Moloka'i

I'm pretty sure Moloka'i is a great island, but my opinion has been a little clouded by memories of 4 1/2 cumulative hours of nauseating torture on the ferry ride to and from! It was definitely rough going. On the way over, my nausea was pretty bad but I managed to drift in and out of sleep so it was tolerable. On the way back to Maui, the ocean was so choppy people were throwing up left and right - the crew was just standing around handing out barf bags, including one to Leelee. Dae said Leelee threw up so much he filled 3/4 of the bag. I wouldn't know because I was laying completely motionless, eyes closed, in an attempt to ward off the intense nausea. Yuck. Olin laid on top of me for a while and I could tell he was not feeling well, either, but he did not throw up. Thankfully, Dae has some sort of strong anti-motion sickness gene because he was doing just grand! Thank goodness somebody could watch and take care of our kids, because I was in no condition to do so.  Afterward, Dae cheerfully informed me he took some nice photos of us being sick...

Moloka'i itself is an interesting little island. Population 8000 according to our book, no traffic lights, slow going, and most historically known for its leprosy colony, in which 10 or so elder people with leprosy (Hansen's disease to be PC!) still live.  I liked the really in-the-middle-of-nowhere feel. I don't think I could live there, but it was really nice to visit. My main question: Do they get Amazon deliveries there? We think so, since we passed a UPS truck. Probably would take forever for shipments to arrive, though.

First stop - Kualapu'u Cookhouse for yummy brunch

Moloka'i, as seen from ferry

Kalaupapa overlook, overlooking site of leprosy village on the beautiful peninsula below

Halawa valley - can't see the waterfall in the middle but it's there

Halawa valley

Jungle and windy road leading to Halawa valley

Maui as seen from Moloka'i

Found my favorites, SnoBalls, at a Moloka'i market. Dae said they looked like they were from 1994. They weren't the freshest tasting, I have to say, and the kids refused them. And check out that price!!!

Dae cooked some juicy filets last night. They were very good.

And finally, we came up with a very un-politically correct nickname for Olin when he's being ratty: Kim Jong Olin. This son of ours is, at this moment in life, very unreasonable and uncompromising! Grrrrr.

Maui, Day 4

We arrived safely and the flight, which was filled with candy, iPads, and other usual no-no's, was more bearable than expected. Since we have arrived, Olin's tantrums have really ratcheted up a notch. On a positive and unrelated note, his pottytraining is finally going off without a hitch! In fact, he can hold his pee in for long periods of time, including more-or-less overnight (Dae and I are convinced that Olin will be nighttime pottytrained before Leelee). Olin can keep his Pull-Up mostly dry the entire night and when he wakes up, he lays around for a few minutes and then calmly tells us he has to go to the bathroom. He then goes, and the amount that comes out of his bladder is surprising.

Here in Maui, we have been keeping ourselves busy:

1) Hearts everywhere!

At the Nakalele Blowhole

At the tidepools next to Gazebo restaurant

2) Tidepools just past the Gazebo restaurant. Kelly alerted us to these. They were filled with sea urchins, small fish, and hermit crabs!

3) Nakalele Blowhole and the path down. This blowhole was really cool. It was super active and blowing when we were there.

4) Olivine Pools. Fail. Way too steep and rocky to be taking kids down there. The actual tidepools were muddy and the kids were scared. The lava rock hurt pretty badly. So our take-home notes are: Go in about 10 years when the kids can walk themselves, and wear some heavy duty aquasocks! Anyway, at least we got a cute photo out of it.

5) Lei-making class at Whaler's Village

6) Wikki sticks at the Gazebo restaurant:

Baby praying (while sucking down pineapple juice)

7) We are staying at the Westin Ka'anapali. It's nice and our one-bedroom suite has a kitchen, which is a must for all our Costco loot. The hotel hallways are all filled with these cool old Hawaiian photos and I have to stop at every single one and look at them closely. This print of a photo dates back to 1890! 

8) Automobile issues seem to plague us in Hawaii (Rear-ended on our last trip to Kaua'i) and this trip was no different: I told Dae he could golf yesterday morning at one of his favorite golf places from 5 years ago, Kapalua Plantation. Meanwhile, my morning was filled with tantrum after tantrum from Olin, and just when I thought things could not get any worse (Olin lying on the side of the small road, in grass, after he refused to stay buckled) we headed out for lunch and heard a huge "Pop!" while on Honoapiilani Highway. My tire pressure light almost immediately flashed up on my dash.  I slowly made my way to a state park parking lot and the minute I opened my driver's side door I could hear the hiss of the air coming out, alarmingly fast, from the right rear tire. Long story short, 3 Hawaiians (a port-a-potty cleaner, a Parks & Rec worker, and what appeared to be a beach bum) worked together and changed the tire. I was so grateful. I had called Avis but who knows how long that would have taken, and my kids were starving (as was I!).

These people were so nice.

9) Kids in the back...

10) They like the jets in the tub

11) A Hawaiian happy birthday to send to Didi (who turns 6 on August 29!)

12) "Best banana bread on the planet" still did not disappoint. Unfortunately they had run out of coconut candy, and lemonade, when we arrived.

13) The pool

Olin likes to come headfirst. However, he often stops on the slide and takes forever to go down, so the slide operator told us he may not be able to slide anymore. hehe. Eek.

Most days we have been waking up, heading out in the car to explore somewhere on the island, and then coming back and swimming in the afternoons.  We have tried several fish taco stands (Shark Pit was really good) and are still looking for halo halo (the Philippino drink) and shave ice. Tomorrow, we booked a day trip to the island of Moloka'i!

Spur-of-the-Moment Hawaii

We booked a (very) spur-of-the-moment trip to Maui, departing tomorrow! We are staying from Sunday to Sunday and are really excited to relax and swim. Supposedly our hotel has some nice water features and a slide for the kids.

This past week my dad has been staying with us and watching the kids. He has been very flexible and it has been quite helpful!

Baby closes his eyes while praying now...

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Kelly et all cruised by last night in their cousin Seth's Jeep Wrangler and took the kids for a very slow spin around the neighborhood. No carseats, packed in like sardines (9 of them)

Chinese camp last week was pretty successful! My mom said they went without much complaint. Their little chinese worksheets reminded me of my childhood:

Olin was so tired he fell asleep at Pelican Bay on Thursday in his swim outfit.

Happy 38th Birth-Dae!

Too lazy to set up remote picture, so we did a Selfie

At a party tonight, and they hired a clown. Olin kept laughing at the clown. It was so cute. (The clown was relatively unscary, as far as clowns go!)

Hillbilly-ing it

Last day with my mom. They filled out their little sticker charts and picked a prize at Fred Meyers. (My mom had to dig deep into her pockets for the $4 or so in toy cars they picked!)

He said he got squeezed too hard during the picture. Then he turned around and asked me to immediately send the photo to Dae because he thought "baba will think it's funny".

We went to Pike Place market just to buy a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Worth it to me!