone else after trying some chocolate soufflé. Yum. Read some more of my book, but Niamh was with me and Fiona on the sofa bed.
Saturday- December 30, 2017
Beach, slide, or pool. Oh, my! Wonder if we can rent some bikes or take an Uber to a walking trail? The premier league is on at 7:30am, the kids are watching cat and the hat. The two girls have a cough, and Lawson I’m not sure how he will do. Going to be a fun day? No a magical day. Ha.
More like a coughing day. Both Niamh and Fiona Are coughing up a storm. Fiona went to the ABC store to pick up more cold medicine as she went through my stash in about 2 days. I’m not sure Niamh is taking her medicine as she is is sounding horrible. However I did buy a banana and 5 fruit loops (not six as we were still munching one one from the buffet). I went to the beach with the Lawson and met a little boy named Parker who played with our beach toys. I dug a hole and sat in it since there was no place to perch. We developed quite a town of sand castle buckets the Parker destroyed as a Godzilla, luckily Lawson was in the water trying to run and coast with the boogie board. Lawson developed a new game of sand balls and tossing them on a boogie board the I slide across the water at different angles. After 20 minutes of trying to not get sand thrown in my general direction I convinced him we should go tubing down the slide.
We went down in a double, and then went through the lazy river that took about 40 minutes from standing in line to going 2 times around the river. He decided to get into a single tub while I rode the double. It was me chasing the Lawson in the river which was good fun. For lunch i got the Fiona a cheese-n-grape thing, and chicken strips and extra fries for the Lawson, me, and Niamh. I snacked on some of the extra lunch of Fiona too.
After lunch I went tubing Dow with Niamh in the double and Lawson in the single. Lawson went first in the single and then we all went around the lazy river. It was good fun. I came back and shivered in the shade, but managed to find a lounge in the sun to warm up. The kids got and icee with Mickey ears and I took a bite out of one of Lawson’s ears since he had a hard time keeping up with the melting of the last icee. Instead he jerked the icee out of my hands and the entire thing tumbled to the ground ina slushy mess. Poor Mickey icee was now slush, but Lawson happily nibbles on an ear while the Fiona glared at me. I cleaned it up with a bunch of water, and then proceeded to have some adult beverages.
We headed back to room around 4, cleaned up, and then headed to the big room. I brought my work computer and HDMI cable and we watched book of life until 8 with everyone except PopPop and Amah who got a break from the chaos. I read until 10. I am not sure how we are going to stay awake for firework tomorrow!
Sunday- December 31, 2017
I had to rush the catchup yesterday since Niamh and I were the only ones on the saved 6 seats at 8:30. She had 3 fruit loops cereal bowls and some water for breakfast and I had another banana. I managed to get 6 apple juices and had 3 more bowls of fruit loops that Lawson had when he and the rest of the gang appeared around 9. I did manage to finish book 2 of the 12 book series, but now the 3rd book in the series the paperback is $4.70 and the kindle version is $8.99. Dumb pricing. I go down the tube slide with Niamh and through the lazy river, after then hung out with Lawson on the beach for 2 hours. An hour to build an epic sandcastle that was about 4 x 6 that was the envy of other kids. They would run up to it and stare. I managed to crack a sandcastle form with our expertly build sandcastle skills; that is how great a castle was built. I took the broken form up to the shack and managed to get another sandbag of toys. After building the played another game of sandball, but with a twist. The boogie board had two buckets of it, a large one with dryish sand, and the other with water or wet sand. The objective was to form a ball and get one point for hitting the board, 5 points for the little bucket, and 10 points for the big bucket. We threw sand at the board for another hour and each had a million points. Yes we are that good and forming sand balls, from his little kitchen atop the boogie board. Actually there was a few too many times Lawson’s ball would break apart from his baseball pitch, but i managed to stay mostly sand free with the board being a few feet away. My sand ball was ok with more of an underhand egg toss maneuver that stayed together. After 2 hours it was lunch time and Lawson said he was ready to go. So we sat back down and he Godzilla’d the epic sandcastle but then started baking again. By baking I mean putting water in a bucket then sand and then more water on top and then seeing the results of his concoction by seeing if it would form another bucket shape. Someone borrowed out epic sandcastle bucket and the sand was too dry, but eventually I convinced him we should go eat and check in with the others.
Lawson ran back while I separated the beach toys, but he did wash his feet before sitting on the lounge and munching a French fry. It was just none of the rest of his super sandy person was actually sand free. It was too cold to wash off from the big shower, so made him wash off his person under the foot rinse. Ha. Then do a warmup in the pool. I had left over pizza from dinner for lunch and French fries. The kids had fries and or chicken strips. After lunch I did another tube slide and lazy river run with Niamh and then warmed up and managed to finish the last 5% of my book. Back to the room to clean up for the Disney Luau at 3:30ish as Fiona and I were the sacrificial line placeholders. Turns out we were 3rd in line, but the 70 people who got VIP were seated first. We get an over exposed picture of the group on CD (our second one of the trip, but no one has a CD reader-player). We end up with a better seat than last year which was great at table U. Right in the middle, but the performers were not as Hawaiian? None of the guys had tattoos and their was no really big guy who played Maui. The girls were not as cute, and it was the same exact story as last time. I think I got some better video this time even if the cast was not as shiny and new as the first time we saw it. Overall it was a good time and think the kids liked it more this year since they are older. I had fun tropical drinks like a Blue Hawaiian, or some sunset drink which also helped. Turns out we need drink tickets this year and ended up with 4 extra tickets. We finished around 8:30 and only had 4 and a half hours until the firework show. We started watching the Dick Clark thing, but had to watch Steve Harvey first until it came on. Steve Harvey is not entertaining. I messed around for an hour trying to figure out that NO I can’t watch live TV from our house while in Hawaii. What a crock. So after that fiasco we watched Kubo and the two strings which was a fun one for my mom and then only had an hour left after it was done.
PopPop disappeared halfway through the movie, and Fiona slept through the entire movie. Niamh did a little better and passed out around 10. Lawson was a trooper, but at 11:30 the little zombie wanted to go back to the room to rest and then be woken up. Instead he managed to stay awake with a game on an iPad with his buddy Peter, and I also stayed awake too. 7 minutes before the new year my dad and mom ask me if I know where or what Fiona did the the champagne? Uh…. she is asleep so wake her up and ask her? No. Instead I run back to the room and no champagne. I call and say, “did you even look in the fridge”? No? Oh, come on old tired people. I run back and everyone is awake now and we all get to count down. The firework show is an amazing 10 minutes. I don’t think I or the family as a whole will ever tire of seeing this show to ring in the new year. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Back to the room to read some of my expensive book.
Monday- January 1, 2018
HAPPY NEW YEAR. We are up at 7 and watching the parade. Have to pack and leave by 10 to make our 11:30ish island hopper flight. We said goodbye to the northwest Marshall’s who had to go back to Washington state, and the the hosts of this New Years tradition PopPop and Amah. The only item that was missing was Lawson’s red flip flops, they seemed to have walked off, but it seems that he really wore them in a hot tub and they floated away. I called the angelic room and said that lost and found probably had them, and while waiting for the plane they were found. Now the grandparents get to travel with Lawson’s flip flops, but we have two pair since this has been known to happen in the past. Lawson was a grump monster since he stayed up to midnight and didn’t get his full 10 hours of sleep. Fiona yelled, cajoled, laser eyed, and few around on her broom stick and alas the power of a tired and despondent finally broke down so we could get the ultimate prize of the trip before we left. I think she finally used the power of the smack daddy to make him listen and do our horrible bidding of walking down the the pool the get, wait for the it, the final wrist ring. Niamh guessed yellow and I guessed pink, and I guessed correctly. We took a celebrated wrist picture of all the happy wrist bands on the those that though it was the best.
After our call about flip flops we marched down to the lobby and James from Uber appeared in his Jeep Grand Cherokee to whisk us to the airport. Lawson fell asleep in the 30 minute drive as he was still recovering from his big night out. The airport was a mad house, and we made our way to the island hopper line after we self checked ourselves onto the plane. The gremlin appeared again at the airport, but we managed to not pour any water on it or feed it after midnight, but Lawsmo still had to pee a bunch as we walked the corridors in search of the elusive Doritos and Lays potato chips. We did manage for find some hiding in the back giving way to more local fair such as macadamia nuts, but with persistence procured the highly sought after kids breakfast; a close second to fruit loops apparently. They did actually break into their Cheerios on the way to the airport and it was after 11 so I convinced myself chips are ok for the two monkeys who managed to stay up till midnight.
Our 45 minute flight was uneventful, and the airport is tiny and outdoors with one baggage claim. I sat next to grumpy pants who entertained himself with games and a short Netflix cartoon. I read my overpriced book. We arrived at baggage claim the Lawson had to have some more quiet time as Niamh got the reward of pulling bags off the carousel. We got a text from my dad who was apologetic that he had screwed up our rental car, but it turns out the lack of translation and understanding was the real culprit when it came to getting the rental car as we stood inline for 30ish minutes watching these poor Chinese people not understand they needed to purchase liability on the rental car, and they only got collision when they made the reservation. Thanks Obama. Luckily behind us was a Chinese person who jumped in and helped after the plea from the rental associate who asked the crowd to help translate. I was going to call my buddy Charles which would have been awesome as I’m sure he would have said just stop haggling and pay the 28 dollars, even Fiona offered under her breath they she would pay the dollar a minute fee if they would move on. They finally departed and since we were cool about it, the guy got us a VW Jetta with 35k miles on it.
Man this place is like a jagged desert, or the moon, but black. However clumps of grass or an odd tree are here there and everywhere, so it is not a true desert or moon, but does feel that way on first glance. It is such a sight to see the lush greenery just end as lava rolled through it as we drove our two hours to the other slide of the island. Before we started our trek we stopped into the brewery at Kona. I had a nice pulled pork sandwich which did has BBQ sauce on it so it was not dry. The little birds really didn’t eat as they only wanted brains since they both had turned into zombies. Fiona would say her brain since she has the best brain of the two of us, and I bet it does taste better since she prefers white wine which I’m sure gives it an oaky flavor with butter notes. The two little birds finally fell asleep after about 45 minutes in, and we finally arrived at 5:20 after Niamh asked the question of all questions, ‘are we there yet’?
We pulled up to the Volcano House which is just inside the national park, dropped off the bags, and I parked across the street at the visitor center. We just end missed the sunset and it was a mad house. We took some pictures and wandered around and just before 6 we decided to have dinner. We then wait until 7:45 to be seated, and I had a few beers, and Fiona a few wines while we watched the eerie glow of the volcano. We sat down and the pub had run out of fries, fish, and a few other items. Luckily I split a burger with Niamh, i got a side salad, Fiona had soup, and Lawson more pasta. I felt awful and went to the room at 8:15 and went to bed. I woke up at 11:30 asking about Advil. Yup a typical travel day for the Marshall’s with gremlins, zombies, sickness, and grumps. Happy new year.
Tuesday – January 2, 2018
Man I feel better, but the two hackers are still hacking this morning. We have a plan to go to the visitor center, do the tubes, and see the overlook today all starting at 9. We make our way to breakfast at 8:30, and it is only 15 bucks for adults and 7 for kids, but it turns out Lawson is free since he is 6! He takes the title of bacon-nator this morning, stripping the title from his sister who gets a new title as the mouse-nator since she didn’t eat her waffle and only 4 strips of bacon. We hit the visitor center right on time after I have an omelette and a few different juices. We get the low down, and directions on were to park and hike. We park at the right place and the Fiona leads us on the trail for our ‘warm up’ hike which is 10 minutes the wrong way according the the counterclockwise direction we should be taking with all our tour group friends. Lawson falls down on the way down the crater, but is a trooper and there is no blood which is good. Little miss tripper and I hike together in her fashionable converse super high tops which go up to her mid calf. We are hiking and those are shoes so I comment how much I like her hiking shoes, it she does manage to trip on something every 10 minutes. During our two hour hike she trips about 30 times, but never on her butt, just stumbles of roots and rocks, the sort of thing you have to pick up your feet for? Who knew? The hike is amazing as we get to walk across an inactive lava pool, and go through a soggy lava tube. It is lunch time, and we go to Volcano Village where are the restaurants are closed since it is the new year, oh right. We pick up some more health food for the kids, Doritos and Fritos, Dr Pepper and a orange soda. I manage to pick to best of two, lines coming back into the park, and we stop at the steam vents where I fall off the sidewalk as gracefully as a cow being tipped over, but only manage to hurt my left heel and not fall or twist anything too badly. I do not take the tripper title from our daughter who manages to keep tripping the entire day.
There is no parking at the Jagger museum so park on the road and the caldera is awesome. We make our way back to the visitor center by two and take a once a week tour only offered on Tuesday on the Thomas Jagger 1912 throwback were the guide embodies the original Volcanologist of the period. It was a really good tour and we end up under our hotel which was the site of the observatory.
It is 3:06 and we put our name down at the bar again. Should be around 3:30 to be seated, great. Fiona does not hear our name, but we still get seated around 4. I should have checked in again since there was a shift change, but whatever. I a have a burger and Niamh gets her bacon-nater title back by eating a full 6oz burger, and Lawson just admires his hotdog.
We go back to the Jaguar museum at 5:20, and I proceed to freeze in the wind and take pictures until 6:30. I get an Irish coffee and Fiona her wine. I finish book 3 of the series, and we are off tomorrow to our next hotel. While we were at the steam vents the same Chinese couple that took forever to rent the car appeared so Fiona and I got a good chuckle.
Wednesday- January 3, 2018
It is 9am and have been catching up, but it is time to go. Man it is hard to catch up on two days with friends adventure in less than an hour and half. I was up at 7:30 typing out frantically till right to 9. Oh well.just know the hike was amazing and i have hopefully some really good BULB shots that required that i hood my finger on the shutter release. I also figured our the f stop and shutter thing on my fancy camera, and how to manually move focus to manual so i can get it into infinity. I’m not sure me flipping it back is working but assume the camera is telling me landscape when it does not see a face in it? Something to read I suppose, again. So 8 had an omelette bigger than the day before with more cheese, and Lawson’s pineapple guava juice and my own to boot.
I think we are finally figured out our kids eating habits after careful observation. It appears the boy likes to only eat breakfast and the girl likes to only eat dinner, and it is tossup on who eats lunch. I’m sure this will all change in a week, but would to move them from a Fruit Loop Doritos diet to a more real food diet, but that I’m sure is wishful thinking in my part as we now can’t even get the kids interested in plain Cheerios. At least they brush their teeth.
Man it is windy. Like so windy I’m looking for wind mills. This is like 25ish miles per hour wind when we get out and stop the car as we coast from 4024 feet to sea level in an hour. We are going to see the petroglyphs and the sea arch. The landscape is just smooth lava and jagged lava in between which is the color difference that you can see when looking at it and there are different shades or patches of black unless it was a cloud? The cliff was interesting too as why did it make a cliff at all and not jus run gradually out to sea? Think is it has to with erosion, explosion, timing, and temperature and think a 20 minute talk would be in order to see if my guess is correct. The road was closed at the arch, but you can do a 5 hour round trek walk to see the rolling lava which we opted not to do. Perhaps when the kids are older maybe? We drive from the bottom where I can’t hear anything out of my left ear since I can get it to clear back up where I can hear, and then proceed to drive straight to Hilo that results in my left ear again not clearing. Damn crud that I have, butt am not hacking as much as the hackers. We have more chips for lunch in the car as we arrive at 2ish to the hotel. We got have a snack and I split a wedge with Fiona and have a beer. The room is nice compared to 1912 lava house. This place has a tv, microwave, and mini fridge and a huge bathroom. The lava house was like Yosemite it was a room with with creaky floors and a tiny bathroom but it did have a better view. At Hilo we are on the 10th floor looking out at the ocean. People are nice enough here but there are many tourist. The Hilo reminds us of cannery row in Monterey, but about 3 times the size.
We have our snack and head off to rainbow falls where I try to get my inner Frank to take some gossamer waterfall shots now that I can control shutter speed and f stop. I think I do a pretty good job. Then we head over to PeePee road for another waterfall full of golden showers. The other waterfall was rainbow right? LOL. I put on my big lens to try and get a shot, but we can’t really see the pool that the water drops into like rainbow. We head back and the kids want to swim. Turns out the tiny pool here is not heated so they end up jumping in freezing and then wrapping up in a towel. Fiona turns in towel cards as we do not want to be charged 20 bucks for a towel, and the kids shower while I read another over priced book. I bought the rest of the series that I hope another person will read, or two little people in particular. We trade small talk with other tourists who have been or are going to the volcano on the way to dinner. I have pork belly for dinner which I’ve never had and will never have again. Luckily there was on bit of pork that was pork and not just fat. I’m sure Darci from the Corpuz family who likes all the chewy bits would have loves this spicy meal. I just had the noddles and ordered extra fries and had some ice cream to help me fatten up the sugar and oil way versus just eating fat straight out. HA. I try a ‘zombie’ which is rum, rum, and rum and it is ok, and the return to a ‘lava lava’ which is not that good either. It is on the rocks and has strawberries in it but also banana. The banana beats up the strawberry in flavor so it is like a sweet banana drink, good thing i like bananas. Over dinner we can’t decide between a helicopter ride or swimming with manta rays. The kids think manta rays are scary looking and do not to be eaten, but I remind Niamh she swam with a whale shark which is pretty much the same thing. She is not convinced. We watch Back to the Future and most people are asleep by 9 when it ends. I read more of my expensive digital books.
Thursday- January 4, 2018
Yup it takes me about an hour to write about the day before, but are off on some adventure and move on to our next hotel. The traveling Marshall gypsies. My ear did finally clear during the night. I guess the zombie drink helped, but was probably the cold medicine. So we figure out where to eat breakfast which is the same place for lunch and dinner surprise, surprise. I was just going to have a banana but it will cost me $11, so I get a two egg any style plate for the same price so that is what I get. Fiona get some undercooked bacon, yuck. Niamh toast and Lawson some pancakes. We finish around 10 but opt to go straight back to Kona.
Oh my ears. Remember how they worked in the morning by 12:30 when we get back into Kona I’m in a bubble. We go,to the hotel and the room is not ready so we walk to Humpy’s Ale house where I have two new local tasty beers and a pork quesadilla that is much better than the whimsy and dry Disney one. Then we walk thru town pick up some tourist items, I get some donkey balls that remind me of my dear brother and a blended ice coffee.
We go back the the hotel and the kids jump in the pool, and I grab two seats at the bar. We see some people signing for their check and sneak into their table and the kids finish swimming in the cold dirty pool. We got asked if the kids could get out of the kiddie pool due to a leak. Then we saw a great sunset and watched back the future 2. We are off tomorrow back to the mainland. Mahalo.
