Intermittent Showers!

Hi, everyone!

Grandma and Grandpa and I went to the airport Monday afternoon to pick up Uncle Steven’s family.  They were very tired from a long day of traveling when they got here! As soon as we got their luggage, we drove back to the resort, had dinner, and they went to bed!  There’s a five hour time difference between New York and Hawaii, so it was already Tuesday New York time when they finally got to sleep!

On Tuesday morning, after breakfast, we all went to the beach!  There was a sea turtle on the beach and another one on the spit. From the tracks in the sand, it looked like another sea turtle had already come and gone from the beach.

The sea turtle on the beach gathered a crowd of admirers, but James and Thomas were more interested in the water and the sand!  James started working on a sand castle.  Thomas found a sea cucumber and showed it to everybody before he put it back.

Because we had muffins for breakfast on the lanai, there were a few crumbs on the floor.  We were visited by a pair of Hawaiian cardinals looking for brunch!  Grandpa and I picked up lunch at Dim’N’Den Sum again.  When we ordered for six people, Lynell-san said she wanted to meet everybody!

After lunch, Grandma and Grandpa took James for a walk to Makahuena Point, so they could look for whales.  Halfway there, it started to rain!  The rain didn’t last very long, but James wanted to go back to our unit.  We’ve been having showers off and on for part of every day — even the days when no rain is in the weather forecast!

Everybody decided to go out to dinner at Keoki’s Paradise, and James decided to bring me and Panda along!  Just as we got to the restaurant, it started to rain again!  I was glad there was an awning over the sidewalk!  James and Thomas got scratch-off paper to play with while we waited for our food.  We had lots of leftovers to take home!  Grandpa had a coupon for a free order of hula pie, so we got one for James and Thomas to share.  James was amazed when it was served!  Uncle Steven had to help Aunt Kara divide the piece for James and Thomas.  Thomas wasn’t sure where to start eating his piece, so I helped him.

We got back to Poipu Kai in time for sunset.  James and Thomas were still tired, so they went right to bed.  Grandma and Grandpa and I went to Brennecke’s Beach to watch.  The sun set into clouds again, but the surf was nice.

On Wednesday morning, we left early to drive to Kamalani Playground at Lydgate Park in Wailua.  Bill-kun and Karin-chan really liked this playground when they were about James’ and Thomas’ ages.  Since then, there has been a fire at the playground and some of it has been rebuilt.  The mosaics and the music station looked just the same to me.  James and Thomas found the tire walk right away!

James showed everybody that he could shinny up a pipe as well as shinnying down it.  Thomas showed everybody that he could pump himself on a swing!  I asked him where he learned to do that, and he said his brain taught him!  Since he didn’t need to push anybody, Uncle Steven could swing, too!

Grandpa introduced James and Thomas to the swinging platform that Bill-kun really liked.  It has changed and isn’t as much fun!  James went back to the swings and twisted one up to give me a ride.  Then it started raining, so it was time to leave!

Since we were halfway there, we decided to continue north to Kilauea Point.  The weather there is often different from the areas around it!  We  got lunch at a Thai food truck in Kapa’a.  Thomas found a tepee on the beach, and James found some branches he used as drumsticks.  It rained again while we were eating lunch, but we found a porch with some shelter.

When we got to Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, we had some sunshine!  James and Thomas both found our church friends’ dedication brick, and the nenes were walking around where we could visit them.  Aunt Kara and Grandpa saw a baby whale jumping.  Then it rained again!  We could see the rain moving toward us across the water.  We waited out the shower in the building next to the lighthouse.  On our way back to the car, James decided to take a close look at his daddy!

Driving to and from the north shore made for a long day for everybody, especially James and Thomas!  There was more rain on the drive home, but the weather cleared for sunset.  The sun set into clouds again, but the sky and surf were pretty!  It has been windy every day, so it’s hard to tell whale spouts from waves with their tops blowing off!

This morning, Aunt Kara took advantage of the continued wind.  She got out a kite to fly on the resort lawn!  The wind kept blowing the kite into the ground, so something needed to be adjusted with the kite harness.

While Uncle Steven was adjusting the kite, Grandma and I took a walk over to the resort office to get more laundry detergent.  James and Thomas get lots of clothes dirty!  I liked the big photo of the Tree Tunnel on the wall!  On the way back, we saw a lime tree!

James and Thomas found a nice open lawn on the way to the beach to play with their boomerang.  James showed Thomas how to throw it!  When we got to the beach, there were two sea turtles there!  One of them was a turtle friend from another day!  I could tell because he has initials written on his shell.  The other turtle was resting by the naupaka shrubs on the beach, but he opened his eyes and looked at me when I said hello.  My turtle friend from the other day decided to go back in the water.  He attracted quite a crowd to watch him go!

James went back to our condo with Grandpa and Uncle Steven.  Thomas stayed to play on the playground a little bit more.  There was another rain shower as we were leaving the beach, but it was over by the time we crossed the road.  Uncle Steven was doing flight tests with the kite!  I showed Thomas where the bananas were growing along the resort driveway!

Grandma and Grandpa and I went to Puka Dogs and brought home some for everybody!  This time, I got a good chance to see exactly how our Puka Dogs were assembled!

Because it has been so windy, Grandma thought Spouting Horn might have big spouts.  After lunch, Grandpa and I went with her to check it out!  There were lots of spouts from the blowhole, but we didn’t see any spouts from whales!

Uncle Steven’s family decided to go to the resort pool.  James did some swimming, and Thomas played around in the water.  The wind would push his boomerang toward the edge of the pool when he threw it in, so he could just wait at the side for it to come back to him.

Grandpa and Uncle Steven decided to grill steaks for dinner.  Guess what?  There was a rain shower after they turned on the gas grill to heat up, and another one just after they finished cooking the steaks!  It was still raining at sunset, so there wasn’t much to see.  The steaks were yummy, though!  Grandma roasted local sweet potatoes.  James and Thomas were surprised to see that they were purple inside!

The Hawaiian custom is to leave your shoes outside your door.  Between the beach sand and the red mud, that makes sense to keep the indoor floors cleaner.  This is what our door looks like, with all our shoes and Thomas’ beach treasures!

Aloha!

Lion-san