Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Monday, December 27, 2010
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....
Sunday, December 26, 2010
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....
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....
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, December 20, 2010
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.
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.
Christmas in Hawai'i
Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, read on to discover the delights of our trip to Oahu in December 2010.
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