Hawaii, Dec. 26, 2023-Jan. 9, 2024

 Monday, Dec. 25, 2023

We went to church and then to Brian and Keri's for a few hours. We got to see what the girls got for Christmas, had lunch with them and left for Denver about 2pm. It had snowed a little the day before and blizzard conditions were predicted for later Christmas day and into the next day. The roads were great after we got past Akron and were dry the rest of the way in to Denver. Keri had sent some breakfast burritos and desserts with us which proved helpful all the restaurants that we passed were closed for Christmas. We went to bed early as we needed to get up at 3:15 to catch the shuttle to the airport. 

Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023

We made it to the airport in plenty of time. It snowed a bit as we were going to the airport, but didn't last long.  We loaded the plane on time, but were a little late taking off as they de-iced the plane. This was our first experience with de-icing and it was interesting to watch the process of them spraying down our plane and the one next to us. 

It was also the first time that we had ever flown first class. We flew from Denver to Las Angeles with a layover and changed planes there. We were watching the weather and road reports for Yuma during our layover and realized that it was wise that we had gone to Denver the night before as nearly every road in eastern Colorado was closed due to blowing snow. Other than having some comfy seats and being able to load first, there wasn't anything special about the flight form Denver to LA. We were on a larger plane from LA to Honolulu. we got the hot towel, nuts served in a ceramic bowl and a full meal, also served on real plates and bowls.

It was tastier than it looks, shrimp on the left, chicken and smashed potatoes and green salad with sun-dried tomatoes.

Flying into Honolulu

Tara and Drew met us at the airport with leis. They took us to their house where we were greeted by the boys and the dogs. (Porter still likes me, for some unknown reason). Tara had some yummy tortilla soup ready for our supper. Their house is interesting with it's single wall construction, but they have made it feel like "home" with their furniture arranged in new ways. We made it a fairly early night as we had had a long day!

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023

We had a pretty quite day at the house. We opened some Christmas presents, played some games and put a puzzle together.

A hibiscus bloom in their yard. 

Thursday. Dec. 27, 2023

Tara, Drew, David and I went to the beach to watch the sunrise. As we were waiting and talking about the different landmarks that we could see, I couldn't resist having my feet in the water and almost immediately got splashed and wet to my waist from a wave that was much bigger than I expected! It was about 64 degrees and it felt great to David and I. Drew has become quite accustomed the warm Hawaii weather as he thought it was cold out. It was an absolutely beautiful sunrise.

There are wild chickens all over the island. They are apparently decedents of  Red Junglefowl that were introduced to the islands by the Polynesians around AD 500-700.

Someone's bougainvillea.

We drove into Honolulu to visit Bishop Museum. It is a beautiful building with the largest collection of Hawaiian artifacts in the state. We had a delightful tour guide at the beginning of our visit. There was much to see and learn! We could have stayed longer, but had reservations for the planetarium (also part of the museum). The planetarium show was about the wayfarers who used the stars to guide them traveling from island to island in the south Pacific. We truly can't imagine how they were able to do it!

All the woodwork in the museum was amazing.

A sperm whale has been hanging from the ceiling since 1901. Below are pictures from the opposite side (and from the fourth floor) showing the bones.

After lunch at a fun tiki like restaurant, we drove around Honolulu a bit. Below is one of "Drew's" worksites.

We spent a few minutes watching this huge forklift moving containers.

I wasn't able to get a great picture of it, but there was a beautiful rainbow on the mountains. We kept getting glimpses of it as we drove around Honolulu.

We drove through Waikiki.

Banyan Trees

Moana Surfrider Resort Hotel I looked it up just for fun and they wanted over $650 a night per room (before taxes, fees and parking)!

We drove around the coast toward home, stopping at the Holana Blow Hole near. Surf was pretty high, so she put on a good show. It was formed thousands of years ago and is part of a lava tube.

Sandy Beach. Drew and Tara say the locals come here to watch the tourists get pummeled by the waves.

Makapu'u Point Lighthouse. We may take a trail later that will get us closer to it.

Friday, Dec. 29, 2023

Drew, Tara, David and I drove into Pearl Harbor to visit the National Monument. Despite Drew's best efforts to secure tickets to go out to the Arizona the day before, the tickets were gone in seconds. He and Tara stood in the "stand by" line while David and I looked at the exhibits. Needless to say, this was an intense morning. 

Oil slicks that are still bubbling up as things rust through from the ship below.

We took a bus around to go on the Missouri. It wasn't in Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack (she wasn't even launched until 3 years later), but it was on her deck that the treaty was signed to end WWII. The ship is massive and we only got to see a fraction of it.

Come on, they want our picture under the big guns!

The above robot looking thing (the tour guide referred to it as R2D2) is a Gatling Gun. The Missouri was dry docked for a number of years, but was pulled out and retrofitted with update equipment and weapons for Desert Storm.

Of all the ships sunk and damaged by the attack on Pearl Harbor, only three never returned to service. The Arizona with it's Memorial, and the Utah with a smaller Memorial are still in the harbor. The third ship- the battleship Oklahoma was raised and repaired. She was an older ship who had fought in WW I. She was damaged so badly that it was decided to scrap her. As she was being towed to the mainland, she broke loose from her moorings and sank into the Pacific. There was and nice memorial to her and the sailors that were lost.

There was more to see at Pearl Harbor National Monument, but we'll save that for the next trip.

We had lunch at the 604 restaurant near the monument with a fun view of the harbor with a lot of fancy sailboats.

Plumeria 

Pacific Golden Plover-Winter plumage 

Some views on our way back home:

Back home for supper and a few loud, crazy rounds of "Happy Salmon" before bed. I have videos, but they are too large of files to upload :-(

Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023

Tara downloaded a "tour" of the island on her phone. We all loaded up and headed counter-clockwise along the shore. Our first stop was a Japanese temple. You drove through a beautiful cemetery to get to the temple. There were different sections for Japan, Korea, etc. The signs for the cemetery felt like an ad for a housing addition with it's "Breathtaking panoramic ocean and mountain views.

Coral Creeper

Creeping Oxeye

A couple tiny flowers blooming in their yard.

Lush greens everywhere as we were walking into the temple.

Byodo-In Temple

Built to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii

Zane ringing the gong

Zebra Dove

A bit further up the road we stopped at a beach park with a beautiful view.

Cattle Egrets were introduced to the islands 1959 as biocontrol agents to reduce insects plaguing cattle. Now they can be seen whenever someone is mowing to eat the disturbed insects. Unfortunately, they also eat the eggs and chicks of native waterbirds and seabirds, so they have become pests themselves. (Is it obvious yet that Tara gave me a book on Hawaiian birds for Christmas?)

Mokoli'i or Chinaman's Hat at Kaneohe Bay

Mangrove Trees

Huilua Fishpond. A very old fishpond made by piling up lava rocks to capture the fish. Zane gave us a lovely description of how the gates worked to let in the small fish while keeping the larger fish inside. He even had the Hawaiian name for it, but said that this one wasn't made correctly!

These blossoms were on a tree. I haven't been able to identify them. We stopped at here as there were many food trucks featuring shrimp dishes made with shrimp from the numerous shrimp ponds near here. We got a serving of garlic shrimp to share from the Kahuku Shrimp truck and we all agreed that they were delicious, but messy as the shrimp weren't peeled.

The five pictures above were taken at the sea arch at Laie Point

Another plant with blooms and seed pods that I haven't been able to identify.

Waimea Valley 

We had lunch here and then a hike through a beautiful botanical garden to a waterfall. Loved it!

Hurricane Fries-Yummy and only slightly spicy-even the peppers were mild.

Water Lily

Two pics of  a Red-Crowned Cardinal

White-rumped Shama

Bamboo behind us

Hibiscus-David Orr

Abutilon Hybrid

Yellow Lollipop Plant or Shrimp Plant

The two pictures above are bananas with the bloom below.

Cup-and-Saucer Plant

Juanulloa

Kamehameha's Paddle

We stopped in Haliwa at Matsumoto Shave Ice for a quintessential Hawaiian treat. It was good!

Sunday, Dec. 31, 2024

Planned to take today a little easier. Went to church this morning and then to the beach this afternoon. David stayed home to take a nap. The waves were stronger than this ol' lady could handle. I loved playing in the ocean, but I'm feeling the soreness this evening!

Drew pulling our chairs, towels, etc. to the beach.

After (another) great supper including key lime pie, we had "crackers" with prizes, crowns and jokes!

New Years Day, Jan.1st, 2024

We spent a lazy morning. There are sooo many fireworks (illegal) to celebrate the New Year. The dogs were kind of bonkers and are still a little nervous this morning. Tara and Drew are working on making tamales and we're going on a hike later.

Dogs getting some comfort as someone is popping some small firecrackers somewhere outside.

PaPa took Drew, Tara and I to the top of the "Old Poli Highway" hike and we hiked down where he met us. Temperature was perfect and the hike was beautiful!

View from the lookout at the top. It rained on us as we were driving there and we wondered if we would be hiking in rain, but it passed over and the hike was amazing. 

For a reason that no one knows, the gate is closed and you have to squeeze around between the right side of the gate and the rock wall. It was truly a squeeze, but I made it!

This was once a two-lane road, but is down to a single file walking path near the top of the hike

Pink Fringe

A place where there was a fairly recent landslide (and probably the reason that the gate was closed.

The highway in the picture is two lanes of the four lane of the Poli Highway, the highway that Drew usually used to get to Honolulu to his work. It's up and over the mountain but only 12 miles and about a 25 minute drive, depending on the time of day.

There was a discussion earlier about bugs in Hawaii. There are some nasty ones like roaches, centipedes and millepedes but there doesn't seem to be an abundance of mosquitoes, flies, etc. David asked about grasshoppers and none of the Rebmans could remember seeing any. We found a tiny one on our hike. check our his long antenna!

You have to go down a ladder and duck to get under the new Poli Highway.

And now it's above us.

Rattlesnake Plant. Interesting name for a plant as there are no snakes in Hawaii.]

Not a great picture, but a Philippine Ground Orchid

Drew is holding a huge frond from a plant ant these curly things above are fronds yet to unfurl. They are about three feet tall already.

Here's is where David was waiting on us at the end of the hike. There were mongoose that I didn't get a picture of (Tara saw 5!), eight or nine cats and at least that many chickens.

Tuesday, Jan.2, 2024

Drew had to go back to work today. Tara and I went to the beach for another sunrise. Pretty windy this morning, but it was still a nice walk and beautiful sunrise.

There was a kite surfer out this morning. If you enlarge the picture, you can barely see him/her just below the first little spike of the island on the left.

Hibiscus in Drew and Tara's yard and Porter getting a drink.

Tara and I went to the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kane'ohe. It is huge with six different sections to explore. Here are a few of the highlights.

Lobster Claw Blooms

Pods on a cocoa tree

I didn't find a label on this plant, but when you look at the blooms from the top, they are holding water.

Bloom on a Panama Flame Tree

Small bloom on a ginger shampoo plant.

Loko Waimaluhia in the gardens.

Blooms on a Pride of Burma Tree

The Cannon Ball tree-wouldn't want to be standing under it!

A mongoose who was nice enough to stick around for me to take his picture.

I found this fern fascinating. There were bumps on both the top and bottom sides, green on top and brown underneath

Breadfruit tree with fruit

Two views of a Staghorn fern on a tree. Many trees have ferns growing on them- sometimes three or four different kinds of ferns.

Bloom on a breadfruit tree. We don't know why one tree was blooming and the other had fruit growing. The leaves were different on the two trees as well.

A tulip tree. They are an invasive species, but quite beautiful

Bamboo. I had no idea that it grew so tall.

Fruit on a Noni tree. Tara says it's used for medicinal purposes and smells terrible!

This is a Hau tree in the hibiscus family. The trees had beautiful leaves. There were flowers all over the ground. The blooms were 20 or 30 feet high at the top of the tree.

The African Grape tree had really unusual roots.

The Adam's Apple tree had these blooms that didn't smell great up close, but from a little distance perfumed the air.

Little plant growing from the top of a post.

Hard to see in the first picture, but the Raffia Palm tree has some really fun, kinds hand grenade shaped seed pods. Tara is now on the lookout to find some to put in a bowl on her coffee table.

The Red Silk-Cotton tree had hardly any leaves, but clusters of lovely red flowers.

This is a stone and concrete charcoal kiln used in the early 1900's

Fruit from a Clown Fig Tree

Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024

We went to the MANOA Chocolate Factory this morning. They make chocolate bars from cocoa beans  from cocoa farms on the different islands. Each farm gets it's own chocolate bar as the beans are not mixed. They do chocolate tastings where they give you little pieces of the bars and talk about the different flavors that can be detected it them. "A myriad of factors, including, climate, tree genetics, soil composition, and the meticulous practices of our dedicated farmers, all converge to craft the distinct flavor profile of each chocolate." They also make bars from cocoa beans sourced from other countries that they make other bars with and infuse some with other flavors. All in all, it was a very fun and educational experience, and the tasting was free. I should have taken more pictures!

We went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation for their tour. We took the train ride, but felt that it was pretty light on the information that was actually given. They had a beautiful garden that we walked through and David and Zane had a "Dole Whip". David likes pineapple, so he enjoyed his. Zane's cone was huge and while he ate most of it, he declared it "too pineappley". Pineapple is not my favorite, so one bite was one too many for me. They were making pineapple glazed cashews which I thought sounded awful, but they were giving out samples and I thought they were great. I ended up buying some very overpriced nuts!

Some views of Honolulu. It has been amazing to us, coming from the middle of nowhere, that this small patch of land hasn't felt more crowded. If Tara and Drew lived in Honolulu, I'm sure we would feel differently. The island of Oahu 1/4 the square miles of Yuma County. Yuma County has a population of just under 10,000-Oahu is just under 1,000,000 and the bulk of them are right here in Honolulu.

At the Dole Plantation

Old pineapple harvesting equipment

Sugar Cane and Pineapple, neither of which are wildly grown on islands any longer.

Cocoa trees in the middle. You can see the pods on the tree.

A small reservoir on the property.

Bird of Paradise

Stray cats seem to be almost as common as the stray chickens.

Two tiny pineapples.

Drew and Tara treated us to a meal at Haleiwa Joe's. The food was great and the Haiku Garden was stunning as was the view from the restaurant.

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A bud and flower starting to open on a banana plant.

The restaurant from the gardens below.

PaPa and Zane picking through the jungle.

Gas is expensive here, but I bet they wouldn't trade gas expenses with us considering we have a 70 mile drive one way to get to a Walmart.

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024

Tara declared that we were taking today off to rest and get ready to go to BI (Big Island) tomorrow. We will leave the house about 4am in the morning to get to the airport to fly over. We will stay two nights exploring the island and be back here on Sunday evening. That will just leave us two days before heading back to Colorado. What Tara meant by "resting" is that she would spend several hours doing her billing for her remote job, spend an hour talking to the doctor that she works for who is having issues with the gal that replaced Tara, bake two kinds of muffins, make spaghetti sauce and meatballs and make and bake sour dough bread to take to the BI so that we won't have to eat out the whole time. She also caught up on laundry, cleaned the house with some help from me and the boys and took down and  put away all the Christmas decorations with help from David and the boys. And she also packed for the trip! I don't want to be around on the day that she says we're staying home to get some work done!

Friday, Jan. 5, 2024

Early morning to the airport, short flight, got the rental van (took almost as much time getting the van as it did to fly from island to island), and then a drive to the north side of the island. The landscape toward Mauna Kea was other-worldly with all the lava rocks. We were following a auto-tour that turned out to be pretty glitchy and it skipped the Mauna Kea entirely. We may try to go back to catch it on Sunday. We stopped and took a warm walk to see some ancient petroglyphs. The sea side drive back to Hilo was lush and beautiful, so very opposite than what we had just driven through. We stopped to see a couple of waterfalls and ended up at our airbnb in Volcano. It is right next to Hawaii Volcano National Park which we plan to visit tomorrow. The house we have rented is really cute in a very quite neighborhood. We're wishing that we had enough time to just hang out at the house as it is even cuter that it was pictured in the listing. Something that was interesting in comparing the BI to Oahu is that the houses are spread much further apart here and the values seem to be about 1/4 of the cost of houses in Oahu. 

The bathroom at the Honolulu airport was immaculate, very pretty and I was the only one in it. It is so different than DIA!

This is us in at the gate waiting for our flight. There were only about 30 of us on the flight. We could have each had our own row!

The lights of Honolulu at 6:20am

Sunrise just before landing in Hilo.

These Hawaiians think 65 degrees is cold!

These two show some on the miles of lava rock landscape.

Walking in to see the petroglyphs.

You can take the girl out of the country, but...

The way these lava flows cooled reminded me of cow patties.

Puako Petroglyph Archaeological Park

Umauma Falls

Blossoms of Torch Ginger

Seed pod from the Torch Ginger

Fun bird nest

A beautiful walk up and down stairs through amazing rain forest. The pictures don't begin to show the scale of these plants and trees.

Akaka Falls-442 foot drop!

This small falls was probably 35-40 feet back from the walkway. It would have been so cool to go back in there with a hammock and a good book and just listen to the water.

One of the things that has surprised me is that there aren't a ton of flying bugs. There have been a couple of times when there were mosquitos, but over all there haven't been many at all.

A couple more small falls at this beautiful state park.

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024

We spent the day at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. It's a big park and we only experienced a small part of it. We went from cloudy skies to light rain to slightly heavier rain back to mist then sunshine and back to mist again. We saw steam vents from the Kilauea Volcano (there is currently no active lava flow visible) to the Kaluapepe (the Kilauea Caldera) to other craters. We hiked through rain forests and walked through a lava tube. We drove through miles of lava flow going to the sea. It was truly an amazing place and unlike anything that I've ever experienced before. 

Steam rising from the KOkamahuakea Steam Vents. There were a couple of steam vents fenced in close to the parking lot. You could walk around them and see the chasm where the steam was coming from. If you were directly by where the wind was pushing the steam, it was HOT!

                                               Tade                                                          Zane

These pictures show the collapse of the Kilauea Caldera caused by the May-August 2018 eruption of the Volcano.

More pictures of the caldera with steam escaping from the vents.

A bloom of the ohi'a lehua tree. It is able to get a foothold in the cooled lava and start the process of breaking it down so that other plants can grow. It is very important to the ecosystem, but is endangered by a fungus called Rapid Ohi'a Death. This fungus acts similarly to the blue stain fungus carried by the pine beetle which has killed so many trees along the Rocky Mountain range. 

An Ohi'a tree close to the steam vents covered with moss.

The three pictures above were along the Devastation Trail. The recovering landscape was buried by falling cinder from the lava fountains of the 1959 Kilauea Iki eruption.

This is another crater, one of about six along the Chain of Craters Road in the park.

The Nene Goose, the Hawaii state bird. Because their DNA show them to be related to the Canada Goose, experts theorize that some 500,000 years ago a migrating flock got blown off course and ended up in Hawaii. They think several species evolved with all but the Nene now extinct. The Nene is endangered, but is slowly increasing in numbers. This guy wasn't bothered at all by me getting closer for a picture.

We took the 1969 Eruption Fissure Trail. It is through a Lava Flow with piles of lava rock to kinda show the way. Some of the lava was iridescent. The fissures were many feet long and went from a foot or so deep to holes where you couldn't see the bottom! The only places where any thing had started to grow was in these fissures and holes like the orchid above.

This is one of the holes. The picture on the left is looking down into it. The fern is about three or four feet tall and you can't see the bottom. There weren't any barriers around any of these fissures and holes, so you sure didn't want to get too close and slip.

The holes in this lava were made when the hot lava surrounded the Ohi'a trees that were growing on an older lava flow and burned them, leaving holes where the trunks were.

The three pictures above were from the miles and miles of lava flow going down to the sea. The top picture shows the highway on the right.

This is a sea arch at the end of the highway by the sea. The Highway went further but the 2018 eruption covered it. Now there is a small portable ranger office and portable toilets here with the thought that they can be moved before the next eruption covers them.

Pu'u Loa Petroglyphs

This is a view out to the sea with the lava flow. This drops off a cliff and then the lava spreads outward all the way to the sea.

There wasn't any parking available at the Thurston Lava Tube so Tara and Drew dropped us off and went to another spot half a mile up the road and walked back. This is the boys waiting.

The lava tube was created as the lava cooled closer to the surface but still was hot enough to flow on to the sea. When the volcano quit spewing lava, the tube emptied leaving a cave-like structure.

Looking into a deep hole at the beginning of the tube.

Walking through the tube. It is "lighted" from 8am to 8pm.

We thought these trees "hugging" was fun.

This fern bent over, hit the ground, but is still alive and growing.

I don't know what plant this was, but as the stump was rotting away there were these interesting egg shaped divots on the inside.

This is looking into the Kilauea Iki Crater. That lighter colored line you see is a hike to "peer into the vent that erupted to a height of 1900 feet during the eruption of 1959". We opted not to go on this hike. Drew's phone was showing that he had taken over 17000 steps at this point and we were all tired!

These are some of the hikers that just appear as specks on the trail in the first picture.

Sunday, Jan.7, 2024

We packed up and left the house this morning. It was raining. We changed our plans to head to the summit of Mauna Kea as it looked like it would be socked in and we wouldn't be able to see anything. We drove north of Hilo to catch a short scenic drive through tropical forests. We stopped and took a hike down to a rugged coastline and then up the Donkey Trail back to the road. the surf was really pounding and such a reminder of just Rainbow Falls and then to lunch in a cute cafe in Hilo. It was Drew's birthday, but we refrained from singing happy birthday to him at the cafe! After lunch we went to Coconut Island. It's a tiny island with a walking bridge from a park to the island park. It was full of picnickers. After a little more exploring, we headed to the airport and caught our flight back to Honolulu and then back to Kailua. The dogs were really happy to see everyone. It was a wonderful weekend!

The Onomea Bay trail took us down to the bay. The views were spectacular! 

This is Drew out on a little peninsula. There were hundreds of little silver dollar sized crabs here that you didn't even see until he took a step and then they would all scramble away.

We waded across a little stream. There were people opening coconuts that had fallen from the nearby trees. Tara found a sprouted coconut and Drew cracked it open. The center turns to a white spongy substance after it has sprouted. It tasted a bit salty. Unique experience. We then hiked back up to the road by way of the Donkey Trail. It is called this because donkeys used to back cargo to and from a long defunct harbor at Onomea bay.

We stopped at a bridge at this pretty little waterfall.

Rainbow Waterfall

An African Tulip Tree and and interesting fern frond yet to unfurl.

Tade standing on a rock to tower over his folks.

We saw a sea turtle as we were walking over the bridge to Coconut Island. He had a couple of barnacles on one of his flippers

I thought it was interesting to see the way our shadows hit the water and "rays" reached out from our heads.

Zane played in the water at this tiny beach and made friends with the other people playing there.

Can you see the bands around the coconut tree behind Tade? They mark where tidal waves have come into the bay in years past before the Hilo Breakwater was put in. The top one marks where a tidal wave from 1960. No one was lost or injured, but a family's home was washed away. After that, it island was turned into a city park and the footbridge installed.

The trees, they just amaze me!

We stopped at a black sand beach (ground up lava rock). It was sparkly and felt very solid, unlike regular beach sand. Tara found a few pieces of sea glass that she gave me.

Monday, January 8, 2024

Rainy day, sometimes hard rain. We made a run into Honolulu this morning to check on a cooktop at Lowes that they had ordered a month ago. Drew was told that it would be at least another two weeks. We got some stuff from Costco (they are making garlic shrimp tonight as well as German Chocolate cake to celebrate Drew's birthday). Then this afternoon Drew got an email that the cooktop was ready for pick-up. Tara and I headed back over the mountains to pick it up. She had told me in a phone call a while back about the waterfalls that appear after a heavy rain. I wasn't able to get great pictures as we were driving along and as it was still raining, but it was magical. Where before it was just green, now there were long waterfalls everywhere!

 

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024

Tara and I walked Zane to school while David drove Tade to his school as his bike had a flat tire. Tara and I went shopping for some pans. Drew and David installed the new cooktop last night. It is an induction cooktop and some of their pans that they thought would work, didn't. David and I are nearly packed. Our plane leaves at about 10:30 tonight and we should be back in Denver at a little after noon. It is currently 80 degrees here and it is 27 degrees at home with an artic cold front coming in over the weekend. I'm going to have a hard time getting on that plane for more reasons than one. 

Drew, Tara and the boys have done everything possible to see that we've had a good time and gotten to see what island life is like. We've toured Oahu but have more to see here, experienced a bit of the Big Island and gotten the "bug" to go visit the other islands as they are each unique. We've eaten so many wonderful meals, hiked more miles than we've hiked in quite some time, played games, and celebrated Christmas and Drew's birthday. We miss these four so much as we were used to seeing them often when they were in Fort Collins. They'll be back in the summer, but that is going to feel like such a looooog time.

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024

Home. The only hitch with any of the our travels was that the motel shuttle didn't pick us up from the airport. It turns out that the city has rented the motel to house illegal immigrants and had stopped the shuttle service and also stopped answering their phone since they weren't taking any more reservations. They failed to take the recording off that said when the shuttle was supposed to be at the airport, so after waiting through two times when they were supposed to be there, we caught a taxi and made it back to the truck. The good part was that after David expressed his frustration, they waived the parking fee for the time we were gone.

The things I loved about the trip:

Spending time with Tara, Drew, Tade, and Zane AND David

The food, Tara and Drew's as well as all the fun places where we ate out

The trees, oh, the trees

The flowers

The waterfalls

The beach, the waves, the sand

The mild temperatures

The hikes

The ferns-so very many kinds

The sunrises

Visiting another National Park

The wild chickens, cats and mongooses

Spending time with Tara, Drew, Tade, Zane, and David

Things I didn't like:

Getting home exhausted from so little sleep on our "red=eye". Turns our that First Class isn't a whole            lot more comfortable than coach.

Coming home to an Artic freeze

Coming home to all my Christmas decorations still up

Coming home to hours of work for Girl Scouts-meetings, planning for meetings, roller skating party and a ton of work to get cookies ordered, paperwork done, another training, etc.

Knowing it will be six months before we see Tara, Drew, Tade and Zane