You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2009.
Lots of keepers in this gallery!
-
- A handy caterpillar from school
-
- A very colorful plate fish
-
- from Carina’s “doing work” collection, done at home
-
- Ze Artiste et heir verk
On our last morning in Hawaii, I found myself struggling with not wanting to leave, and being very anxious to get home to the kiddos. We spent the morning getting packed up, buying some last minute suveniers, and stealing one last hour relaxing on the beach in two chaises that were pitched at a rather odd angle. I also, as seemed to be the theme on this trip, ran around the resort snapping last minute pictures because I had shirked my duties otherwise. You can see all of our Hawaii pictures on our shutterfly share site at http://4rechs.shutterfly.com/ There are 184 pictures there, so have fun with that.
Our flights left Maui at 2pm on Wednesday, arrived LAX at 10:15pm, departed LAX at 12:15am, arrived DFW at 5:00am, departed DFW at 6:45am, and arrived LIT at 8am. Needless to say, jumping forward in time 5 hours overnight with two layovers isn’t really fun. BUT, we stopped by the house for an hour to downsize the luggage and check the mail, and then headed north to retrieve the wee ones.
I will never forget the extreme swing of emotion in our children, as they were moved from waving and smiling blankly, to realizing mommy and daddy were back, to balling uncontrollably. It made me cry a little too. One problem with having two kiddos is that it’s hard to hug them both at the same time as tightly as you want to sometimes. It was a wonderfull, much needed trip, and it was good to be home.
I am thankful to Grandma and Papa for taking care of our kids for a whole week. They wear me out on a daily basis, but as usual, my mother took them on with the grace and natural mothering ability that I was so lucky to be nurtured by as a child, and that I now aspire to as a mother myself.
Ready to Zip!
Tuesday morning, our last full day in Hawaii, found us rising a bit early to head down to Skyline Eco Adventures for our big ziplining outing. Neither of us had ever been ziplining before, so this was our big splurge for the trip. We took a big van up the side of a brushy hill to the “outpost” where we were outfitted with harnesses and helmets. Then, back in the van and on up the hill to our first zip line. After a short instructional introduction, we were off! Our two guides zipped our group of ten back and forth across the valley four times before we took a break for breakfast. After breakfast, we zipped another three lines. In general, zipping is easy, and also a strange mix of exciting and relaxing. It sort of has the same feel as swinging on a big swing, or sliding on a big slide. You feel the breeze in your face, hear the zipping of the line in your ears, and in our case, had great scenery to look at on our way across the valley. The first video below is me coming across one of the zip lines. The second is of Craig taking you along for the ride.
The view at breakfast
In the afternoon, we headed north to a beach that tripadvisor.com recommended for snorkeling. Even though we jumped the gun and stopped one beach too early, we still had a great snorkeling experience in Mokuleia Bay. We saw a pink squid, several fish that appeared to be outfitted with neon lights, another sea turtle, and an octopus! It was amazing to watch the octopus change color to match everything it touched. It even blended itself with patterns on the rocks! All in all, a perfect last “activity” on the island.
For dinner, we went to LuLu’s Lahaina Surf Club, because one of the zip line guides tipped off to their happy hour. Of course we would learn this on our last night, but apparently happy hour in Hawaii means that the food is half price, not the drinks! So, we had a really great dinner for a really great price.
Zip Line and Coast
Hana Highway
On day five of our stay in Hawaii, we hopped in the car and headed for Hana. The road to Hana is a pretty famous thoroughfare, known for its scenic vistas and waterfalls, as well as its cliff-hugging curves and decrepit-looking one lane bridges. As it turned out, it wasn’t anything an Ozarks-trained driver couldn’t handle! Craig was nice enough to let me drive since I get car sick, and on the few occasions that he did drive, I also found that I have a control issue when it comes to riding in cars in hilly/curvy conditions, especially when the car is being driven by someone more accustomed to 6 lane freeways and large truck driving. I think what I am trying to say here is that we all have our driving specialities, and Hana Highway was made for me. Here’s a little video of the road that Craig took as we got started:
On the way to Hana, we stopped in a few of the small towns along the way, but skipped most of the roadside hiking trails and waterfalls because they were packed with other tourists. The roadway is already very narrow, and people had no problem pulling over so that 1/4 of their vehicle was in the ditch and the other 3/4 was still in the road. No thanks. We
Apparently you -can- get to heaven from Hana
did stop at roadside stands to partake in banana bread and coconut juice. We also stopped at a couple roadside parks which actually had parking lots and not so nice restrooms.
We arrived in Hana around lunch time and stopped at a beautiful Waianapanapa State Park to eat our picnic lunch of goober pb&j on Hawaiian sweetbread and apples. We perched atop a hill in a little grove of trees, watching the waves crashing on the rocky coast, birds cruising on the sea breezes, and visitors enjoying the small black sand beach. There is camping available in the park, so if we go to Hana again, we’ll be bringing our sleeping bags!
After lunch in the park, we stopped at the Hotel Hana Maui and visited their art gallery. It was a
Hotel Hana Maui
wonderful collection, and as soon as we win the lottery we’ll be heading back there to take some of the art home with us. The grounds of the hotel were very beautiful, calm, and quiet.
From there we continued on down Hana Highway a little further, and happened, quite on accident, upon what is apparently the 2009 #5 best beach in the world, as ranked by Dr. Beach. Hamoa Beach is just a little past Hana on a very unsuspecting side road, but it is absolutely awesome. The beach area and facilities are nice, and the water and scenery are beautiful. We did a little bit of snorkeling here, but the waves were so nice and big that we quickly switched to body surfing. Luckily the underwater floor at Hamoa is mostly sand, because we both got tumbled more than once. One wave picked me up and drug me backward, laughing all the way, depositing me in a sitting position on the beach. I don’t think the locals were impressed. We topped off our swim with some shave ice before hopping back into the car for the trip home.
On the way back to the north side of Maui, we were surprised to find most of the roadside pull-offs completely empty. We stopped at one waterfall that was really nice, but after finding and following a trail next to the waterfall, we found that it lead to another set of falls. We boulder-hopped up to those falls, and at the top found another waterfall three times taller than the first! I’m sure this is all outlined in a million Hawaii guide books, but we had a sense of adventure
Chickens and Cats
and discovery finding it on our own.
We also stopped at a roadside park that we had visited earlier that morning. On our first visit, we had noticed a few “wild” chickens strutting around the picinic area. On our second visit, the park was completely empty except for us, and instead of just a few chickens, there was now a full-sized flock of not only chickens, but also cats foraging for
rainbow eucalyptus trees
food. I’ve never seen chickens and cats co-existing, so the whole scene was a bit bizarre to me.
Finally, in the last stretch, as our camera battery was dying from being on all day, Craig managed to snap a picture of these amazing trees that don’t have any bark, but their trunks and branches are covered in a rainbow of color. Very cool!
After we came off the road to Hana, we decided to take a side trip to the Haleakala Crater, which is also a national park. Haleakala is one of two volcanoes that formed the island of Maui, and since neither of us had been to a crater, we thought we’d check it out. On the way up to the park, it became misty and started to rain on us, and the cloud cover made it very dark. We felt like we had driven right into a fairy tale, and were keeping our eyes peeled for Robin Hood or the Big Bad Wolf to jump out of the towering forests on either side of the road. As we continued on, we started up a series of 20-some switchbacks. As we climbed, our surroundings changed from lush green forest to desert-like scrub and volcanic rock. Eventually, we found ourselves in the sun again, because we had climbed above the clouds into an other-worldly place that we had not expected. We climbed out of the car at the visitor center and found that we were freezing! We wrapped ourselves in whatever towels and sarongs we had in the car, and ended up looking like a pair of shabby middle-easterners. The parking lot was empty except for another couple dressed in garb similar to ours, and we laughed as we bolted past one another, running to see the different vistas on each side of the crater before we froze to death. To the north we looked out over the top of huge white cumulus clouds to the setting sun, the bright fluffiness a stark contrast to the dark rocky ground we stood on. To the west and south side of the crater, there was no vegetation, only various shades of red and black rock, blended together down the valley like a painting that had gotten rained on before it could dry. To the east, perched at the highest point of the crater was an observatory and research center, which looked like something out of Total Recall. We could not believe we were in such an amazing place and our camera battery was dead! We did manage to eek one picture out of the camera before it shut itself back down. Finally, after watching the sunset from the observatory parking lot with a bus load of Japanese tourists (who were enviably dressed in down coats and stocking caps!), we headed for home, tired, but ecstatic from all the amazements of the day.
The view from atop Haleakala
Goodbye Oahu!
The fourth day of our Hawaii visit began with conference wrap-up for Craig. I actually was able to attend part of a
This was part of Craig's lunch, NOT mine.
session on autism which was really interesting. We had some confusion over the start time for the conference wrap-up brunch, and ended up showing up an hour late (we weren’t the only ones who came late). Luckily, they still fed us, and it was wonderful. We had our first taste of Lychee fruit, which looks really strange, kind of like a tiny little bee hive, but it was yummy! Free meals are especially good in Hawaii, because the meals that aren’t free cost A LOT! We ate several breakfasts and lunches on a shoestring by purchasing items at ABC stores which are convenience stores, that at least in Waikiki, have locations about every half block or so.
After the conference wrap up, while we were waiting for our taxi back to the airport for a short flight to Maui, I ran around and snapped some pictures of the resort.
One of the many garden pools
The Rainbow Tower - this is where our room was.
The Aston
The trip to Maui was a fun little flight, as we were able to see some beautiful views of the islands from the air, including a wind farm with huge turbines on a mountain ridge. Once in Maui, we picked up a rental car, and headed to our lodgings at Aston Ka’ anapali Shores. We had booked a studio condo through a special on TravelZoo.com (thanks Travel Zoo!), but were upgraded to a one bedroom. The resort was in a great location (ocean front, with two swimming pools), and would be an excellent option if we ever visit Maui with the kids. There was a grocery store across the street, so we bought a few breakfast and lunch items to stock our kitchen. Then, we explored the resort before heading out for dinner, and then returned home to rest up for our big Road to Hana excursion the next day.
Welcome to Maui!
On Friday and Saturday of our trip, Craig was pretty much tied up in conference sessions. We did get in an early morning run down the beach and onto the “main drag” of Waikiki before he dashed off to the conference center on Friday morning. However, I still had lots of fun, because I got to spend time with my cousins Linsey, Eric, and Ellianna. Eric is stationed in Pearl Harbor with the Navy, so it was great to see them and have our own personal tour guides. On Friday we wandered around the resort, visited the resident Penguins, ate some lunch in this classic seaside “tavern” at the sailing marina (complete with water dripping from the ceiling, low lighting, and really good clam chowder), and of course, we played at the beach. Ellianna helped me get my “toddler fix” so I didn’t miss my own kids so badly. After Craig finished his education, Eric and Linsey took us to LuLu’s for dinner, where we had great food and listened to a local live band.
On Saturday Craig finished his conference sessions up a little earlier, and Linsey, Eric, and Ellianna took us to the north shore. The whole island of Oahu is very beautiful, and it was interesting to drive across the middle of the island and see the mountains, farms, and small towns along the way. We stopped at a beach that is frequented by sea turtles seeking out a great patch of sand to bask in the sun on. There was one turtle there (and lots of onlookers!). After that, we snorkeled in Shark’s cove, which had lots of really beautiful tropical fish, including the humuhumunukunukuapua’a which is Hawaii’s state fish (also known as a Hawaiian Triggerfish). The beach was a little rocky and rough getting in and out, but we agreed that it was another great snorkeling foray (even better than our first, except we didn’t see a sea turtle). Afterwards we went and had shave ice. I had ice cream underneath my shave ice which was very yummy, and Craig had some sort of sweet bean under his which I did not think was very yummy, but he liked it. We had to have the shave ice before dinner because the shave ice places run on island time. It was just a little past 6:00, and they locked the doors behind us when we left. Finally, we went to a local pizza place in the town of Haleiwa for dinner. The pizza was great, and I couldn’t believe how well behaved Elli was considering how late it was. Thank you, Linsey, Eric, and Elli for spending time with us and showing us around!
-
- Elli playing at the park
-
- Ellianna says, “Gotta stay hydrated!”
-
- One of the Hilton penguins
-
- A basking turtle
-
- Shark’s Cove
-
- Enjoying shave ice
-
- Island Time
Aloha!
After traveling to Branson on Monday to drop the offspring at grandma’s, returning to Little Rock on Tuesday, and rising early on Wednesday for our skip-hop-jump trip to Hawaii, I was a little worn out by the time we completed the skip and hop legs of our trip and found ourselves confined to terminal #4 in LAX airport for five hours. Craig returned from one of his wanderings through the terminal with cups of hot green tea for both of us. Craig’s tea had a “tea fortune” hanging from it. I’m not one to put a lot of stock into fortunes, but when I turned over his tea fortune tag and read, “your next vacation will be a doozy”, I got a little shiver. For those of you who don’t know, our previous trip to the 50th state was not one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. Nonstop rain, sewer-flooded beaches, and multiple trips to the hospital for Craig’s brother’s eternal nosebleed are the primary memories that come to mind. So, when I’ve got a teabag tag telling me my next vacation will be a doozy, I’m thinking the worst.
One six hour plane ride later, we made it to the conference hotel, the Hilton Hawaiian Village. When we checked in, the receptionist said, “Just a minute, I’m going to see if I can get you a nice room” and walked away. She returned with a coupon for a free robe, so we thought we’d be headed to the standard “garden room” view we booked. However, when she finally handed us our room keys, she informed us that she had upgraded us to an oceanview suite. We weren’t sure what that meant, but we thanked her and headed for our room. When we opened up the door, we couldn’t believe our eyes, and Craig said, “Whoa, is this a doozy?”
View of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head from our upgrade!
Looking down at "our" beach from the balcony
The next day, Craig took care of conference business and then we looked around the resort. It was very nice, although everything is very expensive in HI. In the late afternoon, we grabbed our snorkels and masks and headed out. After trying out the swimming pools and lagoon, we headed toward Waikiki beach, which was right in front of our hotel. Craig has always said that he does not like snorkeling, so I think it was with reluctance that he swam out toward the reef next to me. However, he was jarred right out of his reluctance when, at about 20 feet from shore, I nearly tore his arm out of socket trying to get his attention to show him the HUGE sea turtle swimming immediately to my left. I’m pretty sure I squealed through my snorkle. The turtle surfaced once and then headed back to the ocean floor. Because the tide was coming in, visibility was not that great, so we decided to leave Mr. Turtle alone and head on to the shallower and easier to see coral reef. There we found a surprising array of tropical fish, anenome, and sea urchins. One black spiny urchin we saw was literally the size of a basketball. We were already quite pleased with our little snorkeling trip when we turned back toward the beach, and so were super stoked to find Mr. Turtle waiting for us when we got to the end of the reef! This time, he surfaced multiple times, swimming in a direct, straight line toward the far corner of where the reef met a man-made surf break, and it almost seemed like he wanted us to follow him. Suddenly, he dropped back to the ocean floor, and when we turned right to go back to the beach, we were met by a wall of silvery, dancing fish. A school of maybe 2 or 3 thousand, they darted away and toward each other endlessly, creating a kaleidoscope of sunlight glint, translucent fins, and beady eyes. It made me feel like I was swimming inside an exploding firework.
The dark circle in the middle of this photo is the school of fish we swam with.
Later, we sat on the beach trying to keep the sand out of our mouths because we couldn’t pick our jaws up off of the ground. Craig joked, “Did you see the Hilton logo on that turtle’s back?” All I know is, I had more fun on that (free!) snorkeling trip than I’ve had on many a $100+ scuba dive. Is that a doozy?
More to come from our trip to Hawaii soon!
Now that summer is here, our back yard has come alive. My favorite spot in the whole house is on the love seat in front of our big windows, where I can see everything that is going on both inside and out. It is a wonderfully entertaining mix of backyard wildlife antics and indoor toddler hi jinx. Lately, the animals have been working hard to keep my attention. As a one better to our wayward waxwings, we now have a male Cardinal named Jack who really needs no introduction:
This madness has gone on for about 5 days now, although the heavy rains of the past two days have slowed his attacks somewhat. I Googled “male cardinal repeatedly flying into window” and found that this is a fairly common occurrence. Best guesses are that Jack thinks his reflection is another male cardinal and is defending his turf. When Carina hears Jack bouncing off the window she says, “Oh no! That Clazy Wed Buwd is BACK!” That is why we named our cardinal Jack – because we always know when he is back! (and because I’d love it if he would hit the road!)
Rechkemmer Family Blog 