Our Hawaii Adventure

We went to Hawaii from July 13-22. This trip has been in the works for about a year and a half. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate my father in law's birthday. My mom also accompanied us. We made the reservations before we knew we'd have the kids. So we had to decide what to do about the trip after our whole world changed in February. Should we cancel? Postpone? Bring the kids? Leave them at home? Dave go without me? In the end, we decided to take Tino with us, because we felt that leaving him behind could be damaging to his sense of security and permanence in our home. Victoria stayed with her abuelos. In her case, we believed that the hectic pace and time spent in transit (planes, rental cars, etc) would be too much for her, and that she would be exhausted and grouchy the whole time. So she had her own little vacation being doted on by the abuelos for ten days.

Was Hawaii beautiful? You be the judge. This was our view from our hotel room in Kauai:

Yes, that is the ocean right there! About a 45 second walk from our room.

We went to three islands. We started on the Big Island (Hawaii.) We went to various beaches, where my munchkin toted his mesh bag of plastic toys and played in the sand.

The sun and water and sand wore him out on the first day.

We went to an incredible, lush botanical garden. Here is my boy in the garden.

These are the kind of plants and views you see all the time in Hawaii, not just in the botanical garden.

We visited a black sand beach.

We went to see the volcano Kilauea, one of the only places in the world where you can walk around on earth that is younger than you are. Younger than Tino, in fact! I did not have my camera with me on volcano day, but my mom took about 50 million photos with her camera, so the occasion has definitely been documented. We spent the whole day in the volcano park and waited until dark to drive around to the lava viewing area. Yes, flowing lava. Red hot, molten lava. It was far enough away that we could just see what looked like bright fires in the distance, but we were able to walk on some lava that had just flowed over the road a couple of days before. It was crinkly and crunchy beneath our feet.

On the way to the lava viewing area, Tino announced, "I not going to 'cano." Apparently he was worried for his personal safety and didn't want to get too close to the volcano. He didn't seem to realize that he had been walking all over the volcano all day. As is typical for him, he repeated this over and over, perhaps under the impression that if you just say something enough times, it will eventually become reality. Dave, my mom, and I took up a rhythmic chant, "I not going to ca-no! I not going to ca-no!" Having heard this phrase about 20 or 30 times, first from Tino, and now from the rest of us, my father in law finally spoke up and asked, "What's 'cano?" For some reason, I found this hysterically funny.

On our way to my favorite island (favorite place in the world?) Kauai, we had a layover in Honolulu. Because we were stopping there anyway, Dave planned it so we would have a whole day on Oahu. So we went to Pearl Harbor and toured the various monuments. Here is Tino on the massive destroyer, the USS Missouri.

And after a long day of sightseeing, we hopped on a plane to beautiful Kauai, where we stayed for four wonderful days. This is a lovely beach that we've visited several times on previous trips.

We also went on a sunset dinner cruise, during which history was destined to repeat itself. The first part of the trip was fantastic. Tino LOVED being on the boat and was a model boat passenger.

We all enjoyed the fresh air and being on the ocean.

Tino played with his daddy.

Later in the evening, as if special-ordered just for us, a rainbow appeared against the beautiful Na Pali coast. Here I am with my son.

You might think we are admiring the beautiful rainbow together. But you'd be wrong. In fact, Tino came over to make sure I was okay, after I vomited off the back of the boat for the third ( and final) time. Yes, that's right. The last time we did a sunset dinner cruise in Hawaii in 2008, I got seasick and threw up seven times. So did I learn from this experience Of course not. Having been on plenty of boats in my life, including a rubber zodiac boat in Hawaii and never having had any trouble with seasickness before, I assumed this experience was an anomaly. Also, the seas were especially rough back in March 08, which was not the case this time. But apparently I am not cut out for sunset dinner cruises along the Na Pali coast, and I am pretty sure this one was my last.

When we returned, I was eager to see my baby girl, and also a bit worried. This was the first time we had been separated since I'd left. Though I knew she would be loved and well cared for by the abuelos, I was afraid that she would forget me, or be angry with me for leaving her. I called her from Hawaii almost every day and left a DVD of me talking to her, but it's not the same as seeing each other in person and being able to hold each other and kiss and snuggle. To my great relief, Victoria was happy to see me when I came to pick her up. She was a bit quiet at first but allowed her abuela to hand her to me. She rested her little head on my shoulder and wouldn't let me put her down. I stayed to chat with the abuelos for a few minutes, and then I asked my baby, "Are you ready to go home?" I held my breath waiting for her answer, and she nodded her little head. Big sigh of relief. After a couple nights of difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep, she seems totally back to normal and not in any way impacted negatively by the separation. Here is my baby girl in her adorable swimsuit. Recently a friend described her as "delicious" and I have to say it fits.