Looping the East Side

Updates you may or may not care about: (1) Missy Kia has safely landed on Oahu and one of Tag's former students is totally psyched to be rockin' the minivan for the next few days; (2) as far as I can tell my beloved staph infection has been put to death and my finger is recovering nicely; (3) we have our own house on Maui for the final five days here and we've already harvested guavas and bananas from the yard; (4) Alice has often been a bossy grumpypants for the last week but she has two new molars to show for our collective misery; (5) and, yes, that means there are still two more to come (joy!). 

I think our trip to Hana is best depicted with the pictures we took along the way. The kids were great in the car, and Tag was an adept driver (we have a Subaru here, so it was an easy transition).  We kept them well "snacked" and there were plenty of interesting stops to keep us oohing and aaahhhing during our full-day journey. There is definitely a feeling of beauty overload by the end of the day. Another gorgeous waterfall... okay, I'll just snap a shot out the window during the drive-by. 

Departure time: 8:30 am

This was the first waterfall we stopped for on the road to Hana. It was hidden and involved a short trail walk. No one slipped into the gorge, so it was a fun way to start the day!

Snack stop at Aunt Sandy's banana bread stand. Warm loaf right from the oven, and a bag of dried tropical fruit plus nuts. YUM. 

Me looking like an Arabian sheik at the Ke'anae Peninsula. I've been avoiding the sun because my antibiotic causes problems when mixed with anything fun (i.e. sunshine and alcohol).  

These lava rocks and coral pieces are begging to be thrown  in the waves. That's how they got so smooth, right?

Look fast at the next pic and you'll feel like you were there. 

Now THAT is some fantastic point-and-shoot photography.

I caught Benji's rock mid-flight. It looks like a UFO coming to take us home. 

Watching the waves. Alice's dress was catching some air. 

Bathroom break at the Wailua Valley State Wayside (anywhere else this would be an "overlook"). Benji just loves to go in the wild. I just love that he lifts his shirt-- very attentive. 

Taro fields from the lookout. 

Collecting coconuts at the Kahanu National Tropical Botanical Garden. This was before we paid attention to the warning signs about them  falling on your head.

Taking a trot at the garden. 

This is the largest existing Heiau, or native Hawaiian temple, on the whole chain of islands.

Alice would call this "annudah nack." You would call this an ice cream sandwich. I would call this a bad parenting move. It got so messy that both kids willingly threw the final melted remnants out their windows for the geckos. 

Drive-by waterfall shot near Hana. 

Rounding the south side of the island. The landscape is remarkably different-- dry and rocky-- but beautiful in its own way. 

Back at home: 5:00 pm

Welcome to Maui

Well, our adventure in Maui has begun. Of course the island is stunning, and having a new landscape (with a crater right next door!) has us feeling like the things we knew about Hawaii all need to be updated with new data (uh oh... my science geek side is showing).  It has been so great to share a lovely house with the Kahns. Imagine a large wrap-around deck, a wide ocean view and sunsets that burn the clouds to crimson.  I've been wanting to write a short poem about this place because we live in a town called Haiku.

Davis and Benjamin have begun a sweet friendship that involves legos, kites, bubbles, and wrestling. All the while Karin and I have been rekindling our close friendship from our BU days, and I've gotten to meet new baby, Carter.  Not surprisingly, we've picked up with our relationship like days have passed instead of years. The setting of our reunion obviously can't be beat, but more importantly this experience is a reminder that one of life's most valuable gifts is the meaningful connections we make along the way.

Good thing...

Because now the Kahn house is serving as my recovery room following an unexpected trip to the ER yesterday. I've learned that one of the moments when I'm not so wild about being on the laid-back "island time" is when I'm in the hospital waiting room with a staph infection creeping up my arm. Yup, you read that right. From one tiny hangnail plus an ocean swim came forth the beast that felt like fire aunts on my middle finger, and sent a burning red stripe of infection up my arm. I spent the afternoon at the Maui hospital hooked up to IV antibiotic cocktails (which, by the way, can't hold a candle to Karin's beer margaritas from the night before). Then my finger was sliced, oozed, and packaged for my delivery to the outside world. Welcome to Maui... have an x-ray, tetanus shot, drugs, some gauze and a sling.

Luckily, the antibiotics seem to be working, and the vicadin is helping me with pain.  Tag has been a huge help, and Karin, Peter and our gaggle of little kids have been wonderful. Before our Maui Memorial Hospital adventure we had great trips to the playground and the beach. I'm looking forward to many more adventures once I've moved from bandages to band aids.  In the mean time I'm eating cupcakes with avocado frosting.

Here are some pics from Maui so far:

Baby Carter at 3 months-- newest member of the Kahn ohana.

Weeeeeee!

Good buddies love to wrestle. Two of the tallest 3 year olds around.

They were laughing so hard at this game.

It even involved some victory dancing. 

Get back up. Repeat.

High five, bruddah!

Look at me hanging out!

My souvenir.

Loving Maui friends
Ocean blew my finger up
Better days ahead

Am I cute if I'm a baby with a flower?

Worth a try.

What time is it?

Life here is different from home in so many big ways, but there are a number of subtle changes in my routine that indicate I'm not in California anymore:

• I don't wear a watch and so I never know the date/time, but I still manage to eat every two hours (big shocker, there).
• My phone is often on an empty battery, and I don't care because none of you people call me (Hint! and you pretend to be "big fans" of the blog, but me and my dead iPhone know the truth).
• I haven't made a bulleted list since I went to shop at Kauai's Costco about a month ago (and right now, of course). I was the queen AND king of bulleted lists at Valley Vision, and now I can't even organize my thoughts into a concise and consistently organized blog post. I've fallen so far from the peek of intra-office communications, it's sick. 
• No eating out for lunch. Instead, I'm a one-woman PB&J factory with a salad bar for adults. And, yes, the jam is tropical. Give me some credit, here. 
• I never blow dry my hair. Instead I wear it in this wind-blown, wavy, just-got-off-the-beach style that I know is really hot.  
• My weather interests focus on the trade winds instead of rainy seasons and really hot weather. I don't even really know what that trade winds are all about, because it seems pretty damn nice here every day.  I pretend to pay attention and care about them because that is all the meteorologist has to talk about on the 10pm news.   

Well, that just about exhausts my deep thinking for the day. I must return to watching Wall-E with Benjamin, because you really can't see that film too many times. Shaka! 

Bon Voyage!

Today we took a boat trip up the Wailua River to visit Fern Grotto, a place of special significance to the Hawaiian Islanders. It was a full-on tourist attraction, and we basked in the glory of the live music and the chance to learn some Hula dancing on board the boat.  In the multiple times we've traveled to Kauai, we've never made this journey before. The excuse today was having one final outing with Uncle Nate, who leaves for Ohio at 8:00 tonight.

Some of the ferns at Fern Grotto. 

All aboard a large flat boat. There is a hula dancer in the background... wait until you see our moves!

It is crazy that our month of guests has come to a close. It went so fast because we've been having such fun. We have just another week on Kauai, and then we're off to Maui to visit with our friends-- the Kahn family-- who are also here on sabbatical with two little kids and are also blogging (this is when I've found out just how similar I am to my college housemate, despite graduating more than a dozen years ago and having typically 3,000 miles between us).  Karin and Peter's blog has me so excited for our trip there. It will be great to see them and it will be a whole new island experience (new beaches, new falls, new gelato and shave ice, oh my!)... AND we will take a break from turtling and just focus on vacationing. I know it has looked like that's all we're doing already, and that is a fair assessment. This would be one of those times when I would highly recommend marrying a turtle biologist who focuses on unattractive species in highly attractive locations. It has PAID OFF.

Yesterday at the beach. 

My little guy looking handsome in his green swim shirt (even though it made him cry with devastation over the fact that the sleeves are not long... oh, the emotional ups and downs of toddlerhood!)

Farewell, Uncle Nate! 

This species loves being sandy. The post-beach showering involves removing all of the swimwear and the diaper, and doing some major washing from all angles. She loves that, too. 

By the way, tomorrow is the birthday of my favorite turtle biologist (Tag) (Looking great at 39!).  I love him with all of my heart. It is hard to do something extra special when you feel like you're living it every day... but I'll try!

Sleeping Giant

There is a mysterious trail head about a mile from our house that we drive past every day. Nate and I used the morning yesterday to finally see where it goes. We live behind a mountain called Sleeping Giant, and yesterday I found myself scaling his belly.  It was the perfect morning for a hike-- sunny and breezy with clear views of the valleys surrounding the slumbering giant.  My goal was to walk far enough around the mountain that we'd get a view of the ocean on the other side. Mission accomplished.

One of the valley views from the mountain.

Tag stayed at home with the kids because Benji had a 24-hour virus and was getting over a high fever in the morning. The three of them had a good visit with the kids' programming on PBS. Thankfully by the time Nate and I came back home it seemed like Benjamin was getting much better. Our final effort to bring down his fever the last degree to normal was to take him to the ocean for a late afternoon swim (way better than tylenol, right?).

This past week we found a new place near our house called "baby beach." Perfect, huh? It is a small spot that is protected from wave action. Very hip with the local keiki. There also happens to be some good snorkeling all along the reef break, which makes it hip with Nate, too.  Following the swim Benji was indeed back to his normal self. We enjoyed pizza for dinner, pretended to eat play-doh cake for dessert, and then called it a day.    

Evidence of the trailhead. A horse is there in the adjacent field to greet you, too. 

Crossing the river to the Sleeping Giant. Beware: Tropical foliage ahead.

Cook Pines were brought to Hawaii by Captain Cook, and were planted on tropical islands to make the masts of sailing ships.  Cook's first stop in Hawaii was Kauai. 

Like Cook, we are intrepid explorers. With Blackberries and iPhones to take pics along the way. 

Baby Beach at 4:00 pm.

Another turtle takes a vacation to our house. 

Yes, that's the head (just the nose, really).
I know.
Tag loves them, anyway. 

Hanalei and other entertainment

We've had another few adventures since my last writing that I want to share updates on. Our visit and picnic at Hanalei Beach yesterday was a lot of fun-- some bright sunshine and some light rain. The kids enjoyed the waves, and the adults enjoyed the views. Hanalei is a long, arced beach with mountains all around. At this time of year there are several waterfalls running in the mountains nonstop. I love that the sand at Hanalei is so SOFT.  I taught Alice how to make drip castles (she preferred the destruction part).  I remember making many drip castles as a kid in Avalon, and it is still just as fun. As part of our budget-conscious picnic meal we ate pb&j's, mandarins and Hawaiian Hurricane Popcorn (love the bag! love the seaweed!). It turns out the kids don't mind if the popcorn is extra crunchy, because Alice enjoyed eating it out of her sand castle bucket. Nate did some walking along the beach and captured some nice photos along the way.


On most days we spend time out and about in the morning, and then return home so the kids can nap. Tag usually goes off to do his research at the same time. When Benji and Alice wake up I have been trying to keep them entertained with a variety of activities. Now I have Nate to help with this, too. Sometimes we go and feed Norbert's chickens next door, and visit his tropical plants farm. We've been tracking the growth of the pineapples, and to my untrained eye they are ripe and begging to be eaten by me and the fam.

We also do a lot of sidewalk chalk in the driveway. Nate really raised the bar with a large installation a couple of days ago, including a whole zone dedicated to turtles.  It is an ephemeral art form, because the rain so frequently wipes the slate clean.  Yesterday Benji drew lots of rocket ships and UFO's. Alice was the passenger (no surprise there). Then we blew lots of bubbles and the kids were pretending to be dewdrop fairies from Tinkerbell. It is amazing to see how expansive their creativity can be, and to be along for the ride.

Hanalei Bay surfers

Nate on the beach

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini. 

Benji with the chickens.

They liked the corn cobs, papaya skins, and sweet potatoes we brought for them.

Norbert's garden next door.

Fresh pineapple. Ready to eat?