More rain

More rain over night and this morning. More thunder too. We threatened to take the girls on a four mile ridge walk followed by a trip to the Pearl Harbor war memorial, but they rapidly worked out that we didn't really mean it....

A Simple Beach Day

We were supposed to head out at 6:30am across the island to pick up a whale watching tour, but when we woke at 5:45am there was a thunder storm going on outside. After five minutes thought, we all headed back to bed. This turned out to be the right choice, as we received a call from the tour people at 7:30 am - when the boat Was supposed to leave harbor - saying it had been cancelled.

The rain came down, often as hard as it had at the start of our vacation. Eventually we tired of looking through the window at it and decided to head down to the beach anyway. Hubby and the kids went into the water, while Dr Mom sat in a beach chair, under a black umbrella, reading the third Harry Potter book. All pretty standard mad English behavior.

After lunch, we played another game of Life, which Deep Thought won yet again - demonstrating for the second time that the most important thing in life to do is become a lawyer - then we went out for cake and coffee. The afternoon ended with a viewing of "Finding Nemo". A much quieter day after our recent adventures.

We might go to Pearl Harbor tomorrow, but then again we may stay in bed late and roll out onto the beach again....

Adventurous Walk

Christmas Day we ate our turkey lunch together - it was good - and then set off for a gentle walk.

As it happened, we missed a turn, and ended up doing the much more challenging Waimano Ridge Trail, which starts in a temperate forest before gradually shading into jungle as it goes deeper into the hills.

The going was rough under-foot.

Of particular note were the multiple rope-assisted canyon-wall traversals, one example shown here - though these photographs don't quite convey the hundreds-of-feet drop that loomed immediately to our right. As we read in the guide book afterwards, there was "no room for error" on this trail.

Dr. "No Fear" Mom showed especially commendable grit in conquering this obstacle.

Naturally, after we'd returned everyone agreed that this adventure-walk was much more fun than the gentle stroll we'd intended to follow.

Extreme Mom Bravery

It is very important that I mention the extreme reserves of bravery that Dr Mom had to call upon. I had intended for us to to do a two mile, easy loop through temperate forests - the upper and lower Waimano Trail loop - but we didn't take the correct turn to the left to make the loop, and went incorrectly ahead onto the much longer and more difficult Waimano Ridge Trail. (To be fair, the hike books said that the turn was marked with a sign, we sure as heck couldn't see, and one of the books helpfully told us it was marked by two mango trees, two stumps, and a rock....which didn't help much either.)

Anyway, the Waimano Ridge Trail turned out to be about 80% easy with a couple of really hard bits. We strolled along the ridge path, which was quite flat and mostly wide enough to walk with ease. Then we met a small family coming the other way who said we were heading to a place where you had to use a rope to get along the trail. Since our guide book for the loop hike said we would need to "traverse the canyon wall" we thought, at this point, that we were still doing the loop hike. When we actually got to the place with the rope, we started to have our doubts. Hubby will post pictures of the spot in question. Suffice it to say that Dr Mom had to steel herself to hold onto a rope, reach down to a bunch of slippery roots from a high rock, and balance along the edge of the wall clinging to the rope, all over a pretty sheer drop. Of course Deep Thought managed it with no problem, and Little Starlet only needed a bit more encouragement because of having shorter legs. But Hubby was full of praise for Dr Mom for not giving up.

A few hundred feet further on, we met another rope dangling over a bunch of rocks above a narrow ledge. Gosh, we thought, and this walk is meant to be good for beginners? At this point I think we concluded that we were on the wrong trail. Dr Mom got down that one by sitting on a rock in a puddle. Coming back the other way was easier: We all scaled the rocks like goats, and even the precipitous rope-over-drop experience wasn't quite so bad (though both Little Starlet and Dr Mom needed a bit of a boost from Hubby, or our little, unathletic legs might not have made the step up).

Didn't we all feel triumphant at the end of that one!

"It's wiggling its legs!"

This morning we were supposed to be going over to the west coast of the island to take a whale watching boat trip; but overnight we experienced a massive rainstorm with lightning, still in progress first thing this morning, so we abandoned that idea. Fortunately the trip organizers came to the same conclusion and cancelled the event, so we will get our money back.

I got up at 8:30am to the smell of bacon cooking - Dad making sandwiches - and the sound of small girl screaming. Little Starlet had discovered a large (big as a man's thumb) cockroach on the kitchen floor, on its back, still waving its legs. I subsequently discovered a second beastie next to the tumble drier, also waving. After much screaming and ewwwwwing, the two beasties were dispatched out the back door by brave Dad with the help of a very large glass.

It is still monsoon raining as I write. No plans for today, then.

Jungle Walk

Yesterday, to clear our heads of synthetic sort-of-Polynesian culture, we headed off for a jungle walk in the rainforest above Honolulu. The steep climb and intense humidity threatened to undermine morale, but everyone kept going and enjoyed the tangled vegetation and forest views. "I love the woods" murmured Little Starlet, in a reflective moment.

Polynesian Cultural Center

Yesterday, we visited the Polynesian Cultural Center in North Eastern Oahu, about an hour up the East coast from Kailua. The "PCC" offers what is, by common Internet consent (tripadvisor etc.), the best Oahu Luau, and an authentic Polynesian experience.

This mostly turned out to be mean authentically Disneyesque. There were canoe pageants, mini villages representing different cultures, a massive Hawaiian-style feast (the "luau" of course), and a so-like-the-Lion-King-it-hurt pan-Polynesian theater show to top it all off. The production values were excellent, the organization superb, the scale massive, and the overall effect like being made to eat 500 portions of a favorite food in some well-orchestrated ironic-punishment department of Hell... At least, if you can imagine Hell being run by beautifully polite, foreign-born Mormon students from Oahu's Brigham-Young University. Really.

So... Somewhat impressive, somewhat enervating, and a little weird. With a pig.

High Security Beach

We just learned that President Obama and family are vacationing not too far away from us on Kailua Beach. The local news station ran a whole report on a sighting of First Dog Bo on the beach with a walker. Does that kind of reckless publicity create a kidnapping risk? Anyway, our real question is, will the Secret Service agents be in their traditiona dark suits and ties, or will they hang loose in Hawaiian shirts, all the better to blend in with the tourists?

Snorkeling, Whales, Dolphins, Turtles

Today, Hubby took Deep Thought and Little Starlet to the whale/dolphin-watching and snorkeling-with-turtles cruise.

On a good day, we might have been able to swim with the dolphins, but today they were more intent on running up and down the bay at full speed with their friends the whales than on hanging out with us.

Apart from that, the wildlife performed to the fullest, whales suddenly appearing and breaching beside the boat...

Spinner dolphins running through the waves...

...and leaping into the air.

After a full quota of whale and dolphin viewing, we moored the boat, pulled on masks and flippers, and went snorkeling. Despite our collective unwillingness on stay on the boat to hear the novices' instructions, we seemed well able to get about and look at the fish and turtles.

Little Starlet particularly enjoyed this pair, who seemed to be keeping each other company and hanging out together at the cleaning station.

A lovely day.

A Day at Home

Hubby and the girls headed off to the other side of the island for a snorkeling adventure, which I'll leave him to describe. I stayed at home, having no wish to be tossed around on a small boat or to make my own entertainment for five hours. Luckily the weather today has been glorious. First I walked into the center of Kailua, which took about 30 minutes, to find the bookstore, coffee shop, drug store, and Foodland. Having drunk my latte and chowed down my cake, I returned to the house laden with a new book for me, second hand books for the kids, bread for lunch, chocolate, hair conditioner - Little Starlet washed her hair three times yesterday - and an all important tube of anti-itch cream for bug bites.

After lunch on the lanai, I took my book and lawn chair down to the beach for a happy hour and a half of looking at the sea...until it started to rain again, not heavily, but enough to endanger the integrity of my paperback.

A couple of observations. First, everyone on Oahu seems to own at least one dog, usually a scrappy mutt of indeterminate parentage. Second, there is a serious lack of mailboxes. I've been carrying around a letter to mail since we arrived. And, third, though this house is not directly on the beach, I think it scores highly for being just a couple of minutes away from one of the nicest Hawai'ian beaches we've encountered, all golden sand and calm waves on a gently sloping sea bed. It even gets cleaned every morning.

Tomorrow, a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Fingers crossed that the weather has turned in our favor.

A Tasty Treat

What Hubby doesn't mention in his blog entry below on the walk to Maunawili Falls is that we forgot to bring bug spray along. As a result we have provided the local mozzies with numerous tasty snacks. Deep Thought claims to have 28 bug bites on her right leg alone. Strangely, Little Starlet, who can usually be counted on to look like a measles victim by the end of any walk, seems to have escaped with barely any bites. Maybe the quantity of mud she had all over her was sufficient protection to keep the little blighters off this time.

Under the Sea Just You and Me...and 62 others

On Monday morning the rain let up a little, so we walked over to our local beach - which happens to be one of the top beach spots on Oahu, Kailua Beach - for a bit of paddling in the sea. We toughed it out for an hour till the weather overcame us. Dr Mom stood in the edge of the waves in her rolled up jeans and green anorak, looking properly British. The other three pranced in and out of the waves, getting steadily wetter and wetter. When the rain started to pour again we retreated to the house to clean up.

At 11:30am, we got in the car and headed over to Honolulu, for the day's adventure: lunch at Benihana's followed by an underwater trip on the Atlantis Submarine. It turned out that we should have left a lot more time to get there. Half an hour turned into an hour in the snarly Honolulu traffic. In fact, our overall impression of Honolulu was of a fairly average looking city with rather more palm trees than usual, terrible traffic, and a lot of hotels. We didn't feel inspired to visit again.

We arrived at Benihana's with only 45 minutes before check in time at the sub; so our leisurely lunch, with chef entertainment, didn't quite come off. In the end we gobbled down our food in about 15 minutes and raced out of the door into the pouring rain. I think our jolly chef didn't quite understand why we weren't more receptive to his jokes (which he clearly thought were pretty funny).

At the pier, we took the Atlantis boat out to the sub loading area, about 10 minutes, on a fairly choppy sea. We looked for whales but didn't see any. At the sub, you climb off the boat onto the deck of the sub, then down a vertical ladder comprising about ten rungs, into the seating area. We were on the sixty-four passenger sub, which has bigger windows. Every passenger gets their own window, pretty much. The Japanese family of five next to Dr Mom began to throw up into their little white bags as soon as they were on board. It was, admittedly, rather bouncy as we waited at the surface. Hubby says he was feeling quite green at this point. Then the sub dived, eventually reaching a depth of 110 feet. We spent 45 minutes working round several artificial reefs - two sunken ships, an airplane, some concrete pyramids, etc. I have to confess to being a little disappointed by what we saw. There was a school of eagle rays that was undeniably impressive, but other than that the fish seemed a bit thin on the ground...or should that be water.... The kids were impressed though.

The Japanese family continued to throw up noisily throughout the voyage, reaching a climax as the sub resurfaced to return us to the boat. At this point, Dr Mom was unable to resist the sensory pressures any more and also had a small, but perfectly contained, barf into a little bag. The trip back to shore was uneventful. We rewarded ourselves for a job well done by having giant ice creams before going back to the car.

Guess what - it was bucketing down with rain again.

Beach and Maunawili Falls

Much less rain today, just the one tropical downpour, which arrived around lunchtime.

For our morning entertainment, swimming and boogie-boarding at Kailua beach.

After indulging in the local pizza + frozen yoghurt places, we decided on a walk in the rainforest. 10 minutes drive from the beach house, we parked in a little suburban street and began the hike. Very soon we were walking through trees and tangled vines, with everything sodden from the last couple of days of heavy rain.

The path criss-crosses the river three times on the way to the Falls. With the river in flood, this proved too much for Deep Thought and Dr. Mom, who turned back, leaving "Hubby" and Little Starlet the glory, and the muddiness, of reaching the top.

Rain at the House, Day 1, Oahu

Tropical Storm Omeka

Our Saturday travel - which took as long as going from San Francisco to London in the end - rather knocked us out. We got lost a couple of times driving to the rental house as it was dark and the freeways around Honolulu make Spaghetti Junction look like a neat grid system. At one pointers found ourselves heading into the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. Taking evasive action, we ended up driving into the entrance of the Airforce base instead. The security lady was very nice and let us do a u-turn in the drive. I guess they must get that all the time....

Our house is fairly nice, though not as plush as some we've rented on other islands. To be fair, we only booked in September, and this is apparently the busiest week of the year in Hawai'i for tourists visiting, so I think we have to count ourselves lucky we got anything decent. Not thing we discovered early on was that the roof leaked in two places. And the way we discovered that? Tropical storm Omeka, of course.

Just as we got to Kailua, the town in which we are staying, the skies opened with the most dramatic downpour. We always say that when it rains in California, it really rains; but it has nothing on the rain we saw on Saturday night and Sunday. It seems that Tropical Storm Omeka is "an unusual December storm" (according to the University of Hawaii meteorological department); one that will not hit Hawai'i with any destructive force, but which brings a lot of rain to islands.

The rain beat down hard all Saturday night, waking us up several times. On Sunday, it is thought that ten inches of rain fell during 24 hours. The road at the end of our street (which is called Pilipu Drive, much to Little Starlet's endless amusement)' was awash with puddles several inches deep; and we learned later that flash flood warnings were in effect across the whole island.

Luckily, we were able to amuse ourselves with, first, a trip to the local Big City Diner for breakfast (Dr Mom had Eggs Benedict; Deep Thought has "pancake sandwich" comprising two large pancakes, two eggs, two sausages and two rashers of bacon; Little Startlet had a super sweet short stack of macadamia pancakes with special sauce; and Hubby had an omelet).

Then we went next door to the Foodland supermarket for our week's grocery, spending over $400 on a medium sized cart load of food! It is easy to forget how expensive Hawai'i is for food.... We rounded off the morning with a game of Life, which Deep Thought won spectacularly without taking the college route. A lesson in modern life, perhaps?

In the afternoon we headed up the coast to Kanahole to the movie theater to see the new Narnia movie, which was pretty good, and highly suitable for a very, very, wet day.

"Just a small problem - the left engine won't start."

We got up on Saturday morning at 5:30am in order to get our United flight from San Francisco to Honolulu at 8:45am. We left the house on time, ditched the car at the long term parking, checked in the bags, sailed through security - with only the minimum of fuss around Deep Thought's insulin pump - and tucked into chocolate croissant and coffee at the food area. So far, so good.

We boarded the plane at 8:15am, settled down and started to read. At 8:45am, the plane pushed away from the gate. So far, so good again. Within five minutes we were back at the gate because the starter on the left engine wouldn't start. Maintenance is called. We passengers continue to sit. Drinks are handed out together with the Hawaii agricultural department forms. Trash is collected. Food items are offered for sale. We continue to sit. And sit. And sit. At 11:30am, we are all told to get off the plane. Maintenance has a not been able to fix the plane. We are told to get off because if we are there for another 15 minutes, United will have to feed us, and they are too cheap to do that.

The pilot says we should return to the gate at 12:30pm to hear what "the decision" has been on the flight. In the meantime, we are invited to spend some more money in the food court. We head off for sandwiches with a German couple in tow. She doesn't speak English, and his is not great, so we adopt them. He is angry in a Germanic way, complaining bitterly about useless American machines. We return to the gate at 12:30pm to hear that United is looking for another airplane, and a decision will be made at 3pm about whether the flight will go. At this point, Hubby and I are expecting to hear that we will need to return to the airport on Sunday, though we say nothing to the kids.

We sit on the floor. Hubby rearrange our rental car. Then, at 1:39pm, United announces that the plane has been fixed. We can go.

In all, our flight is delayed SIX hours.

Christmas in Hawai'i

Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, read on to discover the delights of our trip to Oahu in December 2010.