Fishing

On the day before the big TSUNAMI (yeah, not so much...), Kevin, Grandpa Bop and Nick went on a fishing trip. They left super early and headed out. We didn't know if Nick would suffer from sea sickness or not, but sort of expected him to be OK as he's never gotten car sick. Well, I'm not sure we should use this trip as the true test. Here is Daddy putting some sunscreen on Nick. As you can see Nick is a little green.


Nick, unfortunately, did get sick. However, so did about 50% of the people on the boat. The seas were a bit rough and Nick was down under the deck for a good portion, so poor guy didn't feel so well. But, after he bit, he fell asleep for a while and Kevin was able to go up top to help one of the guys land a HUGE marlin.


Once Nick woke up and was able to go up top, he felt a little better and liked watching all the guys fish.


Even blew a kiss to Grandpa Bop taking the picture.


Here is the HUGE marlin the guy caught. Wow.


So, at this point, I'm not labeling Nick as a sea-sick prone dude. We'll wait for the next boat trip and see how it goes. I mean, heck, if all the guys around you were throwing up in one big bucket, you'd probably get sick too. Thankfully Nick had is own little cup and didn't have to use the "big bucket". Blech.

Luau

You can't be in Hawaii without doing a Luau. Well, I guess you can, but they're so silly and fun, it's hard to skip them. And the bonus - it was at the hotel right across the street from our condo!

Here is Nick's very own Mai Tai (yes, it's virgin!!) He did like it, despite the look on his face.


Nick had fun playing with his Giants players while we waited for the food to be set-up.


Daddy took Nick over to see the pig being brought out of the underground oven. He was fascinated.


I didn't get any pictures of it because it was too dark. But Nick was having a lot of fun dancing around when the big drums were played. He was also in total awe of the fire-baton dancers.

Culinary Tour

One of the days we were there, Mom, Marilyn, Debra and I went on a culinary tour. Chef Ann Sutherland runs tours that brings people to three different houses across the island and feeds them. Yum.

Here I am at the first house - a seaside, beautiful house. It can be rented and you can bet that I'll be checking this out for future trips! The price is actually quite reasonable if you have enough people to share.


The four touring ladies...


The tide pool that was built right next to the house. Yep, you can walk down into it if you want.


The ah-ma-zing mango gazpacho - so good. She gave us the recipe and I've made it since - so good!!! Especially on a hot day. Yummy.


These little lizards came up and ate the soup out of the spoons.


Relaxing on the lanai...


The last dish of the day... yummy too.


I wonder how much it would be to have a private chef? Hmm, must look into this...

Black sand beach

On our drive back from Mt. Kilauea we made a pit stop at Punalu'u Beach Park. It was SOOOO cool. A black sand beach where ginormous green sea turtles come to hang out.

Here are Grandma Ow-ice and Grandpa Bop posing for a picture on the beach...


One of the ginormous turtles. The barely moved, so if you weren't careful, you'd trip over one.


Kevin, Nick and Grandma checking out the tide pools...


Daddy showing Nick where the fishies are.


"Look, Mommy a fishie!!!" Too cute.


We had to PULL him away from this beach - he just wanted to walk around and check everything out. He liked the turtles, but since they didn't move too much, he got bored with them. Oh, well!

Mt. Kiluaea

It was a bit of a drive, but we got over to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and checked out Mt. Kilauea. It was really cool, but somewhat daunting to be standing at the precipice of a big, smoking volcano.


As you can see from Nick's face, it was a little stinky.


We also went for a walk down into one of the big lava tubes. It was really cool - both literally and figuratively!!


It was pretty dark and had some echoes, so Nick didn't want to go very far inside.


The hike back up the trail after we'd investigated enough. Oddly, it seemed a lot further down than it was going back up - it's usually the opposite!!


The drive was certainly long, but well worth it!!

Beach Day

Our first official beach day was spent at Kamakahonu Beach which is right in "downtown" Kailua-Kona. The little beach between the sea wall / jetty and the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel property is great for kids. There is practically no surf and the water is warm & clear.

The day started out with Nick just playing in the sand. He had no interest in going into the water.


He decided to bury a big lava rock that was sitting on the beach.


Once the rock was buried, we decided to try to coax Nick out into the water. It took a bit of time, but soon he was in and loving it (as mentioned in a previous post).


He ran back and forth in the water until he got pooped. Then he plopped down to toss sand and splash water.


So fun - he turned into a fish in a period of ten minutes. He LOVED it!!

Place of Refuge

So rather than put all the Hawaii pictures in one super-long post, I decided to break it out between different trips or events. Much easier to attack this way.

On our first full day in Hawaii we drove down to a place called Pu'uhonua O Honaunau, the Place of Refuge (and, yes, I remember the full Hawaiian name AND spelling!! Ha - right, yay for Fodor's). It's a National Historic Park that used to be a safe haven for women during times of war. We got there somewhat late in the day, so we walked around where we could before the sunset.

Here are Grandpa Bop, Nick and Kevin strolling along the seaside.


Grandpa Bob standing in front of some old buildings of some sort.


Grandma Ow-ice and Nick on the beach.


When we arrived at the park & paid our admission, one of the staff gave Nick a cool fish woven out of palm fronds. He loved it but, sadly, the fish was sacrificed to the Gods at some point during our adventure as it never made it back to the car with us.


Nick was in heaven with all the rocks that he could throw in the water. We had to make many pit stops to grab & throw rocks. He was feeling particularly strong as they were lava rocks & therefore fairly light. So he could pick-up some pretty big ones!


The cool coastline. Lots of good tidal pools to look in.


Nick deciding that a rock would look good on its head.


Nick found the coconuts really fun.


I think he thought he had a second head.


It never got old.


Family pic...


Solo pic


And Grandpa Bop watching the sunset. It was beautiful!!


Grandpa Bop helped Nick find pieces of coconut on the beach - for two days we had gross, dirty pieces of coconut meat on our condo kitchen counter as Nick insisted that we bring them back to the condo. Blech!!

So this picture needs some explanation...

Yes, I know, another not-really-full Hawaii post - but I couldn't wait on this one, because it cracks me up.

I think it was the second day that we were there when Nick woke up from his nap and started saying that his pancake shirt fell in the dirt. Nick has a shirt from Old Navy that has a stack of pancakes on it that he calls - obviously - his pancake shirt. While I had brought said pancake shirt on the trip, he hadn't worn it yet and, as far as I knew, it was in either a backpack or the dresser drawer in his bedroom.

He went on & on about needing to find it and picking it up out of the dirt. As we had no idea what he was talking about, we just assumed that he must have been dreaming about it or something as 1) we hadn't really been out & about by the dirt and 2) our condo was on the 6th floor with a large lanai, not a backyard with grass, etc.

I think it was the next day when my Mom pointed out something that was on the ground next to the walkway at the bottom of the building where our condo was. I leaned over the railing to see what it was, and there - spread out nearly perfectly - was Nick's pancake shirt laying in the dirt. Clearly Nick got his little paws on the shirt and promptly threw it over the railing.

So I went and got Kevin and asked him to look over the railing. This picture is his reaction when he realized what it was and how it must have gotten there.


Now I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "How could you not know he did that because shouldn't you have been out on the lanai WITH him?" Honestly, I'm not sure when he did it. We didn't let him go out there by himself, so he could have done it pretty quickly while one or the both of us were sitting there right near him.

Hawaii 2010 - the Tsunami!!!

Yes, we were some of the lucky people that got to experience a true tsunami evacuation process while on our lovely vacation to Hawaii. We had a great trip - even with the evacuation - and have a MILLION pictures. So, thought I'd start with a "teaser" post. (Well, it's also because I'm lazy, still receiving pictures from Mom and haven't downloaded my pictures from my camera yet. Whatever. Details.)

These are from my iPhone and are easy to upload. Yes, I know, this furthers the "I'm lazy" reasoning.

On the way over to Hawaii (yay for direct LAX-KOA flights!!), Nick had fun playing with the headphones (and trying to get Mommy's iPhone).


DJ Nick Rock getting ready to watch Cars.


After about 15 minutes of his movie, he decides that he doesn't need his headphones anymore and about 10 minutes after that... zzzzz... yay!!


If you have read earlier posts on Nick's beach experience, let's just say they haven't been good ones. So Nick was not at all willing to go into the water when we first got to the beach. But, after a lot of coaxing and convincing, in he went. And did NOT want to leave.


He ran back and forth through the water, having a fabulous time splashing and kicking water and plopping down. It was great fun (except maybe not so much for Kevin who had to follow Nick back and forth... I had to keep near our stuff, of course!!)


A Monday Mai Tai lunch for Mommy & Daddy...


And a Tuesday evening Mai Tai night cap by the ocean!


Nick snoozing in his stroller while we had - yes, you guessed it - more Mai Tai's.


On Tsunami Evacuation Day, I decided this would be a good shirt to wear...


What Nick did while the rest of us wondered if the coast line would be there in a few hours...



More pictures to come. Well, as soon as I stop being lazy. Or busy. Or whatever.

Mahalo