So New Year's Eve!! Here's my view the whole trip... following this Jeep around in an identical one. =)
Tree tunnels!
I got this picture from my mom at home... Connor finished his X-wing! The wings open & close... it is a super cool toy!
I took this specifically for you. BINGO FLUSH!!!
We spent a few hours on Po'ipu Beach. This big dude was trying to get some sun.
We introduced our kids to the best cheeseburger that ever lived. Egg, Kalua pork, pineapple, kim chee, carmelized onions... we dream about this burger at home all the time. Tried to recreate it last time we came back... didn't work as well.
Carlie came to the table a little late... I wouldn't want you to miss the casual way Miranda sports her burger on her face... why bother wiping it off when every bite is going to end up trashing your face?
That evening, it started raining (we spent most of our week dodging rain showers, and let me tell you that was SUPER FUN when we were determined to have "convertible Jeeps" as much as possible. ... Oh, did you think I meant the convertibles where you pull off to the side of the road, press a button, and then continue on your way? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahhaah!
We got this picture from home. The kids got a "survival kit" for while we were gone, with gift cards to eat out, snow-playing tools, activities, and NYE snacks for a party.
And a real live meme (!!ha) that my friend made with her friends who have the same vintage motor homes.
On New Year's Day, we went up to a trail head for the Alakai Swamp Trail and first had to eat some of this crazy looking fruit - rambutan. So once you peel the fuscia spikey-looking rind off, there is a protected "peeled plum" kind of fruit in it, with a pit. It's more like a large peeled grape flavor, and it was super yummy.
Then we started on the CRAZY COOL hike. You hike along the ridge of a 3500 mountain, where on one side, you look down and see the "Grand Canyon of Hawaii." There are other places that look more Grand Canyon like, like the ones we sent you last week.
And on the other side is this canyon down to the ocean... PLEASE don't miss the rainbow peeking out from behind the mountain. It chased us the whole vacation; we found him peeking in the most curious places: sitting down in the bottom of the "Grand Canyon," splashing itself all fatly on the land and not really rising in the air, following us on the boat, and fanning itself out behind houses in the city, even though it wasn't in the sky.
The rainbows would be around our airplane's shadow on the clouds, and we saw one here around our shadow on the mist looking down the canyon. This is Jeff & me looking over the edge downward, sun behind us... what the...
And then the albino rainbow. This is unfiltered:
The trail gets so sticky, slimy, and wet in places that there are boards to walk along... no matter what shoes you brought, you are never using them again. But here's a relatively dry part:
Evidence of the muck:
On the drive home, we had matching boys in the backs of the Jeeps doing this:
We ended at Chicken in a Barrell, a place you will need to go for the best BBQ on the planet. Plus the best fries ever made.
We got this from home. Our neighbor brought this for the kids while we were gone. =)
And now that New Year's Day is almost over:
On Wednesday, we hung out at Hanalei Bay. The surfing was abysmal, unfortunately, but hey!!
We buried Derek
the Merman. The super buff, super hot merman... who works out mostly on his left side... he wants to keep his right side nice &... flat. ? Oh and the claw. We don't know.
We grabbed some Kalua pork pizza,
Some ice cream at Pink's,
And went down the slippery cliff side in front of our condo, via ropes, to Hideaway Beach. You get to one level of the cliff here,
Then descend another less dangerous terrain to this super coarse (actually small shells and round rocks instead of sand, but they're all very rounded, so it's soft coarse, not rough) sand, that because of the coarseness, doesn't stir up brown surf when it comes in on the beach. It stays crystal clear like this. It's amazing.
As almost every night, we had to swim in our pool. Can you see the sunset behind Carlie, and then the ocean in front of the pool?
Thursday, we got up at 5 and headed down to Waimea, where we got on a catamaran to tour the Na Pali coast. Our captain was a native Hawaiian girl that acted like she was born on the boat. She effortlessly got us into these seaside caves, even though the water was swelling up & down 20 feet. There were times when it seemed that our boat would touch the top of the cave, and of course the sides, but she just nonchalantly backed it into the caves further than I thought possible.
The coastline has these cathedral spire looking volcanic cliffs from the quick erosion they experience there... it is one of the most beautiful sights ever. Hard to see in this GoPro pic, but just believe us!!
We got to see an adolescent humpback and some dolphins! This pod of hundreds swam past us, some spinning out of the water for fun.
That evening, after watching Spouting Horn, an area of volcanic land that has eroded spots underneath it, so the surf goes under, then gets spouted out the holes, we got some of the best food truck BBQ we've ever had, and watched the sun set in Poipu.
School had started that day for suckers.
Friday we got up and checked out. Cry face cry face cry face. We made the kids pose in front of our view on our deck,
The living room,
The other living room they had made into their "nest" I called it. The girls had pulled their queen mattress out of the bedroom and put it in the center of the futons... I love it when my kids do this. But it's all cleaned up here. Cry face again.
We had to stop for one last burger at Merriman's... I mean, come on. It will be years before we have another one.
We flew overnight and arrived home to this at 7ish:
Here's some things we had to say about it:
We slept most of the day, during which Connor went to Nathan's baptism, taken there while I was sleeping by James' mom. =)
And then some more things we have to say:
And TPatricia... she is still legitimate working in the T factory where Toby, Tommy, Travis and Todd work, because her name is TPatricia. The T is silent. Believe it or not, this is one of those inside jokes from a vacation that made the kids split their sides every time they brought it up and you had to be there. I know you couldn't have guessed that's where it came from. My favorite was hearing all the inside jokes that came from this trip. They'll fill you in as you go. =)
We gave the kids their souvenirs. Jandals (Jesus sandals), sarongs & a shirt, and some little snowglobes & a sand-stuffed gecko. =)
Connor REALLY wanted this picture included of him wearing these hair flowers Sunday. =)
MEMES!!!
Because Pres Trump shut down the government to get a wall built:
So we still love you, as of yesterday when you got our other letter! Haha! Hope you have a wonderful week, and thank you for your weeklies. Thank you for serving a great mission and being such a good example. Keep it up - there may or may not be a countdown going on that we heard about every day in HI... but we won't talk about that. DRINK IT IN. Last few months to be a missionary!!! Love, us.
